Wolves among men (36 page)

There was a feeling of dread in me as
I followed the group back to the courtyard and watched them
practice the attack and defense strategies that Bryant had taught
them with a kind of listless abandon. I wanted to care, I wanted to
cheer them on but somehow I couldn’t bring myself to as their
snarls and growls filled the air around me, interrupted only by the
occasional gunshot from Cordillia’s regular target practice in the
fields nearby. I had the chance to watch her shoot once or twice
since she began her lessons and already I could tell she was
getting better, it was a proud moment to watch her take a target
from a hundred feet and somehow it made me feel better about
allowing her to fight alongside us.

“
Are you okay?” I heard
Grant’s voice pull me from my daze. I turned my head to face him
and offered up my best attempt at a reassuring smile as he placed
his hand on my shoulder.

“
Yeah, I’m fine why?” I
asked quietly.

“
Do you have down syndrome
or are you just plain stupid!?” Bryant shouted from his post at the
group that was starting to slow down and lose steam after a long
day of repeating the same moves over and over again.

“
You got a problem old
man?” A tall black haired girl came out from the group and stormed
up to him with a nasty scowl on her face.

“
As a matter of fact,
miss, I do.” he growled, completely unaffected by the look of death
she was shooting him from behind her deep blue eyes. “See the
problem I’m having is that I can’t tell whether or not you’re
fighting or having a damn seizure.” The girl scoffed and crossed
her arms at her chest.

“
I’m out there busting my
ass, we all are while you sit up here and scream orders at us like
were deaf. If it’s so damn important to you, why don’t you get out
there and fight instead of shouting insults at us from your high
horse,” Bryant sat calmly and nodded as she spoke. He stood from
his chair slowly, shaking and nearly falling as he attempted to
balance himself.

The crowd stopped moving and turned
their attention toward the old man as he lifted his shirt exposing
a mess of deep set scars, a road map of battle and pain drawn on
his torso. I gasped slightly as my eyes wondered over the thick
white scars, the smile never leaving his face as the girl lifted
her hand to her mouth.

“
I have been where you are
headed, miss. Do you understand now?” She nodded her head
apologetically as he pulled the hem of his shirt back down and sat
down slowly. “I know I’m hard on you,
all
of you
.” He shouted, looking behind her
toward the group that stood shocked in their places. “But it’s for
a damn good reason.” His eyes narrowed and his voice dropped and he
adjusted himself in his chair. “Do you know when they’re coming?”
She shook her head. “And do you have
any
idea how many of them there will
be?” She stood still and silent as he growled. “I got those scars
when it was twenty of my men versus one of you, don’t think that
just because you’re bigger, stronger and faster than me that you
won’t end up with the same scars, that is if you are lucky enough
to even survive.” A grim feeling of sorrow washed over the crowd as
he backed the young woman down and laid into her like a father
scolding a child who kept repeating the same mistakes, refusing to
learn the lesson that was so blatantly set in front of
them.

“
Now be a dear will you
and
get your ass back on the field and
fight like you want to live
!” He shouted.
The group went back to their practice as the young woman sheepishly
wondered back toward her partner and phased into the beast that had
become commonplace in my little world.

“
Jesus,” I muttered under
my breath.

“
He’s good,” Grant
responded quietly, his arms crossed at his chest as he stared out
toward the veteran.

“
Yeah but are we?” I
looked up at him. “That’s what really matters here.” Grant nodded
and closed his eyes.

“
I guess we’ll find out,
wont we?” He shrugged slightly before inviting me into the large
main room for what I hoped was a pleasant chat. “I have some not so
good news.” He sighed as I took a seat opposite him at the large
round table.

“
Not so good news or bad
news?” Grant sighed heavily, a slight smile crossing his lips as he
looked up at me.

“
Well, truth is, Ethan, I
don’t know. We made some calls, got in touch with a few of the
packs in the area and some from far away that owed me a
favor.”

“
And?” He sighed heavily
and shrugged as he turned his attention to the large open window at
the other end of the complex.

“
They can’t come,” he
spoke softly.

“
Can’t or
won’t?”

“
I guess won’t is the
right word.” He shrugged. “It’s the same excuse from all of them,
they know about the treaty being broken and no one wants to get
involved.”

“
They’re just leaving us
here to die?” I nearly shouted.

“
Now, Ethan, it’s not
their job to protect us, it was a long shot to even
ask.”

“
That’s bullshit!” I
screamed. “What about looking out for your own? We’re trapped like
dogs here with no idea what to expect and now no backup if things
go wrong.”

“
Ethan, calm down,” Grant
barked as I fumed from the other end of the table. “It’s a crappy
situation, I know that. But we just have to keep alert and make the
best of it.” I ran my hands over my face and sighed heavily into my
palms. It was one thing to be in the middle of a war but to be
completely abandoned and left to fend for yourself was another
matter entirely and I had hoped that one, at least one group no
matter how small would find the compassion and courage to stand
with us when we needed support the most. Instead, we were left to
fend for ourselves when it was painfully obvious that we were no
match for the demons that had it out for us.

“
So what the hell do we do
now?” I sighed.

“
I don’t know, I guess we
just keep going and hope someone changes their mind.”

“
It’s been nearly a week.”
I muttered. Grant looked up at me, his eyebrow rose in confusion as
I met his gaze. “It’s been a week since Jonathan was last here, why
hasn’t he come back yet?”

