Chapter 91 ~Prom Night Massacre~
(Xander's POV)
I tried to identify the figure draped in black clothing, but it was almost like he had disappeared.
The hairs at the back of my neck were standing on end now, my senses were heightened.
An uneasy feeling sank in my lower belly. Something felt odd. My gut never lied to me.
Not once.
Suddenly, I began to catch the thick scent of wolves, and I kept hearing sharp voices.
‘Calvin.’ I mindlinked instantly.
‘Alpha?’
‘Be on the lookout. Something feels odd.’
I closed the mindlink; my eyes fixed on the crowd in alarm.
Meanwhile, the prom coronation continued normally. Fiona, oblivious to what was happening, was smiling broadly as she was crowned Prom queen.
She was giving a speech to the crowd, and her tiara was glinting off the chandelier’s lighting.
I thought I spotted the figure again, by the entrance, this time, and walking beside him was Cassia, Fiona's former friend.
They were walking out the door… but to where?
“Xander.” Fiona tapped me. I quickly snapped out of my thoughts to see the whole crowd watching me in anticipation. “Your speech?”
“My speech, of course.” I picked up the microphone, my hands shaky from the surge of adrenaline.
‘Are you okay?’ Fiona mouthed.
“Yeah… yeah.” Maybe I was just overreacting.
“Students of NorthVale High, it h-has been an, uh…” I was so distracted that I could barely articulate my words.
The projector screen behind the podium glowed suddenly.
Brianna, Jasmin and Frances walked up to the stage, cutting my speech short.
Silence fell.
“Students of NorthVale High, I want you all to watch this video,” Brianna said through a mic and with a remote control, she pressed play on the video.
I looked up and saw a photo grid of me, Fiona, Yara and Cassia projected on the massive screen. A low rumble went through the crowd, and the teachers looked ashen.
My anxiety tripled instantly as I watched.
A narrator was speaking over the images. “Supernatural beings exist. They live among us. They wear flesh like human, they eat, they sleep and they fall sick. But they aren't humans.”
I froze. The cinematic presentation looked like a thriller investigative discovery.
The room went pin-drop silent as it continued.
A blurry video of Fiona, Yara and Cassia in what I assumed to be the girls' bathroom was playing. “... be a good Luna and warn Beckett that he's playing with fire. Remember what happened the last time he overstepped his bounds?” Fiona was speaking.
A soft gasp arose in the crowd.
There were other clips. Some of me while playing hockey, parts in which my werewolf reflexes kicked in. Some clips of my eyes glowing molten gold.
All evidence pointing to a very dangerous truth.
The whole school instantly went into panic mode. They were glaring at Fiona and I like we were monsters.
The tiara slipped from Fiona's head, landing on the ground with a loud crash. Yara, whom I hadn't realized had come up to the podium to stand beside Fiona sometime during the video, paled completely.
And I? I was utterly dumbfounded.
The crowd clearly believed the video and Brianna and her cohorts looked gleeful.
Calvin's eyes met mine from the crowd. The same question that burned through me was hidden in them.
What did this mean for us? For the pack? Werewolves in general?
How would the council react to this? Father? Did this mean the entire werewolf community would have to disappear? The consequences of our exposure were dire. We would be hunted down and wiped out for sure like every other breed the humans deemed a threat.
I buried my head, the sudden weight of the moment made me stagger.
But, Brianna was still talking. “In case you haven't realised what's happening yet, Werewolves exist, and they're among us!”
“Yes, they are.” A cold voice I knew all too well spoke from the crowd.
The same man dressed in black.
My brother—Loki.
The next thing that happened was horrific and it happened so quickly.
Right there, in the midst of the crowd, Loki shifted, bone snapping, jaws realigning into his big, black wolf.
Then, it happened—too fast to process—snap!
Brianna’s head was on the floor of the podium.
Her eyes were still open, staring as if she were still alive, with her head dislodged from her body, pupils gone.
Blood splattered from burst blood vessels.
Red.
Bones scattered.
Her body was still moving, like a writhing worm on the ground.
In one pounce, Loki had snapped her head from her body.
The next moment was like the quiet before a storm.
Silence…
Because this was not the type of thing you saw every day, of course, your body wouldn't know how to react except to freeze.
A piercing scream from one sophomore, Ashley, launched the chaos.
Someone else vomited violently from the crowd. Then chaos broke out.
Students were running like headless chickens, in every which way.
The once serene environment had turned into a war zone.
People were trampling upon each other to get to safety, and yet, no one knew where safety was.
Calvin was quicker than I, always being able to respond to fight or flight faster. He shifted quickly into his wolf, this time, not cautious of the humans anymore.
I smelt them first before I saw them.
Warrior wolves, thousands of them, were infiltrating the school gym. One by one, they were snapping students' heads off their bodies, the color red blurred my vision.
But I couldn't move. Was it how a panic attack felt?
Like you were in a trance, watching a terrible event unfold before you… You should react, you can react… but you won't. Because you can't feel your arms, your legs can't move.
‘Xander! Xander!’ I could hear someone calling me in the background, but I don't know who it is.
Because all I see is blood.
I could see Cassia shift to her wolf, but I can't move.
“Xander! Help me!” I hear Fiona scream.
And suddenly I can move. Cassia is dragging her by her feet. Her fangs sank into Fiona as she moved her across the podium down to where I did not know.
“Xander!” Her scream was piercing this time and it kick-started me.
I never knew I could shift so fast. My wolf took over, with a loud growl as I galloped to her.
But a dagger flew toward me, right in my chest, missing my heart by only a few centimetres.
Theon growled in pain. Suddenly, I felt weak.
But I still persevered, using my last strength to head to Fiona.
I was stopped when I was surrounded by two massive wolves.
Loki,
And Beckett.
They corner me. And I can feel blood pulsing from where I was hit.
I could hear the last screams of death from the students of NorthVale.
Loki sauntered to where I lay. ‘Hello, brother. Did you get my letters?’
I froze.
The letters were from him, not Beckett?
'The Four Words' were Loki?
This time, Beckett advanced to me. His wolf towering above mine. ‘Tonight, you die.’