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

“How did a vampire get a hold of Jang Stone?” I asked, pulling myself up and finding Callin and Jye waiting for me on the wooden porch.

“I have no idea, but that wasn’t the only thing she got a hold of. She’s got a mate, not one you’ll like.” Jye spoke up, his hand strayed to his wrapped bandage for his shot wound. “She had to be linked to the guys who shot me, they used their bullets with the Jang stone. Explains why it hasn’t healed by now.” He looked to Callin, “And Callin had another premonition, the vampire is dead and we need to get going, right now. A warehouse next to the old laboratory, which is probably where they got their ingredients. She needs us.” He stood up, ripping his bandages off. There was no way a powerful warrior like himself would walk around with a bandaging around his shoulder. She needs us. I got to my legs, my magic already rendering back into its old levels. Jang stone was powerful, but old school. Those like Callin and Jay have had the same stone used on them for centuries – they had to have woken up in about half the time I did – and probably were already back to full strength.

“Is it a good idea for you to come?” I said, following the two who leapt over porch fence with such grace. Jye had not long ago been in a much deeper coma, but it was brought by the grief of his brother’s death. And the burning from his tattoo as one of the dragon’s fell. He was in danger of blowing back up into flames uncontrollably, if he did so in public, it would take a lot out of me to mind wipe that many citizens. But the main focus on hand was that Katalana needed us, and I was more worried about that than anything else. She’d had a fever along with the coma for the days she was out, and even though she’d been awake when the alpha had come to the house – there was no way that was going to last long. She needed my comfort, and my medical help. Jackal had helped, every time he was in the room she seemed slightly more contempt. But before she woke, she’d said something. Something that made him decide to leave, not just the room, the Alpha Jackal dropped out of the competition, he left town – saying there wasn’t anything worth staying for anymore for him.

As I wavered through the woods, I thought about the funny coincidence I was in. I was stumbling through the woods of a small-American town with dark secrets, a fallen god and one of the last-standing dragon-brothers. I thwacked bugs off my arms, and tried to remember the old tale of the dragon brothers, considering I was in one of their presences.

In an orphanage, there were five lonely orphans. They were outcast from the rest of the kids by a difference. They all had powers, that eventually brought them together during their years as they grew up. The boys contained different traits, that was for sure, but they all shared a few things in common that strengthened their brother-hood. The boys grew up, leaving the orphanage together when the oldest turned 18 and took custody of the younger boys, but they were still brothers. One day, out in a country full of dirt and dust, they were roaming a field, glorying over their freedom and puffing their coloured fire from their fingers at each other playfully. Then suddenly one boy stopped, and the others soon followed, they were stanced in a full circle and one by one, they grew larger, shaping into that of a beautiful dragon of different sizes and shapes, but the most difference was their colours. The first boy became a beautiful red, the others following along with shining colours of purple, brown, green and yellow. But they were not alone in this field, a coven of evil witches saw the boys and their transformation – and envied their beauty and power. The witches came together, creating a curse to prevent the boys from becoming such beauties ever again. They cursed all of the dragon brothers to be tied into their human forms for eternity, so that they could never feel the glory and beauty of becoming their dragon forms ever again.

A tear formed in my eye that I hadn’t realised had been there, as it dropped I began to see the clearing from the woods. Jye had been the first brother. He had the pain of eternity without his true glorious form, and his past had become a fairy-tale for children of the supernatural community. But the tear receded as I remembered the part that wasn’t told to children. He had got his revenge.

The dragon brothers got their revenge, Kierra, my grandmother’s shaky voice rung in my head.

Have you ever wondered why there are so few witches in our world? It’s because of the brothers.

