Calvin Westbrook - Official Website
The blog of a young man who writes supernatural fiction of the masculine kind!
Saturday, 11 February 2012
Another Release on Kindle Store!
Hey everyone!
I have edited one of my short stories and posted it on Amazon's Kindle Store!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jerked-Around-ebook/dp/B0077UX7L0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1328958862&sr=8-2
It's only 77p if you live in the UK, and from 12pm PST tomorrow, you can download it for free for 48 hours.
There is a mild same sex relationship between anthropomorphic animals, and uses of strong language. You've been warned. :)
Enjoy!
Thursday, 2 February 2012
First Release on Kindle Store!
Hey everyone!
After a hectic January, I have finally edited one of my short stories and posted it on Amazon's Kindle Store!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jackpot-ebook/dp/B0074B2DV2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328212343&sr=1-1
It's only 98p if you live in the UK, and from 12pm PST, you can download it for free for 72 hours.
There are no relationships of any kind in this one, so its pretty much safe for anyone over the age of 12 because of one use of bad language.
Enjoy!
After a hectic January, I have finally edited one of my short stories and posted it on Amazon's Kindle Store!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jackpot-ebook/dp/B0074B2DV2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328212343&sr=1-1
It's only 98p if you live in the UK, and from 12pm PST, you can download it for free for 72 hours.
There are no relationships of any kind in this one, so its pretty much safe for anyone over the age of 12 because of one use of bad language.
Enjoy!
Monday, 9 January 2012
First Post from Mobile - Good News!
Hey there. I finally downloaded the blogger app for android so now I can post on the go!
Also, Foretold has reached 1,000 downloads on Smashwords! Thank you so much. :)
Friday, 6 January 2012
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.
-
Without further adieu, here's the final chapter.
-
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.
####
Free Story #21 - Endangered (Chapter 4)
To say I was speechless would be the understatement
of the century.
Jenna was so shocked by the fact Lucas had defeated the
reverend that she had completely forgot her hatred of the man. Kari and Stephen
had held each other close upon seeing the body fly through the window but now,
they were barely holding each other. Shadow and Doug were both as dumbfounded
as Jenna, although Shadow was admittedly as clueless as I was about the
significance of Lucas obtaining the highest rank.
We all just stood there, staring at him as if hoping it was
all a dream. But sadly, it wasn't.
Lucas raised his head to the sky and howled. To see it
coming from something that appeared human was nothing short of disturbing. When
he had finished his celebration, he looked at us and smiled a curt smile that
didn't look in the least bit friendly.
Within a few seconds, a noise started to echo through the
air around us. If I didn't know better it sounded like faint growling. Then,
when I noticed every living member of Campbell's pack were surrounding us,
almost as if they would attack us, I realised I didn't.
Lucas raised his fingers to his lips and whistled. And in
that moment, they transformed into their wolf forms, and attacked us.
Thanks to my quick reflexes, I ducked a few smaller betas
and ran away from the battlefield. Or at least I tried. A middle aged werewolf
knocked me on the cranium and I fell landing on the trodden mud. I swung to the
left as quickly as I could to avoid his snapping muzzle and to my great relief,
he slammed his face into the ground. I took advantage of the opportunity and
hit him on the nose using my left foot.
He whined in agony and his weakened appendage began to
bleed. Half of me felt I should apologise. But self defence was paramount. We
couldn't win this battle, I knew that for sure. So the only sensible thing to
do would be to escape.
I ran into the fray of swirling wolves and transformed. I
lost my clothes in the process but to be honest, it wasn't important. I had to
get the others out. I may not be part of either pack, but they were my family.
Stephen had changed as well and was fighting off a male with looked like he
belonged more in a gay porno than a wolf suit. Thinking I would sort my first
impression later, I snapped at his ear and tore it from his face.
He screamed in pain as it fell to the floor. I motioned for
Stephen to follow me and he nodded without a second to consider. We ran through
the crowd and eventually found Doug, who seemed to be holding his own against a
wolf who looked more feminine than most. If I had taken a closer look, I would
have seen that he was a hermaphrodite but at the moment, either rescuing or
escaping was number one on the list of priorities.
