Wolves by Ash Faith (freda ebook reader .txt) 📕

the women’s bathroom to make sure my meal hadn’t decided to make a small home on my face. I pushed the door open, finding a girl, probably in her teens, talking to herself in the mirror. She spotted me, her eyes widening. As I was about to apologize for walking in on her little self-pep talk she sprinted past me and out the door.

That was a bit weird. I thought as I walked to the mirror, spotting a small chunk of meat at the corner of my mouth and wiping it off with the paper towel I pulled from the rack. I fixed my hair up by flipping it and practicing a quick smile, then heading out. I gave myself a quick whiff, as the girl had done before running past me. Hm, nope, no B.O. I confirmed, still confused why the girl had seemed horrified by me. My thoughts cleared as I accidentally bumped into something stiff, I rubbed my head. Did I seriously just run into a wall. I scolded myself, as I looked up and realised it was no wall. But Jackal.

“Jesus Christ! I thought I ran into a wall, you’re so hard!” I covered my laugh as I realised what I’d just said, but Jackal  didn’t cover his dirty smile as he shared the same dirty though as I did. That’s one way to make it awkward, congrats, dumbass.

“I didn’t mean it to-“

“It’s fine,” he interrupted me before I could say anything more stupid, “I found it funny,” he beamed.

Phew. Situation: avoided.

“But in seriousness,” his face straightened, “Did you happen to see a girl run out?” Did he see her too?

“Yeah, actually I did, she was talking to herself in the mirror when I came in and she freaked when she saw me and ran” I explained, still confused as hell.

“Damn” he whispered angrily, putting a hand to rub his forehead like he was thinking hard. “I knew she was here.”

“Who?”

“My younger sister, she didn’t want me to leave here, she thought I would die but I wouldn’t let her come with me. it was too dangerous. Why did she have to come?” he grabbed a $50 note out of his pocket, slamming it on the table and walked out the door. I quickly followed. As the bell rang on the door as he slammed it open, his pack all quickly stood up, scrambling like their life depended on it as even I could feel the rage in the air he was emitting.

“Kara has followed us.” He informed them, “Find her.” He ordered, “Now!” Shit, this was serious, I’m glad he wasn’t directing that at me. I’m sure I would probably shit my pants.

“Yes, sir” they said in unison as they split up and ran like men on a mission. Which is what they are, considering the aggressive order Jackal had given them. I had to get Jackal to release some steam before he made a scene.

“Jackal,” I said quietly, but he ignored me, I knew he’d heard me though. “Jackal!” I yelled, still being ignored. Ugh, fine I’ll play your game. “Jack!” He finally turned around to face me, but the rage I expected him to have, wasn’t there. Instead, he was worried, his eyes glossy.

“Oh,” I had no idea what to say, I was never really good at helping people out emotionally. To be honest, when people cried, it normally angered me slightly.

“Help me” was all he managed to get out.

“Sure, Okay,” My brain scrambled for what to say. I had nothing. He just stood there, sad eyes staring down at me, like I knew what to do. “Um, if she’s your sister, you know her scent, right?”

“Yes,” his eyes wandered to the night sky, “but she must’ve taken one of my scent coverers.”

“Okay then, scratch that plan.” I whispered to myself. Whatever a scent coverer is, it was annoying. His eyes began to gloss up even more. Oh god, was he going to cry? Shit, what do I do, what do I do?!

“Hey, look at me, Jack” his sad look pierced me once again, “It’ll be fine. I’m sure your packs got this, stop worrying. She’ll be found soon, don’t let this wash you over. You have to battle when that moon hits above us, you can’t let this get to you.” I tried to talk him out of it, and his eyes changed back to normal, his stance straightening back up. You beauty, I congratulated myself. But then dread overtook it, Jack will need all the talk you can give him if he wants to live. Memories of Ace and his packs strength flickered through my mind as I dreaded my ticket to freedom’s battle outcome.

“You’re right” I could see the strength I’d rendered inside of him,

“You’re damn right I’m right” I pushed him further.

A growl escaped my lips, as a familiar smell turned the corner. A devious smile across his lips. He hasn’t seen you yet, hide! My wolf ordered and I followed. I hid behind the small corner the café luckily had.

“Peter.” I growled.

“Jackal, Alpha that mastered the west. We believe we have something you want” He snickered.

“Kara…” Jack whispered under his breath.

“That’s right. now that the new rules have settled in, we just can’t wait. As you know, at this point, we are allowed to take things as a prize and give things as a prize for whichever side shall win. In exchange for your precious girl. You are to give what we know you have. A girl for a girl. Give us the wolf name Lana and you get your sister unharmed, without a fight.” Peter declared venomously. Jackal growled, loud, it raised the hairs on the back of my neck.

