Death's Saviour

Author's Song of the Chapter: Animals by Maroon5

We walk into the school as a group but split up as we head to our homerooms, just because we aren’t together doesn’t mean we can’t continue to talk and sense each other’s emotions.

‘What was that all about Danny, what did that guy Tucker want?’ - Garth’s voice comes into my mind and I know he is talking to all of us so that we can hear Danny’s response.

‘Tucker wants to talk to Noah and me in the forest after school, I think he knows.’ - Danny responds, nerves leaking into his voice.

‘Why, why does he want to meet with Noah and you? How could he possibly know?’ - Carl sends a concerned question, though his voice holds a curiosity that makes me roll my eyes, he’s always had an eye for Tucker.

‘I’m not a hundred percent sure, I get the feeling they think they know who the Hellhound is. Tucker is a more reasonable guy than Crane thinks, he might want to hear our side of things.’ - Danny explains as if he is thinking aloud for us all to hear.

‘Are you going to meet with him?’ - Cassie’s voice asks as if she is deep in a conflicted thought.

‘Noah, this one is up to you man.’ - Danny tells me alone.

‘Let’s see how the day goes and then I’ll let you guys know.’ - I tell them all as I think about it, this is one that I should probably contact Dusk about, she’ll want to be in on this in case it’s a trap.

‘You should really get Dusk’s opinion on this; her insight could be helpful!’ - Sicora points out, I can’t help but smirk at how loyal Sicora has become as Dusk’s first beta.

‘I’ll let her know what’s going on and see what she thinks about the matter.’ - I respond back to that unable to keep that smirk from leaking into my voice through a pinch of pride.

‘If you guys decide to meet Tucker you should let us all go for backup!’ - Garth suggests in a deep growl as if he ready for a trap, ready for a fight.

‘No, if we do this it will just be Danny, Dusk, Carl, and I. If it turns out to be an ambush I don’t want to be giving away just how many of us there are quiet yet. I’d like to keep the upper hand here. Besides something about this seems like it’s not an ambush to me, I think if it had been Tucker wouldn’t have looked like he was trying so hard to have a straight face. Tucker is currently pale as he sits in a seat away from his pack, that isn’t normal.’ - I respond to my packmates honestly as I glance across the class watching Tucker sitting by the windows staring out of them.

‘Fine, just keep us in the loop.’ - Garth concedes but it is obvious he is not happy that they are not being included.

It’s something that we will have to make up to them, Sicora and Garth are Dusk’s first betas, so they have come to feel they serve a certain strength role when they are by our sides. I’m about to contact Dusk through our link when Caroline slams into the seat beside me running her nails along the edge of my arm surprising me.

“Hey there Noah.” Caroline smiles with a wicked look before dragging her nails along my arm as they turn darker and deadlier.

I stay silent pretending to flinch away from her as a human would but it just makes her grin widen,

“You don’t have to pretend to be a human anymore Noah. We know the truth, a little birdy told us a secret about you.” Caroline laughs as all eyes turn to us as the seats have all filled.

Even the teacher stops writing on the smart-board to watch the interaction. I look past Caroline and out the window into the forest as my heartbeat picks up, that’s when Tucker’s eyes move to mine and I know. I know what they think they know.

“I’m not pretending anything, Caroline,” I reply in a calm voice and continue to focus past her on Tucker who watches us closely waiting for something, probably a sign.

“Come on Noah, you can be honest with us. I’ll make your death quicker if you do, after all, you are the Hellhound, so you have o die!” Caroline’s voice turns hard as her claws slash down my arm causing blood to drop to the floor in riveting droplets.

The whole classroom seems to move in on me as they watch the cuts, they watch as blood dribbles to the floor, they watch as my arm heals itself. The only trace of the cuts is the blood on the floor by my desk. Caroline’s eyes practically glow as she looks at me with pure hatred. Tucker leans our way waiting for me to do something, waiting for me to explode.

“See that wasn’t so hard was it Noah?” Caroline sighs as she puts her hand back on my arm.

