Another wave of pain washed over Mackenzie, and she cried out. Tears streamed down her face as
she begged her captors to let her go. They had been talking about how they were going to kill her. They
wanted to torture her, but she was already in so much pain they did not know what they could do to her
that would be worse. They spent the day debating it. By evening they decided to dismember her piece
by piece while she was still alive. Gorge took out a cigar cutter from his pocket and slipped
Mackenzie’s finger through the hole. He was telling her how he was going to start by cutting off every
finger and toe one by one.
Before he could sever her finger, a blood curtailing howl echoed through the mountains outside,
followed by others. They sounded so close, like they were right outside the door. Gorge walked away,
and all four men and Melissa went to the living room window. Mackenzie could not see out the window
from where she was, but she smiled nonetheless because she knew Gordon was outside.
“Holy shit, look at the size of those wolves,” one of the goons gasped.
“They are bigger than you said they would be?” Donald snapped with anger.
“Just shoot to kill,” Melissa barked back. Those bullets will do the trick.
“Oh, hey, look,” Gorge said, pointing out the window. “They are leaving, all but the black one.”
“They aren’t leaving,” Melissa said. “They are circling the house.”
Mackenzie began to laugh despite the pain. “What the fuck are you laughing at?” One of the goons
growled at her.
“Didn’t she tell you, morons, how Meskler died?” The men looked at Melissa with question, then back at
Mackenzie, who was now watching them with a menacing smile. “That wolf outside literally ripped him
apart. You motherfuckers are already dead,” another wave of pain took her, and Mackenzie threw her
head back and cried out in pain. They all looked back out at the wolf who still stood there howling.
“Why does he keep doing that?” Donald asked.
“He’s communicating with the others. Telling them what to do,” Melissa said.
“What is he telling them to do?”
“He’s telling them to cover all the exits and wait.”
“Wait?” Donald barked. “What the hell are they waiting for?”
“They are waiting for me. Gordon’s calling me out,” Melissa said, undressing as she backed up from
the window.
“What are you doing?” Gorge asked.
“Gordon came looking for a fight. I’m going to give him what he wants.”
“Alone.”
“Don’t worry. Putting this bitch down is my specialty,” she said as her eyes lit up, and she changed into
a white wolf before everyone’s eyes. The wolf ran forward and busted through the glass window out
into the yard. Broken shards flew through the air and came to rest scattered across the floor. All four
men stood at the window to watch the scene outside. Mackenzie hung her head in one of the brief
reprieves before another bout of pain consumed her once more. He looked down at the blood on her
legs. She closed her eyes and prayed for Gordon to kill them fast because she needed a hospital. She
was losing the baby.
***
Gordon stood in the yard with the others. He knew from the smell Mackenzie was inside. He could hear
her crying out in pain. Wanting to spare her the pain, he howled to announce his presence, hoping it
would be enough to distract the men from hurting her. Right after he howled, the others did the same in
a show of unity. Gordon looked one way and then the other. The other understood, and they dispersed,
slowly circling the house to make sure no one tried to flee. The men inside were going to pay for their
part in this.
Gordon remained where he was, waiting for Melissa to come out. She was a real threat, and he
needed to deal with her first. Gordon howled again, calling Melissa out. He could see movement inside,
then the glass broke, and Melissa stood in front of Gordon, her white fur shimmering in the moonlight.
Slowly they circled one another. He knew Melissa was expecting him to lay down as he did when she
used to smack him around, but things had changed. Gordon no longer cared what his father had taught
him. This time he would stand his ground. Tonight, one of them died.
Gordon pounced, knocking Melissa over. Melissa’s powerful jaws snapped at Gordon, trying to bite his
leg. He swiped at her with his claws out, slicing across her belly, and he continued to pin her down.
Melissa used her hind legs to push Gordon away. She sent him flying a good three feet. They both
recovered quickly and charged each other again.