When Doug had finished immobilizing his opponent, he ran
over to us.
"Have you seen the others?" I asked.
"No, but we need to get out of here now" Doug
replied.
Glad his attitude mirrored my own; we split up and continued
the search. After circling twice around the group, I found nothing but
unfamiliar or enemy wolves. The only thing that I could think of was that I had
to find Jenna and Shadow.
I needn't have worried about Shadow, he was fighting off the
wolves just like Doug would do and using the same tactics I would employ. Like
the old broken nose trick I had pulled earlier. When he noticed me, he ran over
and rubbed against me. I licked him and he did the same. The next sentence that
I spoke came out like I had run a marathon.
"Are you alright?"
When he spoke, he was as breathless as I was.
"Yeah, but we need to find Jenna, she didn't look
good"
To my horror, he was right. Unlike Shadow, Jenna was finding
it a bit harder to defend herself from the attack of the werewolves under Lucas's
command.
Her grief had weakened her skills, making her make the wrong
choices. I felt like I had to help her somehow so I charged forward and snapped
at one that had bitten her leg in several places. To my relief, Doug pounced on
him at that moment and he fell to the ground. A horrible snap indicated that
either his back or his neck was broken. Either way, he wasn't moving. Which
made me feel ever so slightly sick.
Lucas's whistle rent the air. The wolves attacked us pulled
away and changed back into human form. Once they did, they turned tail and went
into the church. Stephen bounded over to us and thanked our lucky stars we were
still alive, although bruised.
But to our horror, not all of us did.
"Where's Kari?" Stephen asked.
When he asked, we all stared around looking for her. But she
was nowhere to seen.
A deep laugh ran through the air. Realising the direction it
was coming from, we spun to see Lucas, holding someone in his arms. It was
Kari, and his teeth dripping with her blood.
I knew I didn't have the strength to face him head on, so
for the moment I bottled my emotion. It was like keeping a volcano from
erupting but I did it, just. The tears fell from my face but I paid them no
heed. I had to hold onto my self-control, without it, I would end up just like
her. She must have tried to challenge Lucas to protect us all, but her effort
had been in vain.
Stephen however, was reeling from the effects of losing his
father, and now his lover. He ran forward so fast no one saw him go past. Lucas
saw him and held up a large hand to stop the werewolf colliding with him. He
tutted, grabbed his muzzle and flung him to the ground.
Stephen got up almost immediately and howled with pure rage.
"Temper temper young wolf" Lucas said with dark
humour clearly present.
"How could you do that?" Stephen screamed.
"She was weak, and thought she could challenge me.
Stupid child" he spat.
"She was not weak you fucking psychopath!"
Lucas growled.
"What did you call me?" he asked slowly.
"I called you a psychopath! Kari was the best friend I
ever had, she was my lover!"
Lucas's face contorted.
"You dare argue with the word of an alpha?" He
snarled.
"Yes I do, because you will never be my father!"
Lucas pounced and landed on Stephen's right leg. It snapped
and he screamed.
"I am more of an alpha than he will ever be. Because I
am his sire!"
We all gasped, even if we didn't know what he meant by the
term. Stephen was clearly shell-shocked.
"That's not true! That's impossible!" he yelled.
Lucas laughed another cold laugh.
"Who do you think trained him to be a good leader? Who
looked after him until he was ready to take his place as alpha in the pack he
had joined?"
"So why didn't you challenge him yourself?" I asked.
He snorted at the interruption.
"I had already lost a challenge to the former alpha. He
was too strong for me. I surrendered and vowed I would try again to be an
alpha. But I couldn't challenge him again, because I had already lost to him.
So I would have to wait for a space of alpha to become available"
"So that's why you waited until Campbell was
dead?" said Shadow.
"Yes, I didn't want to challenge him because I made
him. So I decided to wait until he fell"
Jenna and Doug started to growl, as did Stephen. Shadow kept
silent as did I. We had no place in this disagreement. For now.
Lucas let loose another heartless laugh.
"Well as fun as this has been, I must warn all of you.
If you dare come on our patch without our permission, we will hunt you down and
eat you for breakfast. Am I understood?"
After waiting for answer, he smiled.
