Too Many Secrets To Hide | ✔| #Wattys2017

Chapter Seventeen

 Word Count: 3986

Warning: Slightly Graphic Violence Ahead!

  It was ten o'clock and we were heading out. Jasper and his father ran at the front, while I stayed at the back with Mark. It was Christopher's wish that Mark guard me, although I was perfectly capable. I was in my wolf, and I could do anything. The knife I held between my teeth didn't hurt anything either. The blade was pure silver, and Mark had said that even with the leather sheath it could start affecting me. He told me I was lucky to only be part werewolf and that even if the silver should bother me, it shouldn't be bad. Nonetheless, he had warned me to use extreme caution in handling the knife.
  
   We ran through the night, the half moon barley lighting our way. It didn't matter much though, because as wolves we are very sure footed and can easily guide ourselves in the dark. It also excited me to find that I was quite a bit faster than most of the other wolves. While they mostly ran at full sprint, I could have gone faster. I struggled to stay at the back away from Jasper, with Mark, who was clearly used to running at the front. They're all so slow I said to him. He responded with a chuckle.
  
   Later on, past midnight, we burst into Derek's camp. The whole place reeked of alcohol and erupted with howls and yelps when Derek's men turned to attack. I watched as a number of them shifted, just before being jumped by one of Christopher's pack members. It was like a train had rammed into a crumbling brick wall. The train, of course, did the most damage, but the broken and cracked bricks did not forget to inflict they're wounds. It was mere moments before Mark was torn away with the war. I watched, a little scared that my protection was gone, but I could handle myself.
  
   Just as if to test my thoughts, I was tackled by a large body. I went to the ground, quickly finding my throat underneath a paw that already smelled like blood. I wiggled my way out from under him before he could do anything else. I snarled as I made my way to my feet, and didn't waste any time in lunging for his throat. It was like second nature. I bit hard down on the vulnerable flesh. I heard a yelp that sounded very much like a last breath, but I didn't look behind me to see if it was as I moved on. I simply picked my knife back up off the ground and strode off.
   
   I didn't see anyone I knew amongst the sea of bodies. Many wolves had already died, and I felt a sharp sting in my heart for the innocent ones who's lives had been taken. Standing tall and ignoring the pang of sorrow, I continued on my mission. I hadn't said as much, so I was sure Christopher didn't know, but I knew Mark understood without having to be told. He had no intentions of getting in my way either. I was on my way to find my father. I wanted to deal with him myself, and I would personally kill anyone who stood in my way- enemy or not.
  
   Suddenly a smell came over me in a wave. I could tell by instinct that it was no good. Wolfsbane. I looked all around for where it was or who was spraying it, but in the dark and through the fur I could see nothing of use to me. Instead, I focused all my efforts on getting into the shack. I wound my way through the crowd, it was my luck that most of the wolves were currently engaged to their personal battles to mess with little ole' me.
  
   Unfortunately, there was one wolf that tried to challenge me- and it wasn't unfortunate for myself. It started as a stand-off as we stood growling at one another. That quickly turned into the wolf lunging at me, an attack I quickly dodged. While I evaded him, I lashed out myself. I ripped his windpipe right out of his neck with one swipe of my paw. This time, I watched my victim die. It was bitter satisfaction, no guilt tainting the emotion at all.
   As I left the scene, I spotted a familiar face. I didn't know who it was, but I recognized the man from seeing him in the gym earlier today. He stumbled and looked very weak. I wanted to help him, as I was sure he had been poisoned by the wolfsbane. It was too late, however. Before he could stumble again, he was taken to the ground be an enemy wolf. The last thing I saw of that man was his disembodied head rolling across the ground, then it being trampled by another fight skidding over top of it.
  
   My blood began to boil. How dare those filthy animals do that to him? I narrowed my eyes and with even more purpose in my step, I continued on my mission to find my father. In my haste and anger, I must not have noticed someone near me. Suddenly, I felt weak and like I couldn't fully lift myself. It wasn't too bad, but I could tell it was wolfsbane.
  
   I swung around to snarl at the culprit. It was a man, and he was turning all around to spray wolves, although I had clearly taken the brunt of it. He appeared to be one of the few of Derek's men that wasn't intoxicated. His nose was crooked and it looked fairly recent. I wondered if he was one of the men Bel and I had taken down. It didn't matter. I forced a lethal blow on him while he was turned around. I could see the poison had a much greater effect on the other wolves, despite being sprayed with less than I had been. I could only assume it was my human blood that helped me out now. I was grateful for that, for my mother who gave it to me. My mother who would be avenged if it killed me to do so. Again with added purpose, I ran at the door of the shack. I tore it down fairly easily with my size and force, but I could feel my strength draining. I needed to find dad fast.
  
