The Shadow Alpha

Chapter 26: The Breakdown

Chapter 26: The Breakdown

River

"Oh yeah!" I hear Trevor let out a cheer. "Straight down! Did you see that? Just dropped like a sack of potatoes!" he continues celebrating.

I'm frozen in place, watching as the two hunters emerge from their position in the trees. I feel sick, physically ill, my legs buckling under the weight of my heavy body. My breathing is ragged and quick, rattling in my lungs, almost painful.

Holly! Holly baby, please answer me!

I'm begging, feeling tears sting my eyes as I continue to rasp for breath, trying to stay upright. I can feel her mind-link, but it's barely there. Just like a flicker of light in the dark, almost undetectable...She's almost unconscious.

River...

Her response is weak, and I feel both the searing pain of the bullet in her shoulder as well as the exhausting amount of effort it's taking for her to respond to me. She's so hurt, and so tired...

I feel my limbs regain their strength, no longer buckling as they were before, knowing Holly still has a chance. She still has me.

Without a second thought I tear through the meadow at top speed, closing the distance between Holly and I. The hunters are out in the open now, Trevor still going on about how good of a shot it was to Dave. It does nothing but fuel my rage, my absolute disgust for them.

I take them by surprise, leaping over Holly's collapsed body, planting myself in front of her protectively. I erect myself to my full height, towering over them, my shadow falling across their shocked faces.

"Trev...Wolves don't travel alone." Dave murmurs, eyes wide on his middle-aged face.

I let out a bone-chilling snarl, pulling back my teeth, snapping my jaws at them. I lock my focus on Trevor, gun still in his hands with his slicked back hair tucked under a ball cap. He has a handle-bar mustache and beady little black eyes.

"Oh please, allow me, I'll get this one for you." He smirks, lifting his gun toward me.

"Trevor, don't!" Dave exclaims, his eyes wide with fear as he understands the mistake his friend is making.

I lunge at Trevor before he has time to even process what's happening. I take the gun into my jaws, clamping down on it and pulling it out of his hold while simultaneously snapping it in half.

"What the fu—" Trevor starts, and I see real terror in his eyes as I rear up on my back legs, coming down hard on him, pinning him with my front paws.

I think of nothing but decimating this disgusting, vile excuse of a person who almost took Holly from me, as I sink my teeth into his shoulder, and tear. I hardly even register his screams, the flailing of his arms and legs trying desperately to escape me. His blood fills my mouth as I continue to rip the flesh of his shoulder from his body, and I enjoy every bit of it.

The raging fire inside me is uncontainable as I lock onto his neck, clamping hard and snapping it easily between my jaws. Trevor's entire body goes limp, and I hear the last wheeze of breath escape his lungs.

I whip my head up to look at Dave, who is now twenty feet away, his face pale and sickly as he looks at the mangled body of his hunting partner.

I recall Dave's hesitations, how he had actually tried to convince Trevor not to take the shot at Holly...I manage to reel myself in, just enough. I growl unforgivingly, and when he doesn't take the hint immediately, I bark and snap my teeth at him.