Sacrifice: Chapter Seven
"The difference between a helping hand and an outstretched palm is a twist of the wrist." ~Laurence Leamer, King of the Night
I woke up at the sight of first light. Normally, I'm an avid late sleeper. Sometimes waking up at noon or during dinner. But today, I felt something different. Something was going to happen today and it's going to impact us all. Dressed in cute denim shorts, and a tight half sleeved tee.
I thought about the werewolf community, there are approximately a somewhat large pack in every major city in the world. Some minor countries in Europe have one pack in their whole country. Average population of packs is around 200-250, making the area we reside in an obvious wolf hot spot according to humans. What concerns me most is that there are traps set up in areas where packs live and werewolves are being caught and injured, in traps meant for wolves. Because we are stronger and larger, we destroy the traps and escape but the hunters might catch on someday.
The council, which consists of Alpha's of major packs such as Alpha Gould, isn't doing much about this. I frowned as I headed down stairs to grab an apple, sitting down on the couch; I turned the tv on and searched for the latest news. One channel particularly caught my attention, I turned the volume up.
"..Dr. Dawn Fawlty of International Wolf Center has reported a study of a new species of wolves found in the Rocky Mountains of Canada to the coasts of Los Angeles. Studies show they are aggressive and large in size, taking the lives of Aubrey Smoham just earlier this year.To control this infestation, the IWC is permitting a shoot at sight license for hunters in the area. For more information, please go to..."
And I zoned out after that, throwing away the apple core, I headed out towards the pack house to continue training and talk to Jesse.
Something is going on. And it's going to be big, I know for a fact that the council will not let humans find out. But hiding amongst them for centuries, and all the 'save the environment and animals' crap, they're finally paying close attention.
I should stop worrying, obviously the council has this under control.
I jogged out the door and down the gravel path towards the pack house. Heading in, I was stunned by the scent of an arousal. Looking around, I spotted Sarah but the scent wasn't coming from her. Walking through the large kitchen, nodding to Genevieve-the head chef- I headed out. But not before grabbing some food as a lame excuse of breakfast.
Following the scent, I saw Jesse and another boy-who is good looking might I add- fighting shirtless in the mud. The scent was coming from a group of unmated girls watching them shamelessly under the willow tree.
I approached the fighting pair and frowned, I can smell blood. But none of them are bleeding, but then it hit me. None of them are bleeding externally, so I reached a hand out and grabbed Jesse but his arm just as he was about to punch him. Jesse's head whipped to the side, I noticed his normal lit hazel eyes were dilated and dark brown, swirling with anger. I sighed, noticing the other boy was still rushing forward; his eyes darker and were so dilated, his eyes appeared black entirely.
Jesse struggled on my grip, he ripped his hand away and was going to continue to fight, but I step in again and gripped his arm at the nape and pressure pointed him, losing feeling below the elbow. I turned to the other boy, and sidestepped him as he charged and in one swift movement. I grabbed his hands and twisted it behind his back, the oldest trick in the book.
Splashing some mud on his face, the boy's eyes slowly turned back to a deep emerald green. Giving his a gentile slap in the face for assurance, I let him go.
"Stay." I instructed, as I heard Jesse's growl. Turning to Jesse once again, he was on the verge of changing.
"Can someone bring a bucket of water? Make it really cold." I called out, as most of the pack members came out to watch. They can feel it in the pack link, their leaders anger. Probably waking up to it anyways, its around 8 now.
I reached out, stepping in front of him and in one stride.
I slapped him.
Hard.
"Oh you are going to kill me for this." I muttered, as his head whipped to the other side. I secretly hoped the pain would shake him out of his anger state. A state that rarely came out.
The pain obviously didn't, so I backed away while he started to spasm from anger and begin shifting. Turning from him, I noticed that Ethan was holding a bucket of cold water.
I had an idea.
Call me crazy but I really hope this works.
Stepping up, I gave him a hug. Normally the touch of their mate will calm them down instantly but no mate in sight so I'll have to do.