I react, I grab Caroline’s hand curling it away from my arm by her wrist causing her to wince and whine as she gasps in pain.

“I’m sure you think you know who and what I am Caroline, I’m sure you think you’ve finally found your Hellhound. Maybe you have maybe you haven’t, either way, you won’t know because if you lay another hand on my I’ll snap your neck right here for everyone to see.” I say to her in a completely even tone and I mean it, I’m panicking and I react on instinct now.

My instinct is to fight my way the hell out of here before they all make a move on me, I try to breathe flatly, but my heart is racing and I ache to shift. I ache to rip Caroline to pieces. Ice ripples through me and I fight it. My eyes threaten to glow but I fight that back as well, instead I do the only thing I can rationally do right now.

‘Dusk!’ - I call out in my mind begging her to answer me, needing her to hear me or else I’m going to lose it right here if I shift they will come for me.

‘Noah, what’s wrong?’ - Dusk responds to me right away, something inside of me warms as I see a flicker of dark fur and green eyes out the window in the edge of the forest.

‘They think I’m the Hellhound, they know I’m a Wolf. Everyone knows I’m panicking, I’m going to shift right here and rip Caroline apart. I’m losing control Dusk!’ - I explain the last part coming out as more of a snarl than words.

‘Listen to me Noah, you can’t kill her, not in front of everyone. Doing so would only prove to them that they are right, you must control yourself. Reign yourself in, do it for me, Noah. I’m here, you can feel my strength. Once you regain control to find out who told them this information. Be careful, they won’t be after Danny, they will be after you! Don’t back down from them, don’t show fear or they will pounce. Play it off as if nothing is happening, calm the wolf, be the alpha!’ - Dusk talks, with every word she calms me, she calms me until I no longer feel like I’m losing it.

I have control, I reign it in. I’m not panicking anymore. I can take these sore excuses for Wolves if I need to, they don’t have anything on me. So, they know I’m a Wolf, it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t make any difference. My pack is safe, Dusk is safe. They have nothing on me.

“Go on, hurt me, Noah, kill me, show us who you really are!” Caroline smiles as she jerks her arm in my grip.

I let Caroline go and she almost falls back out of her seat, her grin turning into a frown as she watches me go back to ignoring her.

“Don’t you want to hurt me, react?” Caroline pushes me as she gets back in my face.

I turn to face her meeting her eye to eye. Caroline frowns at the bored look I wear, also that I challenge her by looking directly in her eyes.

“Believe it or not, as much as I would love to kill you, Caroline, I won’t,” I say to her causing her to flinch a little as she looks into my cold eyes.

“You killed my brother, this is payback, Noah! This exposure will be the end of it all!” Caroline snaps at me as she grabs a hold of my arm digging her claws in drawing more blood.

“Watch it, Caroline, you wouldn’t want to break the rules. That wouldn’t be much of a fun way to die, besides this isn’t much of a punishment. So, everyone knows I’m a Wolf, good, I’m glad. I can finally stop pretending to be breakable and start standing up for myself. I think I’ll start with learning who the person was that gave up this information to you.” I smile as I watch Caroline pull her claws from my arm before glaring at me with that deep hatred again.

“We will break you, Noah, we will break you like we broke Hannah.” Caroline threatens but she doesn’t even get a tick out of me.

I know the truth about Hannah and what happened. I know who I am and who I love, Caroline can try to use Hannah against me as much as she wants but she won’t get any form of reaction out of me. I sigh as I give her a sidelong glance and that’s it.

Finally, Caroline gives up and the class starts normally as if nothing happened, but something did happen. I am a Wolf and now the humans know it, they look at me differently. The humans look at me with new eyes, they look at me with wonder and awe, they do not look at me with the fear that I expected them to have. Instead, they look at me with pride as if I am doing them justice as well, a sense of pride and power rises in me and it feels good. It feels like nothing I have ever felt before, this is true power, and Caroline knows it.