Chapter 17 Fernandez.

Chapter 17 Fernandez.
The woods smelt of blood and gunpowder.

Seven bodies laid at the bottom, three of Xavier's men, two of Detlef's, and two were mine.

Marco knelt beside one of my men, helping him press a rag to stop his blood from spilling. They gave me an angry look.

"Xavier escaped, he left with four of his men, the rest are dead." Marco said.

"And Detlef?"

Marco pointed at the other side of the cleared land.

I walked over, and Zemirah was still holding my hands tight.

Detlef lay on his back, Xavier's knife still deep in-between his ribs, he had woken up, his breathing was slow, he lay in the pool of his blood.

I knelt beside him, he turned slowly to look at me.

"Why did you let him do this to you?" I asked him out of pity.

"He's my brother, I couldn't bear to see him hurt."

Zemirah knelt beside him, Detlef looked at her.

"You came," he said.

"You're almost dead, I couldn't be scared anymore, I wanted to watch you die."

He laughed a throaty laugh. "I'm sure you hate me so much."

"Of course I do!"

"That's good." He closed his eyes. "Really good."

I looked at the wound, even though it looked deep on the outside, it had missed the major arteries, it would be hard to tell, with all that blood, he could die at any time.

"What if you don't make it, what happens to your pack and its territory?"

"You can have them." He replied.

"I don't need your pack."

"You have to, Xavier will take it instead and it's sad that they won't be able to handle it."

His breathing was getting worse. "My wolves, my people, I wasn't chosen by them, I was only born to rule them, so I want them to experience something better than what I gave them.

I didn't say anything, he was insinuating that clean his mess up, inherit his failures.

"You owe me for taking Zemirah away from me.".

I looked at Zemirah, she was looking at Detlef, her face expressionless.

"I do not owe anything to you." I said.

"You know, she made me want to be a better person, I changed after I met her, so the least you can do for me is take care of whatever I leave behind."

How typical of him, everything had to be about him.

I called out for Marco.

"Get a medical team here, make him stable if it's possible.

Detlef looked at me shocked. "You're rescuing me?"

"I can't let you die here, not this way, if you want someone else to have your pack, you hand it over by yourself, before your council, your Beta."

I thought he was going to argue, but instead his body went numb, his eyes closed.

Marco had already called medics, and they were on their way...

Zemirah was still watching Detlef.

"We need to leave," I said. "Xavier is still around, he can launch an attack on us."

She stood, Detlef's blood on her knees.

"Where do we go from here?"

"Home, we have to restrategize and we also need to find Xavier and put a stop to this nonsense."

She looked at the dead bodies around, my faithful soldiers.

"Was your plan to have them kill eachother?" She asked.

"I wanted to protect you." 

"You just erupted a war, hope you're ready for what's coming?"

I knew she was right, Xavier would do worse than he'd attempted, Detlef's survival was hanging on a thread, I had to find a way but right now, I had to take Zemirah out of this vicinity.

"Let's go." I said.

She didn't argue, we left.

Behind us, Marco organized meds for the wounded, securing the prisoners, doing everything in my place. He'd been cleaning my mess for years.

We got to where the car was, the driver had already started the engine, I opened the door for Zemirah, she got in and I went around to the other side.

The car had already begun moving before I closed the door.

I looked behind through the rare window, we had left the scene of the fight.

"You know you didn't have to save him right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"Why did you?"

I had a keen thought about it, the sad look on Detlef's face when he said Zemirah helped him become a better person.

"Because I'm not better than him, if I let him die, it's not in my power to decide who lives or who does, I'm not the mouth-piece of the gods.”

She turned from the window, towards me.

"That's who you are, an Alpha, it's you who decides who lives or does everyday, the only question is, do you pretend to make yourself feel better?"

The car jerked as it hit a bump.

"In my own opinion, you should have let him die."

"Stop pretending you're a saint, you act like you didn't give an instruction that I be put on that ridge, you made Detlef and Xavier fight, now Detlef is wounded and his recovery isn't even sure, now you're pretending to be a good person because saving him will make you feel good eventually, that's half decency."

I didn't know what to say, because everything she said was right.

"I'm not saying helping him is wrong," she said. "I'm saying take responsibility, this is what you wanted all along, accept it, don't try to cover it up."

I looked at her for a while, "ain't you scared of me?"

"No, I'm not."

"Why are you not?"

She turned to look outside the window. We were on the main road now, almost at the pack house.

"Because everything I feared happened to me and I survived it all."

We drove the rest of the way in silence.

\------

The house was quiet when we returned.

Elara was at the door, she glanced at Zemirah's blood stained knees and led her towards the bathroom.

I went to my study, the mask was still on the desk, the markers still where I left them exactly.

My phone buzzed, Marco was calling.

"Detlef's been stabilized," he said. "The medics were able to get the bleeding under control, he's unconscious but they assured me he'll be fine."

"Where's he now?"

"Blue Crescent medical Wing, Rhode is there with him, the whole pack is on curfew, they know what has happened and they're waiting for your orders."

"At this point they don't know who's in charge anymore."

"Okayyy."

"It's time for you to make a decision," Marco said. "And you need to make it hasty."

"I'm aware."

I hung up.

The study door flung open, Zemirah came in, she had cleaned up nicely.

"Elara prepared tea," she said.

"I don't want tea."

"What are you planning?" She asked.

"Go after Xavier, secure Detlef's territory, absorb his pack to mine, and make sure nobody gets hurt by my actions today."

"After that?"

I didn't answer, all my focus had been on ensuring her safety.

"You said I'd be free to live after all these right?"

"Yes, I said so."

"Then I'd like to leave tomorrow."

"Where?"

"I don't know, anywhere around the world, start afresh, with a new identity."

I wanted to argue, but I couldn't dissuade her.

"Well, I can't say much, if that's what you want, then may the goddess guide you.

"Thank you for everything Nandez."

I smiled and nodded, she left the study, I could hear footsteps in the hallway.

I picked my phone and called Marco.

"Monitor Xavier's movements, and his transaction history from the last six months." I said to him, "Zemirah leaves tomorrow."

The burden of everything had begun to weigh me down at this point.