Melissa managed to get behind him, jumping onto Gordon’s back. He bit down on his neck and dug her
claws into his side so she could hold on while Gordon tried to buck her off. When he couldn’t shake her,
Gordon rolled, crushing Melissa between himself and the ground. It had been enough to shake her.
They both got up and went at it once more. They tussled and rolled around in the dirt, flipping and
biting. There were fur and blood everywhere — white teeth flashing in the moonlight, amber eyes
glowing like fireflies in the dark.
There was growling, and then Gordon pinned Melissa to the ground and tore her throat out. Melissa’s
body went limp as blood poured from her neck, making the dirt beneath them red mud. Gordon lifted
his head and howled in victory. He then turned his attention to the house and climbed off Melissa. It
was time to deal with the men inside. His victory howl had alerted the others he was going in, and when
they howled back, he knew they were also going in.
Gordon charged the house and leapt through the broken window. Landing in the living room, Gordon
found there was shattered glass everywhere, and the glass beneath him cut at the pads of his paws.
He did not pay attention to the pain; he was focused on the men that were backing away. They turned
their guns on him, but they never got to pull the trigger. While the men were focused on Gordon, the
others silently came up behind them from the back room. Knowing the pack would kill these four men
for him, Gordon sat down, posing no further threat, which confused the four men until the youngsters
jumped them and proceeded to kill them.
With the mean dealt with, Gordon transformed back to his human form. He ran over to Mackenzie, the
glass cutting his feet. Using his claws, he cut the ropes, and Melissa wrapped her arms around him.
Then she let go and held her belly as she screamed again. Looking down, Gordon could see the blood
on her legs, and his worse fears were realized. Mackenzie was losing the baby. The taser had caused
complications, and Mackenzie was suffering.
With the men who abducted her dead, the others changed back, each being careful where they
stepped. “Oh god, what did they do to her?” Darrell asked.
“Melissa tasered Mackenzie. It must have caused complications. Lewis, what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Lewis said quickly. “I don’t do babe troubles. I’m a medic, not a midwife.”
Gordon looked out the window at Melissa’s body, which had reverted back to its human form in death.
She was his only midwife, and he had just killed her. His baby was going to die, and if he did not do
something fast, Mackenzie would die too. “FUCK!” Gordon screamed. Melissa was dead and still
screwing with his life.
“Hospital!” Mackenzie snapped. “I’m not a Lycanthrope Gordon. If you don’t take me to a hospital, we
are both going to die,” she said and then screamed when the pain hit her again. “NOW, GORDON!
NOW!”
“Shit!” He knew she was right. But he was covered in blood that was not his. HE would be arrested. But
if he did not take her, Mackenzie would die. Gordon ran over to Gorge’s body and stripped his pants
off, then put them on himself to cover his nudity. The last thing he wanted was to be perp-walked on the
morning news in the nude. “You guys dispose of the bodies, then get the fuck out of here,” he ordered
the others as he picked Mackenzie up in his arms and carried her to the door bridal style.
“Where are you going?” Stanton asked as they followed him outside. Gordon carried Mackenzie to the
car the goons had transported her in.
“I’m taking Mackenzie to the hospital,” he said, placing her in the passenger seat then running around
to the driver’s seat.
“Dad, no, you can’t,” Aster said with panic. “Look at you. They are going to arrest you. You’ll go to
prison.”
“I have no choice.”
“Dad!” Aster yelled with tears in her eyes. “Please, no. I’ve lost my mother, don’t make me lose you
too?”
Gordon paused and hugged his daughter. Pulling back, he caressed her face lovingly. “I go to see you
grow up. What kind of father would I be if I didn’t give this baby the same chance?”
Aster nodded that she understood his sacrifice. He kissed Aster’s cheek goodbye and told her he was
proud of her, then he got in the car, tore open the steering column and hotwired the car. Mackenzie
looked at him questioningly, wondering how he knew how to hotwire a car. Gordon offered her a half-
hearted grin. “I stole a few cars in my youth. Let’s get you to the hospital.”