"Glad you understand. You may as well go home. It's
time for the pack to eat"
And with that, Lucas walked into the church with Kari in his
arms and slammed the door. Stephen launched himself at the door and banged at
it to get it open. But it wouldn't budge.
Jenna ran over to him and grabbed him. For a second, he
tensed but then he fell into her arms and sobbed.
"I can't believe he did that to Kari" I gasped.
"Neither can I" Shadow echoed.
I half expected Doug to go over to his pack. But after
looking at them for a while, he turned slowly around. His eyes were glistening
once again. After a series of short soft glances, we joined together in an
embrace that solidified our family bond. Not enough to be a hug but just enough
for us to feel comforted by each other's presence.
To our relief, the wereleopards hadn't been hurt. They had
escaped through the back of the church when Lucas had arrived and now, they
tended to our wounds and gave us the support we needed.
The loss of Kari hit us really hard. People say life's a
bitch, they've got no idea.
Free Story #20 - Endangered (Chapter 3)
For a few more moments, the graveyard remained
silent. Campbell looked at the two of us with confusion in his stare.
"What are you two doing?" he eventually asked.
Neither of us spoke. He sighed and sat on the wall.
"I've never seen you two act this way, what is going
on?"
Doug looked at his former alpha.
"Why are you here? We can settle this ourselves?"
he snapped.
"If you could, I wouldn't be here" Campbell
replied.
So Campbell was here to be our supernatural Jeremy Kyle, an
odd choice to be sure but it was certainly better than having a real
councillor.
"But why you?" I asked.
"Because I am the reason for all this" he
answered.
That was the cold hard truth, he was the reason we were
fighting like this. And it was my fault. More things to add to the pile of
guilt that was already as high as Everest.
Campbell cleared his throat.
"So, what is wrong?" he asked again.
Doug answered first, his voice seemed to be clouded with
anger and pent up frustration.
"Taylor doesn't care that you died. He has done nothing
but try and avoid mentioning you at all times. After you helped him so much. I
only came out here because I felt he was finally showing sorrow but he punched
me in the face. I got so angry I attacked him"
I spun to my boyfriend with my mouth wide open.
"I don't care? I don't care! You really think
that?"
"Why not, it's the truth" he spat.
I raised my hand and slapped his face.
"How can you think that? I admired Campbell more than
any other werewolf I know apart from you"
"Then why did you treat it as if it didn't
happen?"
"You really want to know?" I yelled.
After no reply, I continued. As the conversation drew on, my
composure faltered.
"I feel guilty about Campbell's death all right? If it
hadn't been for me, you and Shadow, he would still be alive! And my dad is dead
too, he might have been an insane bastard but he was still my dad. The only
reason I didn't show how I felt is because I wanted to stay strong for you, to
make sure that you wouldn't be hurt by my mistakes!"
That hit Doug hard. He was speechless for a long
time. As he looked at me, tears fell from my eyes and landed on the cold hard
soil that had been trampled to form a path.
Finally, Doug's voice
croaked out, he had begun to cry as well.
"You were only
staying strong for me?" he asked.
I nodded. He dropped his
head in shame.
"You must think I'm
really selfish" he said after a moment.
For a moment, I stayed
silent.
"Of course
not" I replied.
He looked at me with his
glistening eyes, then fell to the floor, sobbing harder than I had ever seen
him. The sight of this caused my tears to flow freely. Carefully, I walked
forward and placed my arms around him. He closed his arms around my torso I did
so.
And then, for the first
time since Campbell's death, I truly cried. The other times had been to release
the pain of the emotional strain but now, it was being released as true
unfiltered emotion.
"I thought that you
needed more than I did. That I didn't deserve to be pitied" I said through
the sobs.
Doug's tongue brushed my
ear to soothe me.
"Of course not, I
love you and if you ever need me, I'm there" he replied.
"I'm so sorry, I
shouldn't be so stubborn" I blubbed.
"But then you wouldn't
be the man I love" he said reassuringly.
I laughed faintly then
licked his ear as he had done to mine.
"Can you ever
forgive me for trying to hurt you?" he asked.
"Only if you can
forgive me for being so naïve" I answered.
