Beyond the Were War Ch. 01

Author's Note: This story contains elements that may be disturbing to some readers. If you would prefer not to read these elements, I've put a trigger warning (line of +++++) before and after each of those scenes so you can skip if you wish. The scenes are included only to provide background and motivation of the characters involved.

The story takes place between the end and the epilogue of Behind the Lines of the Were Wars. I recommend you read that first. -Partwolf

Beyond the Were War Ch. 1

"And if I show you my dark side
Will you still hold me tonight?
And if I open my heart to you
And show you my weak side
What would you do?
Would you sell your story to Rolling Stone?
Would you take the children away
And leave me alone?
And smile in reassurance
As you whisper down the phone?
Would you send me packing?
Or would you take me home?"

-Roger Waters, The Final Cut

Alpha Robert Hastings had only known fear like this once before, watching his mate bleed out while he carried her towards help. The pit now in his stomach threatened to swallow him whole.

He watched as the woman he loved and hoped to mate, Renee Johnson, bled out onto the sand and stone of the amphitheater at Red Rock. His own body was still in shock at what she had just done. She had stood up to a powerful Alpha and refused to play along with his game of dominance and power. Like Gandhi, she had offered to lay down her life for the principle of leaders who served their people, not ruled them. It would have ended in her death, on live TV, to the horror and disgust of human and Were nation alike. Just before she collapsed, Alpha Diggs was in the process of raping one of the women in her pack and she somehow rose up from the ground and killed him.

Her last words were not going to be "Asshole" if he could do anything about it. He rushed forward to cradle her head, his tears falling onto her ashen face as he pleaded with her to stay with him. He watched as the doctors and medical personnel rushed forward, surrounding Renee as they opened their kits and went to work. Other Alphas moved him away from the medical staff, and his senior pack members held him in place.

Why? Why did he let her enter this ring? Why was the kindest, most reluctant Alpha in the country the one on the ground? Would Luna be so cruel as to give him hope at a future, at a life with a mate again, only to tear it from him again?

He was a proud man, but this day had truly broken his spirit. Tears flowed freely as he remained kneeling down at the edge of the challenge circle. His pack members felt his anguish over the Alpha bond. They came down and surrounded him, letting the closeness and contact of the Pack do the talking. Renee's Santa Fe pack members came into the group as well, having bonded during their visit to his Gila pack prior to the Wolfstock festival. Many shifted and howled their grief to the night sky.

Other pack Alphas and pack members came down from the stands and joined the large group, surrounding others who were crying and praying to Luna to save this brave woman. Rank, sex, power- none of it mattered as they gathered together with singular purpose. No one spoke, they all watched and prayed as the doctors and nurses worked frantically to stem her bleeding and get replacement blood into her. It took ten minutes before they had her stabilized enough they could move her to an ambulance; as they moved off they could see the bandages, the clamps tying off torn arteries, the bags of blood being squeezed to force more blood in before her heart would give out again. They had already shocked her back to life once.

They watched in silence as she was loaded into an ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital. The doctors had spread the word of her blood type through their respective pack bonds, and matches were already heading to the parking lot to go donate. Renee was not just an Alpha to the gathering of werewolves here, she was a hero, a statesman, a mother to be and a hope for a better future.

The siren was enough to prod Robert into action. "Derek and Amanda," he called over to the Johnson Pack alpha who was her older brother and his mate, "I have drivers ready to take us to the hospital. Can you join me? I need to speak to you both." Derek nodded his assent, he was still trembling and holding onto Amanda's hand with a death grip.

The ride was awkward as no one wanted to start talking. They were all too worried about whether she would make it, but none of the three would voice their concern. They knew it wasn't just Renee in danger, but the twins inside her that were at the 12 week point of her pregnancy.

Derek finally broke the silence. "Renee told me she was getting close to you. When she last talked to me I could hear in her voice she was happy again. You challenged for the right to be her mate. As her older brother, I have to ask what your intentions are."

Robert sat up a little and looked him in the eye. "I've fallen in love with her. I think she is too. I want to mate her, if she will have me. I got close to her earlier this week but then she pulled away. I think she was trying to protect me."