He made the city limits in record time and pulled recklessly into the hospital emergency bay, blocking
an ambulance. The paramedics came his way to tell him to move, but Gordon pulled Mackenzie from
the car cradled in his arms, and the paramedics jumped to the rescue.
One paramedic took Mackenzie from his arms and laid her on a gurney while the other started an IV.
They brought Mackenzie inside and instantly. She was surrounded by four nurses as they fast-tracked
her to the operating room. Gordon was right at her side, keeping pace while they took her up to the
third floor and wheeled her into an operating room. Seconds later, two doctors came running down the
hall and into the operating room.
Gordon wanted to go in, but the security guard got in his way, insisting he stay outside in the waiting
room down the hall. He paced the hall like a madman ignoring the security guard as he asked Gordon
questions like why he was half-naked and covered in blood. He knew the cops weren’t far away, and
they would want to swab the blood for DNA samples. He couldn’t let them. If they ran Melissa’s DNA
profile, they would realize she wasn’t human, and that would raise all sorts of questions he couldn’t
answer. He went into the washroom, and with some soap and paper towels, he washed the blood from
his body, trying to destroy the evidence.
It wasn’t long before the cops arrived, and they had Gordon cornered in the waiting room. They were all
asking questions. How did he find Mackenzie? What had happened to her? Where the men that took
her were? Why was Gordon covered in blood when he arrived? Was it all Mackenzie’s blood? They
took his pants for evidence complaining about the fact that he had washed the blood off. The pants
were cover in blood, but not Melissa’s. This blood was from the human men. He would likely go to jail,
but at the moment, he didn’t care; he just wanted to know if Mackenzie would survive.
He sat in the waiting room under guard. Two uniformed cops stood by waiting to see what they could
arrest him for when Aster, the guys, and Gordon’s friends came off the elevator.
Aster was on Gordon in seconds. “Is she alive?” She asked, hopefully.
“She’s in the operating room,” Gordon informed them. The guys took Gordon aside and lowered their
voices so the cops couldn’t hear them. “Did you clean up?” Gordon asked.
Darrell nodded. “They are now floating down the river. But there is so much blood in that house. The
cops are going to find it, and they’re going to blame this on you. You’re going to go to jail for murder.
That’s hard time in federal prison.”
Gordon smiled, “You don’t think I can handle it?”
“A few months maybe, but not years on the inside. We need a backup plan,” Darrell suggested.
“Go back to the house, drown it in gas and light a match. That will destroy the evidence. Then no one
talks.”
“There must be some way to get the suspicion off you,” Darrell said.
“I’m going to prison. I know I am. So, you’re the head of the pack now. I don’t know how long I’ll be
gone, so I’m stepping down and conceding to you without a fight. The pack is yours. Lead them well.”
“How long has Mackenzie been in there?” Katelyn asked.
“About three hours,” Gordon said, sitting down, adjusting the scrubs the hospital staff had offered him
when the police took his jeans. They all waited for Mackenzie to come out of surgery.
It was hours before a doctor came out to the waiting room to inform those waiting that Mackenzie was
out of surgery and in a private room. “She’s awake, but I must insist only two at a time in the room and
don’t get her worked up. She’s in stable condition, but that could change if she begins to hemorrhage,”
the doctor said.
“Doctor,” Gordon began, unsure if he wanted to know the answer to his question, “the baby, did it
survive?”
The doctor smiled. “Mother and son are both doing well.”
Gordon lit up with joy. Not only did the baby live, but it was also a boy. Everyone cheered and hugged
Gordon.
They went up to the maternity ward where Mackenzie had been moved to after the surgery. Gordon
knocked on the door and went in. Mackenzie’s bed was already in an upright position, and next to the
bed was a small plastic cradle just big enough to hold their son. Richard hugged Mackenzie gently and
kissed her forehead telling her how happy he was to see she was alright.
