Chapter Seventeen

Finn.

I reach Angus’s house with half of my pack at my back. Standing in the field behind the home, I see Colin, a circle of wolves around him. Facing me. Ready for a fight. I immediately recognize my uncle at his flank and let doubt fill me for a mere second. The thought of having to face off against my family, against my brother for my right to lead sickens me.

Howls break through the peace of the night and I’m taken back to the night last year when I battled for our lands at the Burren against Dagda. Closing my eyes, I listen to them, able to single out each member of my pack in the melody. Knowing each of them by heart, I know they’re on my side. The guise they have come up with to show loyalty to Colin is just that, a guise.

As we approach them, I watch each wolf surrounding my brother turn, no longer facing me in a show of protection of Colin. But rather turn to face him in an aggressive stance. I exhale a deep sigh of relief, unaware that I was holding my breath until this moment. Still unsure of my pack’s loyalty.

Brother, so nice of you to finally show up. Colin’s voice fills my mind just before the members of the pack turn on him.

I see the look in his eyes across the field as he realizes the mistake he has made in trusting them to hold him above me as their leader.

***

Ocoee.

I sit with the woman still in my arms. Her breathing is shallow, and she has finally lost the battle with her consciousness. She lasted longer than I expected, truly a fighter. It surprised me to find her even still alive in the condition I found her. Her back flayed, nearly completely open. Only a monster would do these things to a woman whom he claims to love. For the second time in less than a week, he nearly killed her.

The older of the werewolves has lost his hold on his humanity. I could see it in his eyes the day he arrived at the cottage. Deep black pools of hatred were all that remained. Lost in his anger with himself, hating what he was and unable to keep the woman he loved. The perfect storm turned him into the beast he is now.

I can sense they’re getting closer to us now, but I remain with her. Holding her in my arms until the last. I refuse to abandon this woman in her time of need. The compassion and acceptance she has shown me this week has been that of one pure of heart and I know I was right about her. I pray again that she will make it through this and continue to chant over her broken body.

***

Alec.

Speeding through the night down narrow roads, Donnie brings us closer to Sam. I stare out of the windshield, praying she is still alive when we get there. Ocoee wouldn’t lie to me. He wouldn’t have sugar-coated anything. He meant it when he said she had little time and we needed to hurry.

I mull over the fact that I have almost lost her twice in a week. Both times to the same crazed werewolf whom I should have eliminated the first time. I am angry with myself for letting this happen. Foolishly, I left her unprotected in Dublin, trusting others to guarantee her safety. I drop my head in my hands and stare down at my lap.

“You can’t keep blaming yourself,” Donnie’s deep voice fills the car.

“I will,” I confess. Still holding my head in my hands, digging my fingernails into my scalp, trying to ground myself at the moment. I am afraid of getting lost in my mind with images of what Sam’s broken and brutalized body may look like once we reach her.

“This isn’t your fault, Alec. We trusted Finn to handle it, and we all believed that the wards put in place trapped him on their lands. The wards that you helped to fortify. They’re trapping him now. None of us could have known he left in the night before they were even in place. We thought he would stick close by, watching her—” Cutting himself off at his own admission, I realize he is trying to help, genuinely.

“I let her down. I should have left Ocoee with her when we went back to Kildare. There was no reason not to. I was wrong. At the time he warned me, I didn't take his advice. I was so wrong.” My voice cracks as tears fill my eyes and I sob into my hands. God, if I lose her because of my stupidity. I don’t care how many lifetimes I have lived before this one. She is it for me. My thoughts rush through my mind and I know I will move heaven and earth to have her, even if we are too late. It simply means I will do things I never imagined before.

***

Sam.

I slit my eyes open and stare up at the stars and the full moon. I can hear the wolves. They’re close now, the howls filling the night, the sound of it almost like music. I notice first that my eyes both open fully, no longer swollen closed. When I make to move, I feel a soft head lay on my lap.

Don’t rush it. You’re still healing, be still, Ocoee tells me and I look down to see him back in his dire wolf form, white fur still stained with my blood.

