Chapter 19
WES
It’s been two days of complete hell. We’ve had to fight every foot of the way. All the wolves in the cites have taking to the woods. It’s an all out hunt for mates.
Jesse was at my side helping me fight. He shifted to a wolf and ran with me when the competition got thick.
Thea was riding on his back, but I can’t see her. I know she’s there. I can feel her, but she went invisible. No doubt hiding from me. I take a second between fights to mull over my situation. I’m no farther ahead, but I know I don’t like that she feels like she has to hide from me. That’s what started this in the first place. I’ll have to fix at least that.
We’re tired, hungry and thirsty by the time we get to Falcon Ridge.
The city itself is completely wrecked. It looks post apocalyptic. Cars smashed, windows broken and bodies laying in the streets. With the Unit incapacitated, it was a free for all on mating season and by the looks of it, we all lost.
Judging from the quiet in the streets, we’ve reached the point where the wolves have torn through so they can get a piece of ass better.
I shift and slowly walk down the middle of Falcon Ridge. A very busy city before the moon showed up. If the wolves haven’t left the Security Unit building, there’s a very good chance their wolves are out too…inside.
Jesse shifts and walks behind me. “This makes me uneasy.” His lip curls a bit as he clenches his teeth, eyeing the buildings carefully.
The wind blows garbage across the streets. “Me too.” I turn to the empty space beside me. “How do we deliver the medicine?” I look over my shoulder and her image comes into view.
She glances at me. “They have to drink it.” She says.
I look forward. “Great. Get 3000 horney as fuck people to drink a potion. Shouldn’t be too hard.” I say sarcastically.
“How much do they need, Thea?” Jesse asks.
“A drop or two.” Thea answers.
Jesse looks at me. “Use the building fire system. Get em wet. It’ll cool em off and deliver the medicine.”
I nod. “Ok. I like that. The water reserve tanks for the sprinklers are on the roof. We climb up there and dump it in.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Jesse slaps my back and we head to the Security unit.
Once we pass the entrance of the parking lot the sounds of wolves were evident inside. Sounds of fighting and sex hit my ears from all the way out here.
I already feel the male callings and I can smell the female heat. The drive inside me starts to rise. I have to take deep breaths to calm my wolf and push him down. With all the challenges I had to fight to get here, he’s already riled up.
When we approach the main building, I look around for anyone outside.
“The tanks are at the back.” I say.
We walk around the back and find a service ladder. I jump up on it and climb. Jesse turns to his bird and flies up with Thea.
Once up, I lead them to the two giant round tanks on the right side of the roof.
“There’s an access hatch on top. Half in one and half in the other.” I say. “Can I have the jar?” I hold out my hand to Thea.
She produces it and hands it to me. My fingers brush hers and that familiar electric feeling enters my tips and travels up my arm. I bite my lip and turn away from her. I want to talk about this. I just don’t know where to start.
I climb to the top and lean on the ladder. I set the jar down and look at the hatch. “Damn it!”
“What?” Jesse calls out.
“It’s locked. There’s a key pad, but for obvious reasons, I don’t have a key card.” I look down at them.
Jesse shrugs. “I could shift to something and tear it off.”
Unless it’s a nuke, you’re not ripping into this tank. We take things like water poisoning seriously. I should have remembered.” I heave a sigh and climb back down. “I need a card.”
“Ok. Where do we get one.” Jesse asks.
I look at him and point down.
He points down too. “In there.”
I nod. “Yep. It has to be an alpha card too.”
“Ok. Let's go.” Thea says and heads for the edge.
“Noo…No…”
“Absolutely not.”
Both Jesse and I protest.
“I want to help.” She blinks at us.
“Ok. We need you to keep that safe, ok. So stay up here, we will get the card.” I lean to her and point to the jar.
She looks at the jar and back at me. “Ok.” She mumbles.
“Ok.” I turn to Jesse. “It’s going to be very messy in there. None of the wolves are in their right minds. We don’t want to kill anyone. It’s a last resort. These are our people. Not bad guys.” I warn.
“I gotcha, chief. Just lead the way. I got yer back.” He nods.
I turn to Thea. “I’ll come back to you as fast as I can.” I eye her and turn to the ladder.
Jesse is on my heels.
As we walk around to the front door, Jesse felt the need to jump in on my Thea problem.
“She’s telling the truth, ya know.” He glances at me as we walk.
I look around the building and see if there’s anyone in the lots. It seems the place really is empty. “I know. I get it.”
“Do you? You realize she didn’t know anyone existed beyond her trees. She’s never seen one of you, let alone learned how to act around you.” He's defending Thea to me and I understand. He cares about her, but am I really just supposed to dismiss my feelings?
