Green - a werewolf story

48. Thorn in My Side

She jumped on top of a container and further over a fence and ended up in someone's backyard. Smelling the air she concluded that no dogs lived here and loped through it at a comfortable pace and jumped the fence on the other side.

Having left the partygoers behind she adjusted her course and set off again, thanking her lucky star that the baby was still sleeping. A screaming baby was the last thing she needed tonight.

She ran along empty streets for another ten minutes until she once again had to cross a quarter of the city that was known for its bars and clubs. The clock on a church tower she passed informed her that it was nearly four in the morning. She couldn't for the life of her understand why people were still up and about. Didn't humans sleep?

Loud music was spilling out from the doorways and she worried that and the louder voices of drunk people lining the street would wake the baby so she turned down a street leading to a rundown area in the city she normally wouldn't be in and felt her hackles rise. She huffed at herself. She was a werewolf. It would take more than a bunch of miscreants or a rain of stray bullets to kill her and the baby was magical. Surely, that meant it could...

"Good morning, Vanessa. I'll take that child now."

Vanessa froze in the middle of a step. Raising her gaze to the man standing a few steps in front of her, she felt herself start to tremble.

Piers Gowan had not aged well. The alfa of the White Wolf Pack that had seemed larger than life when she was a child now looked like a fat and wrinkled caricature of himself. She supposed that overeating, drinking and dabbling in experimental drugs was not conducive to leading a healthy lifestyle.

"Now, Vanessa."

He felt him lace the order with the power of alfa command that was supposed to make it impossible for any other wolf to disobey. His son had tried the same thing right before she stabbed him.

She put the child down in front of her paws and saw him smile in that same self-satisfied way he had after he tore her mother's throat out. Then she threw herself at him, her own teeth going for his neck.

"No!" he yelled and she could tell he put everything he had in that order.

It didn't stop her at all. Him turning his head and wrapping his large arms around her did, though. He might have gotten fat, but he hadn't gotten weak. There was still plenty of muscle hidden in those arms.

With a roar he threw her back to the ground. She rolled, picked up the baby and set off in the opposite direction.

"Come back here!"

She didn't listen. Had she been alone she would have attacked him again. She'd drawn blood. She tasted the coppery tang from it and the most primal part of her exalted at having injured the enemy. If she let that part of her decide they would hide the baby somewhere and head back to finish the job.

Her human self kept running. She had one task now and that was to get this baby back to her parents. Killing Piers, much as he deserved it, would have to wait until that task was finished.

A howl coming from behind her made her skin prick. Perhaps she wouldn't have to choose between the baby and vengeance after all.

She looked around for a good place to put the baby while she made her stand. Her eyes lit upon an elaborate flower pot someway into a nearby park. Baby Alba would be safe and comfortable under that mass of flowers until she'd killed her former alfa and could come back for her. If she didn't make it back she knew the wolves in the Thrall pack would track her scent to the flower pot and find the baby.

All she had to do was injure Piers badly enough that he couldn't reach the baby.

Vanessa cleared the gates to the park in one jump and two minutes later the child was safely hidden behind the flowers. She'd woken up when she put her there, but she hadn't made a sound. Just smiled widely and tried to grab Vanessa's ear.

She was a very strange child. Didn't it take weeks for babies to learn how to smile?

Vanessa heard a snarl and realized she didn't have time to reflect more over the baby's abilities. She rushed back towards the gate to meet Piers. Despite his heaviness, he too cleared it in one jump. He landed awkwardly and Vanessa seized the opportunity to attack him while he was down.

She clawed and bit and tore at every part of him that she could reach. He howled in pain and rolled to throw her off. Vanessa yelped as his weight drove the breath from her lungs. He turned around and sharp fangs closed around her shoulder.

Vanessa snarled and scratched at his eyes until he let her go. She made another attempt to reach his throat, but he was ready for her now and smacked her hard enough over her head for her to see stars. The next moment he'd put his paw on her neck, claws biting into her throat.

He transformed back into his human form, but his hand remained a wolf's paw.

"Did you really think you could win a fight with me?"

Vanessa couldn't breathe. She knew she was only a moment away from having her jugular torn open, but she wasn't scared. This time she hadn't run away from the things that scared her, she'd run towards it.

She smiled at her former alfa. He might win this fight, but she'd injured him severely. Where his left eye used to be, only a bloody hole remained. That eye was gone forever because while werewolves healed with supernatural speed they couldn't grow back missing body parts.

"What are you smiling about? You've lost! I'm about to kill you like I did your mother and then I'm going to find the baby and take her with me."

His claws slid a little deeper into her throat and she felt blood run down her neck and over her chest. She still couldn't stop smiling.

"Don't you understand? I've avenged myself on you for killing my son and my friend and turning my mate against me. I've made the prophecy come true! You've been running for ten years and what have you got to show for it? Nothing."

"I wouldn't say nothing," a woman's voice said from behind them. "She made a few friends."

Piers' claws dug the rest of the way through her neck and Vanessa saw her vision blur. This was it. She would never see Green again, never see Lettie and Maria get married. She regretted that. On the other hand, her family was waiting for her on the other side so maybe...

A gunshot tore through the air and Vanessa breathed out for the last time.

"No! Don't you dare die," the same woman said again, shaking her. "Come on, breathe. Fuck! Aiden will kill me."

Vanessa closed her eyes and let herself drift away.

Author's note:

We're approaching the end of the story, thank you for sticking with Vanessa and Green to the end!