"You better not kill me, Jesse." I whispered in his ear, sniffing slightly. "And you stink."
Signaling to Ethan, he came up behind us and poured the cold water in the both of us. I felt Jesse shuddering and suddenly stop. I sighed in relief and pull away but suddenly Jesse's arms gripped me tightly and I felt mud poured down onto us. Dripping down my shirt and all over my hair.
"Jesse!" I shoved him away as most of the pack chuckled and others glared, I spotted a group of guys with another bucket. And I shot daggers, as soon as they noticed, they sobered up and avoided my gaze.
"Nice right hook you got there." said Jesse, indicating the red palm print now resting on his cheek. He looked ridiculous, hair matted down and muddy, although he did look great shirtless and sweaty.
I raised an eyebrow at him instead, quickly turning I looked for the boy I saved from an angry wolf. I found his laying in the mud and grass, clearly in pain.
"Jesse you better help." The threat in my voice was clear, in the corner of my eye I saw him stiffen and walk slowly towards us. The boy looked familiar but I couldn't recall his name.
Lifting him gently, well, trying to; he groaned loudly. I cursed and gestured for others to help. The boys arm was around my shoulders and arm was around his waist, Jesse was on the other side helping him up. The scent of blood was extremely strong as he wobbled up the stairs and towards the pack doctors room.
"Next time you decide to fight, do it somewhere close to the pack doctor. I'm tired of saving your victims." I grunted as the boy but most of his weight on me.
Jesse winced in response, and opened his mouth to answer but was cut off by none other then Sarah Bit-Birch.
Sarah Birch
"Jess-Seeeyy! I was looking all over for you." she walked down the hall just out of the pack doctors room. No doubt feeding Maya some more lies, my eyes narrowed. Giving me a once over look and smirked, she disregarded me with an eye roll.
"Interesting choice of clothes today, Waverley. It shows your true place." she smiled innocently. Turning away, Sarah gripped Jesse's arm effectively dragging him away from me and the half conscious boy now in my arms. Just as Jesse was about to open his mouth, he was interrupted again.
"Come on dear, lets get you cleaned up. And I'd prefer if you wore a shirt from now on. Except in private of course, you don't need to try to impress me. I already am." she purred.
I grunted as all of the weight fell on my shoulders, clenching my teeth I sucked in a breathe and manage to lug the boy inside the room. Pulling or carrying him inside the room and onto the bed, he laid down on the crisp clean bed sheets. Leaving a dirty mud mark behind.
"I am so going to kill Jesse." I stood up. Trying to catch my breath, I headed towards the office to find the Doctor.
"Another one of your victims?" a snarky voice retorted form the corner. I didn't turn to know whose voice that belonged to.
"No, Jesse's. And I'm sure your all too familiar with that, eh Maya?" I smiled innocently. Turning around swiftly and knocking on the door, Mr. Greenwood took one look at my muddy self, shook his head and came out with his stitching kit and equipment.
One that I was all too familiar with, training with Alpha Gould and Jesse isn't the easiest thing in the world. I was often bruised and battered, once Jesse forgot to take off a purity ring and he punched me.
Hard.
Resulting in 4 stitches on my hairline, leaving a small scar.
Barely visible.
"Waverley? Can you come and hold him down?" called Dr. Greenwood from the room, I spun around, ignoring the hateful glare of Maya and kneeled in the other side of the boy.
"Sure, how bad is it?" I passed him a towel soaked in alcohol, while placing some bandages ready on the side. During my free time, I would usually go up to his office and help him with injured patients. Although, I don't have the stomach nor the steady head to stitch people up.
"Not good, enlarged veins at the lower end of the esophagus are ruptured and is bleeding massively. BP is low, pulse high. Bowel sounds are muted or absent. There is guarding and swelling. Extremities is beginning to cool."
"Insert large bore cannula and fluids begun. Bloods taken for (at least) FBC, U&E, LFT, Group and Save and Crossmatch at least 4 units. Urgent CT abdomen. I need to palpate the abdomen and review the radiology."
