Dragon 1 Chapter 29 (Patreon)

As I stood, preparing to square off against a massive alpha wolf hyped up on drugs and magic, I once again questioned the choices I’d made to reach that moment.

The fucker was huge. Chad tore through the last of the shaft. Blood seeped from where his skin tore and stretched too far as he worked his mouth. I squinted at the massive monster; he seemed even bigger than the last time.

“Get out of the shaft.” I yelled, knowing it was about to become the sight of a carnage.

But the wolves just continued fighting; none of them listened to me. And they paid the price. Chad’s giant body landed on top of many of them, and those he hadn’t hit he tore through with no concern for what side they were on. It was gore on the level of some twisted horror film.

I knew my gun wouldn’t put a dent in him, and I doubted Scarlett’s knife would go deep enough to do any actual damage. We were limited in our options to slow him down and keep him from the other alpha.

The best tool I had was my breath, and I had to hope it wouldn’t fail me at that moment.

I focused, feeling the heat build in my chest, and I smiled. It would come when I called it. But before I could do anything, a crash came from behind me as another huge alpha wolf stumbled drunkenly through the bunker, tangled up in wires and dragging medical equipment as it thrashed, ripping the wires off. He sagged low, his eyes burned with determination.

Chad didn’t seem to consider the alpha much of a threat, his lupine grin growing wider. He charged, completely ignoring Scarlett and I as he slammed into the wolf I assumed was Stewart. Both of them went down in a mess.

The two of them, both titans of their right, destroyed the bunker, reducing the cinder block walls to dust every time they collided.

I couldn’t unleash my fire breath without killing them both, so I held it. Spitting a curse, I pulled out my gun and squeezed off several rounds into Chad, hoping to weaken him at least slightly. But they were nothing more than gnats the way he ignored them.

It took little time before Stewart was pinned to the ground and Chad went to town, flaying the other werewolf’s chest. I realized he was probably trying to get his heart like he did Brent’s. I had to stop it, and I no longer had a reason to hold back my fire.

Stepping forward, I pulled Scarlett behind me. “Stay back.”

I focused on the pent up fire in my chest, and I let it loose. Fire streamed out of my mouth and quickly blossomed in the air, billowing into a cloud of raging flames. The flames consumed both werewolves, but my breath only lasted a few seconds before it petered out.

Luckily, it was long enough to do some serious damage.

As the flames and smoke cleared, all I could see was a dark, still lump on the floor. The noise of the surrounding werewolves went silent for a moment. The wolves at the bottom of the shaft had stopped fighting and watched for their alpha. To see if they survived.

The black lump moved, and Chad’s grotesquely large head rose, pushing a blackened and charred body off of it. My heart fell, he’d rolled Stewart into the brunt of the heat, protecting himself.

But it hadn’t been a total loss. One of Chad’s arms ended in a black stump at his elbow. It must have been the one he used to hold the other alpha ahead of him. I’d blackened much of Chad’s skin, but it was all surface level damage that was healing before my eyes.

I breathed deep, gathering more heat into my chest. Or at least, I tried to, but that heat felt dry and empty. I didn’t have a continuous stream, and it looked like I’d used what I had.

“Zach, what’s happening? Why aren’t you finishing this?” Scarlett said, hiding behind me.

“Can’t.” It came out in a quiet growl. I was mad at my body, but I stared Chad down, not wanting him to see weakness.

The gesture might have been enough, because fear entered Chad’s eyes, and he bolted on three legs for the exit, tearing through the wolves again as he broke into the open air. He just needed time to heal. Then I knew he’d be back.

I looked around. Stewart’s pack was in shambles, and their alpha was dead. I’d cooked him thoroughly, and luckily destroyed the heart I assumed Chad had been after. There was no reason for Chad to stay. The rest of Chad’s pack followed his lead, but they struggled to get out of the shaft without the size advantage that Chad had.