   I clambered down the steps, allowing gravity to do most of the work for me. The poison was setting in fast. I couldn't help the notion that the silver still between my teeth was only aiding it. I shook it off, not disregarding my mission. I would just have to find him before anything serious happened. It was hard to find him when I felt slightly disoriented, but if nothing else, I could probably shift back to my human form to mitigate the effects of the wolfsbane. I also had no idea what he smelled like though, something I discovered after a quick sniff of the air. There was something, human maybe, and I could tell where it was coming from, but I didn't know exactly what it was. I decided to take my chances.
  
   I followed the mixed scent down a hall and to a doorway. The door was closed, and the scent was too strong to be just a lingering smell from another time. I knew this instinctually. I backed to the other side of the hall, ready to charge the door. I had to stop and catch my breath just at that small effort. There was no way I had the strength to take that door down.
 
   With this realization came another: I was dying. I tried to shake that out of my head, but it wouldn't budge. I laid the knife on the ground in front of me and backed away from it, maybe that would help- only, it didn't. I could see now that I had only one choice. I was about to do something both Mark and Christopher had profusely warned me against. But all I could think about right now was survival. It didn't matter if I was blatantly disobeying the alpha and his beta because I just needed to live. I was going to change back into my human.
  
   I had thought about the mate bond and how it hadn't affected me until I shifted into my wolf. Maybe, by changing back into my human, this poison only intended for werewolves would lose it's grip. It was my only hope, and it was worth a shot.
  
   I brought the picture of myself back into my mind, thinking of myself the way Jasper had described me. With the rush of standing on only two feet again, came a wave of relief. I wasn't completely better, but I could think straight again- and what had I been thinking? Christopher said that as my mate, Jasper would be able to smell me from quite some distance if I shifted. I was sure Derek could too, seeing as how he had known me since the day I was born. If he was on the other side of that door, he knew I was here. It wouldn't be long until Jasper did too. But making my presence known was just a slight repercussion of living.
  
   I picked up my silver knife off the ground, unsheathing it and sticking it in the back of my waistband. A new strength came over me as I strode to the door. I had expected to find it locked, but it swung open easily. There, sitting calmly in a comfy chair behind a cleared off desk, was the man I had grown to despise more than any other. He lifted his head only now, but I knew my coming in here was no surprise to him. He knew I was here.
  
   "Hello, Cadence," he greeted with a smile that I swear looked real. He stood, his presence warm in the room. I wanted only to run into his arms, he was my dad after all. Running to him was all I had been doing for the past fifteen years. I was the very definition of 'daddy's girl'. The man in front of me now was hardly my father anymore, but seeing him smile like that really took me back. He couldn't be all bad right?
  
   He stood and extended his arms to hug me. Despite this and  the questions swirling in my mind, I only glared at the man. Now, his hands dropped to his sides. "Cadence, don't you understand that I was only trying to protect you?" he said. The line was so cliche it hardly took me by surprise. "From what, the murderous monster that tucked me into bed every night?" I sneered in response.
  
   He sighed as his shoulders drooped. "I only killed your mother because of the years of pain she put you and Bel through," he reasoned. "Pain?" I yelled. "Please fill me in, because I don't seem to recall this pain," I hissed. "She never let you kids live your lives like the wolves that you are," he told me with desperation. "I'm sure by now you've realized that you are, in fact, part werewolf?" He said it like a question, but when I raised one eyebrow unimpressed, he got his answer. "Do you know what it's like to be a wolf?" he asked. Of course I knew, but I remained silent. "I'm not sure if you're able to shift or not-" "I am," I interrupted. His eyes lit up, then darkened. "Jasper taught me." I gave him a sickly sweet smile because I knew he would hate that. "I don't want you around that boy anymore!" he yelled suddenly. "Why? Because you couldn't take down his father and become an alpha?" I snarled. He looked shocked at first, then not so much. "It was my only chance to get you kids around other wolves. It would have been so good for you, and he ruined it!"
  