"Wait, what?" I struggled to keep up, especially with the medical vocabulary. Dr. Greenwood rushed to wheel him into one of the rooms.
"Waverley, prepare him for surgery."
"Oh, okay." I answered dumbly. I racked my brain on what he taught me, I'd better not fail. He can not die on me!
Dr. Greenwood came running out, he took one look at me and did a double take. "What are you still doing here? Go fine Carrie. Shes a nurse! I need to do the surgery to prevent any further bleeding. He's already healing but in the wrong place!"
"Ai Ai! Captain!" and I shot off, running out the door and down the stairs. Ignoring the glares of Maya and many others, I reached the kitchen. Carrie wasn't there, so I jogged towards the courtyard in the back of the pack house. Following her scent, I found her chatting with a group of girls by the willow tree.
The group feel silent as I approached, "Carrie! Dr. Greenwood needs you, you need to prepare a guy for surgery. Internal bleeding. "
She stared at me, probably wondering why the hell I was talking to her, but I was really impatient. A none too gentle shove towards the pack house, she snapped out of it and ran inside.
I sighed, I really hope he's okay. Turning slowly, I realized that the group of girls were still staring at me. I looked down, probably for the first time today, my clothes muddy and half dry, half wet. My hair was in loose strands and curled like ringlets, caked with mud; a big contrast to my skin tone.
"So, uh hi." I managed to say, socializing was never really one of my best qualities. Well at least they stopped staring at me.
"Hey." replied on girl in the short denim overalls, and a tight plain colored t-shirt. Others nodded and waved but none of them said anything.
And I thought I was bad at socializing.
I awkwardly rubbed my arm, "So uhh, I'm gonna go now. This is kind if awkward so umm se-"
"Waverley!"
I turned, just as Jesse ran towards me. Clean and his hair even seemed combed, shirtless and low slung cargo pants, the girls behind me swooned.
Damn it! So much for my plan of ditching them.
"Hey Wave, whatcha doing?" he stopped in front of me, swinging an arm around my shoulder. "Need any help with anything? Want to go watch a movie? I heard the new Step Up movie is out.."
I narrowed my eyes, I know clearly that he was trying to suck up. Trying to make up for ditching me with the guy for Sarah.
"I'm busy. And don't bother, Jesse. You owe me." I smiled deviously, shrugging his arm off.
Jesse sighed, "Figured as much,so.. how bout that movie?"
I glared at him, shoving him teasingly. He jumped back and surrendered, looking around as if finally noticing the girls gaping at his abs.
"Oh, we have an audience. Waverley, I didn't peg you as the socializing type." he wiggled his eyebrows.
"Oh I'm not," I answered cooly, "I was just leaving."
"No!" cried out a girl in a short skirt and tank top, "I mean, no. We were just showing Wav-Kimberley around." She was shamelessly eyeing Jesse and ignoring me. As if she was talking to him.
I raised an eyebrow, "I'm afraid you're a year too late and it's Waverley. Not Kimberley. And do I know you?"
She struggled under my challenging gaze,"Ye-yeah. W-we met at, at t-that meeting."
Jesse watched amusingly at our exchange, swinging an arm around my shoulders he teased,"Well aren't you going to introduce your best friend?"
I glared at him, but quickly covered it with a sickly sweet smile. "Sure, honey meet slut#1. Slut#1 meet shit face."
The girl flushed several shades of red as her friends stepped up to defend her, I gave them a challenging gaze. They stepped back, I clapped my hands in a peppy way.
"Great!" I mentally cringed, I can't believe I squealed."Since we're all good friends, let's braid each others hair and out makeup on! And have a good fucking time."
I turned my heel and headed inside, hoping that the boy-whatever his name is- is conscious and feeling well.
I faintly heard the girls drooling over Jesse, and him calling out my name. But I didn't look back and collided with something or someone.
"Oof!" You'd think that learning how to fight men and women several sizes larger, I would be able to avoid running into people.
Nope!
