The Alpha's Gamble - Chapter 31: Chapter 31

The humans I could take, they were easy. Just looking at them I could pin point where to hit to knock them on their ass or where to claw to cut a vital vein and have them bleed out. They weren’t the ones I was worried about. My eyes may be on them, but my ears were listening to those heavy steps creaking behind us, the weight of the beast moving out of its den and prowling for a meal.
I’m not sure where Logan’s attention was, but Nate’s was clearly on the humans- he looked around unimpressed and flexed his fingers.
Wind blew in over the lot outside, and clouds rose from the dirt, crowding the windows and heaving pebbles at the concrete.
A semi-tall man, scrawny shoulders but a round belly filled with beer, walked up. His lips pulled back, exposing a rotten tooth, and he dragged a yellow scaled tongue over the corner of his mouth, licking at the dried tobacco stain.
“Little girl wants to fight, huh?” he raised his arm, and his dry knuckles came toward my face. Seriously? The other dude was twice his size AND had a knife and he was writhing on the floor in pain.
I rolled my eyes and had plenty of time to think about how to hurt him: break his wrist? Crush his knuckles? Oh, maybe I’ll shove his fist into his mouth.
Instead of doing anything glorious, I grabbed his fist, twisted his arm and pushed him back. The man was shoved off when he fell on his bleeding friend and then time stopped, the air outside whistled in the cracks of the broken boards and a beer bottle rolled on the lot, metal scraping against the dirt.
And then it was on. The humans screamed, it sounded like a war call, but with drunken slurs and fumbling feet too drunk to walk straight.
“Great.” Logan groaned next to me and I rolled my eyes. Let’s end this. I hope Volokov stays out of it.
Everyone joined the fight; Nate took on the lot of them with a grin. This was like toddler training. Or vermin extermination. I cleaned mine off quickly and those brave enough to get back up got a second round. What I didn’t count on was them being so fucking resilient, they refused to stay down, they rose like zombies each time: bloodier, limper and more ferocious.
“I don’t want to kill you,” I said through gritted teeth, but they laughed and came at me again, so we did the dance all over. And like before, they got up. Nate fought off his own and it was evident on his face that his patience was running thin. When one of the men got back up and charged at him, Nate grabbed his head like a ball and twisted it until a crack rang through the pub and everyone stopped and turned.
First one dead.
Fuck.
This was supposed to be easy.
I couldn’t kill a human, not here, not unprovoked. Them attacking us was not enough since we willingly walked in on their territory. It’s against the laws to take a human life unless they come onto our borders, into our packs, in which case it’s fair game.
This was our fault, and now someone is dead because of it.
“Damnit Nate,” I hissed. He looked me dead in the eyes and Logan growled behind me, took his own human and crushed his spine.
No! Why the hell would he follow his lead?
“FUCK!” Nate’s growl echoed against the windows and crushed the lightbulb over the bar.
I whipped around and saw him down on one knee, a large cut sliced across his chest with blood gushing down his front.
The veins in his neck throbbed and his face turned crimson as he gritted his teeth.
Nate looked up, our eyes locked and spit flew from his mouth.
“Wolfsbane.”
All at once they pulled out knives, and while Logan fought off two humans with ease, I heard another loud growl and turned to watch him. A knife was lunged into his waist and once inside of us, the venom spreads fast.
“You mutts never should’ve come here. We don’t like your kind,”
They made that loud and clear.
His aura filled the small establishment. Through the stench of beer and vomit, I could smell Volokov in the corner, hidden by the shadows in the back.
Would he interfere? Was he going to protect his friends or had he supplied them with wolfsbane and knowledge so that they could protect themselves?
In two seconds, it was on again. Logan rose and twisted the arm of the man who had infected him, but another knife stabbed him in the back. I took the girl who’d done it and threw her across the bar, glass shattered, and bottles fell, yet this place didn’t look worse than before. The sound of a flap opening and ventilation starting drew my attention to the rotting crease above the bar, a mist was released over our heads and mixed with the air, at first it just tickled my nose, the tickle turned to a burn and soon thereafter every breath brought me one step closer to death. Like acid being poured down my throat.
These fuckers were prepared.
Nate coughed and fought blindly against the knives and hits while Logan was in more control, but he couldn’t fight it off for long. As for me, I stumbled into someone, felt the sting of a blade cut me open and grabbed the person’s shoulder to fight but my strength grew weaker with every breath.
At least I didn’t have to worry about getting my hands dirty, or the sex tape, my reputation didn’t matter one bit because this was where the story ended. This was where I died, in the hands of something as weak as a human.
A harsh gust of wind blew in and the door broke off and landed on the floor. The fresh air circled us but the poison was already in my system and I tried to blink past the tears of acidic pain to see who had come.
But all I saw was rough rotting wood turning red and stains the size of tennis balls on the walls. I listened to the grunts and groans and choking around me. Something furry brushed against my hand when I reached out blindly, and I jerked my arm back. What the hell was that?
It took a while and a lot of rubbing to see something through my hazy vision finally, but I was starting to make out forms and what I saw gave fear a new meaning.
Holy shit. His tail was stiff, his canines bared with blood dripping down his fangs.