I couldn’t let Chad get away. He’d just target another pack, and we might not be there in time to stop the next one. Taking a deep breath, I filled my nose with his scent, which still lingered throughout the bunker.

Looking at all the wolves on the ladder, I tried to figure out how to get myself out of the bunker. Deciding to try out an idea, I turned to Scarlett.

“Hold on to me.” Bending over slightly, she jumped and latched onto my back, her arms wrapping around my shoulders.

“What are we doing now?” She sounded a little scared.

I ran at the werewolves, but before I got too close, I bent at the knees like loaded springs and used all my enhanced strength to launch myself up and out of the collapsed shaft. My strength and for once my lower mass didn’t let me down; it was like flying briefly as I shot into the air, clearing the werewolves and landing outside the massive freshly dug hole.

“Wow.” Scarlett said, jumping off my back. I smiled, but I wasn’t done yet. Rain misted down as a storm rolled in, followed by flashes of lightning and booms of thunder, as the scene grew even more grisly.

“I’m going after Chad, Scarlett. He can’t get away again; not this time.” I pushed off the ground with a loping stride. Pushing my legs further, my next step cleared several meters, the one after that moving me even further.

“Hey, wait up.” Scarlett shouted behind me and she raced after me, but there was no time. I had Chad’s scent, and I was going to chase him down and end it all.

Each leaping stride ate up ground faster than any pace my human legs could have ever gone.

Bounding through the woods, I closed in on Chad, his scent growing stronger. Eventually, I was close enough to hear him crashing through the woods ahead. He was injured, and it was slowing him down.

Something about the thought of a weakened prey woke up the primal part of me that wanted to hunt.

Chad was cutting a jagged path through the woods, eventually ending up under an overpass. It was the middle of the night, so not many cars were on the road. He came to a stop in the shadows of the overpass.

Stooping down, Chad cradled where his arm had burned away. I watched as he shifted back into Chad, the starting quarterback. His eyes were bloodshot and ghostly pale around the edges. He didn’t look right.

Chad saw me and stumbled back under the overpass, like he was going to keep running. Rain was running off the highway, making a curtain of streams between us. I took a step forward, my foot splashing on the muddy ground.

I pulled to breathe fire again, but it was a slowly building fire, one that wasn’t ready yet. Knowing I needed to buy some time, I stalled. “Chad. It’s over. The council knows you are here. They are circling you even now.”

In the deeper shadows of the overpass, all I could make out were his glowing eyes in the darkness as he turned to me. “You don’t understand. No one understands.”

“Then help me understand, Chad. We found something to reverse the drug. We could undo all of this and save those other werewolves.” And I meant it. If we could cure Chad, it would help all the other wolves. For that, I would hold back on finishing this with him. It may come back to bite me in the ass later, but it was worth all the lives saved.

Chad’s breathing was deep and ragged. I began to wonder what was going on in the darkness. It seemed like more than a wounded arm. “The pressure. So much pressure to be the best. Always the best. And even then, it wasn’t enough. I had to be better and better until no one could dare think of trying to be my equal. Do you understand that sort of pressure?” Chad sounded unhinged, but I could understand what he was saying.

I’d experienced pressure, just like anybody, but I’d also had a pretty wonderful support system most of my life. I wondered what had led Chad to crack. Was he really destined to be a beta from the beginning, and this resulted from pushing himself too far to be an alpha?

“Okay, so what do we do, Chad? How do we take away the pressure?” I tried to keep him engaged. The fire was building back up inside of me, and I just needed a little longer.

Howls pierced the night, and heavy gunfire followed. It sounded like the wolves were out of the bunker and the sirens had arrived. I hoped they had gotten enough of the cleansing potion made to save the wolves.

“He offered. He gave me a way out, to become better than ever and consume the other alphas.”

I paused, processing what he’d just said. I’d known deep down it had felt like more than Chad was capable of, but I hated that it all went deeper.

“He who, Chad? Who did this?” I guessed that person was likely also responsible for the drug. “Chad, who gave you the dagger?” I stepped forward, eager to know.