“Thank you for saving me,” I tell him as I pat his head gently. Relaxing back onto the ground and letting the warmth of the wolf and the fire keep the cold from my still naked body.

As the wolves enter the circle, I see them all stop and look down at me, my dire wolf protector lying sprawled against my side, the fire on the other. I’m sure I look a fright. They all circle us and wait.

“What are they doing?” I ask Ocoee, confused by their behavior.

They’re unable to shift back to their human forms because of the full moon. I roll my eyes at his words. I knew this. They’re waiting for Alec. He is near.

“I’m so tired,” I tell Ocoee when he finishes giving me the news, too tired to even focus on what he is saying both about the werewolves and Alec.

Shortly after the wolves arrive, and they have settled around the circle, I hear a car approaching. There is one additional wolf leading the way. I try to stand again but Ocoee again stops me. A low growl escaping his lips this time.

I told you, child, stay put.

Doing as I’m told, I only shift and lay my hand on his body, letting him pin me to the ground with his weight. I stretch out my legs and there is no longer any pain. When the approaching car's headlights pass over us, Ocoee lifts his head and looks in that direction. The wolves circling us shift, and I see two figures come into view.

***

Alec.

When I see them lying on the ground next to the small fire, my heart drops into my stomach and I know what he has done. Knowing what my friend has sacrificed for me brings tears to my eyes.

“Donnie, get Ocoee, please,” I let the words escape my mouth as I bend over Sam, pushing her blood crusted hair from her eyes. When she opens them and they meet mine, I smile down at her.

“Hey, kitten. It’s going to be all right. I’m here now.” Reaching up, she wipes away my tears as I speak.

“What’s wrong? It’s okay, I’m okay. Ocoee healed me.” Her words bring more tears to my eyes and I nod at her as I watch Donnie lift my old friend and carry him back to the car.

“I know. It’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay,” I tell her as I lift her and follow behind Donnie’s figure in the night's darkness.

Please let there still be time. I send the silent prayer up towards the moon, hoping that I’m not too late to save them both.

“Where is Ocoee?” Sam asks, her cheek pressed against my chest as I carry her to the car.

“Donnie has him. Give me a minute. We’ll get you both in the car and head back. Then I can explain.” Approaching the car, I watch Donnie lay Ocoee on the back seat and hear him whimper. Sam picks up on the sound and lifts her head.

“What’s happening? What’s wrong?” she asks as she tries to squirm from my arms.

“He is fine. He is going to be fine. Relax,” I tell her as I settle her into the back seat next to Ocoee. When she sees him, she turns and looks up at me, tears filling her eyes.

“What happened to him?” Sam sniffs out the words, unable to hold back her tears at the sight of Ocoee’s flayed back.

“Look at me,” I tell her as I cup her cheek in my hand, “he is going to be fine. We are going to get both of you back to the keep and we will heal him. Right now, he just needs you to hold him.” She nods at my words and turns back to our friend lying limp in the back seat.

“Okay,” I hear her whisper as I close the door.

“Donnie, keys!” I hold my hand up and he tosses them to me. Jumping into the driver’s seat, I speed into the night as if my oldest friend’s life depends on it. Because it does.

***

Sam I lean over Ocoee and lift his head, resting it on my lap. I remember the first day we were together when he requested I scratch behind his ears. Doing so now, I weave my fingers through his fur and scratch at the base of one ear and then the other. His breathing is labored and slow.

“I don’t understand,” I tell him softly. “Who did this to you?”

No one, child. I chose this fate for myself. I alone am to blame. Rest now. You need to rest.

Ocoee whimpers as he shifts on the back seat and the lump in my throat stops me from being able to take a breath. He is hurt, bleeding, and possibly dying, but he is still more concerned about my well-being than his own.

“Alec, please. You understand, someone tell me what happened. Ocoee looks like he has been whip—” my words trail off at the thought, whipped. He chose this fate. “No!” I shift and he yelps at my quick movement. “Oh, no, no, no. I’m sorry. Please no.” Tears roll down my face, as I wipe them away I smear the dried blood there. Looking down at my hands, I see it on their backs, and I know I’m right.

