Territory (11 page)

Briggs and Reiner were tearing each other apart. Red fur rose in great puffs from their struggle in the center of the room. Kya’s heart leapt with pride to see Briggs clamp down on Reiner’s throat and force the Beta to the ground.

Theron raised his pistol and centered it at Kya’s chest, “She’s the liar. She and her pack pretend to be caretakers, but they are just takers. Look at her!” Theron shook his pistol toward Kya. “Do you see the bruises and scars on her body? Look what they’ve done to her.”

Kya gasped audibly shaking her head as angry tears stung at her eyes. Kya opened her mouth to protest, but Theron cut her off.

“Is that how you want to be treated? She is their lone female. Do you see any others? They take turns with her; they beat her and use her.”

Briggs growled from his position over Reiner, still holding the Beta to the ground. Theron turned wild eyes to the now standing four females. “They’ll do the same to you!

I made you. I can change you back. Fight for me now and I
will
change you back.” Theron turned to Kya. “TAKE HER DOWN!”

Kya had no time to react as the four undecided females finally chose their side. The first two to lunge at her were clipped from the air by Dell as he flew into their path and knocked them to the ground. Briggs instantly released his hold on Reiner to race to Kya’s aid, but before he could reach her Reiner sunk his teeth into Briggs back leg. Briggs turned back to Reiner and attacked.

Kya was backing into a corner as the last two remaining females approached her, growling and baring their teeth. “Please, you don’t have to do this. You can’t trust him. He won’t change you back because he can’t.” Kya looked down at her exposed legs, “These bruises and scars…
they
did this to me.”

The two wolves forced Kya into a corner as they continued to stalk forward. One of the wolves leaned back on her haunches, preparing to lunge. Kya took a deep breath preparing to shift when the office door was thrown open.

Chloe and Stevie raced to Kya’s aid, shifting to wolf form before Kya had time to blink. Chloe attacked one female while Stevie attacked the other. Hannah followed Chloe and Kya into the room but stopped at the threshold staring wide-eyed into the room.

Briggs and Reiner still fought viscously in the center of the room while Dell was still taking on the two females. Kyler and Tyler were each squared off against two wolves from Dell’s pack while the remaining six female wolves were squared off against six of Dell’s male wolves. Theron’s females were losing terribly as were Kyler and Tyler.

“Wh-wh-what have you done?” Hannah asked in shock, her voice barely audible over the growling and snarls of the fighting wolves.

Kya turned to Hannah, “I-I…I didn’t mean for this to happ…” Kya’s words were cut off as Hannah turned angry eyes to Theron.

“You lying bastard.” Tears streamed down Hannah’s cheeks. “You said you’d kill her and it’d all be over. You said I could have Briggs. You promised to let us leave without a fight.”

Kya’s shocked expression melted away, rage forming in its place. “You! You told them where to find me in the woods. You set me up!” Kya’s hands fisted at her sides as she stalked toward Hannah.

Hannah turned to Kya, “This is all
your
fault. If you never would have come to our territory, none of this would have happened.”

As Kya got within feet of Hannah, she cocked back her right arm to throw a punch.

BANG! Kya’s hand froze in mid-air and all the wolves turned and quieted, afraid to discover who’d been shot. Kya watched Hannah’s anger slide from her face. Shock, pain, then a blank stare forming Hannah’s features before Hannah fell to the ground. Kya looked up to see smoke still permeating from Theron’s Glock.

“Enough!” Theron shouted into the room.

“You sonofa…” Kya didn’t get the chance to finish.

“
You
should be thanking me. She was a traitor was she not?” Theron turned his gun towards the room of wolves, “As for the rest of you…I’ve had enough of the games.”

Theron crossed the room to Kya, shoving his pistol in her back as he grabbed the rope that still hung loosely around her neck. He twisted the rope around his free hand and pulled Kya with him to the closest door. “Dell! Take your pack and leave!”

Dell’s wolves disengaged from their positions and retreated to Dell’s side, but made no move for the door. Only Briggs refused to leave the fight. He once again had Reiner on his back, the red wolf gasping for air as Briggs fangs threatened to crush Reiner’s windpipe.

Theron pulled his Glock from Kya’s back long enough to hold it up for Briggs to see before he shoved it into Kya’s tender flesh just under her shoulder blade, making her wince. “Let him go.” Theron’s order seeped from him with confident authority.

Crimson pooled on the floor under Reiner, a mixture of Briggs’ bullet wound and Reiner’s life slipping away. Kya saw the slightest tweak in the corner of Briggs mouth the second before he locked his jaw as tightly as he could and yanked back.

Reiner’s eyes flew open, widening for only a second before fluttering closed as Briggs stood over him dropping the evil Beta’s throat next to his head.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Theron screamed.

Kya felt him remove the Glock from her back. As he did so, Brigg’s lunged from across the room, his sights set on Theron. Kya knew Briggs was too far. Theron would unload five rounds into Briggs before he even reached Theron.

Kya spun her body to block Briggs from Theron’s line of sight. She grabbed the hand that held the pistol and shoved down.

Theron didn’t take his eyes from Briggs as he struggled to pull the gun back up. One gunshot echoed in the air.

Kya slid to the ground, her body weight pulling Theron’s gun from his hands. As her head hit the floor, a gray flash passed over her as Briggs knocked Theron back.

For Kya all sound escaped her save for the slow winding down of her heart. The steady rhythmic beating flooded her ears as she lay on the ground, heat infusing her belly as she watched Briggs tear Theron apart limb by limb.

