Free Story #22 - Endangered (Chapter 5)

Hey guys, this is the final part of Endangered. I know it's short but I wrote this at a time when I couldn't quite figure out the future. I have a vague idea now and the saga will be finished. At some point. :)

Without further adieu, here's the final chapter.

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After Lucas had entered the church, his werewolves had followed. They made perfectly sure to growl at us just before they left their sight. I half considered growling back but then we would have had a challenge on our hands, and that was something no-one on Lucas's side would want.

Just as my emotions were beginning to subside, I thought of something that made my blood run cold. And that was quite feat considering I was a werewolf.

Arc and Zoe were nowhere to be seen. The last time I had seen them, they had been standing by the fountain used for the Holy Communion just before I had run out.

In my adrenaline fuelled panic, I considered ringing Zoe's phone, but I quickly realised that if they were in hiding, it would give them away. But I had to let the others know what was going on. Thankfully Shadow realised our overlook as well. He stared at me with an expression that could either be interpreted as shock or complete horror.

But to be honest, both were appropriate. Zoe may be a witch and Arc may be a shape shifter, but in a room full of werewolves, I wasn't sure if they would survive.

I just hoped I was wrong.

Stephen noticed our faces and frowned.

"What's up with you two?" he asked.

"Zoe and Arc are still in the church" I answered.

At my words, Jenna and Doug stiffened.

"We have to get them out of there" Doug growled.

"But how? If we go in, we're dog food, literally" Jenna snapped back.

"We can't just leave them in there" Shadow yelled.

"I know but we need to think this through" Jenna yelled back.

"Will you two calm down" I yelled.

At my words, they both looked at me with glowing eyes. For a moment, I considered running but before I could make a choice, they were calm again.

"I'm sorry guys" I said after a moment.

Jenna sighed.

"No need to apologise, we shouldn't be fighting each other" she said in the same light voice.

"So what are we going to do?" Doug asked.

Before we could decide, a loud howl and several yips came from the church. And to my great relief, I saw a cat jump out of the broken window by the front door. By it's markings, it was clearly Arc. He ran over to us and shifted halfway. I had got so used to seeing him naked I didn't even blush.

"Thank god you're ok" I said when he reached us.

"Don't thank him just yet, Zoe's still in there, and she's trapped" Arc said breathlessly.

I suddenly wondered if a rescue was necessary. She was a witch after all.

"Can't she just use a spell to escape?" I asked.

"No, they've got the place full of nullifying artefacts"

That was bad. Without magic, Zoe couldn't shape shift and escape. And with no defensive spells, she was literally trapped. And with at least thirty werewolves in there, she would need all the help she could get. But seeing as how we had been effectively banned from the church, going in was suicide as well.

"Seems there's no way but to go in" Jenna resigned.

Unfortunately, we had to agree. Zoe was one of our family and we would do whatever it took to rescue her. But before we could make a plan, the alpha wereleopard walked into our group.

"There is one way we can do it with no need for anyone to be harmed" he said.

"What is it?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"Not here" he said and gestured over toward the field. When I realised what he meant, it made sense. Lucas would be able to hear us if we were too close to the church. We all walked into the field and he whispered the plan to us all.

When he was finished, Jenna looked slightly afraid.

"Should we really do that?"

"We have no choice, they will kill us all" the alpha replied.

Considering, we all agreed it was for the best. Then after going through it one more time, we set our plan into motion.

Larry and the alpha leopard walked to the door with another of the leopards. They knocked three times on the wooden front door and eventually Lucas opened it and sniffed the air.

"And just what do you alley cats want?" he asked.

"We want to call a truce" The alpha said.

Lucas rubbed his chin.

"I suppose I may as well have a few uneasy allies" he said and gestured for the three visitors to go in through the door. After the door closed, we breathed a sigh of relief.

Inside the church, Larry and the alpha talked to Lucas. The other werewolves were fast asleep on the floor. The last leopard looked around and finally spotted Zoe lying on the floor. He got her up onto her feet and she stared at him.