“
Well I don’t quite know,
Ethan, but I guess it’s a good thing he hasn’t.” He smiled weakly.
I shook my head and leaned over the table.

“
No it’s not,
Grant.”

“
What makes you say that?
It’s given us the time we need to prepare.”

“
Exactly.” I growled. “Why
would he give us time to prepare? Why would he even risk us being
coordinated enough to fight back, why not just attack us while we
we’re weak, when he knows that he can win?”

“
I don’t know,
Ethan.”

“
I’m not looking for an
answer, Grant, but doesn’t it seem just a little odd that he hasn’t
come back yet?” Grant nodded and turned his gaze back to his hand
as he nervously played with his fingers.

“
It’s an old strategy.
I’ve seen it plenty in my time.” Bryant grunted as he wheeled
himself up to the table and forced himself into our
conversation.

“
What do you mean?” I
asked legitimately curious.

“
Ever hear of a blitz
attack, son?” his voice was sarcastic, gruff and worn from hours of
screaming over the howls and snarls of his group.

“
Yeah like a Trojan horse
or something,” Grant added. Bryant nodded, a crooked smile crossing
his lips as his eyes darted from Grant to me and back
again.

“
He wants you to feel
you’re most comfortable and confident before he attacks, wouldn’t
surprise me if he’s been watching us this entire time.” Bryant
shrugged as he lifted a water bottle to his dry cracked lips and
left us in silence to think about what he had just said.

“
Do we have a chance?” I
asked grimly as I stared blankly at the large table before
me.

“
Probably not,” he spoke
gruffly. I had to admire his honesty, even if I wasn’t in the mood
to be told that all the work we were doing was for
nothing.

“
Then what are we doing
here?”

“
What do you mean?” Grant
asked quietly. I looked up at him and scoffed.

“
Cordillia is out there
learning to fire a gun, we got fifty men and women in that
courtyard working their asses off learning to fight and it’s all
for nothing.”

“
It ain’t for nothing.”
Bryant grumbled. I looked over at him, my desire to give up and
give in was spelled out on my face and as he read it loud and clear
on me, I could see his eyes soften into a form of sympathy. “You
ain’t got a choice, son. You know he’s coming, you know you have to
fight whether you like it or not and sure the chances of you
winning this and coming out ahead are about as good as getting hit
by lightning on a clear day but if you don’t fight you’ll die and
that pretty little sister of yours will have no chance in hell of
surviving once Malik gets his paws on her. No pun intended,” he
added with a slight smile as he finished his speech and turned his
attention back to the water bottle that dangled from his spotted
slender fingers.

I shook my head and stood from the
table quickly, I had enough of being lectured, of feeling worthless
and as I watched the sunset slowly through the large plate window
all I wanted was to bury my head away and forget about the fact
that we were doomed in our attempts for basic survival. I stormed
passed Sam, a look of confusion and worry crossed her face as she
called out to me before being left behind to wonder why I hadn’t
answered. I felt like a jerk for just walking out but right now I
needed to get away, after all I could always explain myself later
when the feeling passed which it inevitably would.

I nearly jogged down the hallway and
threw my bedroom door open, breathing in a sigh of relief at its
emptiness and my opportunity to be alone. I shut the door quickly
and threw myself down onto the bed, pulling my pillow over my ears
and drowning out the mental noise of the day and the darkness that
followed just behind. I told myself that things would get better,
that we didn’t really know what was going to happen and there was
still a chance we could all make it out of this alive. Naturally
these thoughts didn’t really quell the feeling of utter dread that
had filled me but it chipped away at it little by little as the
glow of the dampening sunlight began to die off, leaving the room
dark and quiet for a much needed change.

I don’t know when exactly the noise
stopped but thankfully and to my relief it eventually subsided as I
closed my eyes and allowed my body to give into the deep hold of
sleep. The only peace I got these days was when the noise of the
waking world was replaced with the nothingness of sleep and that’s
exactly what it was. No war, no Malik, no danger just nothing and I
loved it, every minute of its quiet embrace.

I wanted to stay there forever, to
just let the world slip away and forget about all of this but I
never was so lucky.

I was woken by the shrill sound of
screaming from somewhere far away, probably someone having a
nightmare down the hall. I buried my head in my pillow for just a
second before I realized that the screaming was coming from outside
and it wasn’t just one person, it was many. I shot up from my bed
and quickly turned my attention to the window that peered out into
the courtyard, afraid and nervous as I forced myself to pull back
the curtain and stare out into the open field that separated our
beds from the main building. My heart dropped and for a moment I
felt as though I would be sick, felt as if it was a bad dream that
I just couldn’t wake up from as I watched my friends being ripped
apart unsuspectingly in the dead of night. It wasn’t until I saw
Cordillia’s tiny frame perched on the roof firing into the fur clad
beasts with precision and determination that I realized in one
horrifying moment I wasn’t dreaming.

I was torn from my view by the sound
of pounding on my door.

“
Ethan, get up!” Sam
screamed from the other side of the wooden barrier. Without a
thought or a care my body began to change, the pain of it all
blocked out by my desire to fight, my need to be in the thick of it
all defending my family and fighting for my home. I jumped from the
bed and tore the door open, nearly ripping it off of its frame.
“Are you ready?” I nodded as a deep snarl escaped from my chest.
Sam smiled up at me before allowing her own change to take over,
tall and nearly silver in color she was as beautiful a beast as she
was a woman. The sounds of fighting raged on behind us as we
exchanged glances, both prepared and terrified of what was about to
come.