The Last Shewolf Ch. 46-51

Gabriel's POV

I looked out the window to where the Pack was starting to assemble. His time was up; I would steal his Pack from him, whether I killed him before or after didn't really matter to me. I sent Michael with the old warrior to the shop. He might barricade himself in, but acetylene torches could fix that. If it was too much, I'd let Shakes have some fun. I'm sure that crazy fucker brought some extra.

Our plan had worked perfectly, and my men imbedded with Viper's attack group confirmed that the reaction force from the Pack had been wiped out. We had basically waltzed in to his compound, and the pussy had hidden in his office while his Pack members fought and died for him. I'd felt the loss of a couple of my Pack, but I didn't have time to figure out who yet.

Good men died today because this piece of shit Alpha wasn't honorable enough to fight with his men. What a waste.

I turned towards the door when I heard the sounds of sliding bars and turning bolts. Maybe he was going to come out and fight after all? At least then he would die with honor. If I had to come in there, I'd slice his neck while he knelt before me. I stood before the door, arms crossed, my men behind me. Finally, the door opened and Alpha Stanton came out and stood before me. He didn't look like a man who was about to die, he looked positively giddy.

He held out a cellphone towards me. "It's for you," he said.

I hesitated, then reached for the phone and put it to my ear. "This is Alpha Gabriel," I said.

The voice on the other end I instantly recognized. "Gabriel, they've got me," Vivian said as her voice broke. "The guards are hurt or dead, they need help."

"Where are you?" My hand was shaking.

"We're coming to the Pack House. I'm to tell you that if anyone does anything stupid, they'll kill me." Her voice lowered. "I'm sorry, Gabriel. I shouldn't have let you do this."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, Vivian. It's I who should apologize. I'm at the Pack House, I'll see you soon." I clicked the phone closed.

Alpha Stanton was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet. "Stand your men down," he said, "And tell the humans to back off." I sent out the mental command to my men, along with the reason. "The key to playing Capture the Flag is to know how important protecting your own flag is," he said. "It was foolish to bring her so close my men could scent her. Tell all your men to gather together out front by my Pack," he said.

I gave the order, and they started to head outside. "Tell Charles to go there as well." I raised my eyebrow, not knowing who it was. "The former warrior who abandoned his Pack and joined yours," he said.

I sent the command, knowing what was coming. We walked together down the stairs and out the door; the Pack House had a sweeping curved driveway, with a oval grassed section in front. The Pack was gathered there, and emotions were widely varied. Some were angry, looking at us with murder in their eyes as they blamed us for the deaths of family members. Some with relief, hoping that we would rid them of their Alpha. Still others, it was resignation. One way or another, people were going to die here.

The old warrior was brought before his former Alpha. "You are a traitor," Alpha Stanton said.

"I regret nothing except following a man such as you. May Luna avenge me," he said just before Stanton sliced his throat, leaving him to bleed out in front of his Pack.

It took about ten minutes before we saw the headlights in the distance, two vehicles approaching. They stopped in front of the house, their doors opening as six men got out. The last pulled a dejected Vivian with him. He walked her in front of us, forcing her to her knees. "Alpha, your Doctor Vivian DelMara."

Alpha Stanton walked forward, clapping the man on the shoulder. "Good job, Beta. When we are done here, if you want her as your mate, she is yours." I saw Vivian shiver, she didn't like this man, she was dreading the fate I was powerless to prevent. "Warriors, restrain his men." Men moved forward, silver knives drawn as they forced my men to their knees in front of them. He turned to me, but didn't demand the same. "You get to watch. This is what we do, we take over Packs, we take their women, and we mate them. We are the richest Pack in the country, and with this Doctor here, we can deliver our heirs alive and save the mothers."

"Luna laughs at you," I said as I shook my head. "Men like you are the reason Luna has cursed our people. The Doctor will not be able to stop her judgement; your women will all die, your children with them. The more you try, the faster you die," I told him.

"Once she is mated, she is bound to our will," he said. "She will save them, she will save herself. But first, she must pay the price for the losses we have suffered."

"What have I done?" Vivian's voice was weak, it cracked as she talked.

"You hid yourself from your people when you had the power to save our children," he said. He moved in front of her, bending over to take her chin in his hand. She struggled, but his grip shifted to her throat as he forced her to look into his eyes. "I lost mates, I lost heirs because of you," he said as he lifted her by the neck until her feet were dangling in the air.