“He healed me,” I tell Alec and Donnie, both of them in the front seat, eyes looking straight forward out the windshield as Alec drives us towards the Keep. “At what cost? You know what he did! Don’t you?” I accuse, angry with Ocoee for doing this and for the two of them for simply driving and not stopping to help him. “Help him!” I scream at Alec, kicking the back of the driver’s seat in front of me.

“Sam! Stop it!” he roars back at me. Donnie turns and looks over his shoulder at me.

“We’re going to help him, but there are things we need. We need to get him back to the cottage where Alec has his things. You need to calm down. The best thing you can do for both of you so that his sacrifice is not for nothing, is for you to calm down.” Donnie’s words are harsh and I suck in a sharp breath. Trying to steady myself.

“Donnie is right, Sam. You’re not out of the woods yet. Listen to Ocoee, rest. Be calm. I am going to do everything I can to help him. I will explain it all to you after that. Right now, I need you to let me focus on getting us back and saving his life.”

I shake my head at their words, letting the tears fall freely, when I look down at Ocoee’s head resting in my lap. I pat him gently and then wipe away the droplets of water that have gathered on his snout from my crying.

“I’m so sorry, Ocoee.”

Shifting the best I can without hurting him, I rest my head on top of his. Closing my eyes and letting the emotions flow through me as we drive into the night. I pray we will make it in time to save him.

Please, just hold on, Ocoee. I call to him in my mind. There is no response and I tense, shifting my hand down to his side and feeling his labored breathing. He is still alive, but just barely.

***

Finn.

As I watched the wolves circle around Colin, the realization spreads across his face. I know it isn’t over. I knew it would not be that easy. While they stood with me and would continue to recognize me as their Alpha, he does not. It is going to come down to me and my only brother. The last thing I want to do is kill him. I think through Alec’s offer at a binding spell again and wonder if it is too late for us to take that path now.

Colin, I call to him in my mind. Please, don’t do this, brother.

I watch as his eyes shift from amber to black, and I know he is gone. The monster standing across the field from me is no longer my brother. He turns and crashes through the circle of wolves into the night.

Don’t follow him. I issue the command as they break off and chase him into the wood line.

This is my fight. I’ll handle it, like I should have a week ago. Go back to the keep, mind the grounds.

Finn, Angus calls out to me, son, you don’t have to do this on your own.

I turn and see him next to me, the old gray wolf with kind eyes. The man who has treated me like a son since I got here. I nod at him and let him take my flank, following me as I walk towards the trees that Colin disappeared into. I know he can’t leave the lands. Alec has Sam and I have time. All the time in the world for him to come around. Whether it be tonight, tomorrow or the next full moon. I will make my brother see reason and bring him back from the brink. I must.

***

Colin.

The moment they turn on me, I know they have sided with Finn. The weaker of us both. Damned fools! I stare him down, refusing to submit to him as my Alpha. This power, the power of the pack behind me, is the only way for me to defeat the warlock and that is a must.

Sam may submit to me now, but she will never remain with me fully until she sees he is gone and I alone cannot take him down. I turn and burst through the circle of weak-willed wolves around me. Heading to the wood line and off into the night. I will go back to Sam for now and return tomorrow. Finn is still hesitant to fight me. He, too, is weak-minded and nothing but a spineless child. When I am ready to take him down, they will have to bow to me.

As I reach the road and cross over it, to head back toward Wicklow, I’m stopped. An unseen force field throws me back, and I hit the ground with a thud, the wind getting knocked out of me.

You can’t leave. No point in continuing to run, brother. Finn’s words fill my mind and I turn to see him and Angus behind me. Please don’t do this. It doesn’t have to end this way.

It does, I tell him.

There has to be a break in the line. I take off along the ward line, looking for any sign of weakness. I see the two follow behind me for a while, but I lose them in the woods before too long. Settling down, I sit and stare at the line of demarcation on the ground, the silver glow able to be seen now that I know what I am looking for. I sigh. I left her out there and now I can’t get back to her. Rage fills me at their stupidity. If she dies, it is because of them and then I will kill them all.