Dragon 1 Chapter 24 (Patreon)

And just like that, I found myself riding in a beat up minivan, driving parallel to a raging wolf pack while Morgana leveled a grenade launcher out the window and Kelly reached across, holding the steering wheel stable.

I was really starting to question what life decisions had led me down my current path. I’d gone from pre-med student to… whatever this is with Morgana, in just a few days.

But I also wasn’t sure I was entirely sorry. I felt like I’d been able to do far more good in the past few days than I’d ever been able to while learning in college. It was like I’d sped straight to developing life skills. Keeping werewolves from rampaging the city would save far more than my EMT job.

Morgana’s grenade launcher made a plunking noise as it shot. I’d been ready to have my ears blasted out as it sounded, but I watched the grenade soar out of the car, following the slight plunk. I had to admit; it was anticlimactic. You’d think such a big gun would make a big boom.

The explosion came a moment later as the grenade hit the mass of the pack. Two wolves flew up into the air only to come down behind the pack as the group kept charging the siren’s two jeeps.

Morgana adjusted in the car, then continued sending grenades out with multiple plunks in a row. The first exploded as she fired off her last shot. It was like popcorn in the microwave; four of the five exploded directly on Brent, taking the alpha down. How she’d managed to keep readjusting to aim at him with each quick firing was beyond what I could understand.

I heard a cheer come up from the Sirens ahead. The majority of the pack continued on their quest towards the jeeps, but a few peeled off and turned to protect their alpha.

Brent struggled to get back up; one of his arms was missing most of its muscle, which made standing a tall task. Yet the massive werewolf was regenerating. I had a new respect for just how powerful an alpha could be when it was with its pack.

All three of us bailed as soon as the car stopped. Morgana sped forward, a rifle at her shoulder as she shot into the wolves that had stayed behind to protect Brent. As soon as she was spent, she tossed the rifle to the side, pulling on her blades and carving enough away to keep them busy.

“I’ll try to keep my father busy.” Kelly threw down my jacket, thankfully, before she shifted and dove on Brent, wrestling with the huge werewolf. He had to be almost twice her size. She jumped on his back and strained to get his head in a position where she’d have the leverage to hold him.

With Morgana keeping the pack at bay and Kelly working to hold her father, that left me with the fun job. I just needed to feed a giant, angry werewolf a potion without losing any of my fingers.

“Good boy.” I couldn’t help it as those words slipped out of my mouth as I got up next to Brent.

“Shut up and feed it to him.” Kelly’s voice came out guttural and strained.

I popped the cork and went to pour it in Brent’s mouth before he could recover, but a wolf that I’d thought was down lurched to life and grabbed my leg, pulling itself up. Its maw snapped at my leg to hamstring me.

I didn’t think, I just reacted, pulling my leg away from him. What surprised us both was when his large wolf body was pulled with it. As his body moved forward, I tried to use my other foot to kick him off and ended up cracking him hard enough in the head that I heard the breaking of bone.

We were both a bit stunned, but the hard kick had at least distracted him from biting me and loosened his grip. I quickly turned back to Brent before Kelly lost control of him.

Just as I turned, Brent bucked and tossed Kelly up over his head. She still had a hold of his head, but her weight was already carrying her over and off the giant werewolf.

“Zach!” she yelled, crashing into me.

I caught Kelly juggling the potion in my hand, sloshing some out.

My eye must have shifted, because suddenly I could see the pack magic around me. And it told me the second alpha, the one that led the drug ring, was closing in. Its magic was pressing down on Brent’s more than ever before, and the leader was drawing closer.

Brent was already pushing off the ground, howling into the air, trying to call his pack to fight. He must have sensed the other alpha too now.

“Kelly, the alpha leading the drug ring, is almost here. Fuck. Your dad can sense it.”

“Zach, we have to stop him. There’s no way he wins a fight with those injuries.” Her pleading tone plucked at my heartstrings, and I did something stupid.

Setting her down, I charged Brent. “Here puppy puppy.” I yelled as I tried to tackle Brent. But my mass once again wasn’t anywhere close to what was needed to take down a werewolf.

Instead, I found myself clinging onto his back like a tick as he staggered two steps and then shook like a wet dog, trying to shake me. My finger found the opening for the flask and pressed down onto it, hoping to keep as much of the potion inside as possible while he flung me around.

When he settled down, I started climbing his back as his clawed hands tried to reach around and get a good hold of me. They scraped at my clothes, and I found myself pressing my body as close to him as possible to avoid them as I got my arms around his neck, squeezing hard. Luckily, it was strength and not mass I needed for that move; his throat closed like I had it in a vice.