"Don't worry, I'm here to help" the wereleopard growled.

Zoe didn't argue. Together they crept through the sleeping shifters and eventually they got to the front door. But just as he opened the door, Lucas howled and the wolves awoke.

"Did you really think I would fall for that?" he spat.

"It was worth a try" The alpha wereleopard replied.

In a second, Lucas's sleeping comrades got to their feet and snarled.

The alpha flung open the doors, grabbed Larry's arm and pushed him out. Zoe and the other wereleopard also left. Lucas roared and went to attack the alpha, but he dodged effortlessly.

Zoe ran over to us and gave me the biggest hug she could.

After she was done, she went over to the church doors.

"Get out of there" she yelled to the alpha.

But the alpha didn't listen, as futile as it was, he wouldn't let them get to us. Zoe sighed.

She raised her heads and yelled a loud command into the sky. A huge gust of wind came out of nowhere and the door slammed shut.

"Zoe, what are you .." I started to say, but she held up her hand.

When she had finished signalling em, she began to chant a verse of words that had no meaning, as she did so, the air grew thick with the energy of her magic and her body left the ground a few inches.

"Zoe, stop!" Doug yelled.

But his words fell on deaf ears. Her chanting got louder and louder until she was almost shouting. Finally, she said the final word of her spell and flung her arms toward the church.

The church swirled with translucent energy and before anyone could move, a loud clicking noise echoed through the open air.

We all gasped. Jenna knew what she had done, and thanks to Markus, so did I.

Zoe had done something we never thought she would ever do. She had locked Lucas, the alpha wereleopard and the whole werewolf pack in the church. And unless Zoe took the spell away willingly, they would be trapped. Forever.

Zoe turned back to us. She looked dishevelled, exhausted and most of all horrified at what she had done. Jenna walked over to her and embraced her in a hug. As soon as she had, Zoe thanked her with a single glance, and then fainted.

Arc rushed forward and took her in his arms.

"I'll take her back home" he said after a moment.

Without waiting for an answer, he walked back to the car. As he drove away; part of me wondered how we were going to get home. But then I remembered. As werewolves, we could run home in minutes. I mentally face palmed myself for not remembering this. But a second later, my attention was drawn toward something else.

The leopards were mewing at the front door, trying to get their alpha back. With a gulp, I remembered we hadn't told them about locking them in. Only the alpha knew. Eventually, one of them walked over to us, shifted and finally, he hissed in anger.

"What the hell did you do?" he roared.

For a second, we were all silent. But Jenna walked forward to him.

"We had to lock them in; it was the only way to protect ourselves and the rest of the world"

"Protect yourselves you mean" another leopard said from behind.

"That's not what she meant" Stephen said with the volume of his voice raised.

"Lucas doesn't care who he hurts, if we would have let him out of the church, he would have gone into the town and revealed our existence to the world for the worse" Jenna continued.

The leopard who had spoken first blanched. He could see the logic in her words.

"But why did our alpha get locked in as well?" said the other.

"He knew we wouldn't make it if he didn't" Stephen said sadly.

"I promise we'll get him back. But till then, you're more than welcome to be with us"

At Jenna's words, the leopards were mostly calm. I could tell that they weren't exactly happy about being with a pack of werewolves, but they were grateful for the hospitality. At that point, the wereleopards decided to leave.

There was a long silence among all of us. The last half an hour had left us both physically and emotionally drained and who could blame us. I was just about to suggest that we should leave when a loud crash echoed through the clearing. We spun around to see Stephen in wolf form, he was transfixed with anger and pounding his fists onto one of the church walls.

Doug rushed forward to try and pull him away but with a single swipe of his paw, he was knocked to the floor.

“Doug!” I yelled and ran over to my lover.

He looked up at me unharmed, but he was definitely winded.

Fury rose within me and I went toward him. He anticipated my approach and tried to do the same to me as he had to Doug. I swerved out of the way and grabbed his wrist with all the strength I could.