Gordon leaned over to kiss her lips, his hand on her arm. He walked over to the cradle and looked at
his son. He was beautiful. He looked normal. Ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, no tail. He had a thick
patch of dark locks. Gordon carefully picked him up and held him in his arms. Instinctually the baby
wrapped his little hand around Gordon’s finger. His little eyes opened partly, and Gordon could see he
had the same amber eyes as any Lycanthrope. He couldn’t help wondering just how much of him was
Lycanthrope and how much was mortal. He had to have the same powers the others had because he
was three months early yet strong and breathing on his own. The hospital staff was baffled.
Darrell looked at the baby over Gordon’s shoulder. “He’s a good-looking boy. I was worried he’d look
strange.”
“Me too,” Gordon admitted.
Stanton took the baby from Gordon. Making baby sounds as he smiled at the child. “You did well,
Mackenzie. He’s precious. So, what are you going to call him?”
Gordon looked at Mackenzie. They hadn’t discussed baby names. “Something unique,” she said
thoughtfully. “Joshua?”
Gordon turned up his nose. He didn’t like that one. “Travis?”
Mackenzie shook her head no. “How about Preston,” Aster offered. Actually, Gordon kind of liked it. He
looked at Mackenzie and figured she liked it too.
“Yeah, Preston Wilder,” Mackenzie smiled. “I think it suits him.”
There was a knock on the door, and two Detectives came into the room. They introduced themselves
and asked if Mackenzie felt up to answering a few questions. They started off with who had abducted
her and where they had taken her. Then they asked how she wound up here and where the abductors
had gone.
“Are you aware that two bodies have turned up in the river? We’ve identified one as Donald Falcone
and the other as Gorge Falcone. Any idea of how they got from the farmhouse to the river?” One of the
Detectives asked.
“How should I know? All I know is that Gordon found me and brought me to a hospital.”
“someone murdered the people holding you,” the other Detective commented.
“Then it sounds to me like you already have your answers,” Gordon said, putting his arm around
Mackenzie’s shoulder.
“The coroner says both victims were killed by animals. What I wonder is how they ended up in the river,
and you weren’t massacred by wolves?”
“I had already found Mackenzie, and we were on our way to the hospital.”
“Were they still alive when you got away?” The Detective asked.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see them. I just found Mackenzie, and we got the hell out of there as fast as
possible,” Gordon said calmly. “Besides, it’s not the first time a body turned up in the river killed by
animals. You can hardly put that on us.”
“Would you care to tell me how you got so much blood on you?”
“I don’t know there was blood all over the place. It was hard not to get covered in it.”
The Detectives looked at one another and then thanked them for their cooperation, and left the room.
Gordon knew they were talking in the hall and would likely come back in for him. He looked down at
Mackenzie. “They are going to arrest me. I’m going to prison. Will you wait for me?”
“You saved my life. Of course, I’m going to wait for you, and I’m going to pay for the best lawyer in the
country to defend you,” she promised.
“That’s ok; I already got a pretty good lawyer. I want you to stay in the community while I’m gone.
There’s no telling what abilities Preston has. Aster and the guys will be there to help you.”
As the night went on, the guys began to leave one by one until it was just Gordon and Mackenzie.
While Mackenzie slumbered in the bed, Gordon dozed on the chair in the corner. He wasn’t going to
leave her side until she was ready to go home.
Early the next morning, the Detectives from the previous night returned with uniformed officers. “Mr.
Wilder, you’re under arrest for the murder of Gorge Falcone and Donald Falcone.”
The uniformed officer forced Gordon to get up and put his hands behind his back so he could cuff him.
“Say goodbye to your girlfriend because you’re going away for a long time.”
“No,” Mackenzie said, trying to get up.
“Stay in bed,” Gordon ordered. “Take care of yourself and Preston. Don’t worry about me.”
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