He thrashed, his claws raking across my arm and causing me to wince in pain as he tore my skin. But I also noticed that in trying to get a breath, his mouth was wide open. I had what might be the only opportunity I’d get; I had to take it.

Working to ignore the pointed teeth and treat it more like dunking a basketball, I shoved my arm into his mouth with the potion, trying to pull it back as quickly as I could before his mouth instinctively closed, like it did. It was a natural reflex, like when a fly goes into your mouth.

So I didn’t blame Brent, too much, when his teeth skinned the back of my hand on as it exited his mouth. I did, however, blame him when he decided to step up his attempts to get rid of me by flopping backwards, crushing my body against the pavement.

Brent rolled away after that, leaving me in a me-sized hole in the pavement.

I gasped, but my lungs refused to pull in air. My chest hurt, almost like I was just body slammed by a half ton werewolf.

Kelly flew onto Brent, her claws raking over the already terrible looking werewolf. He was preoccupied for a moment, trying to get Kelly off, giving me a moment to recover. Flickers of confusion ghosted over his lupine face as he danced away from my hole, and I lost sight of him.

I managed to sit up slightly, wanting to watch his magic. My body protested, but I pushed through it for the moment.

As I got a good look, I could see his magic shifting. The darkness was receding. “Kelly, it’s working. We just need to stall him.”

“Try—ing.” Her voice hitched and started to fade away. I looked over at her to see her be flung off into a crowd of oncoming werewolves.

“No.” I wheezed; they’d tear her apart. Struggling, I pulled myself out of the hole one painful inch at a time.

Brent now was staggering, shaking his head, like he was trying to get something off it. “No. No. NO!!!!” He howled as he started shifting back into a short naked man. The rest of the pack became a mess and started shifting back.

The sirens pulled up at the edge of the area, their guns aimed but not firing. “What’s happening?” The gunner shouted.

“I think we have it under control.” I tried to yell, but it came out with less wind than I intended. Either way, the siren nodded, holding his mounted gun steady on the pack.

Morgana stood to the side covered in blood, but okay. She’d done her part of stalling those wolves.

“Chad? It’s fine, we have this under control.” I picked Kelly’s voice out of the mess as she went to try and comfort her father, despite the nasty wound on her side.

I paused at her comment. Had Chad been running with Brent’s pack? Had the drugs somehow tied him into this mess?

But then I got distracted as I saw the pack magic flutter and flex. The other alpha had arrived.

I looked around, trying to spot the alpha and warn everybody. As a few wolves shifted, the picture became clear, and I felt like I’d been hit by a ton of bricks. Chad was the other alpha, the one connected to the omegas making the drug. His pack magic didn’t have a hint of the orange glow the rest of the wolves had; his was completely tainted, pitch black.

“Kelly, it’s him!” I shouted, trying to warn her, but Chad stepped past her, swiftly grabbing Brent. The young alpha shoved his fist into Brent’s body, pulling out his still beating heart as the spark of life left Brent. Chad pushed him off, holding the heart in his hands.

Shock. That was the only way to describe the moment. Everyone was frozen, trying to process what they had just seen. Even for a pack of werewolves, it was unbelievably savage.

Chad took that moment to pull out an obsidian blade with a carved bone handle. It looked like it belonged in some exhibit for native americans, not in a college football star’s hands. A tassel of horse hair stuck out the butt of the handle and it just felt completely incongruous with everything. Like it was just wrong.

He stabbed the heart and tore a slit in it.

Everyone came back to their senses at that moment. Screams of outrage and howls of mourning filled the air as they rushed Chad. I wanted to get up and move, to fight him, but even standing was beyond my capabilities at the moment. Brent had wrecked my body pretty heavily when he’d slammed me to the ground.

Chad ignored the charging werewolves, lifting the heart to his face and drinking from it with a wide smile on his face. I could see the magic now. The pack magic branched from Brent’s heart to all the other wolves present except Kelly. There was a faint bond between Kelly and Chad, but it was a whisper compared to the rest of the bonds present.

As Chad drank from Brent’s heart, the bonds flowed with the blood and switched from Brent to Chad.

Chaos descended on the scene as the werewolves felt the bond to Chad forming. They were torn between their hate for what he’d done and the emotional tie they now felt. Chad smiled, seeming to recognize their dilemma.

Chad chose that moment to shift. He grew and didn’t seem to stop for several seconds until he was even a head taller than Brent had been.

But he wasn’t a majestic beast as Brent had been. There was something sickly about him, his proportions just slightly off. His mouth seemed too big for his head, which seemed too big for his body. It was almost like a caricature.

Chad’s oversized head lifted into the air, but he didn’t howl. Instead, he let out a deafening roar, his mouth stretching so wide that his skin tore at the edges of his jaw. It was just unnatural.