“Let go of me you bastard!” Stephen roared.

I blanched. Although we had shared differences of opinion sometimes, he had never been angry at me directly before. But hurt as I felt, I wasn’t going to let it get to me.

“I’m sorry Ste, but she’s gone”

They were the last words I wanted to say, but they had to be said. I did feel like a bastard for saying them, but they had to be said. He growled at me, and if I hadn’t had got his arm, he would have bitten me for sure.

I looked into his eyes, and they fixed onto mine. His growl got quieter and quieter until it eventually disappeared. As soon as he did, he fell to the floor and began to sob.

“I should have saved her. She didn’t deserve this” he bawled.

Stroking his fur, my eyes began to leak but I was so focused on keeping Stephen safe I didn’t notice. Everyone else in the clearing all surrounded us one by one and after a while, he had stopped.

He got to his feet carefully.

“I think we should go home” Jenna said, choking on her own blocked emotions.

We all nodded in agreement. Zoe had taken our car so me, Doug and Shadow would have to walk. But we didn’t mind considering the circumstances. But just as we were about to set off, Jenna walked over to Doug.

“Would you mind coming with us? I think Stephen needs the support” she asked him.

“Do you mind?” my boyfriend asked.

I shook my head and Shadow did the same.

“You be with your pack, they need you right now”

Doug gave me both of us an affectionate lick, but there was a hint of a thank you mixed in with it. He walked over to the car with his sister and got in the back alongside his grieving pack mate. As they drove away, it occurred to me that there were another two seats in the car so we could have had a lift.

“Do you think she did that on purpose?” Shadow asked.

He had clearly thought what I had done. After Campbell’s death she had given me a wide berth to say the least. She was friendly enough, but there was something deeper than that.

My son placed his hand on my shoulder.

“You ready to go?” he asked.

Looking at him, I smiled. Today may have been full of misery and regrets, but I could try to cheer us up at the very least.

“Last one back gets to wash Arc” I said and shifted whilst starting to run.

Shadow realised what I had said a second after I had start moving.

“No fair!” he said with a laugh.

He fell flat to the ground and changed into his wolf form faster than he had ever done. But then again, he had an incentive. Using our natural glamouring ability, we were able to hide ourselves from view as we ran back home.

We may have had been in mourning and our very lives had been endangered but at that moment, the world seemed to be nothing more than a peaceful place. When we reached home, I howled in displeasure because Shadow had beaten me. Taking human form, we went through the front door and closed it carefully behind us. Sitting on the sofa, was Arc.

“How is she?” I said.

“She’ll be fine, she’s just asleep. It was a massive spell, not even a sorcerer could have done without a small after effect”

I could see his point. But we both knew she’d pull through.

“There’s some food left in the oven if you want it. I did something for Zoe in case she woke up but it doesn’t seem like she will for a few hours”

Shaking my head, I smiled.

“Appreciate the offer Arc, but to honest I just need some sleep”

 “Okay, well I’ll be here if you need me”

“Thanks”

Walking over to the bedroom door, I noticed Shadow was behind me.

“Do you mind if I stay with you a while Dad?” he asked.

He had never asked me this before, but given the events of the day, I didn’t blame him for needing the company.

“Of course not” I answered

When we were both through the bedroom door, I closed it and turned around to see that Shadow had laid down on my bed. It wasn’t made but I didn’t care. A little thing like that was the least of my concerns. Exhaustion had flooded him so quickly, he had fallen asleep.

I thought I would feel slightly awkward sleeping on the same bed as my son; I got dressed quietly and lay down beside him. But to my surprise, I didn’t. I guess now I was a werewolf, sleeping next to family was instinctual, if not completely natural.

About half an hour later, Doug came in and get onto the bed with us. He seemed just as tired as we were. He got undressed as I had done and held me close with his perfectly toned arms. Cuddling up to my wonderful boyfriend, I eventually fell asleep.

Life was far from perfect, but at that moment with Doug and Shadow, it felt like it was.

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