They tracked down the coven after they learned to the full extent what they could do, and they destroyed the largest and most powerful coven of all time. Every single witch in the whole coven was destroyed, painful deaths they endured for their envious and evil actions. But this of course rid the brothers of their innocence, and so they decided out of their honesty and good-heartedness that they would not make the witches reverse the spell. Your mother had told you to not idolise them, that they were deadly warriors never to be crossed with, but you should. I remembered her patting a hand on my head, watching the life drain from her eyes, make them your idols, and cross their path, don’t let anyone bring down your beliefs, your dreams. The tear that had receded was now back, and with vengeance. I laced my own fingers together, whispering under my breath. “Thank you, Nana.” I said, so quietly I felt like the wind had carried it away. Hopefully up to the heavens where Nana smiled. My feet swerved on the pavement as we began to enter the part of the town that was forbidden for entry. Well, to anyone but us. Human rules don’t exactly apply to a god, a fairy-tale and one of the last dark fairies. We passed many houses, all boarded up with wooden panels and warning signs. They passed it off as some kind of gas, or mite or something like that, but I knew the truth. The laboratory was testing on supernatural they’d found, they were just children, but the tests became too much for the kids, and one of the children found a way to escape, but he didn’t get far. The whole neighbourhood was smoked out by a strange power that the child had mutated from their tests, killing all the scientists and smoking out the whole part of town. Rumor had been that the child survived, but that the Immortal Court had quickly snatched him up and cleaned up the scene as bets as they could. No doubt, the child had escaped, only to be trapped and tested on by the Immortal Court. The sound of metal being ripped open ripped my attention from the lonely boarded up houses and to the warehouse to my right. Jye was ripping it open with his bare hands. I quickly paced up the cracked concrete, almost tripping over a bunch of weeds that had grown through the cracks. I hopped through the hole to find a wolf standing over her body. He growled, and I realised he was the Alpha from earlier, but he was in full wolf-form, fuller meaning he was out of control and all he had was the mind of his wolf in consciousness. I heard Callin growl back, he was standing in between Jye and I. Obviously, the wolf was supposed to bow down, Callin was a fallen god, but he fell in along with the families of those of wolfs and dogs – and their shifter counter parts. My eyes drifted back to the wolf, but he stood solid still, making me gasp aloud and my hand fly to my mouth from surprise. The wolf growled again but this time, it was more than the one of warning from earlier, it was a threat.

“You’ve got some gut, mutt. I admire that, but you don’t know what you’re doing mate, she won’t be harmed.” Jye attempted to reason with the wolf, and its death stare lingered onto Jye, but a rebelling wolf is still an ant to Jye, he didn’t flinch as it gave him a threat, clearly not taking in any word he said.

It stopped growling suddenly, like something had clicked in its head. And it moved to the side, heading into the darker side of the musty room. I took the moment to race to Lana’s side, my knees scraped against the rough concrete floor and I knew the skin had broken as I landed hard but that didn’t matter. I used one hand to push her onto her back from the curled position she had been in, and the other hand went straight to forehead. I whipped my hand away. It was burning hot, hotter than it had been before, and before, it had taken her 5 days before she could wake up. I swallowed hard knowing this would take a lot longer, and I noted as Jye picked her up into his arms that his skin was partially flaming. I quickly grabbed her from his grip.

“Are you insane? She’s got a fever! You really think that someone with the temperature of a literal fire is going to help?” I scolded him like a child, earning me a look from both Jye and Callin, reminding e that I’m small fry compared to them. “I know what I’m doing, unlike you, so unless you want to make things worse, stop treating me like I’m scum and let me do my job.” They both seemed to grumble, of course Callin’s seeming more like a growl. He was probably never going to get over the feeling of being a god, even if he was a fallen one at that.

“He’s a demon king, fairy.” A voice came from the shadows as the same wolf, but in human form appeared, holding a note. “And he left a note,” He held out to me, even though we were metres apart. My hands were full, of a girl I needed to get to bed and to begin healing soon. She wasn’t like Jye, she handled grief differently, as did everyone. She took it hard, because the brothers were not a fairy-tale to her. They were the only people she ever really attached to. And the unexpected death of one, of an immortal, was something even I couldn’t wrap my head around. Jye, being the strong-minded warrior he is probably was only awake for the sole purpose to protect her, and find who killed his brother and how. The how was really twisting me. after the long silence, Jye walked up to the alpha and grabbed the note.

“What does it say?” Jye asked, not folding the note but instead putting into his pocket.

“I haven’t read it. If you didn’t notice I wasn’t exactly myself…” he pondered off,

“Thank you,” Jye said, his voice calm and brave, “I don’t know why you did it, but you should know, you’ve earned my respect.” This would be an honour to anyone who heard those words from the first dragon brother but the wolf crinkled his brows and his eyes shot to Katalana in my arms.

“I don’t care who’s respect I earn, unless it’s hers. My memories are only still coming together, but I know the house and where it is and how to get in. Whoever you are,” he paused, “I’m coming with you.”

“You want to tag