I could see the bonds between Chad and the pack pulling tighter. Like he was leading a hundred dogs for a walk, Chad broke into a lope, pulling each of the wolves with him. As I watched, he took control of the pack.

Some tried to root themselves to the ground in protest, but it didn’t work. His pull as the alpha was stronger. Soon, the entire pack was off in a full run.

That was when I noticed the sirens, standing at their guns and seeming to stare dumbfounded at the scene. “Shoot him.” I yelled at them, pointing at Chad.

That seemed to pull them to attention. They brought their guns around, firing into him, but Chad just plowed past their two jeeps, pulling his new pack of werewolves with him. I could see his pack magic solidifying as they ran together.

Kelly’s sobbing brought me back to the present. I tried to get up again, only to stumble and fall. Morgana came and helped me up, shaking her head at the situation. I didn’t blame her for not taking on Chad and his new pack, but part of me wanted to be angry with someone or something about this.

“Morgana, I could see his magic. He’s the one that was behind the drugs; all the omegas had a pack bond with him. I never saw his magic before, didn’t think to check him. I could have known.” My fists clenched until my knuckles popped.

“Yes, it’s clear now. But don’t beat yourself up for not seeing it sooner. He was a jerk, but no one suspected this level of treachery from him. I didn’t see it. Jadelyn and her father didn’t see it. Knowing Rupert, he had that boy investigated by Detective Fox before he sent his daughter anywhere near him. All that, and they missed this. You are not at fault.” Morgana did her best to console me.

It helped some, but I couldn’t help but still feel guilt. It had been right in front of me. I clenched my teeth so hard I was afraid they were going to crack.

The other wolves started to stir from where they lay in the street. A few had been pushed past their regenerative abilities and were dying in the street, but some were regaining consciousness and awareness. They had been too beat up to follow Chad but as they recovered, it seemed they were being pulled like the others to run with him.

Kelly looked at me, and I nodded. They were the best use of the potion now. Kelly ran back to the van and gathered what potion we had left, going around and distributing it to the recovering wolves. At least she didn’t seem affected, I noticed the bond between her and Chad was fading, almost gone. Had he broken her trust so much that she left the still forming pack?

“Morgana. The boss wants to speak with you.” One siren handed a brick of a phone off to her.

Morgana held it up to her ear, and I could hear unintelligible squawking on the other end. Whoever that was, they weren’t happy. The tirade continued for a moment, Morgana’s face an impassive mask, but finally it stopped. “Rupert. I don’t know what they told you, but it was Chad. All the drug business, all the omega wolves, and now this.” She looked over at me as she continued.

“Somehow, he stole Brent’s pack bond. He dirtied Brent’s magic and then used that to steal all of his pack bonds. It was the same dirty magic as the wolves that worked the drugs; it all led back to Chad.”

There was a pause on the other end, and Morgana’s face hardened. “Did you get that Rupert? My charge can see magic. I have no doubt what he saw was accurate. You need to put a kill order out on Chad. Now.”

More squawking sounded, but Morgana cut him off. “I don’t care. Look, I know he was supposed to be your future son-in-law, but this isn’t something you forgive and forget. You didn’t see this, Rupert. He tore out another alpha’s heart and stole his pack. This isn’t just werewolves fighting for dominance; this is dark and forbidden magic.”

Her anger was barely restrained at that point. “Don’t test my patience. This isn’t the time for games.” Morgana hissed before hanging up on Rupert and talking to me as she handed the sirens the phone. “Sometimes I wish he’d dispense with the politics.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, worried about the answer.

“It almost sounded like he wanted to discuss a truce for Chad and to deescalate the situation. Idiot. I’ve seen people this power hungry before. They’ve thrown off the guise of civility and given the chance, they would tear everything apart before they give up any power.”

“Are they at least looking for him?” I asked.

“They are, but he isn’t a wild pack of werewolves this time. It seemed like he was in control. He’ll be harder to track.”

I had a feeling that was why they ran. It hadn’t felt like he was fearful for his life. He must have been using it to exert control. Based on the way the pack magic had solidified further, it must have somehow strengthened the bonds. I explained what I’d seen to Morgana, but it was Kelly that finally spoke up. She’d been standing nearby, listening with her enhanced hearing.

“Packs run during the full moon to restore their mana and to reinforce the pack bond. I have no doubt you’re right; he ran because that was how he would finish stealing my father’s pack.” Her eyes watered, tears threatening to fall. But she squeezed her eyes shut and wiped her face with the back of her hand spreading a smear of blood across her face.

“Zach, it’s time to go home and rest.” Morgana urged me.

I wanted to keep chasing, keep fighting, but I knew she was right. My body wouldn’t put up with any more of that. I needed to heal before I’d be of any use in hunting Chad down.