Rogue Wolf

Ch 52 finish him

Finish him? What the hell? Did Alpha mean what I thought he meant? The sudden increase in fear and nervousness of the guard as he tried to tuck his head down and bring his teeth into me practically confirmed it for me. I took the lid off my bottle of inner rage, letting it give me enough strength to work my way up from underneath the guard. I think it was as much the guard's reaction to Alpha's command as it was my own efforts that actually enabled me to get loose. I stood there, my nape standing on edge, daring the guard to come at me again.

When he didn't, I risked shifting part-way, enough to stand up and turn slightly toward Alpha. I just had to ask, "What do you mean finish me off?"

"Leadership battle is a battle to the death," Alpha sneered. "Either you kill him or he kills you."

"You're nuts, "I said emphatically, without thought. "I'm not killing somebody just because you think I should. Are you crazy?"

The question hung there, causing an unexpected reaction in Alpha. There was shame, fear, and anger in him that I could see from my position thirty feet away. When the guard started to move I snapped out, "You just wait a second. I am not going to let Alpha get away with making you think you actually have to kill someone! Who's next? Our rightful Alpha?"

The challenging guard hung his head then, letting me focus on Alpha.

"You think this challenge is what's best for the pack? Or do you think this is the only way you can rule around here anymore? Why should we...ummppfth!"

My diatribe was cut short as the guard rammed himself into me. I snarled my rage as I spun around to avoid his teeth and shifted back to wolf to face him head on. That ass had bluffed me! Worse, he had sunk his damn teeth into me! I didn't try to hold myself back, tearing into the guard with all of the fury buried inside me. I know he whimpered, yelped, and scurried away from me. Beyond that, my thoughts were vague. The taste of his blood on my tongue galvanized me into an even more furious attack.

I could hear someone, a few someones, calling out to me, but those sounds weren't the one I was waiting on. I went after the guard again and again, growling out my desire for him to submit to me. Finally the guard between my paws gave me what I wanted. He had finally shifted back to man. Bleeding and crying he managed to sob out repeatedly, "You're Beta, you're Beta."

I made the effort to stand on two feet, forcing the rage back into its bottle. The rage didn't all fit, and I didn't know how to make a larger bottle inside me. It took me a moment to take in the others in the room. It was hard to look away from the defeated guard. The rage seemed to echo in my skull, like the sound when you put your ear to a conch shell. I couldn't make it go away.

I looked toward the omega hall. There was no sign of Alpha. When did he leave? I walked over to that big opening, full of confusion. I couldn't remember half of what had just happened, even though I knew what had happened. I had no idea how long the fight had gone on for. I ached and felt like we had fought for hours on end, most of it with me snarling and growling, sinking my teeth into him, shaking my head to cause him more pain while I held him. I know he kept trying to use his weight to pin me, and I knew my claws had raked him more than once.

I walked over and closed first one side of the doors, then the other. As tempted as I was to bolt it, it seemed the cowardly thing to do. I had won a victory, and the last thing I wanted was for Alpha to think I was still scared of him.

Turning back around, I leaned for a moment with my back against the doors, shocked at the scene before me. There was blood everywhere! How was there so much blood? For a moment I thought I was going to be sick, thinking if the guard lost that much blood, he might still die, and I would have been the one that killed him. It was a thought that had me moving with more speed than I had intended back across the common expanse.

The guard cried out anew as I approached him. He whimpered out the refrain of me being Beta continually through split and swollen lips. I let him go on, even as I grabbed his shoulder, moving him around to see how badly I had hurt him. There was so much blood streaked across his body, I couldn't tell. My fear for him squelched the last of the rage in me.

"Omegas, bring some buckets of warm water, and a lot of towels. Lone Wolf, we got a first aid kit around here somewhere? And would you shut up already?"

The omegas ran, and Lone Wolf disappeared somewhere. I wouldn't let anyone else clean the guard. I started with his head, practically dumping the first bucket over him. Michael was suddenly next to me, steadying the next bucket while I worked the water through his hair. He had some gouges on his scalp, but it didn't look like I'd tried to eat his brain. I must have clawed him there.

He had a black eye, and puncture wounds on his neck, well, more the back of his skull and down by his shoulder. It looked like I had bitten low, biting wide around the danger zone.

Lone Wolf came back, and instructed Michael and I to hold the guard while he made a few stitches. I started to count, but as the number of stitches went up, I gave up. I decided I didn't want to know how many stitches he was going to need from where I'd hurt him.

It occurred to me after awhile that I had no idea where everyone else had gone to. The omegas kept busy with towels and mops. I was careful as I scrubbed the guard's body, especially when I got to his waistline. At this point, Michael was holding up the injured guard. Once I got him clean down to his knees, I told the omegas to bring him a chair.

I tried to bring myself to say something, anything, but I couldn't. The guard was bruised just about everywhere. I could tell Lone Wolf was mostly worried about the bites around the guard's neck. I was more worried about the long slash on his arm, and the other on his thigh. It seemed like Lone Wolf was stitching those areas forever.

By the time the guard was clean and stitched up, I felt like crying. The guard was keeping his head down, holding himself as still as he could. He reeked of misery. I had to remind myself I had tried to talk him out of fighting, until my fury had cost me the ability to talk.

Lone Wolf, who had worked in silence except for the few instructions he had to give, finally spoke up. "Alright," he said turning to me, "your turn."

His words didn't register at first. What did he mean, my turn? I stared back at him blankly.

"Perhaps a shower in our quarters first?" suggested Michael.

A shower sounded like a good idea. It caused me to look down at myself. When I looked back up, it was Michael who met my gaze, giving me that wry little grin of his. I felt unsteady all of a sudden. Michael put his arm out to steady me. "Come on," he said gently, "let's get you cleaned up."

I could only follow him as he gave my hand a small tug, leading the way to our quarters.