Lighting lit up the sky, illuminating everything around us. In the light, I saw Chad crouching, ready to pounce, the obsidian dagger in his hands.

The runoff from the highway splashed as he erupted from his crouch, and I barely grabbed onto his wrist before the dagger touched me. I knew little about the dagger, but I had a feeling letting it touch me would be a mistake.

Twisting, I rolled him over, splashing the two of us into a muddy puddle and pushing his hand further away from me. “Who gave this to you?” I shouted over the storm.

I had him pinned down, but I felt something approaching behind me. Rolling off Chad, I narrowly avoided a werewolf passing through the space I’d just been in.

I could hear the splashing of many paws. Another peel of lighting lit up the night sky, confirming that I was surrounded by dozens of werewolves.

“Maybe I’ll tell you after I kill you.” Chad wiped at his mouth as he rose out of the puddle covered in mud. “You are strong. I don’t know what you are, but you are close enough to a shifter that I think this’ll work on you too.” He flashed the sinister dagger at me.

I was surrounded with a homicidal maniac pointing a magic dagger at me, but my mind had still caught on one thing he’d said. “You think I’m close enough to be considered a shifter?”

Chad paused, pulling up short, clearly confused at where I was going. The surrounding wolves howled in frustration at the pause.

“I challenge you for your alpha position.” I projected my voice, hoping I’d done it properly.

Wolves all around me started howling into the sky, growling and barking as they backed up, making a large ring for us to fight in. I was glad that the drugs hadn’t numbed their brains to where they would ignore their traditions.

Chad’s face went slack. He hadn’t been expecting that, and I could see fear taking root inside of him. The same insecurities that had caused him to go down this path were exactly what I was bringing forward. One on one, he didn’t have the security of the pack behind him.

Chad immediately shifted, but this time he didn’t shift to the massive monstrosity. It was closer to when we’d fought on campus. I hadn’t realized he’d be able to still shift to that form.

His arms sprouted fur, and his one remaining hand turned to wicked claws. He leaned forward as his back elongated, hunched with muscles. His feet and legs became a hairy mess, but his legs remained human instead of the digitigrade legs of a werewolf.

It was a show of his skill that he was able to manage such a partial transformation. I imagined this form would also be far quicker than if he were a big, hulking brute.

It made sense. Chad was concerned about my fire. Remaining light and nimble enough to have a chance to get out of the way when it came was a safer bet.

I at least had to give him a nod of respect for using his brains, but I’d have to find a way to torch him, regardless. It was my best bet at winning.

“You’ll regret this.” Chad put down the dagger to the side, surprising me. I figured he’d use it, but maybe weapons weren’t allowed in an alpha challenge.

Chad began circling around, and I watched him. But he moved faster than I expected, his claws catching my shirt before I could lean back, tearing the front wide open and scoring shallow red lines across my chest.

“You sure about that?” I brought my hands up and came at him, throwing punch after punch at him, pushing forward. Unfortunately, his legs seemed like giant springs as he bounced backwards effortlessly.

The wolves around us howled like a stadium full of spectators watching their favorite bloodsport. There was something terribly macabre about cheers taking the form of howls.

Chad lashed forward with his singular arm again, but this time I blocked it, stepping forward with a direct punch to his chest. He sprang back with my punch, and I knew it didn’t connect solidly enough to do anything to the werewolf.

The fight continued on like that. Chad kept dancing around me, taking small, calculating swings. He hadn’t gone for any killing blows; he was trying to wear me down.

I had fully expected Chad to be all brute force and no brains; he was proving me wrong. Chad was more strategic than I’d given him credit for, and I was still early in my training with Morgana.

Chad’s claws raked across my body, destroying my jacket and dying my shirt red. With the help of the rain, the crimson color quickly bled down through to my pants. The muddy ground beneath us was getting slicker by the second as rain poured off the highway and our feet mixed it into the ground.