"Too... bad..." In a move I barely caught, her right hand reached under her scrub top in front and came out with a silver dagger. Before Stanton could react, she plunged the blade into the left side of his chest, directly into his heart. He dropped her, reaching for the blade, and I reacted. I grabbed his head with both hands, twisting it until there was a loud crack before I dropped him to the ground. "I had that," Vivian said as she tried to catch her breath.

"I can't let you have all the fun." I turned to the Pack, my men were well trained and took advantage of the pain caused by the Alpha's death to escape their guards. Now they held the blades to his men. "Line them up," I said. "He's gone, and those who shared his poisonous beliefs will go with him."

It would be a long night, but this Pack would be purged.

Ch. 49

Meghan's POV

I moved forward to the front seat, grabbing a thin towel and pressing it over my Dad's shoulder. He'd been bitten, badly, and was losing blood. "There's too many," he said as he closed and locked the door, leaning back into the seat. I pressed down with the towel, knowing pressure would help. The shooting stopped, the growls as well, and it was suddenly quiet.

"STAND DOWN," I heard outside.

Dad shivered, his bloody hand reached down and pulled a fresh magazine out of his pocket. He ejected the magazine from his pistol, releasing the slide he handed it to me. "Don't let them take us without a fight," he said to me as his eyes started to close. "Tell Mom I love her."

"Tell her yourself," I said as I moved his hand to his shoulder. "Keep pressure on that." I hid the pistol in my scrub pocket, reaching back to get a combat dressing I ripped it open. Vivian had explained that these were coated with a clotting agent to help stop bleeding; I removed the towel and put this in place. I tied it down while I listened to the man telling Vivian to give up quietly. I took another towel and started cleaning his face, he had some cuts but nothing life-threatening. I checked his right leg, it was broken and swelling, with a bite mark; the wolf must have grabbed it and twisted. I couldn't do anything now, I was trying to stay low and out of sight.

"How do I know you'll let them live if I come with you?" Good question, Doc.

"You don't. I really don't care, Doc, when we drove by I could smell you and the Alpha told me to bring you to him, no matter the cost. Now toss the pistol and come down here before I get upset."

I looked at Vivian as she turned and looked at me, she was looking sad and her face was filled with guilt. I just nodded, 'we'll get through this,' I whispered. I stayed down as she stepped out of the ambulance; sneaking a peek out the driver's door, I saw her being pushed into the car that had stopped in front of us. The car took off, turning out of the lot and speeding down the road towards the Pack entrance. "Hold on," I told my Dad, "I have to check them."

"Be safe, take the gun," he said. I kissed his head before moving through the back, past the unconscious Dagger and to the back. I jumped down, keeping the pistol in front as I checked both sides of the ambulance. I checked Snake first, he had a good pulse and wasn't bleeding badly, so I moved on.

I went to Stain and Scrape next. Stain's neck was broken, his head nearly torn from his shoulders. I moved to Scrape, he wasn't moving and he was in a big puddle of blood, face down. I checked his pulse, not finding any. Rolling him over, there wasn't much left of his neck to speak of. Pushing back the nausea, I went out to where the wolves were. I hadn't seen Urial or Maalik's wolves, but they were both dead, as well as the four other wolves.

I put the Glock back in my pocket and ran back to Snake. He was moaning and starting to move, I rolled him onto his back and his eyes opened. "Vivian..."

"Shhh... she's all right for now."

"Where?"

"They took her."

His eyes got wide and he rolled onto his hands and knees before sitting back down. "Everything is spinning," he said before he threw up.

"You probably have a concussion," I told him. "Can you stand?"

"I think so." I helped him to his feet and we slowly walked to the ambulance. I got him to step up into the back before he stumbled, nearly falling on top of Dagger. "I'm all right," he said.

"No, you're not. Sit down in the chair and buckle up." I closed the back doors then followed him as he sat heavily into the chair, then I helped him buckle up. "Try to stay awake," I said. I handed him a few big gauze pads to hold on his bites, then moved into the front. Dad was barely awake, I grabbed an Ace bandage and wrapped the combat dressing on tight to keep pressure on it. "We've got to get you to the hospital," I said.

"I'll drive," he said as he tried to sit up, but he couldn't do it.

