➶aʟʟ ɨ աaռtɛɖ➷[ON HOLD]

| Տɛʀքɛռt'Տ ɮʟօօɖ aռɖ ʋaʍքɨʀɛ Տaʟɨʋa|

A\N: WARNING~ STRONG VIOLENCE!

"Storms make trees take deeper roots."
~ Dolly Parton
➶ҡɛɨʀa➷

I got started just as the first faint rays of light lit the woods. I had brought nothing with me and decided it would be best if I traveled in wolf form. Maybe I could just wander around, be a lone wolf. They didn't last long by themselves, but I think I had a few years over most of the wolves. The older you were the stronger you were however, if I was attacked by a whole pack I wouldn't stand a chance. One door doesn't close without opening another, at least that's what I've heard.
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A/N: JERICHO'S POV ......WHO SAW THAT COMING??

➶ʝɛʀɨċɦօ➷

I swirled the whiskey around in my glass then drained the whole glass. I f*cking love you Jericho...I hate you, I hate you so damn much. I couldn't get her helpless voice out of my head; it killed a piece of me when she said those words, but she hurt Angie.
Keira told me she didn't do it and said something about being sick, all I could think about was how jealous she had been acting the last few days. She is the only one with a motive to want to hurt Angie.
"Jericho, " Angie's soft voice came from behind me and I turned to see her in the door way. Her face was now free of the cuts and scratches and she was now able to walk. "How are you feeling?" I ask as I set down my empty glass. She gave a small shrug and offered me a small smile. "I've been better, I've been worse," she said.
"How are you feeling, I know something is bothering you?" She asks and I scratch at the stubble on my chin as I try to wrap my head around how I'm going to get what I need to say out.
"Angie, are you sure it was Keira?" I ask slowly. Her demeanor changes and she straightens her posture. "You don't believe me?" She asks sadly, but her voice is tainted with slight agitation. "No, I do believe you," I sigh,"it's just hard to think that she would do something like this."
I had known her for almost seven hundred years and remember the first day I saw her like it was yesterday. Now, she tried to kill Angie in a fit of jealousy and anger. My innocent little girl had been in love with me and now she hated me. That was a lot to take in and accept. I still couldn't believe she had done it. I guess you never really know people even if you have known them for hundreds of years.
"How about we go for an early run, get your mind off of things? You've been so stressed lately," Angie spoke softly and moved to my side where she gently took hold of my arm and rubbed my back.
"I don't know, Angie. I'm behind on reviewing my paperwork and I've-"
Angie pushed out her bottom lip and gave a little pout. "Come on Jer Jer," she whined. "Fine, fine, I'll go but we can't stay out long," I give in and she smiles triumphantly. "A good run will ease your mind," she clutches my arm and leads me through the doors. "Come, come," she urges softly and leads me down the halls and through the garden doors.
Her hand linked with mine as we walked into the wood and my eyes scanned over the trees and the faint blue glow of the early morning. Dew covered leaves and trees shined and birds began to sing their 'good morning' songs. A faint morning mist clung to the woods and seemed to grow into a slithering fog the further we walked.
When I believed we had come far enough I stopped and was about to shrug off my leather jacket when the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. "What is it?" Angie asked when she noticed I had grown rigid and alert.
"The birds," I said as I strained to listen for something, anything, "they stopped singing." They had stopped singing, even the crickets had ceased their calling to one another. They knew, they knew danger was afoot. Something was about to happen.
I didn't smell, hear, or see anything. I felt the beginning of a growl form deep in my throat and Angie clutched my shoulder fearfully. Snaps of twigs came from in front of us, then behind us, then beside us; we were being surrounded.
A figure emerged from the fog followed by another, and another until we were loosely encircled by a dozen men in dark clothes. "Anthony," I growled out at the man ten feet in front of me. "Jericho, " he smirked. Anthony's dark eyes shined mischievously and were shadowed by his dark bangs that just passed his brow. His looks read 'pretty boy', but inside he was a sneaky, dangerous bastard.
"Get behind me," I whispered to Angie and nudged her behind me and away from Anthony's eyes. Anthony was from the Ramos Pack nearly a hundred miles away from my pack, but he still managed to be a pain in the ass. Many a time I had to kill or chase off some of his pack members who snuck into my territory and burned down some of the pack member's houses.
