Surrender (Werewolf)

Chapter 30

Nearly fifty wolves stood before me, all of them covered in blood; some more than others. It was a sight I had never saw in my life. It was frightening. I dropped my hands from Kieran and stepped away.

"What..." I swallowed. "What happened?"

I studied all of them. Clint looked worse than all of them except Kieran. I looked at him again. The entire left side of his body was covered in blood. How had I not noticed it before? Perhaps my wolf was in such a high over seeing Kieran that I didn't notice. Now that I did notice though, it looked bad. Really bad.

He had dried blood from his left rib cage to his ankles. I could see that most of it was from a mostly healed wound of four claw marks. The rest, I couldn't even gauge where it came from. It was in odd places, like splashes from another incident.

"It's okay.  I'm okay," he said slowly. "It isn't all mine."

"What happened?" I repeated a bit stronger this time.

"We had a run in with..."

"Oh God!" Kaelyn screamed from the same Iron Gate I bust through earlier. She was running toward Clint, eyes blurry with tears. She didn't seem to mind the blood as she threw her arms around her mate. "What did you do? Are you alright? I'll get the pack doctor."

"No." He quickly stopped her with his voice. "I'm fine. It isn't even my blood. It..." he stopped short and glanced back at Kieran who nodded at him to continue. "It belongs to Tobias, one of Axel's lackeys."

My heart thundered as I spun to Kieran. "What? When did you see Tobias?"

"We crossed paths with them on our way here. Clint spotted them first and was engaged in a fight when we arrived shortly after."

"And that's when you were hurt?"

He nodded. "It was a surprise attack. I was jumped by another wolf."

I gasped.

"Don't worry; he wasn't a problem for long. He's dead now."

"I don't understand. How did you survive? Axel is ruthless. He would have never let you walk away from a fight with him unless you killed him? Did you?"

This time Clint spoke up. "He didn't have much of a choice. If he hadn't left his pack to be slaughtered he would be dead too. If he didn't have the numbers we would have had him."

"We'll find him. Don't worry," Kieran assured me. "He can't run forever. We've sent some wolves ahead to feel out his territory. We're taking prisoners. We'll have the answers we need by the end of the week. We plan to question everyone."

"Did anyone else survive? What about Daniel?"

Kieran was quick to answer and there was a certain coldness to his voice that sent chills through me. "He's gone. I killed him." He was void of remorse. He spoke as if he were speaking of an insect that made it's was inside his house.

He studied me for a reaction, but I all I felt was shock. Daniel was dead. Kieran had killed him.

"He's dead," I repeated almost in disbelief.

Kieran nodded. "Does that bother you?" Again he studied me.  

"I'm just surprised, I guess," I told him. I didn't really know what to feel.

Did I really expect Daniel's story to end this way? Sure he was a delusional, but he had lost it when he lost Jasmine and his baby. If I were to lose my baby too, would I be in the right frame of mind? Maybe instead of death all he needed was help.