I slid into the driver's seat, pulling the seat all the way forward and starting it up. "Remember how you feared me learning to drive in a few years," I said.

"Don't remind me," he mumbled.

"Well, no time like the present." I put my foot on the brake and put it in drive. When I released the brake we started moving, then we jumped forward when I touched the gas. I may have run over a wolf on the way out, but we did get to the road without incident. Making the hospital ten miles away? That would be fun. I turned onto the empty road and floored it, we were running out of time.

Viper's POV

We watched Scrape drove our wounded away, it was like a gut punch. One moment we were doing great, the next I had badly wounded men. "Can you contact Gabriel and update him," I asked Hezediel. He nodded, then his eyes glazed over. A moment later, he looked back at me. "They are almost to the house," he said. "He is sorry to hear of your wounded, but says you did a good job drawing them away."

I nodded and moved off, checking with my other Club members. The adrenaline crash was coming, it always did. I encouraged them to sit down, focus on their breathing, and stay alert. We spent about twenty minutes this way, just decompressing from the excitement.

I heard a vehicle approaching, it was starting to brake as it approached the turnoff for the Pack. "We expecting anyone," I asked Hezediel.

His eyes glazed over. "They've captured Vivian," he said softly. "Gabriel says to stand aside, if we resist they will kill her."

"FUCK!" I turned and yelled at my guys. "Take positions, stay out of sight and NO SHOOTING! They've got Vivian in that car!"

I ducked behind one of our cars, my pistol holstered, as the car drove by. The werewolves didn't even look at us, they knew we wouldn't do anything, but I could see Vivian in the back and our eyes met for a brief second. She was resigned to her fate, a fate I'd promised to protect her from, and I failed.

As the car drove out of sight, I fell to the ground and started to cry.

Vivian's POV

Gabriel and I were looking over the Pack members, most of whom were between nervous and terrified, when I heard a child scream behind me. I tuned and a young teen girl, thin with curly brown hair and striking green eyes, ran out towards us, tears streaming down her face. She was in agony, and she ran straight to the dead Alpha Stanton. "My mate," she sobbed as she almost fell on top of him.

It was Lisandra, Zephaneil's 13-year old sister, who he had mated as soon as she had her first female cycle. My heart went out to her, I went to her side and put an arm around her. "It will be all right," I whispered.

"You killed him!"

"Yes, I did." I looked up to Gabriel for help, and by the time I noticed her hand it was too late.

"STOP," Gabriel yelled as he jumped for us, but the silver blade had already been driven into my stomach, just below my ribs. I screamed in pain as the silver burned my flesh. He knocked her away, she attacked him next. I didn't pay attention to the fight, he quickly killed her, but it was too late for me. I pulled the knife out, screaming as I did so, and I saw the spray of blood out the open wound. The silver would retard healing, and the wound was deep.

Michael ran to me, pulling off his shirt and pressing it over the wound. I moaned in pain as they laid me down. "Vivian..."

The shirt was already soaked, there would be no stopping this. The only person who could save me was back at the ambulance, and even that was a stretch. "It's all right," I said, spitting the blood out of my mouth. I was weak and cold, it wouldn't be long. "Tell Snake I loved him and I'm sorry. He was my love and my life."

"You're going to be all right, Vivian, just hold on."

I put a bloody hand to his face as Gabriel knelt at my other side. "Take care of my Eve for me. Help her grow strong, tell her about me..."

"We will protect her with our lives," Gabriel vowed.

"I know." I coughed, the blood spraying out. I was cold, so cold. I closed my eyes, the darkness faded into light and I heard a voice in my head. "Mother..."

I ran through the field, my wolf leaping over the grass towards my parents. I was home.

Ch. 50

Viper's POV

"LOAD UP," I yelled as soon as the car carrying Vivian was out of sight. We ran to the remaining cars, turning around and heading back to the main road. "If they took Vivian..."

"We don't know anything yet," Shakes said, the light machine gut muzzle pointing up out of the window. "Let's just get there." I accelerated hard out of the turn, nearing a hundred miles an hour as we flew down the road towards them. We turned into the parking lot, there was one car there that wasn't ours, and no ambulance.

I pulled to a halt, the other cars behind me went to the ends of the lot. Guns and flashlights in hand, we burst out and quickly realized there was nothing here for us. Some of the guys were hunched over Scrape and Stain, I could see their grief already. Hezediel ran around checking the wolves; he identified Urial and Maalik's bodies, and told me the others were Sheridan pack. "What do we do, boss?"

