Chapter 59: The Last Encounter

Chapter 59: The Last Encounter


Tension filled Lisa's fortress, metal and sweat stench air made the cramped hallways intolerably thick. Each step Jake and Zane took forward was with the echoing ring in the vast halls, coarse expectation-filled breathing. They had fought out there, and now they stood at her doorstep.

Lisa had positioned herself all the way across the hall, head held high like a monarch over her people. Her bright eyes were ablaze with victory as she acknowledged them with a firm clap, the sound reverberating strangely off stone.

"I have to say," she rested her head, one side on her forefinger, "I didn't expect you to get this far. But I suppose you've always had a knack for surprising me, Jake."

Jake's knuckles were white, fists clenched. "This is over tonight, Lisa."

She smiled. "Oh, I think so. But not the way you think.".

A groaning line of heavy doors creaked open behind her, and out into the sunlight stepped a group of figures. Jake's breath caught. He knew them—all of them. His pack. The men and women he'd shared a life with, trained with, fought alongside. But something was wrong. Their eyes weren't there, their walk mechanical, as if they were puppets on strings.

Lisa’s laughter was laced with cruelty. “Recognize them? Your family? They’re mine now.”

Zane’s jaw tightened as he took a defensive stance. “You drugged them.”

Lisa’s smirk widened. “That little formula I’ve been perfecting? It works wonders. They obey without question, without hesitation. And now, they’ll fight for me.”

Jake’s stomach twisted as one of his closest childhood friends, Ethan, stepped forward, his expression void of emotion. “Jake… stand down.”

Jake stepped back, his head shaking. "No. Ethan, it's me. It's Jake."

"They cannot hear you," Lisa said, her voice trembling with satisfaction. "They are bound to me now."

Ethan attacked.

Jake did not have time to defend himself, his arms crying out in the raw violence of the strike. More of his pack companions closed in, slashing wildly with their claws. He had battled them before, but that was different. They were not holding back. They were not themselves.

Zane roared as he took down two of the assailants, but even his uncontrolled strength could not hide the desperation shining in his eyes. "Jake, we have to move! They're going to kill us!"

Jake's head reeled. How could he fight his own pack? How could he hurt them when they didn't know what they were doing? With each blow, he hit him with a sense of betrayal, but each hesitation gave them space to cut him down.

Lisa sat back, smiling. "See you, caught between duty and survival. As I taught you to be."

Her words sliced through him, opening wounds that had taken years to scab over. Her voice still ringing in his head, reminding him of everything he'd ever been taught: weakness was to trust, mercy was death. Could it be? Was there no way out from under this?

And then a scream.

Jake turned in time to see Zane fall. One of the controlled wolves had sunk their claws into his abdomen. Blood burst forth, rich and black, onto the snow-covered floor.

"ZANE!"

Zane staggered, pain flashing across his face, but his resolve hardened. He grabbed the attacking wolf and flung them aside, then turned to Lisa with a burning gaze. “I’m ending this.”

Lisa raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

Zane took a deep breath. And then did something nobody could have anticipated.

He shifted.

Not only into wolf shape—but back again. Something primal. His body elongated, fur darkening to midnight, eyes blazing with unholy of gold fire. The room reeled under the force of his being there. He had released something deep within him, something forbidden.

Lisa's refusal face finally broke down. "That's impossible…"

Jake shook with fear, regardless of the turmoil. He had never seen Zane behave in such a manner before. It was like the wild strength of their bloodline had awakened within him.

Zane snarled at a deafening pitch before attacking Lisa with unyielding violence. Lisa managed to get out of his way, her sneer twisting into a grimace of struggle. For the first time ever, she was no longer in control.

Jake looked at his pack. He could not allow them to stay under her control. He had but one choice.

Closing his eyes, he deep inside of him reached, grabbing hold of all the last scrap of strength which was left there. He remembered Ethan, lying out under the stars before him, hungry for freedom. He remembered that which he'd been taught—not those things Lisa schooled him on masterful do how, but those things which he'd had to teach himself. Those which'd taught him about love, loyalty, and the freedom to choose.

And with it, he let out a howl.

A howling howl that shook deep across the room, startling the very foundations of Lisa's control.

Ethan winced. Then another wolf fell over again. And another. They writhed as if they were fighting something within their very self.

Lisa lost control to fury. "NO! They're MINE!"

But already they were.
The pack's eyes flashed to warning. The hold of the drug was starting to slip.

Lisa, witnessing her own kingdom tearing itself apart around her, made a final, desperate lunge. She sprang at Jake, claws extended, fury distorting her features into something less than human.

But she never quite succeeded. 

Zane intercepted her, sending her crashing to the ground with a force that shook the stone floor beneath them. His breath was harsh, his body still humming with that other energy.

Lisa coughed, blood staining her lips. Even now, she glared up at them with defiance. “You think you’ve won?” she rasped.

Jake stepped forward, his chest heaving. “It’s over, Lisa.”

She laughed, the sound brittle. “It’s never over.”

The room shook as an explosion rocked the fortress.

Lisa had prepared for failure. And now, she would take them all down with her.

Jake just managed to get out of the way in time as the ceiling had crashed down on him. He grabbed Zane, half-stunned from the events. "We need to get out—NOW!"

The pack, still freed at last, staggered in a run, their minds still reeling but their more primal animal brain finally kicking in.

As they ran, Jake caught one last look at Lisa. She was sprawled on the ground, her contorted smile still fixed to her face.

And then the walls collapsed.

Jake and Zane had barely escaped as the fortress collapsed on top of Lisa, covering her with waves of dust and rubble.

There was an eternity of silence.

Then the blackness was broken by harsh gasps and pounding hearts. They had survived.

But at what cost?

Zane, his enemies' blood still on his face, approached Jake, his throat dry. "Is it finally over?"

Jake looked out over the blackened ruin. "I don't know."

Something new existed out there in the distance, on the perimeter.

But for a moment, they had prevailed.
The war had just begun, though.