Amanda looked up at him. "Protect you from what?"

"From having to watch what I just saw. From feeling the pain of watching someone you care about deeply, slipping away, and there is nothing you can do. Again. I barely survived when my first mate died, I don't know if I can keep going if Renee doesn't recover. I want her by my side, I want her pack to merge with mine and for us to raise her children and have our own. I want the dream back."

Renee reached over and took his hand in hers. "She is strong, she will get through this. She's too stubborn to give up now."

"I know her strength and courage, she proved that to everyone. I have never been so ashamed to be Were as when I watched an Alpha tear her apart because she wouldn't accept rule by brute force. We have to find a better way as a race, especially now that we are in the open."

Derek put his head in his hands. "We will deal with this problem at the Alpha level. Right now I just want to know she will recover. She's been through so much already, I just want her to be happy again."

"She was happy. Even though she didn't want the Alpha job, she's a natural for it. People are drawn to her, and she doesn't make others jealous. You should see her face light up when she is with her Pack."

"I'm glad she has that," Amanda said. "Ever since she lost her mate she has been moody and withdrawn, with frequent nightmares. She isn't getting enough rest for a pregnant woman."

"I've been trying. I know the night she was with me she slept well."

Derek tensed, he knew she was a consenting adult but he didn't want to think about his baby sister in bed with a man who wasn't her mate. Yet. "Do you think she is ready to move on from Gary and be mated again?"

"I don't know. I'll find out soon, I hope. I don't plan to be apart from her much." Robert sighed. "We have all these Alpha meetings this weekend, I expect some will be delayed tonight but we can't reschedule the weekend. I hate the idea of going even though she would want me there to push through the changes."

"Well, we can have Andy represent his Alpha while she is in the hospital. You and I can be at the meetings, and Amanda can stay here. If anything changes she can let us know and we can be here in fifteen minutes if anything changes."

Robert nodded. "That will have to do. I'll make sure we have cars and drivers on standby." He gazed off in concentration for a moment. "My Beta is making reservations at the hotel next to the hospital, can I reserve you a room there as well?"

"Yes, thank you."

Just then the car pulled into the visitor parking lot. Renee was already in surgery, being worked on by a team of human and Were doctors. It was going to be a long night.

**Two Years Earlier**

Just outside Hachita, NM

Carlos Gomez ran into his home like a man whose life was in danger.

It was.

Running through the kitchen, he looked frantically for his daughter. She had just turned eighteen and was a senior in high school, but not after today. Today they had to run for it. "MARIA!!! Pack quickly, we have to go!" He burst through her door without knocking, finding her on the bed with headphones on as she worked on her homework. The movement was enough to get her attention.

"Daddy?"

"No time to explain. Pack your bags, take anything you need, I don't know if we will ever be back. We leave in twenty minutes."

"Daddy, you're scaring me."

"Honey, just do it, please. I'll explain later." He darted out the door to his room. Tossing a couple suitcases on the bed, he frantically threw clothes and valuables in. The last thing to go in were the photos of his late wife Ensuela and their daughter growing up. He pressed the suitcases closed and moved them by the front door.

He sensed time was running out. "MARIA! We have to go, like NOW!" As the door was kicked down, he knew it was too late. Two men rushed through, heads covered with black hoods and dressed completely in black, silenced MP5 machine guns sweeping in front of them. Carlos screamed "RUN!!!" and tried to slow them down, but it didn't do any good. The men knocked him on his back and kept going. It was the next two people that he really needed to worry about. They were the people who were spoken of only in nervous whispers, those names which foretold death and suffering. Hell had come to his house.

Hell in the form of The Butcher, aka Juan Hernandez, the druglord of Soccoro, and his security chief Ramon Guzman. In seconds, Ramon had flipped the panicked Carlos onto his stomach, handcuffed him, and performed a search with the practiced hand of a veteran policeman. Hauling Carlos to his feet, he looked back at his boss. "Where do you want to do this?"