“I know no such wolf” he declared, “So your exchange is made of false accusations” Shit, this was not going to go well. I swallowed hard as I gathered my courage, and strode out from behind the corner, putting a hand on Jack’s shoulder, to let him know I had control of this.

“I believe that would be me.” I said calmly, facing Peter. “But I’ve been in one too many trade’s lately, we’ll have to gladly decline.” Jack tensed, clearly his worry for his sister back. “Tell Ace,” I started before Peter turned to leave furiously, “He’s a douchebag and a creep and I hope he’s ready for a hell of a fight.” I turned from Jack to Peter, “And that if he hurts Jackal’s sister, then I promise to personally shove my foot up his ass” I added. Peter ran off to deliver my message, furious at my choice of side. But there was no way I was going to let Ace think he could possibly trade me like a prize.

“What makes you think they won’t hurt her” Jack said, turning to me.

“I know Ace, after what I said, he wouldn’t dare lay a finger on your sister. I promise.” I was confident he wasn’t going to go against my message.

“I want to ask how. But you talked of being traded before, was it he who did so?”

“No, but he watched. He did nothing to help, despite promising to do so.”

“So, you are looking forward to revenge? I hope you know that I am the one that is supposed to defeat him, it’s part of the rule of being the last two full Alpha’s”

“I’m fine with that, just as long as you let him live” I needed him alive, to suffer for the rest of his love for betraying me. You’re lying to yourself, my wolf accused, you couldn’t bear to see his dead body. Shut up. I knew exactly what I was doing.

“What god would that do exactly?” Jack lifted his brow,

“It would make him live with what he did. And with his defeat of course”

“I like your way of thinking.” He smiled cunningly. Know that’s a good reason for them to call him Jackal. “We have under an hour to gather the pack back together and get to the old Alpha’s den.”

“Wait what?!” Mayson’s old den.

“Is there a problem? Because my pack has already begun heading there.”

“Do we have to inside?” my stomach twisted, as I remembered the blood pool and amount of littered body parts I’d left there. Along with the girl I’d thrown through 4 reinforced iron walls.

“No. Why?”

“Let’s just say I may or may not have helped the defeat of the old Alpha’s pack” I blurted out, I didn’t want to hold anything like this back from Jack, since he’d trusted me so much.

“But you side with me now? You will abide by our Alliance, right?”

“Of course.” I said, confidently “I don’t fail the people I am loyal to.”

“Good. Then Let’s get moving, it’s not far from here”

I looked behind Jackal, at the woods entrance, and swallowed hard. I was getting lured straight back into the mess I had only just got out of. Jack and I began moving, fast walking towards the nightmare that surely laid ahead. This was not going to be fun.

Chapter 39 >> Jack's view

 

“We’re close, be prepared.” one of my men informed me from behind me. I was glad we’d met up with them early, we had to be prepared for the battle together.

“Prepared for what? The Ace I know isn’t smart enough to pull together an ambush” The woman I allied along with laughed. But what if the Alpha she knew is different now. My wolf warned me, speaking my mind. As she chuckled, I heard the pang of a bow string as a thin object flew past her. My reflexes jumped, catching the arrow before it flung past me. I turned to see a drop of blood drop  onto her shoe, and watched as her hand flew to her nose that had a small scrape at the tip of it.

“You were wrong, by the looks of it” I dropped the arrow and stalked towards the direction of its travel. The messenger for Ace from earlier stepped out from the tree he’d hidden behind.

“That shot was meant for you,” He snarled. I snarled back.

“Run back to your Alpha, tell him we begin, Now!” I ordered, still trying to have a shred of decency for the code that they seemed to have abandoned by using a weapon. The man stood there and looked me straight in the eyes.

“He already knows,” a creepy grin crossed his face, “It’s already begun.” I heard yelling from my men and snarls from an unknown source. I turned around to see 2 wolves already fighting my men, some attempting to fight back with their bare hands, shielding those who were shifting. The training I had given them had clearly worn off. But where was the girl. My wolf reminded me. I searched the battle, but she wasn’t there. A growl from behind me made me spin on my heels. Ready to attack if I needed to. I smelled the Alpha before I saw him. He was in wolf form already. Two can play that game. I whistled, and took a step back as 2 of my best fighters appeared to guard me as I shifted.

Chapter 40 >> Lana’s view

Stop cowering and get in there, my wolf begged for me to appear from behind the tree I hid