“I git she made some mistakes. Some whoppers, but I know Thea. She would never do anything maliciously. Everything she does comes from her heart.” He adds.
I look over my shoulder at him. “Can we talk about this later? My fucked up love life is the last thing I want on my mind as I walk voluntarily into a mad meat grinder.” I narrow my eyes at him.
I pull the door open to the front desk lobby. “I’ll have to buzz the security door. Get ready to pull it open.”
Jesse holds the handle as I run around the front desk and hit the buzzer. Jess pulls the door and instantly our ears are attacked with growls, snarls, howls and barks. The vicious fighting is peppered with screams, threats and moaning. It's sounds fucking sick.
I look at Jesse. “We need to head to the Alpha floor. Unless you find a council Alpha and he’s still wearing his pants, do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Just run.”
He prepares himself and nods.
I enter the hallway to the main foyer. After four days of having wolves trapped in here that are only thinking of mating, I don’t even recognize the place anymore.
“Jesus!” We both cringe back at the smell of blood and other bodily fluids spread around the place from the trapped wolves.
The foyer itself, is empty, but they’re here. The growls are down halls and other department rooms.
“This way.” I lead Jesse past the piles of furniture and other garbage. I try to keep upright on the wet coated, disgusting floor. “Fuck. We're going to have to tear this place down when this is over.” I grind as I try to stomach the smell and make my way to the stairs.
“Wesley…”
I whip around and square up, preparing to fight after hearing my name sung with a growl.
I stand straight and my face falls when I see four, very naked, she wolves standing at the entrance to the Operations Unit. They're breathing heavy. Their hair is tatted, blood soaked messes. They all look like they’ve been dragged down the streets behind cars. My chest hurt for them.
I know them. They’re the girls from accounting. The blonde in front is an ex, ironically. She left me, now she’s looking at me like I’m the last male wolf on earth.
“Hey…Deb…How’s it going?” I say as I walk backwards with Jesse behind me to the stairwell.
The three behind her are letting out seductive growls and purrs.
“Come here, Wesley.” She crooks a finger with a smirk on her face. She has a sultry swing to her hips as she walks towards us.
Now, if I wasn’t interested in Thea, and the fact that I’m fighting the moon surprisingly well, this whole situation may have gone a lot different, but things being what they are…
“Sorry…uh…You know I don’t date woman from finance.” I give her a half smile as I back up more.
Apparently that was the wrong answer because their faces turned dark, their eyes glowed and their growls turned even darker.
They all burst into their wolves and four pissed off she wolves stalked us.
“Deb…Just calm down…Think about this…” I put my hand up.
She snarled, barked and snapped her teeth.
They broke to a run.
“OH SHIT!! RUN!” I turn and push Jesse to get going.
We ran down the hallway and hit the door to the stairs. We climbed as fast as we could as the she wolves broke through the door and hit the stairs.
I turn around and kick Debs wolf in the head sending her crashing into her friends.
“Sorry!” I say as I push Jesse up the stairs.
The growls fill the stairwell. I can hear their paws struggling on the slick steps as they try to find grip. We have to get out of here.
Jesse cuts us off at the forth floor and we run down the halls. The problem? Males, loads of them.
“Damn.” I grit as we stop. Ahead of us is six males fighting each other. As soon as they scented us they turned their heads.
“Oh, fuck me.” The faces looking back at me were Jayson, William, Mica and Grey with two other dudes. The two dudes I can take. The council Alphas? I’m a dead man.
I square up as Grey takes the front of the pack. “Bro. I don’t want to hurt you.”
His canines are out and he’s shirtless. They all are swollen and bloody. More importantly, Grey has his key card on him.
He flexes his engorged muscles and stares me down hard.
“You ready?” I glance at Jesse.
The she wolves could be heard trying to bust through the stairwell door.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” He ticks his head.
I nod as Greys chest starts to rumble. “Grab a key card from those four right there.”
Jesse nods.
The four Alphas brutally lunge at us.
I run at Grey, stop and swing punches to his face. He’s swinging his clawed hands at me, trying to rip me apart. His face is completely vacant and I can tell he doesn’t see me. He sees competition. Everything’s a fucking competition to him.
He’s fast and fucking determined to take me down. The advantage I have, is my brain is still focused. He lands punches on me and throws me into some desks. He walks over with murder in his eyes. He grabs my hair, lands a punch to my head and I kick his kneecap. He howls in pain and I run. He jumps me and we struggle of the floor. I hold Greys face as he tries to bite at me. His drool hitting me and his blood coats my face. Fuck, I hate messing my brother up like this, but I need that card. I get the upper hand and land a solid punch to his nose. He rolls off me and I grab his card.
