Another Half

May 2012

With a sword tip on her throat and a knife on her back, Blade didn’t dare move.

“I’m a lone wolf—-”

“I don’t give a shit what you are,” the male with the sword said. “What I want to know is what pack you belong to.”

He moved slowly within her sight. He was not much taller than her—at her eye level, in fact, with grey eyes that held no appeal to her. Clean-shaven with his dark hair cropped short, he wore a plaid button-up shirt and jeans. The rest of the males wore pretty much the same thing and she wondered if it was a sort of uniform.

Blade tightened her jaw. “I just told you I’m a lone wolf. I don’t belong to any pack, you moron. I’m a student here.”

She gasped when both knife points nicked her. She felt a trickle of blood run down her neck and back.

“She has a mouth,” said a male she couldn’t see.

“Take her phone,” the male with the sword said, and someone pried her phone from her hands.

Fuck.

Blade took a deep breath. The last thing she could afford to do right now was to panic, but she needed that phone back.

“Don’t hurt her, Griggs,” said a deep voice behind her, and the male with the sword backed off.

A man with a blonde goat-tee walked from behind her and stood in front of Blade. His piercing pale green eyes assessed her from head to toe. He closed in on her neck and took two short sniffs of her scent.

He’s a lousy tracker if he has to get that close to us, Talon said.

He’s not a tracker. He’s a beta, Blade said. Everyone practically stopped breathing when he ordered them to stop, but he’s unarmed, so he’s not a gamma, and he’s definitely not big enough to be an alpha.

“She’s not from any pack at all. You been alone long, girl?”

“Over a year.”

The blond man nodded. “We’re heading back to the pack. Bring her.” He stalked off.

“Boys we got ourselves a prisoner of war. A female prisoner of war,” the male called Griggs said.

“I’m a lone wolf,” Blade said loudly. “Wolf Law says you are to leave me alone. I don’t meddle in your business, you don’t meddle in mine. Give me back my phone.”

Three of the men burst out laughing.

“I have no idea where the hell you’re from,” Griggs said, “but during wartime, Wolf Law means shit in these parts, and in case you don’t know, we are definitely at war.”

Well, Wolf War Conventions it is, Talon murmured.

Not today, Talon, said Blade told her wolf. We are outnumbered and they are armed. I’d be able to take out three, maybe four, no problem, but five plus a beta would be—-our chances are slim.

We’re just going to let them take us?!

We don’t have a choice right now. We can’t die. We’d leave Andy orphaned again.

Blade let them lead her to a minivan.

“You’ve been tracking me?” she asked.

“Nah. We got word that some of Azul Pack’s people were out here,” Griggs said. “I don’t suppose you know anything about that?”

Blade did her best to hide her fear. They had her phone; she had no way of alerting Crystal and Rachel that they were all in danger.

She cursed herself again for getting distracted and putting herself in this situation.

“I haven’t seen a wolf in months, not since I left my pack,” she said.

They stuffed her next to a window in the back of an old minivan, and they drove north a couple of hours on the main highway before turning right onto a narrow dirt road hidden among some large bushes.

These people have never had prisoners, Talon said. They didn’t bother to knock us out or cover our eyes. What kind of warfare do these people fight?

Either they’re very primitive and naive, or they don’t intend for us to live much longer, Blade said.

Once they arrived at the pack town, a couple of men yanked her out of the minivan. Blade looked around. The town was small, but it had an air of neglect. The narrow streets were littered with empty bottles of beer, soda cans, and food wrappings. The businesses were closed, except for a bar with its red OPEN sign on. An old, bald tire sat abandoned in the middle of the street in front of the closed pharmacy. But what concerned her the most was that the streets were completely empty.

“Where is everyone?” Blade asked, looking around.

“They’re all training, aren’t they?” replied one of the males that had yanked her out. He was about her age, in clean jeans and a black metal band t-shirt.

“They are? Even the children?”

“Let’s get her out of here,” Griggs said.

Griggs and another male-led her down the street, passing a large two-story house. A thin, very pregnant woman was leaning on one of the front porch columns. It wasn’t her lifeless, blonde hair that bothered Blade, but the fact that this woman looked gaunt and frail like she’d been pregnant for too many years and it has taken a huge toll on her.

And we thought Rachel looked bad, Talon said. Rachel is the picture of health next to this she-wolf.

The woman’s large blue eyes didn’t leave her, either, as she continued to stare at Blade.

“Who you got there, boys?” the woman asked.

“Some lone wolf chick we picked up at the city, Luna,” one of the men holding on to Blade’s arm answered.

Blade widened her eyes with shock.

That frail woman was a Luna?!

I guess anybody can be a luna nowadays, Talon said.

Something about the Luna bothered Blade. Whereas Rachel was thin, she was also vibrant. This woman, on the other hand, looked empty despite being pregnant.

After walking two blocks down the road, Blade and her guards arrived at a small, sickly green building without windows. A man at the front desk stopped them.

“Where did you pick up this gem?” he asked. “You’re very pretty, little girl.”

“She was lost in the city,” Griggs said, “So we decided to give her a home.”

They all laughed.

“What’s your name, girly girl?” the man at the front desk asked.

“Nancy,” she said. She watched as he wrote something down on a clipboard.

“Former pack?”

“None. Born and raised a lone wolf.”

“You mean a homeless wolf,” Griggs said, cackling.

“Fuck you,” Blade said.

“We got us a spitfire! Welcome aboard, Nancy.” The male at the desk waved them through and Blade soon found herself in a room lit only by thick skylights in the ceiling.

Can we break those? Talon asked.

We’ll soon find out, Blade said, eying them.

“Should we shackle her?” One of the men asked.

Blade aimed to make herself look smaller by slouching and hugging herself tightly. She could already burning smell of silver in the air. The fumes made her cough, and she did not want to feel the silver on her skin.

“Naw,” Griggs said. “She’s harmless. You’re Nancy the Harmless, aren’t you?” He shoved her against the wall. He ran a thick index finger from her left cheekbone down her neck and then ran it along her collarbone.

Blade didn’t move and focused on Grigg’s grimy neck. A wave of cold sweat ran down her neck and arms.

“Maybe I’ll come on over and visit you a little later, Nancy the Harmless? You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Nancy Girl?” He said with a wide grin.

Blade imagined what it would be like to knee him hard in the groin and then snap his neck. Or maybe she would use one of her knives to hack off the body part he was likely most fond of.

A woman’s voice that spoke from the entrance saved Blade from having to respond to him.

“Leave her alone, Griggs.” Although she looked haggard, the Luna nonetheless carried a tray of food.

Without taking his narrowing eyes from Blade, Griggs responded, “Yes, Luna. I was just making sure she’s comfortable.”

“I have no doubt,” the Luna said. “I’m sure she appreciates your unwanted attention very much. Leave. Now, Griggs. You, too, Cody.” The Luna’s authority reverberated throughout the small room, and the two males had no choice but to leave immediately.

Blade let out her breath. “Thank you, Luna…?”

The woman gave her a wan smile.

“Caroline. Luna Caroline.”