"You bitch! What did you do to him?!" cried the person currently sitting on me, pounding my abdomen and face.
I swiftly flipped us and held her in a dead lock when I realized it was Maya. Letting her go and pushing her towards the other side of the yard, Jesse approached. Maya whimpered at the sight of him. The look in her eyes was feral, mad and even about crazy but the strongest one of all; love.
"You Fucking Bitch! You filthy Whore! What did you do to him?!" she sobbed, collapsing onto the ground as she drew a crowd.
Jesse held me, pulling me away from her and the growing spectators. I shrugged out of his comforting grip. I stepped closer to her, ignoring the growls and cries.
"What are you talking about?" I said softly, obviously she has been through a lot of pain.
"Oh don't bother playing dumb, no one is buying your fucking facade." she snarled, "You brought him upstairs! Guilty as charged eh? Y-You going to mess with him too? Hurt me! Not my fuckin-fucking brother! You filthy slut! What did y-you do?!" she ended in sobs.
I whipped around to face Jesse, my face must be murderous because he backed away cautiously. I took a step closer towards him, and jabbed a finger in his chest.
"You owe me so fucking much, Gould." I turned my heel and marched straight to the sobbing girl. Gripping her by the front of her t-shirt, I leaned in closely by her ear.
"Remember the last time we were in this position?" I whispered in her ear, she shuddered. "I did bring him up to the pack doc, would I do that if I beat him up? Think bitch, if I hated you so much I would have killed you, not your brother."
Shoving her back, I stood tall. "Let's just say I did. I hope he doesn't remember anything when he wakes up."
"If he wakes up." I added tauntingly. Leaving the girl to sob, and turning into Jesses comforting arm around me. I looked up and he had lipstick marks on his cheek, raising a hand and wiping it off.
For an odd reason, the lipstick bothered me. I frowned, turning away as he smiled down; we made our way towards the pack house. I made eye contact with Ethan, catching the words 'I need to talk to you.' as I passed by. Turning sideways, I nodded and gave him a smile.
We silently walked away from the scene as he crowd parted like the Red Sea.
There standing tall in front of the door was Alpha Gould, probably have watched the entire exchange.
His face was not happy.
Not happy at all.
Jesse gulped loudly, I turned around and looked at him accusingly. Shaking him off, I walked towards Alpha Gould alone, turning to give him a small smile. Mouthing the words, 'you owe me!'.
I remember the last time I stood in front of the Alphas door, actually, I kind of don't. Was it last week?
Walking in, I sat down loudly in one his chair behind the desk. Alpha Gould narrowed his eyes and closed the door.
I laughed as I twirled on his chair,"Can I get one of these?"
He grunted, "Do I even want to know why?"
"Why I did or why she came."
"I already know why she came, why did you take the blame for Jesse in front of a rogue?" he said, leaning onto one of the cherrywood bookshelves that adorned his office.
"Eh, you know already. Why ask me?"
"Because I want to hear it."
"Wow,you're getting old; Gramps!" I chuckled, "Anyways, to satisfy your wishes you might want Carrie to stop eavesdropping from behind the door." I added that part loudly, after hearing shuffling of feet I smiled.
"Blah, blah, people can't hate Jesse. Those who saw him beating the other guy will shut their mouth, I sure. And Maya can't hate Jesse, or else she can't get into the pack. And she doesn't have the physical ability to travel to another so let her hate me." I paused, dizzy from all the spinning.
"And when people find out I almost killed a guy, they might want a punishment or they might target and hate me. Jesse can be the victim, he's going to be Alpha." I looked at him, "I may not be an expert but I doubt people will trust and follow their leader if he beat a random guy up and probably would have killed him if I didn't intervene."
"That wasn't the reason on why you did this." Alpha Gould asked with a thoughtful expression.
"For Maya, her chance of being in a pack and having friends. People will sympathize her and become friends simply because they hate me. For Jesse, he's actually a pretty good leader. And for the pack, trust me; I have a feeling something is going to happen.." I trailed off.
I can feel it.
It's coming.