We drew for a closer
hug, then joined our lips together. Afterwards, we drew apart and wiped each
others tears from each other's face.
Getting to our feet, we
turned to face Campbell.
"Thank you" I
said.
"I didn't do
anything. I just helped" Campbell said, feigning modesty.
"Are you
leaving?" Doug asked him.
"Unfortunately yes,
I only had one chance to come back and this was it"
After a moment, another
portal of light appeared. Campbell walked up to it and turned back.
"Tell Jenna and
Stephen I love them" he said.
"Of course" I
replied.
With a smile, he walked
into the light and vanished. As did the light.
Me and Doug looked at
each other again. Then we joined in a massive hug once more. When it was
finished, we smiled at each other.
"I'm so sorry"
I repeated.
"Don't worry about
it. I'm sorry too" Doug answered.
"You're
forgiven" I said with a smile.
"So are you"
he echoed the words with the same smile.
We kissed once again and
this time, we showed each other how we really felt. But just as we pulled apart
and were about to walk back to the church, something awful happened.
One of the stained glass
windows of the church blasted into a million pieces. But it wasn't due to a
stone or a misplaced note on the organ, it was due to a body. A dead body.
Without thinking, I ran toward the church. Doug followed closely behind but
before we could see who it was, Shadow burst from the church, followed by
Jenna, Stephen, and Kari.
"What the hell is
going on?" I asked.
Although the faces had
been stricken by grief a few minutes ago, they were now the faces of people
ready for action, or at least avoidance.
"The other pack,
without Campbell, they've gone AWOL" Jenna replied. Her voice was
strained, like when you have choked after drinking water the wrong way.
"But why?" I
asked.
"Now they've
mourned their alpha, they need a new one. And they all want the title"
"But I thought only
people who have earned the title could be alpha"
"No, the titled
ones are most respected, because the position can't be won unless conceded. Now
the pack doesn't have one, it's free for all"
"Can they become
titled?" I asked.
"Yes, if they kill
the delta wolf"
That was something I
hadn't been aware of. Only an alpha could create a delta I assumed, but if a
delta was killed, that would mean they had won the authority. It made sense,
just about.
Without me noticing,
Doug had gone to check who the body was. It was just a straggling beta but
still it was worrying. The pack would tear themselves apart until one of them
killed the delta.
"So as long as the
reverend stays alive, they'll continue to fight?" I asked.
Jenna nodded.
"We have to get him
out of there now" Doug said to Jenna.
That sounded like a good
plan. But before anyone could move, another window broke and a body flew
through after the falling glass. This time, the body landed metres from us. And
to our horror, it was headless. And, it was the reverend.
An explosion of bright
light shone in the church.
"Looks like we have
a new alpha in town" Kari said carefully.
"But who is it?"
Stephen asked.
We didn't have to wait
long to find out. The back doors of the church had blown shut in the wind but
within seconds, they had burst open to reveal a man carrying the head of the
headless corpse.
And to everyone's
disgust, including my own, the man was Lucas.
Free Stuff #19 - Endangered (Chapter 2)
"Dearly
beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the loss of our good friend
Campbell. He was a great man, a loving father and a disciplined but considerate
alpha"
Needless to say, that sentence caught me off guard. I had
assumed that not only was the reverend human but everyone else bar the pack
was. But upon taking a second look at him, I realised he was one of Campbell's
former deltas.
A delta, as Jenna had explained a few weeks before, was the
member of the pack who dealt out punishment the alpha or beta could not. The
betas were considered to be the final measure. From what I heard, they were
ruthless in trying to catch offenders who ran and when they caught them, the
consequences were fatal.
How a delta werewolf ever got to be a religious man was
beyond me. He must have had squatter's rights in the confession box. Either
that or he considered himself pure in the eyes of the lord. Whichever option
was true, the man was a force to be reckoned with.
It was only by pure chance that we were able to save Doug
when we did from being attacked by a delta after his banishment from Campbell's
pack. As soon as she had claimed him, Jenna rang him and told him in no certain
terms that Doug was one of her wolves.
But enough about the past, it was time to focus on the
present.