I looked at Crash, he was devastated, Hezediel and Tiny were with him. "Load the wolves, including our two, into that car and have Hezediel drive it back to the Pack entrance gate and wait for direction from Gabriel," I said. "Tiny, load Viking, Stain and Scrape into the back of one of our SUV's, lay a tarp out in the back first. Make sure they are wrapped in a tarp and covered with blankets or something."

"What should I do with them? They can't be found here."

I looked at Shakes. "We need them to die in a car fire or something. Shakes, you follow them, figure out a way to make it look like they crashed then the SUV caught on fire."

"That sucks," Tiny said as he looked at his buddies. "I hate having to do that to them."

"Got a better idea?"

"I don't know, but whatever we do, we better have the same story as the others," Shakes said. "We need to find out where the others are."

Hammer had a flip phone, I pulled mine out and called him. I nervously waited as it rang a few times before an answer, and it wasn't who I expected. "Hello?"

"Meghan? It's Viper. What's going on?"

"I'm kind of busy, I'm driving the ambulance into Sheridan. Dad, Dagger, Snake, they're all hurt bad." I closed my eyes, thanking God they were still alive.

"Meghan, when they ask, say they were attacked by a bear," I told her. "Act hysterical, don't calm down, don't answer other questions and don't lead them back to the lot," I said. "I'll be there soon."

"OK gotta go bye." The call ended.

"Change of plans, we'll keep it simple. Remove all traces of us and leave their bodies where they are. Leave their guns, all the casings around them, and leave one of the SUV's here with the keys in Scrape's pocket. Pick up anything else." I looked up at the sky, it was starting to rain. "Perfect, that will help wash away evidence." It only took us five minutes to cleanse the area, removing the evidence of the fight with supernatural beings that had just taken place here. The parking lot was open, near enough to the woods and the trees. I went into the SUV we were leaving, pulling the bag out with all the fast food wrappers from the trip, ripping it and scattering it on the ground. I grabbed the one from my vehicle and did the same near where the ambulance was.

"Good thinking, boss. We can just say the bear came after the food and they got in the way." Crash put his hand on my shoulder. "Now what?"

"We go after our ambulance and get Meghan back. I will stay with the guys, I want you guys to park a few blocks away from the hospital. We can't exactly explain a 13-year-old driving a fully outfitted ambulance to the hospital with three severely wounded people, so we won't. We'll just get her the hell out of there. I just hope she hasn't said anything to the cops."

We loaded up and pulled out, leaving our dead behind. It was going to be a long night.

Gabriel's POV

I watched the life go out of Vivian's eyes, her end came quickly, and I didn't have a chance to properly say how I felt about her. She was the Blessed One, she cared for my men, putting herself in harm's way to save their lives, and I couldn't save her from a crazed teenage bride now dead beside her.

I shifted into my large wolf, sitting and raising my nose to the heavens, letting out a mournful howl. When I started the next one I was joined by my men, even most of the Sheridan wolves. They had lost a lot tonight; at least two dozen warriors, two Betas and their Alpha pair. When my grief was appeased, I shifted back to human form. "We aren't done yet," I said to the gathered Pack. "Luna has cursed our race with the loss of our females, as punishment for how we have forsaken Her ways and blessings. Chief among these sins against Luna is the practice of forcibly mating a female wolf. Every man who has taken a mate this way, step forward now and receive the quick execution you deserve."

I didn't know what to expect, I couldn't Alpha command them, but a half-dozen men stepped forward anyway and knelt down before me. I nodded to Abaddon and Michael, they and four other men came up behind them. At my signal they grabbed their heads and twisted, breaking them instantly. Their mates screamed in loss as they died; several of them raced forward to their mates, two killed themselves. My heart broke for them, some were not even sixteen yet, and they were already widows, without hope of a true mate in their future.

I wasn't done yet. "Are there any men here who didn't go forward? Point them out." The mates couldn't do it, there wolves wouldn't let them, but that didn't stop family and friends from pushing them forward. Five men were dragged to me, forced to their knees. "You don't have honor, and your death will not be quick or painless. Restrain them." My men came forward, cuffing their hands behind their backs with silver that would prevent them from shifting. "Run," I told them.