   I rolled my eyes. What was I supposed to say to that. My own father was behaving like a child. Oh no, someone didn't let him win! How awful! "Show me you can shift," he inserted randomly. "I would, but one of your goons sprayed me with wolfsbane," I retorted. "Who? I'll kill him myself," my dad snapped. "Already dead," I replied blandly.
  
   Then, the whole mood turned. "Well, look at my little stone-cold killer. It seems she inherited more than just the werewolf gene from her father," he taunted. "Perhaps she's more like me than I thought." That enraged me, but I couldn't let him think he was getting under my skin. "Now, I thought you only killed mom because you were mad at her, not because you're some kind of evil murderer?" I retorted. I had to run my words past the ice in my heart for them to come out so cool because my blood was boiling. "Yes, but I did love her," he replied, taking steps towards me. I held my ground and did not retreat. "Then I guess you loved your little girls more than you loved her," I concluded with an expression falling just short of a bitter smirk. "Precisely," he confirmed.
  
   Derek stepped close enough now to lay one callused hand on my cheek. Somehow, it felt different now than it had all the times before. It felt... Foreign. But I didn't flinch. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.
  
   "When you took Bel, how did you make her vanish right out of the changing rooms?" I asked the question I had promised myself that I would before he died. "Oh, I didn't," he chuckled. "I used a recording of your voice to lure her out the emergency exit," he told me as if it was the simplest thing in the world. "Then how did your scent get all over her shirt?" I questioned skeptically. "That was a little thing I did to bait you into coming after her- I wanted both of you, you know." I nodded. It was just as Jasper had suspected.
  
   "What a shame I listened to Jasper and didn't go after you then," I huffed sarcastically. "That boy is trouble, Cadence. And so is his brother," he stated firmly for a drastic change of topic. "So are you," I sneered. "You're holding a grudge against an innocent man and his family because he fought for his pack and won." He stepped away from me and turned his back when I said that. "And then you killed mom?" I went on. "And made Bel watch while you did it? If you had loved either one of them, you would never have done that."
  
   He swung around to face me, anger burning in his eyes. "I do love you!" he yelled not very convincingly. "You said you loved mom too," I hissed. "How can I trust you not to kill me or Bel, when you so easily tortured someone you supposedly loved to the point of death?" He sighed, his anger easing. "It had to be done," he said as if it were true. "All I can see when I look at you is mom crying and screaming for your mercy. You sure have a funny way of showing love, dad, and I don't want Bel to become your next victim." He sighed and shook his head solemnly.
  
   As I watched him in silence, I could truly see only evil inside him. I could feel it. I listened to mom scream, heard her cry and beg for him to stop as if I had seen it with my own eyes. But I could handle that. I was never very close to her. Bel on the other hand, she was my life. She was long before Jasper and she would always trump him. This man, supposedly our father, had imprisoned her and forced her to watch the torture and killing of not only her mother, but her best friend.
  
   My anger grew steadily, silently, my face betrayed nothing. I felt my wolf growling inside me, weakening me and making me stronger at the same time. This man was evil, and evil could not be in my life, or around my baby sister. An 'I love you' coming from that man was about the biggest threat I had ever been issued. That was even more true for Bel, and I would stop at nothing to protect her.
  
   "Dad," I broke the silence. "I love you too." He looked up at me with big brown eyes that had always looked just like mine and Bel's up until now. They grew even bigger and appeared considerably different the moment he realized how hard it is to breath with a hunk of silver lodged in your windpipe.

   He coughed, or as much as you can with your airway constricted. The blood poured out of his mouth like a river that had been stopped up for decades. It just gushed every time he tried to breathe. He was trying to pull the knife out, but I was holding it in place. His hands, now lacking in strength, held my wrist like a vice grip with stripped bolts.
  
   Derek tried to form some words. "How..." he choked out. I smiled sickly, or perhaps it was more a baring of teeth. How could I not? I refused to answer him, he would die never knowing. Never knowing how the daughter he 'loved' so much could put a blade in his neck. Never knowing why she would murder him like this. Never knowing when she decided she wasn't a daddy's girl anymore.
  
   He crumpled to the floor. I finally let the knife slide out then as I had no desire to sink down there with him. Stuffing the bloody thing in the back of my waistband, I stayed to watch his dying breaths. I didn't check his pulse afterward though, because I knew his heart had stopped by now. Although, you could have argued it stoped a long time ago.
  