Never before has he or any of his pack members made it this far into my territory. "Long time no see, buddy," the stupid trademark smirk of his was still planted on his pale face. "How the hell did you get on my territory?" I snarled ou and felt the muscles on my neck tighten.
"Oh," he tapped his fingers on the side of his chin as if he had something interesting on his mind,"it wasn't so hard considering your patrol has been lacking. You're losing your game, Jericho. Maybe it's just old age." He drops his hand and takes a step foreward. A defensive growl rumbles through my body and he stops.
A sharp pain shoots from my hip and I whirl around to see Angie holding an empty syringe. "I'm sorry. Really I am, but they were going to hurt my family if I didn't help them," she says regretfully with tears welling in her eyes. "Angie," I murmur sadly and she moves away from me to stand beside Anthony.
"You know," Anthony says as he rubs the back of Angie's neck,"I didn't think you would fall for it so easily. But, I guess Uralius was right. If you dangle an innocent whore in someone's face it will sway even the strongest of men."
He lays a kiss on Angie's cheek and keeps his eyes locked with mine the entire time. "There were a few setbacks though, like Keira, " he says and I clench my fists at the mention of her name. F*ck, no.
    "See, I knew she was a smart girl and she proved me right. Angie here told me about everything that went on in that house and how Keira would be a problem. So, I devised a plan to get her out of my way. Little Angie had to take a few hits for it to be credible, but when she came crying to you about how Keira attacked her in the woods it was solid." His eyes gleamed darkly at me and I felt my breath hitch in my throat.
"You f*cking bastard," I growled.
"No, you're the bastard." Anthony said. "You're the one who pushed your girl to the side for a whore," he laughs darkly. "Whores cause so many problems. They're always whining and begging to have their family spared. They're so weak," he says lowly and wraps his pale fingers around Angie's neck. Her eyes grow wide then an audible 'snap' is heard before she falls limply to the ground. Her lifeless eyes stare blanky at me and her face is frozen with surprise. How could I have been so foolish? How could I have not known it was all a trick?
I felt bad for her, I did, but what she did was f*cked up. She could have came to me and told me what Anthony was doing and I could have fixed things. Instead she infected the pack with her lies and destroyed Keira and I's relationship.
Keira. I had been so horrible to her and now she hated me. She was all alone somewhere. F*ck, she was out there all by herself and I couldn't even protect her.
"Don't worry about your pack, Jericho. I'll make sure they are taken care of. I'm sure they'll enjoy being slaves the rest of their lives. As for Keira, I'll find her for you and take very good care of her," he grinned suggestively and I went insane.
A rage-filled roar tore through my body and I was running at Anthony with my claws extended and canines bared. Anthony charged just as fast as I did and our bodies slammed into each other. I slashed my claws at every inch of skin I could find on his body and he did the same.
Someone tore me off of him and threw me across the ground. I struggled to get to my feet and blinked a few times finding it hard to focus. My legs felt weak and Anthony and his boys' figures kept shifting around. "Water Serpent's blood mixed with a little Vampire saliva. Disorients the victim and if they're a werewolf, disables them from shifting. In other words, you have no chance," Anthony explains and moves closer. I swipe at him furiously, but miss and he chuckles darkly.
"Finish him," Anthony orders and saunters off to watch the show. I blink harshly and shake my head to clear my vision, but it's no use. One of them slams into me and starts punching me in the face and I wrap my hands around his neck successfully snapping it. Two more come at me when I struggle to stand and I feel the warmth of blood cover my hand when I take a chunk out of someone's cheek with my claws.
Too many are on me at once, but I continue to slice away with my claws and rip open throats. I'm thrown into the air and fly at full force into a tree. I moan in pain and lift my blood dripping head to face Anthony who was coming in and out of focus. I struggle to stand, but find I'm too weak to pick myself up off of the ground.
"You managed to kill five of my men despite being drugged, impressive. Your skill doesn't have to be wasted," he approached me slowly. "Join me and Uralius and we can take over the other packs. Together, we can take over all of North America, " he propositioned and I laughed. Of all things I laughed until I had tears in my eyes.
