Chase Me , Alpha

Chapter 24

I was raised by my father to be a fighter.  Sure, he was an ass of a man whom I loathed more than loved, but he had raised me right.  He had showed me how to be ruthless, unforgiving, violent.

My brother Thomas, though, he taught me to be smart.

So with my side searing and my head blaring and my instinct to watch Clayton and make sure he was alright overwhelming me, I played it smart.

Helen was faster and stronger than I was.  I may have a wolf running around in my head, but she wasn't released.  I was still weak Alice, still slow Alice.  But I was smart, Thomas made sure of that.

Where Helen was wild with rage and insanity, I was careful and quiet.  She threw her hits wildly, without much thought, and having little to no strength left in my body, I could only dodge.  I was doing great, I really was.  She had yet to land anything other than a soft hit to my arm and it was making her furious.

But then I heard a yelp and a place deep in my chest told me it was Clayton.  Against better judgement, my head turned to him and Helen was kicking my leg out in the next moment.

Pain blossomed on my calf but before I could drop to one knee, she'd thrown me so forcefully against the side of the truck the window shattered, sending glass in every direction.  She tackled me before I could even blink, to even process the pain, and sent me sprawling onto my back.  She was on top of me then, hands on my neck, pressing until no air could pass through.

Panic seized me and I clawed at her arms to no avail.  Her eyes were wide and wild, and I was going to die.

"It doesn't matter if you die." She hisses.  "Another white wolf will be born in your place.  We just have to find them, wait for them to grow older, and Dalton can mate with them too.  You're nothing special Alice.  You're no one."

I couldn't really argue back, not without my voice and the black spots dancing across my vision.  It was an odd sort of panic to be strangled to death.  The panic you get when you realize you swam too deep in the lake, and might not be bale to make it back up to the surface.  A panic that tells you you're dying, and you might not be able to do anything to stop it.

Suddenly though, without any doing on my part, Helen's grip went slack above me.  Her wild eyes widened in shock, and she stumbled off of me, standing to her feet for a moment only to fall to her knees again.

When I saw the cause, saw the shard of glass sticking from her back, I let loose an involuntary cry among my coughs and turned away, gagging.  I heard Helen fall to the ground, and among the crying wolves in the field, I heard the rogues final breath.

Someone knelt to my side, and a hand was pressed to my back while I coughed and regained my breathing and fought the pain blossoming in my neck.  "It's alright, you're alright." A feminine voice assured me.

I glanced up, staring into the eyes of Clayton's sister.  She smiled at me.  "It's alright, you're going to be okay."

Her wounds were mostly healed, some bruises and cuts lingering on her otherwise flawless skin.  I nodded my head, trying to agree with her.  It would be okay.  I would be okay, Clayton would be okay, my entire pack would be okay.  Everything was going to be--

Another yelp caused my head to snap up, to find Clayton and Dalton instantly among the chaos of the other wolves.  He'd been looking my way, had been trying to see if I was alright when Dalton got a bite to his hind leg. 

And just then, just as I'm trying to haul myself to my feet, shuddering and coughing and hot tears stinging at my eyes, Dalton takes hold of Clayton's neck.  In the jaws of death, I saw my mate, just as they clamped down and delivered the kill shot.

.

.

There's a noise.  A sharp, terrible, biting noise.  It's going on, and on, and on, and it's hurting me, inside, like that noise is reaching into me and shredding me apart.  It's a scream.  Someone is screaming, loud and long, and they won't stop.  They won't stop, they won't stop, they won't stop--

It's me that's screaming.  I realize it with a jolt, with an indescribable ache as I watch a slate grey wolf drop, motionless, to the ground.  I'm screaming.  My mate was just dropped to the ground, and I'm the one screaming.

I can't stop though.  I can't stop screaming, even when the noise has shredded up my throat, turns raw and vicious.  Even when my lungs ache and the tears make it more of a screeching sob than anything.  I can't stop.  Clayton's not moving, and I can't stop screaming.

The fighting has ceased.  There's no more snarling.  No more wolves snapping at one another, no more humans strangling the other.  No one is moving, no one is doing anything.  They're standing where they are and staring at me but I can't look at anything other than the grey wolf lying on the ground and the victorious black wolf at his side, my mates blood on his teeth, his death on his hands.

Something odd happens then.  Something . . . peculiar.  There's a rip inside my head.  I can feel it like a boundary being torn through, like a fabric getting cut with a knife.  I can almost hear it above my screams.

I stop screaming.  Something is stepping out of that tear in my head and connecting with every fiber of my being.  It's attached itself to my soul, layered on top of me until we are the same person.  I am Alice, but I am also more.  I'm better.  I'm whole.

Warmth overwhelms me  for a moment, the pain in my body, the sharp stabbing in my chest while looking at Clayton, most all sensations goes numb.  There's a snap in my side as my rib reconnects.  My face contorts, the swelling diminishing, until my eyes can open all the way and my nose resets.  

I'm standing up, but I don't remember standing.  The bruises on my neck go away in a wash of warmth so I can breath easy now.  My eyes stop stinging, my head stops ringing.  Black spots vanish and I see clarity.  Everything is so clear, so concise, so that when I start walking forwards towards the field of dead bodies and wolves, they part for me.

Clayton is lying on the ground, Dalton is standing above him, and there's no real thought on my mind but everything makes sense now.  Everything is clear.  Dalton was my enemy.  The rogues are my nightmare.  Clayton was my mate.

And I am Alice.  I am more.  I am everything.

I am the white wolf.