Looking around, I noticed a few wereleopards around,
including Larry and his best friend Karlos. The alpha of the leopards was a few
seats to the left of them and seemed to be deeply lost in his own reverie.
I know it seems heartless to say, but at that moment, I felt
very little grief. Maybe it was the shock of the situation and I needed more
time but in a strange way, it was like I had moved through the five stages of
grief in less time than it took to wait for cress to grow. I also felt guilty
for not feeling more upset, especially since my own father had been the one to
fire the bullet.
I did feel grief for my dad, because he died from an attack
by Campbell. But it was overshadowed by the rage I felt from his ignorance and
intolerance of werewolves. That and the fact that I was in love with one and
the fact I was now one to boot. But his death had taught me a valuable lesson,
there's a fine line between love and hate. It was just a pity that my dad chose
to hate me. And because of his choices, I had chosen to hate him. And I would
let my feelings be known to his grave soon enough.
But for the moment, it was time to grieve for Campbell.
Eventually, the first part of the service was over. Doug and
a few other werewolves had left without me noticing and a second later, they
walked in carrying a mahogany coffin with golden fasteners. A few minutes of
slow walking later, they lay the coffin on the centrepiece by the lectern that
had a grate on top of it.
The coffin bearers returned to their seats. When Doug sat
down, his eyes were glistening with uncried tears. A few had leaked out and
were drying on his face. His messy golden brown hair looked more dishevelled
than usual but I didn't care. The last thing he needed right now was for me to
lecture him about personal hygiene.
That, and the fact I would be a hypocrite. Because my hair
looked like someone had run a lawnmower over it and left most of it behind.
When our eyes met, he couldn't hold the tears back anymore.
I held him close and stroked his back until he was done. When he stopped, I
gently moved his face with my hands so it was facing mine.
"Thank you" he said quietly.
"No need to thank me, it's what I'm here for" I
said graciously.
He smiled and kissed me gently. I returned the favour and
after a second, I got him back in a sitting position. When I let go, he smiled
and continued to watch the service in silence. Turning around, I noticed
several people had laid items of great importance or emotional significance on
the part of the centrepiece that was not occupied by the coffin or the grate.
Just as I breathed a sigh of no real importance, the church
doors burst open and slammed shut. Within mere seconds, the temperature in the
room felt as though it had dropped at least thirty degrees and everyone huddled
themselves close to each other to keep warm. I held my thin coat to my chest to
regain my composure but before I could regain my warmth completely, a low
growling noise caught my attention.
At first I thought it was the sound of the heater
kicking in but when I turned to face the direction where it was coming from, I
noticed that it was coming from Jenna. She had got to her feet, her teeth were
bared and she was definitely on the cusp of transforming into her werewolf
form.
"Jenna, what's
wrong?" I asked her.
As could be expected,
she didn't answer. But Kari, one of Jenna's pack, pointed in the direction of
the door.
I turned around, and saw
the target of her rage.
A six foot tall man,
with shining black hair and crimson eyes had walked into the room. He was built
like a brick shithouse and his cheeks bore scars that looked as though they had
been gained after being ripped apart by a pair of rusty nail scissors. He
walked up to the coffin and bowed before it. He then strode back out of the
church, opening and closing the door in the same way he had entered.
Jenna stopped growling
and returned to her seat.
Stephen had been sat on
Jenna's other side but now he was stood in front of her making sure she was
alright. He too had been tense, but not growling. He didn't need sound to
explain how he felt. His aura had been enough. It had been so full of
unfiltered ire that if it were visible, the whole room would be obscured by its
luminescence.
I decided to find out what
the problem had been. Maybe not that wise in hindsight but at least I would
know why everyone had treated the stranger as a threat. I turned my attention
to Stephen because he seemed to be more likely to answer. Not that he would,
but it was worth a try.
"Who was
that?" I asked him slowly.
The werewolf turned from
his alpha and looked at me with a face that definitely screamed danger.
"His name is Lucas
Bane; he's the werewolf who killed my mother"
My face drained. At
least I felt like it did.
"He killed your
mother?" I repeated.