"You're fucking crazy you know that? You're crazy if you think a pup like yourself can handle fighting all the packs in North America," I say and his eyes glaze over darkly.
"I gave you a chance and you spat on it. You're not as smart as everyone says you are," his body begins to ripple with the start of a shift and his voice deepens.
I watch as his body changes and his clothes are shredded to reveal a fit and muscular pale grey wolf. He growls and opens his jaws threateningly as he advances. I ready myself and hope I can get a good slash at his throat when he reaches me. I knew my chances were not good.
He lets out a battle cry snarl and leaps at me. It all happened so fast. His bared teeth were just a few inches away from my face when his entire body was barreled into by another and sent sprawling onto the ground with the other wolf soon on top of him tearing into him.
The other wolf was smaller than him, but seemed to be giving him hell and taking chunks of flesh from his body. Another wolf ran into the smaller brown wolf and then they began to scuffle. I watched the brown wolf fight off the others viciously and successfuly kill a few of them off one at a time.
The wolf was one I would never and could never forget. She had come back. She had just saved my ass. She was taking on six-now four - wolves at once to protect me. "Keira," I whispered to myself and watched her throw off one of the wolves who had jumped onto her back and bit into her shoulder.
She let out a pained yelp when he fell off taking shreds of her shoulder with him and she then ripped into his throat with her canines. One wolf bit viciously at her hip and I tried to use the tree to stand. They were going to kill her, I couldn't let that happen. I needed to help her, somehow I had to help her.
I managed to slide painfully up the tree, but collapsed face first onto the ground. My back and ribs were most likely fractured or broken and would need time to heal. I was useless and felt absolutely fucking helpless as I watched Keira fight with everything she had.
The strangest thing began to happen and it only seemed to darken the mood as well as the woods. It began to rain. A slow, yet heavy rain that fell silently and washed away the blood from the wolves and Keira's gaping wounds. The blood mixed with the dirt and formed dark puddles of crimson water that created rivers around the battle ground. The water slicked down their fur and showed their rippling muscles as the wolves attacked Keira with everything they had.
I dug my fingers into the mud when Keira was pushed into the ground by the now two remaining wolves who continued to fight with her. She tore into the belly of one who made the mistake of getting to close to her jaws and it's tender belly was ripped open. It fell on its stomach and crawled as far away is it could away from the fight leaving a dark trail of blood in its path. It collapsed on the ground and lay on its side where it took its last labored breaths.
A flicker of movement brought my eyes to the left as I tried to hold my head up above the wet ground. Anthony's wet slicked, pale wolf stood with its head held low as it glared dangerously at me. Trails of blood mixed with the rain and dripped down from his body and mixed in with the mud on the ground.
He took dangerous steps towards me and I growled out uselessly. He replied with his own growl and continued his slow, deadly pace. A brown, damp mass stepped in front of me blocking my view of Anthony and let out a long, low growl.
Having finished off the last of Anthony's wolves, Keira now stood in front of me in a protective stance. Blood trailed down her body along with the rain and I could make out the numerous teeth marks and gashes littering her body.
My head dropped weakly onto the mud covered ground and I watched Anthony's paws pace back and forth as if he didn't know what to do. His paws finally stopped moving around nervously and he turned around and began to gallop away. Keira, to my horror, began to chase after him, but stopped and turned to me and gave me one last look before sprinting after him.
I managed to lift my damp, throbbing head weakly and used what energy I had left to try and lift myself up and off of the ground. I fell back painfully into the wet mush and dug my fingers deeper into the mud as I watched her brown figure disappear. "KEIRA!" I called after her fearing that, that would be the last time I would see her. "KEIRA," I yelled again and tried to drag and kick myself towards where she had gone.
"Fuck," I cursed when I felt my ribs begin to snap and re-break themselves to heal. "Keira," I whispered as I screwed my eyes shut in pain,"Keira." I rolled onto my back with my arms and legs sprawled out and let the rain pour over me. I blacked out when a blinding pain shot up from my back and I let Keira's name fall from my lips one last time.