The Beast Across The Lake

Chapter 37

                                        Isabella
Caleb leaped up and shifted into the biggest wolf that I had ever seen. He'd always resembled a beast more than an animal. Perhaps it was the royal blood in him. There was no room for thinking, no one was brave enough to stand in front of Caleb or force him away.
Chaos struck the moment that Caleb jumped for the rogue man. He had barely any time to shift, by the time he'd landed on four legs, Caleb had already had him in a choke hold with his mouth clamped tightly around his throat.

"Order him off, or the deal is gone-" the other rogue man was saying.

But it was evident that Caleb was not about to let go and then it was rogue versus the rest of us. I watched from the corner where I had curled into a crouched position. I pressed tightly against my bleeding wounds and watched as the sheriff's pack fought the rogues. It was a battlefield, exactly what we were looking to avoid. There was hardly any room to accommodate the two dozen or so wolves. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. Blood spattered everywhere, the walls of the basement were shaking from impact. In the distance, Caleb had snapped off the head of the rogue man and then there was silence.

He had officially killed him, the deal had to be over now.
All that for nothing-

There was suddenly a bang on something and a human man was standing on top of a pile of wood hitting the metal bar that I once used to stab Aurora against the walls. He was one the eight rogue men from before.

"Stop!" He shouted," stop, now!"

The sheriff was the only one that shifted back to a human. The rest had stopped fighting, even Caleb was staring up at the man to see what he had to say.

"One of our men already died, and one of yours did too," he pointed to the other side of the room where a limp wolf lie," we'll call it even if you walk away now. We'll honor the deal, you can keep your land and no one else has to die-"

Caleb growled out loud in protest. He had his fangs stuck into the neck of yet another rogue who did not look like he would make it if he stayed under there for much longer.

"How do we know you're not lying?" The sheriff demanded," who's to say you won't be back?"

"I can't give you anything for guarantee only my word. I assure you, we will leave you and any Waru's left alone, forever, if you don't kill any more of our men."

The wolf under Caleb's grip cried out in pain. 

"Caleb, let him go. You already killed one of them-" said the sheriff.

Caleb shook the man who was now bleeding out. I used the panels on the wall to aid in standing up.

"Caleb, let him go-" his feral eyes wouldn't even recognize my existence. I limped to where he was. I pushed aside the pain and placed a hand through the fur on his face. His eyes finally landed on mine.

"Did you hear that? If you let him go, they'll still go through with the deal, we'll all be okay."

He shook his head. I gripped onto his massive face with more urgency and tears from the pain flooded my eyes.

"Please let him go. For me."

There was a moment where I had given up. It must have been minutes of silence while everyone stared and finally, Caleb released his grip on the rogue wolf. His men hurried to drag him away. By the staircase, I could see that the sheriff had finalized the terms of deal with the rogue man. I felt my knees buckle and hit the ground. I had no more fight in me, I just wanted to be left alone forever in my unfolding pit of darkness

...

Everything hurt in a sore and almost numb but not completely type of way. I opened my eyes and immediately shut them again at the intensity of the light. When I was ready to see again, I realized that I was lying on top of a hospital bed. My arms were stitched and my legs were bandaged. On the chair to my right was a sleeping Caleb, he gripped on to my fingers while snoring peacefully. He too was stitched and bandaged up.
The bed next to mine was empty, I imagined it belonged to him.
I smiled just a little and sat up. I used my other hand to rub his hair and he began to stir awake. His beautiful eyes brightened when they saw me while my chest swelled at the intensity of the wounds on his face.