I ducked his next probing attack, realizing his strategy was working. He was wearing me down. I decided it was time to play dirty.

Grabbing a hunk of mud in my left hand, I came up, slinging it in his face. He hadn’t expected it, instinctively moving to try to dodge it. I used his movement to my advantage. My right hand came around in a hook he didn’t see coming, and I got a clean hit to the side of his head. He staggered back; I’d got him good.

Pressing forward, I got in several more solid jabs before I caught his chin and he fumbled backwards. I only needed to keep him still long enough to finish this.

“I was never that weak. Alpha wolves can’t be that weak.” Chad’s voice came up next to us. I did a double take, but then I realized with my dragon eye, it wasn’t a physical body, but one of Scarlett’s illusions.

The real Chad screamed in rage and clawed at the illusion, dispelling it in a puff and completely losing his cool. I silently thanked Scarlett. It had put him over the edge, and his scrappy fighting was turning into a berserk rampage. That I could handle. He clawed at the wolf behind the illusion and it whimpered, backing up.

All the wolves backed up but started making more noise. Howls and growls picked up, and I realized Chad’s loss of faculties was affecting this pack.

“Think you can get rid of your failure so easily? What a joke.” Another Chad illusion popped up.

This time Chad shifted into his hulking, grotesque werewolf and dove into the surrounding ring of wolves, killing several as he tried to charge away from the illusions. I took advantage and jumped on his back, grabbing his fur to hold on, even as it fell off in tufts.

I was worried the rain would dissipate my fire, but I didn’t have that worry now.

Getting the best grip I could, I saw his massive head rear back and stare at me. There was a look in his eye; he knew it was the end of it. Breathing deeply, I breathed fire right between his shoulder blades.

Bright orange flames washed over Chad and me, the rain and the water exploding in a cloud of steam that hid us in our own little world as my dragon fire torched through Chad’s back, consuming all that he was in just seconds.

I rode what was left of his body to the ground as it splashed messily into the mud.

“Zach?” Scarlett’s voice called outside the steam. Wolves were howling, mourning notes, and I heard heavy engines in the background just before rapid gunfire ripped through the gathering.

Rolling to the ground, I did my best to stay low and get away, ducking under the underpass. “Stop firing! Chad is dead.” I yelled it at the top of my lungs, but through all the wolves and gunfire, no one heard me.

A round seared my shoulder as it nicked me. I was pissed, and the beast bubbled up inside of me until it came out in a deafening roar that rose above all else and blew away the steam cloud.

Everything stopped, paused, and turned to me. “Chad is dead. I won in the alpha challenge. Wolves, stand down.” My tone brooked no argument, and wolves curled in on themselves, their tails tucking under them and many shifted back into naked humans.

It looked like we’d just finished a very violent orgy in the woods.

“Get them potions and clean this up. Oh, and someone get me something to hold that.” I pointed to the obsidian and bone dagger with a look of disgust. I didn’t even want to touch it, but I wanted to keep an eye on it. The dagger was dangerous. I hoped it could either help lead us to the leader, but if not, it needed to just get buried deep in the ground somewhere. Morgana would know what to do.

Sirens jumped off the jeeps, and together with a group of elves, they carried crates around and started offering the potions to the werewolves.

One of the sirens jogged up to me and looked down at the dagger, starting to reach for it. I grabbed him by their collar and jerked him away. “Don’t even touch it. Get someone who knows enough not to do something stupid with it. I want it contained and given to me.”

“O-of course.” He stuttered.

I realized that covered in blood and gore, mixed with my roar, I’d become something deathly terrifying to him.

“Zach.” Scarlett bounded into me, and I let the siren go. “Oh, thank god.” At least Scarlett didn’t fear me.

I kissed her, finally relaxing ever so slightly with her in my arms. I was relieved she was safe.

Picking her up by her thighs and holding her to me, I savored being alive and the feeling of her lips as I threw myself into the kiss, ignoring the mess around us for another day.