   I stared down at the man, dead. He should have known better than to threaten my baby sister. I turned slowly away from that filth, like a villain in a movie. Maybe I was the villain. I let out a bitter chuckle. Villain or not, I was happy with my decision. It was something at least the cold side of me would never regret.
  
   I didn't even flinch when I turned around and found myself staring at three great wolves. The first I recognized, the other two I could guess. The amber brown one with the perfect blue eyes in the front was clearly Jasper. To his left was a platinum blond wolf with the same eyes. That was Christopher. The wolf on the other side was dirty blond, almost brown, with hazel eyes. That was Mark.
  
   Jasper started shifting back into his human. When Christopher saw that, he followed suit. Seeing both his companions shifting, Mark then did the same. Now, they were all standing in front of me with some interesting facial expressions. Jasper donned a look of horror with his mouth hanging open like I was a ghost that just went on a killing spree. Christopher seemed concerned, but not willing to say anything about it at all. Mark's face was that of disbelief, but also a deeper understanding and not the horror Jasper displayed.
  
   I looked right at Jasper, who's expression irritated me the most. "I told you I would not hesitate to end a life for my little sister," I stated grimly. His only response was to finally shut his mouth. I smiled and walked past them as if nothing had happened. In all honesty, I wasn't that phased. I couldn't see why those three were being so dramatic. Yes, you're welcome, now stop gawking I thought to myself.
  
   "Why are you here?" Jasper was the first to speak. That surprised me slightly, as he seemed the most in shock. "Your dad and Mark told me if I learned how to shift I could come," I said with a sweet sing-song tone and not looking at him when I spoke. I glanced back at him when I was done though, just to see his reaction. I could see him visibly cursing himself for having shown me how to shift. I giggled at him, pressing the fingers on one hand to my lips as I did. He turned his head to one side and looked at me like I was a crazy person. I shrugged and kept walking.
  
   I didn't mean to stumble. I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Of course. I had experienced the hot spells that come with the mate bond, so switching to my human couldn't completely snuff out the symptoms of the poison. I had gathered by now that it would only get worse, not better at any point. Clearly, I had been subjected to a lethal dose of the stuff too.
  
   "What is it?" Jasper asked from just behind me. I expected him to put his hands on my shoulders or something to comfort me in my obvious state of disrepair. This was not the case however, as he seemed very opposed to touching me. I tried to ignore it while I answered. "I got sprayed with wolfsbane, I think."
  
   "How much?" came Mark's worried voice as he came closer. "I don't know," I replied honestly. "I shifted to subdue the symptoms, but they're coming back," I told them. "I'm alright though," I added for good measure. "No, we need to get you to a doctor," Mark persisted. I sighed, as I was in no mood to argue. Mark placed his hand on the small of my back and began leading me up the steps. I looked back at Jasper, why wouldn't he touch me? "I'm taking her to a pack doctor," Mark called to the other two over our shoulders.
  
   I stumbled up the stairs, having to focus very hard just to place my feet where they needed to go. The symptoms were steadily growing worse. I tried not to show it, but I trusted Mark to take care of me. I couldn't quite say the same for my mate though. He followed us behind his father about a dozen steps below me. I felt horribly betrayed. Why was he treating me this way? How could he do this, allow another male to do his job? Was there something wrong with me?
  
   We finally exited the shack to see the action outside had mostly stopped. There were dead bodies littering then entire clearing. Those who remained alive appeared to all be from Christopher's pack. Some of them looked weak like they too had been poisoned, but mostly they seemed just a little roughed up from the fight.
  
   I wondered how it had ended so quickly. Also, why were more of the survivors not showing signs of being poisoned? Had I just received a much larger dose? Had most of the ones who had been poisoned already died? What did that mean for me, could I too suffer that fate? But I needed to stay alive, I had to. I couldn't die now, I had to live- for Bel. What would happen to her if I died?
  
   I was jerked out of my thoughts by Mark's voice. "She's had too much, Jasper. It's a miracle she isn't dead yet, we need to hurry before she leaves us." He was looking behind us while he confirmed my fears. It cracked my currently ice cold heart to think I would die and leave Bel alone. It was the final blow to make me lose it. Even hearing that I might die, Jasper has absolutely nothing to say. Not a kind word, not a pat on the back. He couldn't even tell me he loved me one last time. A single tear from each eye streamed down my face. I wiped them away quickly. Maybe it was just the wolfsbane getting to my head...
  
   "Goodbye," I whispered, but I don't think anyone heard.