"Basement." Juan moved past, his six foot two frame filling the entryway, moving with the confidence of a man who feared nothing, because no one could touch him. His drug empire was based just across the border from El Paso, controlling smuggling and manufacturing operations in the Mexican state of Chihuahua into New Mexico and West Texas. He ruled with brutal efficiency, demanding loyalty and performance out of his people. Those who could hack it rose and got rich. Those who couldn't became examples to the rest, and not in a good way.

Ramon was a former police chief in Chihuahua, Mexico. He was planted there by the Cartel and when the Mexican government finally caught up to him, he escaped to work directly for Juan. He was an expert at getting information from people before they died a slow and painful death. "Get up." He yanked Carlos to his feet, his one hundred forty pounds not even a strain on the big man's muscles. He looped a short piece of rope with T-handles at the end around his throat, then used that to not so gently guide him to the open basement door. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Juan had cleared out a section of the family room and placed a wooden chair in the center of the room. Ramon forced him down, then quickly tied his feet and legs securely to the chair. Finally, he looped the rope up around his handcuffs and through the frame, preventing him from getting up.

The two security men had finished their sweep of the house and came down with a bound and hooded Maria in front of them. "Daughter, no one else in the house. Door is closed, we left a TV on upstairs."

Juan gestured to the couch and they set her there. "Go back upstairs and keep watch. Make sure the police scanner is monitored." They left quickly, neither really wanted to see what they knew was coming.

Juan and Ramon stood there watching Carlos for a few minutes, the only sound in the room the whimpering of Maria as she cried into her hood. Juan sat down in a large overstuffed chair in front of him.

"I'm sorry." Carlos looked up. "I fell asleep. It's my fault, please, just let my daughter go. She has nothing to do with this and won't say anything."

"It's not as simple as that, and you know it." Juan looked at him with contempt. "You had one job, to overwatch the smuggling route and make sure no DEA or Customs were out there. You falling asleep resulted in five of my men being arrested and a half million dollars worth of my marijuana being seized. I want my money."

"I don't have any money." Carlos slouched further down in the chair, as far away as he could get from his former bosses. "If you give me a few days, I might be able to scrape up a few grand. I wouldn't have been doing this if I had that kind of cash!"

"That's too bad. It kind of cuts down on your options, doesn't it? Do you have anything else I might want?" Carlos shook his head no. Juan walked over to Maria and pulled the hood off her head. She didn't say a word as Juan looked at her in disgust. She was young and pretty. "Are you a virgin?"

Maria was too shocked to answer. Juan slapped her and asked again. "Yes!" She started to sob as the reality of what this man wanted went through her. She didn't want to, but her wolf started to growl. Ramon noticed and his eyes went wide. He pulled a small canister out of a cargo pocket and sprayed it into her face, then spun and sprayed it on Carlos.

"You couldn't fucking tell us your daughter is a werewolf?" Ramon backhanded him with such force the chair was knocked over. Ignoring his struggles, he focused back on Maria who was now staring blankly at the wall. Her tears were flowing and she was softly sobbing as the reality of her situation became clear.

Carlos begged him to leave her alone. "I'm sorry, he mother was a werewolf, they tell me that a mixed child is delayed in development of their wolves, some never get one. She's never shifted, I don't know if she will! Please, she's so innocent, she won't hurt a fly!"

He pulled Juan to the doorway where they couldn't be heard. "Good thing I got her with the wolfsbane before she started to shift. Those things are badass, even as girls."

"Carlos isn't one, you check for that before you hire, right?"

"I don't think that matters now. The spray will keep them from shifting for at least 24 hours. What do you want to do now?"

"Well, we are keeping her. Her being a latent werewolf open up all kinds of possibilities, she might be able to do things yet not be as dangerous as a full one. We have plenty of time to figure it out. As for him, let's play Let's Make a Deal." He grinned. It was a fun game to play with someone, the false hope being smashed was more fun than straight torture.

They walked back in and set Carlos back upright. "OK, Carlos, it's time to work this out. You don't have the money, but you have the ability to earn. You owe me $500,000. I don't care if you have to kill for it, steal it, earn it or lay back and take it up the ass for it, I want my fucking money."

Carlos sat up. "I'll pay you back, every cent, I promise. I'll do whatever it takes. I just need some time."

