Overcoming

Chapter 9

We follow Betti into the living room where everyone has gathered. In addition to the Counsel, the pack elders were here as well as Alpha Bruce, Lucas's father. He was red faced and puffing his cheeks in and out as he stood in the center of the group.
"He is not staying with her, and that's final. He's marrying the daughter of the Colorado pack in six months. The deal has been arranged," Bruce yelled.
Lucas was stunned, and by that I mean I was also stunned. Did he know nothing of this. Where was the Alpha Bruce has always been; Fair and eloquent. From Lucas I felt a sense of betrayal. He felt betrayed by his father. He also felt a sense of duty. My jaw dropped. Would he go along with this.
I looked at his profile and felt a sadness. It was my sadness, but also his. He was giving up on us. How, we were bound? My heart shattered. I turned keeping my face stoic and walk from the room. Hearing Betty crying loudly, and the council member babbling.
I didn't want him to feel me cry. I didn't want to feel his resignation. I turned wolf, dissolving my clothing, and ran into the trees. The council only owns the land they're on. They don't have a territory so to speak. I blocked everything from my mind. My thoughts. His feelings. I ran until I collapsed feeling only emptiness in my head. I turned back human. That's when I felt the pain.
It started in my chest. Not my heart, but my lungs. My heart was already broken. I couldn't breath. I don't know why I'm having this reaction. I hardly knew him, just in passing. But I loved him. I knew now that I loved him. I don't know when it stared. Maybe when we first realized we were soulmates. We were children at the time. I'd felt this pulling in my chest. It was easier to breath around him. Maybe that's why I couldn't breath now. My toes and fingers started to tingle. I fell to the ground my back arched as I gasp for breath. It was the bond. Straining. It would kill me if I left.
"This is all your fault you bitch!" I heard the yell from the bushes before Betty rushed into my small clearing. She kicked me in the side. If I'd been human, she would have broken my ribs. Still she was also a werewolf and strong as me, and it hurt. I rolled away from her clutching my side as I bumped into a tree. Looking up at her I could see her wild eyes.
Talking to her wasn't an option as I was struggling even more to breath. She crouched over me as she bent to grab my hair, dragging me to my feet. Once I was standing upright she ran her human nails down my face.
Even though I couldn't breath I still found it in me to make a fist and punch her straight in her face, breaking the cartilage in her nose. She shrieked and grabbed her face, letting go of my hair. I shoved my knee into her stomach. Gasping, "leave me alone!"
Then I landed on my butt in the dirt. She was sitting in front of me clutching her bloody nose. Our bones may be strong, but cartilage was weaker and could break. Point one to me. I could feel blood dripping from my cheek onto my chest, and brought my hand up to feel the damage. We may have strong muscles and bones, but we heal as slow as a human or a wolf.
We stared at each other, hands to our faces. I laughed, "He never belonged to either of us. He'll always belong to his father."
The light in her eyes dimmed a bit as she accepted my words.
"Come on," I said, "let's go back. Might as well face the situation head on."
We stood up, and as soon as I started moving back towards the lodge the pain in my lungs lessened. We couldn't go as humans, so we changed, limping back as wolves. When we got back to the lodge it was hours later. Instead of changing into humans and walking through the house in the nude, we went to the back to go through the doggie door. A male was sitting by the door. He came to his feet as we neared. Sniffing us for a bit, he allowed us inside. I went straight to my new room not caring where Betty went. There was a man inside with the light on. Heath.
"Hannah," he said sadly.
I walked to the closet and went through the flap, where I changed and put on pajamas, then I went back into the room. I walked to him resting my head on his shoulder, and sobbed.
"What happened to your face?" He asked. I just shook my head.
We stood like that in silence arms around each other. He was humming in my ear. "Go to sleep. There's a lot to do in the morning." He left then without looking in my eyes, or saying everything would be alright.
I lay there in the dark thinking about everything. I'd been putting it all off in my mind. Letting nonsense and road trips distract me from the truth. The burden of my guilt rested against me. I'm responsible for human deaths. Who knows how many at this point. I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and fix this zombie cloud disaster. The whole Lucas thing...I didn't deserve him. I didn't deserve to feel complete. Yeah I wasn't the one with the idea to bomb the tower. I wasn't the one who bought the dirty bomb. I wasn't the one who set the timer. But I was involved. I knew they were going to bomb that block of New York. I agreed to it. I helped them by hacking into the server.
I don't think I saw the humans as equals. I feel ashamed about it now. Why did I wait and only get involved when it began to affect werewolves. Why did I feel so self righteous about my actions, when just before I'd been okay with the humans being controlled, the humans dying. When had I started seeing this as us and them? It should be about right and wrong.
My mind ran until the sky pinked up.