Somebody grabbed Kya’s shoulder and rolled her onto her back. Staring up at the ceiling, pain ricocheted through her frame as Chloe appeared over her.

Kya saw Chloe’s lips moving but didn’t hear any words. Chloe removed Kya’s hands from where they lay across her stomach and pressed something large and white in their place. Kya licked her lips, her mouth too dry.

Chloe’s lips continued to move, and she motioned to the room around her with great urgency as tears slid down her cheeks.

Kya watched silently, growing more and more tired. Finally, Kya was hauled up off the floor. She turned her head, resting it on the solid shoulder that carried her. She inhaled deeply.

Under the stench of blood and gunpowder, she smelled what she had never known before. It was the scent of pine trees and masculinity mixed with rain and fall leaves. It was safety; it was Briggs...it was home.

Kya exhaled, whispering his name into his neck before she took one last deep breath and felt him stiffen.

Briggs halted his hurried steps as he looked down at her. The last thing she saw was panic flash across the warm honey of his eyes as he mouthed unheard words to her.

The overpowering scent of cleanser and stale sheets was Kya’s first sensation, followed quickly by pain then nausea. She moaned trying to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. She licked her parched lips then cracked one eye.

As light flooded in, a constant beeping noise in the distance grew closer and louder until it began to make her head ache. Kya opened her second eye and blinked at the too bright light as she held a shaky hand to her eyes, attempting to fend off some of the lights offensive intensity.

Looking down she saw a plastic bracelet on her hand and pulled it closer to her eyes, slowly reading Mahkya Blackbird.
Blackbird?

She reached up and yanked off the oxygen tube that rested under her nose. She tried to sit up but moaned as searing pain flashed through her body. Looking down, needles and tubes were stabbed into her arms at one end and connected to several machines that lined either side of her.

She pulled two sticky circular pads off her chest and winced as she yanked the needles from her arms. The incessantly beeping machine next to her changed its monotonous tone to one long constant beep.

“Hey! What are you doing? Don’t do that!”

Kya hadn’t even noticed Josephine slumped in a chair at the foot of the bed.

“Oh my God, you’re gonna get me killed!” Josephine was frantically pushing random buttons on the squealing heart monitor trying to silence the machine.

The door to Kya’s small hospital room was thrown open as a stout elderly black woman rushed through the door, “What are you up to now?”

The poor woman didn’t even make it to the machine before Briggs flew through the door, shoving the unsuspecting woman out of his way as he rushed to Kya’s side.

“What happened?” Briggs barked. Blood was seeping from Kya’s arms where she’d yanked out the numerous needles. The crimson pool forming on her lap, a stark contrast against the white sheet, making the scene look worse than it actually was.

“Don’t look at me!” Josephine threw up her hands and backed away from Kya’s bed as she fell back into her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She threw back her head haughtily as her short satiny bob swayed with her movement, her large light brown eyes snapping away from Briggs. “
She
made
this
mess.”

Briggs looked back to Kya angrily and motioned for the nurse to do something about the blood.

“Well I’ll be…” the Nurse looked at Briggs in disgust. “Oh,
now
I can do my job?” The Nurse crossed to Kya’s side, stopping to wag a finger at the much taller Briggs. “Young man I’ve about had it with you! I swear I ought to have you banned from my ward.” The Nurse turned and smiled warmly down at Kya. “Welcome back to the land of the living honey.” She worked effortlessly replacing needles, reinserting some into Kya’s veins and just removing others. “How you feelin’?”

Josephine and Briggs both stared intently at Kya, awaiting her response. Kya licked her parched lips and cleared her throat staring up at Briggs. “F-fine. Where am I?”

“I’m Nurse Washington. You gave us quite a scare. Cops still haven’t caught those damn hooligans that tried to steal ya’lls car. But to be honest with ya, you’re lucky to be alive.”

Kya shook her head. She had so many questions. She knew she’d have to wait for the room to clear before she’d get any answers from Briggs.

Remembering the fight, Kya’s eyes flashed to Briggs shoulder, his arm resting in a sling. The heart monitor that had been reattached quickened its staccato. Kya sat up too quickly and gasped in pain.

“Easy now! I see it’s all coming back.” Nurse Washington shoved her back into the pillows. “You were shot in the stomach. Bullet just missed your kidneys. It exited out the back. You’ll be fine with some proper rest and nutrition.” Nurse Washington replaced Kya’s blanket with a fresh one from the closet before she crossed to the foot of Kya’s bed and pulled up a chart that was clipped there.

She scribbled some notes between glances up at the heart monitor, then paused in thought before turning to Briggs, “Well aren’t you going to comfort your wife? When she’s asleep I can’t keep you away from her, and now that she’s awake you’re acting like you hardly know her.”

Kya quickly dropped her eyes. Not knowing the whole story, she wasn’t sure how to react. She stiffened for a moment when Briggs took a seat at her side and slide her small hand into his, lifting it to his lips to kiss her fingers. Kya slowly lifted her eyes to stare at him.

“You okay?” He asked simply, still holding her hand.

She tried to pull he hand free, thinking the contact must be hurting Briggs, but he held tight refusing to release her fingers. “I-I wanna go home.”

Before Briggs could respond, Nurse Washington cut in. “Dr. Adams will be in to speak with you shortly.” She clipped the chart back in its place and turned her eyes to Briggs. “I understand you’ve been miserable without your wife, but you and this one,” she wagged a finger at Josephine, “have about driven me nuts. You stay and visit for an hour, and then I’m kicking you both out so my patient can rest!” Nurse Washington pursed her lips at a scowling Briggs as she exited the room.