"Well, I'm not in the mood to leave here without some assurance you are motivated to get me the cash quickly. I want something in return, including something for the interest and the trouble. I want your daughter."

"NO, please, she's all I have left, she has nothing to do with this!"

"That sucks for you. Here's your choice. I beat you to death in front of your daughter, then torch this place. Or, I let you go but take her as my slave, to serve me until you have paid back every cent."

"But that could be years!"

"That's only if you lack the motivation to do it faster. A man can make a lot of money quickly if he really wants to."

Carlos slumped down, not wanting to do what his selfish interest said. "Take her then."

"What? I didn't hear you. Did you just turn your daughter over to me to be my slave until you have paid back the money you owe me?"

"Yes. Take her."

Maria shook herself free of the daze as what just happened was processed in her brain. "Papa? What did you do, Papa?" She didn't say anything else as Ramon covered her mouth with a long piece of duct tape. She struggled but it was useless.

++++++

Ramon picked her up off the couch and dragged her over to the back of the padded chair, bending her over until her head was into the cushion. Juan took more rope and tied her arms securely to the front legs, while Juan spread her legs wide and tied them to the back legs. She screamed as Juan pulled out a switchblade and started to shred her clothing and underwear. Carlos struggled, but was powerless to help her. Soon she was naked and crying, looking up at her father's face as he sat in the chair.

"Ramon. Make sure he watches this." Ramon used more duct tape to tape his eyelids open, then used more duct tape to hold his head in position. "You see, Carlos, normally what I would do is to beat the person who stole from me to death, but I need you to be able to earn. Since you gave up your daughter to me, I'll take my anger out on her hide."

"No, please, she did nothing to deserve this!"

"You're right, but you made the choice. Now you get to see what happens when people don't do their jobs." Stepping back, he stripped naked. "Just remember, she's taking this to save you."

He was fully engorged. Stepping behind her, he lined up and drove himself through her intact hymen with one brutal thrust. She screamed again, and started crying harder, the whole time her eyes begging her father to make them stop. He fucked her brutally before pulling out and spraying his come over her back.

It took an hour before his lust and sadistic impulses were sated. Juan walked upstairs to take a shower, leaving Ramon and his men to clean up.

++++++

Ramon went over to her badly beaten body, the deep welts and cuts from the whipping he gave her had left her back, ass and legs a bloody mess. He used her clothing to wipe off the blood, then grabbed a blanket from the couch. Cutting her free, he ignored her moans of pain as he wrapped the blanket around her and carried her up the stairs. His men collected the clothes and other evidence then headed out.

When Juan had changed, he walked back downstairs and put a bullet through Carlos's head. His men torched the place as they left.

*****

It was Sunday afternoon and the Alpha summit being held in concert with Wolfstock was coming to a close. They had made surprising progress over the last two days, despite the absence of one member and the way all their thoughts kept going to her.

It was because of her example that they had focused on the things they could do to live openly and with honor. The first step was to form several councils. The first level was a regional Alpha council, five regions each with about a dozen Packs. Each region would elect one person to elect them in the National Alpha Council, which would be the official voice of their race in dealings with human government and each region. There were objections during the discussions about who would serve on this national council, as it was potentially a power base. The answer came when they realized it didn't have to be the active Alphas, but they could pull from the retired Alphas and Elders among them, people with the respect of all the leaders. The new regional councils would mediate disputes and hold independent pack elections for leadership challenges. The Alphas agreed that anyone taking over a Pack by force would forfeit his own life, the other Alphas committed to do so.

The second major item agreed to was a Were Bill of Rights. It codified the progress some Packs had made, ending practices such as forced matings and making rape a capital offense. Common procedures for visiting other packs were agreed to, allowing families and single weres freedom they had never had to find others. It also established the right of each member to voluntarily leave one pack and join another without retribution. Copies were distributed at the final meeting of all gathered Werewolves. There were a few packs with abusive Alphas that were in trouble, but good men would be elected Alpha in each soon. Even the Crested Butte pack remained mostly whole, Blake taking over as Alpha helped stem the tide of people leaving the former Alpha Diggs. It would take a generation or so to work the bad ones out of the system, but they had hope for the future.