"Jason, there are levels to madness," I warned him, already feeling threatened by the sight of what Jason had done and what he was about to do.
Threatened, yes; scared, no. throughout my life, I had dealt with different obstacles: rogue wolves, pack invasions, moles, con artists, and even wizards, hence, this was not any different from my usual challenge as Alpha. At least on a combat level, it was not.
However, on closer inspection of the situation, it was not quite difficult to tell that this had a whole new level of difficulty. Usually, if a traitor was to be found in a pack, they would either be killed or worse, expelled, however, I wanted none of that for Jason seeing that he was not a traitor by will. It was my actions and words that had led to his mutiny. I tried to reach out to him again
"Jason! I understand your anger, I understand your rage, I understand your wrath. But consider the options. Tell your wolves to stand down and go home, and things will not get messy."
Jason spat on the ground in disgust at my offer. "Always the lead pack dog, eh? Even when you ask for mercy you still shoot threats."
To some extent he was right. I was supposed to be nicely begging him to stop the coup but given my position in the pack and how well my demeanor had helped us survive, I had to uphold my honor and class, as well as guide my pride and my pack. "I've said what is worth to be said, Jason. Any further action from you will end in the inevitable red bath of your rebel pack."
Jason was not having it. He smirked, crouching low as his human body slowly morphed: skin into fur; rear into the tail; teeth into the pointed fang.
He was a full wolf now; aggressive and hard-hearted, whatever I was going to say now was not going to make an impact on the outcome of what was about to happen. It was my fault, no doubt about that. But for every action, there was an inescapable consequence and for what I had just done, this was the consequence: the death of wolves.
"Pack!" I called out to my band that had gathered behind me in solidarity, awaiting my instructions. "Take out these bastards. Leave Jason for me."
That was all that they needed to hear to go all out; they all morphed into full wolves and charged at Jason's new pack as I stood watching them from behind. That whole area became as loud as ever, with the noise of snarling and snarling and growling and howling and every other thing in between that expressed pain, triumph, suffering, concession, dominance, and submission.
My pride was one I was proud of. They won every duel easily. I could spot Jason's wolves fighting with their lives to win while mine fought with their strength. The strength I had had them develop through gruesome training.
As the fight dragged on, I could smell the fatigue in Jason's wolves. As it was, Jason was their most competent soldier, he was fighting expertly as he should be; as I expected him to. But for what it's worth, this guy was causing my pack injuries. He had already badly wounded three of my wolves and I could tell that Liam, a young wolf not very good at fighting or hunting but had decided to fight today, had a bad gash just below his throat; Jason had gotten a lethal blow.
The question of 'how could he?' was one that could easily be answered. Even though in my earlier command I had told the pack to leave Jason for me, none of them seemed to be leaving him alone. They were after him as if he had a price on his head. But killing him was far-fetched from reality.
As I watched the fight below me in the clearing unfold, I noticed through my peripheral vision a white blur slip between the trees, and all calm left my body at that instant.
That wolf had spotted something and by the way he moved, he was not wandering. He had a well-defined agenda. The route he had taken led to the Abode of the pack; that was where the rest of the pack lived: the soldiers who were not currently fighting, the hunters, the service wolves, and worse, the mothers and pups.
Yet that was not where my mind went as I saw the wolf slip away. Brenda was the name that my heart yelled in my chest – the wolf was going for Brenda. In a near feat of madness, I transmuted into the large terrifying dark wolf I know I am and with all the energy my physical attributes have given me, bound with full force against the slippery wolf into what was supposed to be the well-disguised path that led to our Abode.
I paced so fast that all the trees and bushes passed me in a rush. The Abode was a usual ten-minute walk yet it took me a mere thirty seconds to arrive. I burst out of the bush at such a pace that everyone present at the entrance was startled and transformed for a fight. They stood down once they realized it was me but as for me, slowing down was no easy task.
Though my legs were muscular enough to bring me to an instant halt on a normal day, the speed I had picked up during my intense sprint outpowered my clutching abilities, and I was sent reeling away out of control. I crashed into a tree and damaged its trunk. It took me a few seconds to retire, but when I did, I scanned around to notice that Brenda was not among the people at the entrance.
She must have been deeper inside the Abode. That again was another fifteen-minute walk but I was not willing to take it. One, there was a possibility that Jason would turn the tides of that fight, and two, the wolf I had been chasing lay dead at the entrance.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I had no idea how it found its way this far, Alpha," one of the three guards that manned the entrance said.
"Don't worry about it. It's dead now," I replied.
"Is it over?" another guard asked.
"Is what over?" I asked and this led to a barrage of questions.
"The fight."
"Did we win?"
"Is Jason's traitor pack progressing?"
"Do we need to alert the others to prepare for battle?"
"Quiet," I delivered decorum. "The fight is not over, we haven't won nor have we lost, Jason's pack is not progressing, and Jason is not a traitor. I do not want to hear that from anyone in this pack, is that okay?"
"Yes!" They all replied to me.
"But, Sir," one of the guards asked. "Why are you here? Ought you not to be with the pack."
"I saw this wolf slip and I wanted to take care of it."
"But you know we exist and you've let us take down more terrifying things before."
He was right and I could tell that he was perceiving something fishy. I knew they manned the entrance, and I had let them handle worse intruders, so why did I not trust them to take down just one wolf, and why did I have to run back so fast?
They sneaked curious glances at each other but that did not bother me. Brenda was safe. Now it was time to check on the ones in the forefront. It was time to run back again. I tried to run back but kept running out of breath.
My lungs had to be as big as that of a whale to be able to recreate that level of agility twice within a very short period of time. As such, I decided to take the longer but more safe option – walk and occasionally pace up until I reached my destination.
On getting to where the fight was taking place, I noticed a drastic shift in the tempo of the fight. It turned out I had underestimated Jason's crew and they had lasted a lot longer than I had wagered they would last.
But still, my pack was winning most of Jason's wolves had either died off or ran off and what was left was my pack though some of them lay dead and a few more lay injured.
The fit ones had surrounded Jason who was currently struggling to maintain his wolf form. The fight had weakened him a great deal. My remaining pack fighters there were led by Samantha, a fierce and strong female who always prided herself because of her dark pigment and pitch-black wolf fur that seemed to match my own perfectly.
She once even said that she was my mate, a rumor that spread like fire in a bush of hot summer-dried leaves. Females who had had their eyes on me felt threatened and some of them left, worse were the males who had had an eye on her felt threatened too and left leaving the pack a few soldiers and hunters short.
I had punished her by giving her time in the dungeon but that did nothing to taint her spirit. She remained loyal.
Samantha swerved her head towards me and caught my eye with a bright twinkle in them. I knew what she wanted – permission to deliver the final blow on Jason.
He was weak from the fight, but even more so, he was naïve to attempt the takeover. When Jason was still my Beta, Samantha gave him the utmost respect and admiration for his position, but here she was, about to uphold a sacred pack tradition of killing the traitor. And I knew that she would have done it easily, should I have allowed it, but seeing that I disapproved, she was going to back down.
Or was she? I saw her look directly into my eyes and shake her head left to right, and back again side-eyeing Jason in the process.