The she wolves break the glass in the door and jump through it.
I try to run, but Grey grabs me and throws me with a huge growl into Mica and William. They catch me and were about to pummel me into the floor when the she wolves stormed the area.
The males see her and immediately rush them which causes more fighting between them and now the four, sex starved females.
I have to dive out of the way as the violent ball of blood and fur rolls, viciously, past me down the hall.
It’s fucking nuts.
I scramble to my feet and run to Jesse who's laid out on his back. “Hey, you ok?”
“Yeah.” He groans as he gets up. He checks his nose. “Thank God for beautiful women.” He gets to his feet.
I turn to the fight. “I’m not sure that’s what those guys are thinking right now.” I watch as the she wolves try to mess up my friends. I turn to him. “Come on.”
We break into a run and head back to the first floor. We practically fall out the front door and run to the back ladder.
Once on the roof, I take the water from Thea and climb up to the hatch.
I swipe Greys card and the hatch pops open. I open it up and pop the cork. I put half in then do the same with the second tank.
“I gotta trip the alarm.” I say as I jump down, run to the ladder and slide down it. I run around the building to the front door and enter the desk lobby. On the wall is a red fire alarm. I grab the pull down switch and pull it, breaking the glass tube. The entire building fills with the sounds of fire alarms.
The wolves howl and roar inside. I look to the ceiling and watch the individual sprinkler heads pop out of the ceiling. Water sprayed all over me. I was soaked in a matter of seconds.
I wipe the water off my face and run to the security door. I look through its little window to the dark hall entrance.
I hear screeching, some yelping and screaming. I start to see people running back and forth across the floor as it starts to flood with the tainted water from the tanks.
The one thing I don’t see is people running for the exits.
I cinch my brows together as I grip the handle. I see my reflection for a quick second in the door window. My hair is matted to my head and blood is being washed from my face. I’m also slightly glowing.
I open the door and step carefully. The water on the floor is halfway up the thickness of my toes. See people running back and forth. Seemingly, confused and in a panic.
I step into the foyer and walk to the center. I watch the people start to glow a gold green color and then arch back. They scream as they seen to glow brighter then fall on the floor. The people around them panic until they start to glow.
I slowly spin around as one by one they drop. I look up to the second floor and watch them all drop to the floor up on the mezzanine. I look down one hallway. Like bowling pins, they fall.
I ran to the stairs. I took the stairs two at a time to the forth floor. I threw open the door ran down the hall and stopped. I watched Deb scream, grab her head and fall to the floor where Grey, Mica, Jayson and William were.
I sprinted to Grey and fell to his side. “Grey? Grey!” I grab his head and try to wake him up. I put two fingers to his neck. He has a pulse.
I lean over him and tap his cheek. “Grey! Wake up!”
“Ugh…Wes?” He says groggily.
I huff it a laugh. “Yeah. Yeah, it’s me bro.”
“What happened?” He says he starts to sit up.
“Um…You almost…You know…” I tick my head to him.
I looks down at himself. “No…”
I press my lips together. “Yep. With Deb.”
His brows go up. “Your ex Deb?”
I nod slowly.
“Mia's gonna murder me…” He says I lift him up to his feet.
“Don’t worry about that now. How do you feel? You want out?…Wait…Do you feel the moon?” I analyze him.
He looks at the floor. “I feel fine.”
I smile. “It beats the moon.”
“What?” He looks at me weird.
“Nothing. We have to go.” I tap his shoulder and run for the stairs.
Grey follows me to the back of the unit and I call Jesse and Thea down.
“Hey, the cowboy? What’s the cowboy doing here?” Grey points to Jesse.
“He helped Thea get the cure to the moon.” I look and I can’t see her.
“Thea?” Grey searches too.
I rub my forehead. “Thea. Show yourself.”
Thea materializes.
“Whoa!” Greys face fills with shock and he grabs my arm.
Thea stands with her hands in front of her and looks between the two of us. “Hello, Grey.”
His head whips between me and Thea. “She’s…You’re…She's gr…”
“A wood nymph.” I inform calmly.
He slows down. “A wood nymph.”
“Yep.” I nod.
He scrunches his face. “What?!”
I shake my head. “No time for that. Thea. How much more of that can you make?”
“Um…Not much, but it goes a long way with very little. Why?” She says meekly.
I step up to her and lean down to her face. Her over sized eyes stare into mine. “You saved us all.” I say with a smirk.
A tiny smile started to pull at her lips and mine got bigger. I tick my head to her. “Come on.”
I lead them all to the woods and shift. The rest shift too as we make our way to the tree.
I’m not exactly sure how we can save everyone, but if I can save most from killing each other, I will.