Cursed By Fate

What Jack had just seen was a true testament of a wolf’s vendetta. He fell to his knees as tears rolled down his cheeks.

This was the end for him. In an attempt to relieve his guilt of Ambrose, he had gotten his successor killed. Lyon was a young man just starting his adult life, and because of him, it was a short lived experience.

The pain in his chest was crushing, the tears did not stop as the snot that dripped from his nostrils. “What have I done?” he asked himself as his grief intensified. “I might have killed him, but his blood is on your hands.” The Alpha’s spy said.

He growled at him as though he was about to finish him off, but held off on account of the emergence of Elijah from behind the tall bushes.

Elijah was almost fuming as he conserved his energy and restrained himself since the beginning of their rampage. “Do you know who I am?” he asked Jack who was too bewildered to answer. “Speak!” the alpha’s spy roared as he punched the back of Jack’s head sending him straight to the ground.

The punch resonated through his body as the sheer force of it reawakened Jack to his reality. He was about to die.

The fear masked by emotions of grief and sadness had finally emerged. “No I don’t” he stuttered replying Elijah. “Why are you doing this, Lyon was innocent, he did not deserve to die so brutally.” Jack asked in a shaky voice.

“All hunters deserve whatever they get. For years you have tormented, hunted and killed my kind for no tangible cause or reason.” Elijah said calmly. “Tell him which of his many sins has come back to haunt him today Elijah.” The alpha’s spy said.

“A couple of years back, you and a bunch of your buddies were going through the woods, you came across a young wolf cub. She had just discovered her first fang and was so excited, she went for a run in the forest. You bastards killed and maimed my beautiful Kayla.”

Tears flowed from Elijah’s eyes as he narrated his ordeal. Jack was meek as he listened but he tried to plead his case “I was a different man back then” he said.

“She was just nine!” Elijah screamed as he struck Jack across the face. Now the cuffs were off, Elijah squeezed his fist as he began to punch and pummel Jack repeatedly. He felt his cheekbones crack, his jaw dislocate and his septum shatter as he rained heavy punches intended for just those purposes. He finally stopped as his fist was bloody and his knuckles bruised from all the bashing.

Tears filled his eyes, for however angry and hateful he was of Jack, Elijah was not a killer.

“Finish him off! Kill him!!” the rest of the pack said as they watched enjoying the show. “I can’t. Kayla would not want me to be consumed by vengeance” Jack retorted. “Your daughter would want you to avenge her.” The Alpha’s spy said. But his mind was made up, Elijah was going no further with it.

“Very well I’ll do it myself.” The Alpha’s spy morphed half way again, into the same form he was when he killed Lyon.© 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

“I’m sorry, but I cannot stop them from executing their orders” Elijah said as he looked into Jack’s eyes one last time before he walked away. Unable to speak and lying half-conscious on the ground he turned his head towards where Lyon’s lifeless body laid. “I’m sorry Lyon” he whispered. “Don’t worry this won’t be a merciful kill, I’ll make you suffer first.” Said the beast.

He grabbed Jacks wrist and put his foot on his shoulder. With brute strength, he tore Jack’s right arm from his body and flung it towards the truck.

Jack’s groan could almost be heard throughout the valley as his screams echoed. But that was only the beginning. The beast went for his other arm, this time he was assisted by one of the other two werewolves.

Jack screamed a second time but he could only be heard by Elijah who was a considerable distance from where the maiming took place. “Get the crowbar from the truck.” The beast roared as the other werewolf rushed to retrieve it.

He handed the curved iron bar to the beast who flogged the life out of Jack’s legs, shattering both femurs and rendering him crippled. It wouldn’t matter anymore as Jack was already on the verge of death.

He coughed up an unhealthy amount of blood and looked at his assailants with a smile. “My death would be the spark that ignites the flames of war.” Those were his final words as the beast plunged his claws into Jack’s chest and ripped out his beating heart.

******

“That’s John’s car!” Carl said as he pointed towards a red Chevrolet sedan parked outside a veterinary clinic. Laura was speeding so fast she missed the entrance and had to reverse. She parked beside John and helped Carl out the car.

They approached the lobby with heavy hearts as the fear of the worst gripped them. “Excuse me, please did a woman with a gunshot wound come through here?” Laura asked the receptionist as they walked in.

“Laura!” she turned to find John covered in blood, walking towards her. She ran to embrace him as he was sobbing almost uncontrollably. Carl followed slowly behind.

“Are you okay the nurse at the reception asked him, as she noticed the blood stains on his vest. “Yes, I’m fine. The woman who was just brought in, what can you tell us?” Carl asked in response.

The receptionist explained the situation. Caroline was being stabilized, the doctors were to stop the bleeding, but that was all they could do as they awaited a surgeon from the county hospital. “I’m gonna kill Jack if anything happens to her, I swear it.” Carl said to Laura as the three of them sat in the waiting room of the clinic.