Stephen growled in
response. I know he wasn't aiming it at me directly but he must have felt like
he didn't want to explain. So warning me away was the only way to get me to
stop. I tilted my head slightly in respect for his sorrow then pulled back to
sit in the pew next to Doug. He looked just as shaken as I was.
"Did you know
him?" I asked.
For a second, it looked
like Doug was going to blank me. But he nodded his head slowly after a few
seconds then returned to his mode of silence.
The rest of the service
continued in much the same way as any other funeral I had ever attended or seen
on TV. Admittedly I had seen more of the latter than the former but it did
bring me to expect certain things.
After closing the book
on the lectern, the reverend cleared his throat.
"You may now pay
your last respects" he said as calmly as he could.
Slowly but surely, the
packs stood up and formed into a queue. Being a member of neither pack, I stood
right at the end of the line. I wasn't sure about my motives for doing this,
either I felt it was a mark of respect to let them go first or just because I
still felt a pang of doubt and guilt about his death being caused by my father.
But whatever the reason,
I did anyway.
Shadow stood behind me a
second later and licked my ear gently to ease my uncertainty. I returned the
favour and afterward, we turned to face the coffin. It took a very long time
for the queue to go down, several people broke down into sobs, some transformed
and howled in anger, others simply cried silent tears and some, did nothing at
all.
An hour later, it was my
turn to stand before the dead alpha. I walked slowly like a puppet on a string
and eventually, I reached the carved container. I bent down on one knee and
bowed my head in respect. In that moment, the grief hit me. I had been naïve to
think it wasn't coming and now I felt it. Not just for me, but for my father as
well.
"I'm so sorry
Campbell"
After the words left my
mouth, I got to my feet. Then, I ran out of the church. After forcing my way
through the crowd and the vestry, I finally made out into the graveyard.
"Why did I have to
do it?" I screamed and pounded my hands onto the stone fence by an open
field. I could feel the stone crumbling but I was not in a state to care.
Before anything else
could happen, I heard someone come up behind me. However it was placed their
hand on my shoulder. But that proved to be a big mistake.
"Get off me!"
I roared and threw my fist at the stranger.
As soon as my fist
collided, I knew I had made a huge mistake, all my anger left me and shock and
sorrow quickly surfaced again.
I had hit Doug.
"Oh my god" I
gasped.
For a second, he was
stunned. Then, he turned nasty. His eyes glowed with rage and he punched me
back. The pain was gone almost instantly, but my anger was back.
"I said I was
sorry!" I snarled.
The next thing Doug said
shocked me to the core. There was no emotion, except for pure hatred and
contempt.
"Not good
enough!"
He punched me again. And
again. And once more. Thankfully, I dodged the fourth attempt and delivered a
blow to his chin. He slammed against the bark of an old oak and slumped
slightly. But a second later, he was charging back in my direction.
"What part of sorry
don't you understand?" I bellowed.
My voices didn't even
reach his ears. His wolf had taken over almost completely, feeding on his anger
and making him almost immune to reasoning. This would work in my favour,
because the wolf lacked reasoned judgement, which I had.
I leapt into the air and
landed a few metres of another tree by the fence I had almost destroyed. He
roared and raised his fist ready to strike, but something happened.
Something none of us
expected.
A bright flash of light
appeared in the middle of the path. Then, before either of us could move, an
ethereal image of a man walked through the light and over to Doug.
The presence placed a
hand on my boyfriend's shoulder. For a second, Doug looked like he might rip
off the man's genitalia but upon seeing him, the human side of him broke
through and his mouth fell open in shock.
The spirit turned to
face me and smiled. I didn't speak for a short time, and when I did, it croaked
worse than I when last had a cold.
"Who are you?"
I asked.
The image laughed, and
the laugh was familiar. An idea came into my mind, but it couldn't be him, it
just couldn't.
"But, you're
dead?" I said with a half tone of disbelief.
"Turns out you can't
keep an old wolf down" said the familiar voice.
After he had spoken, the
vision smiled, and it was definitely a smile I had seen before. And thanks to
both the answer to my question and the familiar mannerisms, my suspicion was
confirmed. To my disbelief, my horror and to some extent, my intense gratitude.
The translucent man was
a ghost. And it was none other than Campbell.
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