Chase the Moon (On Hold)

Ten

"Shift for me, Marky," Donovan smirked from his spot in the courtyard. Freedom was so close, but he knew I wouldn't leave Jesse. They had brought him out, and currently had a silver knife pressed against his throat for "encouragement." I couldn't try anything without him having to suffer the consequences.

I clenched my jaw, but decided to choose my battles wisely. There was only one person in this whole area that I didn't want to rip to shreds. I figured shifting now would probably not bring harm to anyone, so I did.

For once, I didn't fight my wolf. I let him come, and was surprised by the significant difference in pain that came with a voluntary shift.

Donovan smiled. "Good to see you again Malachi."

My wolf grunted in response, stretching out in the presence of his master.

"I imagine it's been quite some time since your last kill, has it not?" Donovan asked. My wolf growled lowly. He wanted blood. He craved it, and Donovan would let him spill it. "Why don't you get rid of the weakest link for me?"

My wolf lifted his snout and sniffed the air, searching for the scent of the doomed man. My heart sank when he latched on to Jesse's. I immediately started to fight for control when he turned to face the boy.

"Oh dear," Donovan chuckled darkly. "This should be interesting."

I tried everything to push my mind past Malachi's, but I didn't have nearly enough training to accomplish anything. It was only when I saw the raw terror in Jesse's eyes that I did something I hadn't done in a very long time: I spoke to my wolf.

Why do you listen to him? Why do you take orders? A big bad wolf like you should be able to make his own decisions.

The wolf paused and growled. I took that as a sign to keep going.

That man left you inside me, a scrawny little coward, for years. He abandoned you, because he was too afraid to keep you around.

I might've been crazy, but I think he was actually listening to me.

Donovan is weak. You can smell it on him, can't you? Why should you take orders from someone beneath you? Why should you be a Beta when you could be an Alpha? You wouldn't need to take orders from anyone.

That's when I knew I had him. Malachi snarled and his focus slid away from Jesse. He turned to Donovan then, his lips curled to show off his wickedly curved and yellowed fangs.

"What's the matter, pup? Is that pathetic human finally getting to you?"

That was the wrong thing for him to say. Malachi lunged at his Alpha, and at that, everyone sprung into action. The rouges dove forward to pry the wolf away from their Alpha, but Malachi was stronger than they had expected. His teeth sank into their arms and abdomens, making fresh blood spurt into his muzzle. His main target, though, was Donovan. 

The man had made it to his feet in all the commotion, but several of his men laid dying in the grass. 

"That's enough now Malachi. You're attacking your own pack members, and I don't appreciate that. Step down before I'm forced to kill you."

My wolf only growled at that. Donovan was using his Alpha voice, but my wolf didn't technically belong to this rouge pack anymore. He belonged under Alpha Anderson. Malachi had no intention of leaving this fight, and he made sure Donovan knew that.

I could see now that I was right. Donovan was afraid, and he let his confidence slip a little as my wolf advanced. He shifted, letting his own black wolf take control. The two snarled at each other before lunging. Teeth sank into flesh, claws tore through skin, and eventually Donovan's wolf ended up pinned under my wolf. He shifted back, his skin red with blood and one eye forced closed because of a rather deep claw wound.

"Is this really what you want, Mark?" he tried to reason with me now. "If you had trouble controlling him as a Beta, then what do you think will happen when he's an Alpha?"

I wish I could say his words didn't get to me, but I couldn't. I knew I had to stop my wolf from killing him, but I couldn't just let him go free.

I want to make him bleed. May I?

I spoke directly to my wolf again, and after a bit of reluctance, he surprisingly let down enough resistance for me to shove past him and regain control. I couldn't be the one to kill him, but I could make him weak enough so that someone else would.

I crushed my wolf's jaw down on the man's shoulder. He cried out in pain, but I only responded by slowly ripping tendons from bone. When his arm had been thoroughly detached, I shifted back into human form and spat his blood from my mouth. 

"Heal from that, Alpha," I sneered at the man before stealing the clothes of one of the dead rouges beside him. What was left of the others stayed a fair distance away from me, trying to stop the flow of blood from their own injuries. "Where's the boy?"

"He fled into the woods," one of the men pointed in the general direction. I nodded and made to turn around before I stopped myself.

"If any of you follow me, you're dead. Is that understood?"

They nodded, some throwing a few nervous glances at their unconscious Alpha.

"And if you ever come near my pack again, I will personally hunt you down and rip out your intestines."

They nodded again.

"Now go take care of your pathetic Alpha before he dies of his wounds. I will not be taking his place," it was only after I had said that that I finally turned my back to the group and limped off into the woods.

I could tell by the scent that Jesse hadn't gone far. He'd probably climbed a tree or something to see what was happening back there.

I stopped when his scent was pretty strong.

"Jesse?" I asked in just above a normal speaking voice.

"Mark?" he asked uncertainly. I looked up at the sound of his voice. He was bleeding, that much I could see from here. A few claw marks stretched across his face and bled down his neck and onto his shirt.

"Are you okay?"

"Me?" he asked incredulously as he hopped down from his perch. "Have you took a look at yourself yet?"

"I'll live," I promised him in a tired tone. My wounds were already starting to heal, but the adrenaline was abandoning me, leaving a thundering pain in its wake.

He didn't look so sure, but he decided not to push further. "Where are we?"

"I have a rough idea," I said, knowing I couldn't have been out longer than a few hours, "but I need you to go check a road sign to make sure."

He nodded, immediately heading off in the direction I pointed to while I slumped down at the base of a tree. 

Today had been a long day.