Daniel POV

We all stand in formation, deep in the woods, about two miles away from Angeline’s home.

Some of us are already in wolf form, their coats painted all over with mud, leaves, bark, and bush to help blend in with the forest. You would have to be looking for them to even spot them with how still they’re being.

About 12 others remain in human form, all hiding up in the trees, Ten carry tranquilizers, and only two are armed with real guns. The bear traps and snares are intricately placed, their whereabouts known to all of us. We even swallowed the pill that disguises your scent.

Back up plan after backup set in motion.

We’re catching him today, that’s irrefutable.

“You want me to do what?” Angeline asks, confused. For now she’s standing with us, inthe middle of our elaborate set up.

“We want you to scream, scream like you’re being murdered, as dramatic as possible. Then right after, you’re gonna get on Trey’s back, he along with 20 guards will run you all the way back to your house.”

“Erm… okay?”

I nod to my uncle, “we’re ready.”

“Okay… NOW Angeline.”

She hesitates, before giving a loud uncertain shriek .

“Oh c’mon, I know you can do better than that.” Trey taunts her, unsheathing an imaginary knife, he pretends to stab her repeatedly in the gut. Angeline, going along with the theatrics, screams in sync with the performance. Even calling out for help and making crying sounds at the appropriate times.

They’re having a little too much fun with this.

Trey finishes her with a slit to her throat from behind and Angeline collapses into my arms “dead”.

“Okay that’s enough, you two need to get going.”

Angeline giggles but then hops on Trey’s back and with a final goodbye, they all zoom out of here, taking a team of five others with him.

Trey is one of our fastest, they’ll reach the safety of her heavily guarded house in no time. The Strega takes the bag of Angeline’s blood and dumps it where our biggest snare is waiting. It definitely smells like someone was just murdered here.

—————————————

For 20 long treacherous minutes, there is nothing. No sign of Keenan at all, just the occasional insect noise.

But then I heard it, a fast thumping far in the distance, coming toward us at maximum speed.

I send the warning through the mindlink to my pack, letting them know it was almost time to strike. I send another warning to Trey, asking him to be prepared for anything.

I keep the link open to him, so that he can bare witness to this with us.

I hear the snarls first before I see the rustling of trees and bush, cutting a clear path in his wake.

He’s three minutes away, we all hold our breath.

Winston, do you have sight on him? I call through the mindlink.

No, not yet, but he’s coming fast.

Two minutes.

His heavy footfalls shake the ground with each step he takes.

One minute.

Nothing could prepare us for the sight we were about to see.

Keenan appears out of the thickness of the trees, his wolf nearly doubled in size. His canines have elongated, stained a deep red color, along with his claws which are now extremely visible.

Everything about him was bigger, faster, stronger. He was a thing of nightmares, a fearsome terror. If I was still a pup, I would have peed my pants and ran to my mother crying.

He held a keen madness in his eye, a rabid gleam that was a true telling of how feral he was becoming. How there was so little human left in there with him.

“NOW!” I don’t command it through the mindlink, instead shout it for all my enforcers to hear.

Keenan tries coming into a halt, but he barrels hard into the trees, knocking them on the ground, along with some of my snipers carrying tranquilizers. With an enraged roar that shakes my being and the forest around. The rest unleash a flurry of tranquilizers, but Keenan dodges all of them.

He’s gotten faster too, despite his size he’s dodging the bullets with ease and agility.

Switching into my wolf form, I lunge at him, the 20 of us in wolf form stalking forward, surrounding him.

Off in the distance I can hear more of my wolves approaching.

We just need him still enough to get a couple shots of the tranquilizer in his system.

I take the point, leading the ambush, while the others snap their jaws at his sides and hind legs.

Finally, in the midst of our dance, Winston manages to hit him twice with the tranquilizer, but still, Keenan doesn’t slow. If anything, it enrages him even more.

Keenan snarls, dragging his claws across Ivan’s face.

With just a flick of his head, a blur even for werewolf eyes, he tears into Elijah’s shoulder, almost tearing off the limb. Santiago howls in pain as he steps into a bear trap he must have forgotten was there.

Alpha Drew’s wolf comes barreling at us in a fury, trying to knock Keenan down with his weight and momentum.

For any normal wolf, that would have felt as though you were being hit with a semi, but it only hindered Keenan momentarily.

Winston and Diego are able to get five more shots of tranquilizers, totaling seven, but Keenan shows no sign of stopping.

With the wolves that just appeared, we all form a tight line, standing shoulder to shoulder. We move as one, taking a step forward, but it doesn’t force Keenan toward the snare like we thought it would.

Keenan does not even look the least bit scared at being cornered, he looks like he’s ready to take all of us on, a suicide mission even for a wolf his size.

A lot of us are going to die here if those tranquilizers don’t start kicking in soon. He’s not feral but he’s close.

Despite our tight line, Keenan has eyes only for me, they hold contempt. They hold malice. They promise pain and torture.

It is in this moment that I finally believe, truly believe, that Keenan and Angeline are mates.

This is his wolf side, and he’s showing me fully that he has a personal vendetta against me.

He lunges for me, only me, but the momentum of both Elder Bane and Alpha Drew, coming at him from his left side, finally seem to do some damage as Keenan flies several feet.

But still, he lands on his feet perfectly.

More alarmingly, I realize that even with Alpha Drew and Elder Bane-two very massive wolves-standing front to back, tail to snout, Keenan was still slightly bigger then both those wolves combined.

And something told me he could still get bigger, that once he was fully feral, we would witness something no one has witnessed before, and no one would stand a chance against it.

We can’t let it get to that point.

Three more shots of tranquilizers and still nothing, Elder Bane has already commanded them to start using the real bullets.

An idea springs to my mind, breaking from the formation, I begin to taunt Keenan’s rabid wolf, trying to get him to want to chase me.

Keenan falls for it, snarling after me.

I lead him right to the entrapment, his front teeth scrape the muscle of my leg, my leg almost gives out but I trudge through the pain. Jumping over the snare, as to not trigger it, I hear the snap and then another roar full of fury, by now everyone in town would have heard it.

Turning around I see Keenan entrapped in thick rope. If we’re not quick, it won’t hold for long.

I try changing into my wolf as quickly as possible, but it’s painful.

“Quick! Grab the rope!” The others follow my directions, grabbing one end of the rope I pull as hard as I can. Running towards us, the Strega comes carrying a black chest in her hands, two others flanking her sides.

Almost all of us are holding onto the rope, with just a shake from left to right, Keenan sends Devonte flying into a tree, His snarls drowning out everyone’s voice.

Opening the black chest, it immediately reeks of silver, the scent burning my nostrils. The Strega’s the only one here that can handle silver.

She throws the silver chain around Keenan’s massive form, Uncle Drew, now shifted and sporting thick black gloves on his hands, yanks the silver chain tight around Keenan’s neck.

Keenan howls in anger.

At last, the tranquilizers are working, Keenan’s movements begin to slow and drag. All the while his eyes never leave my face.

I’ll never forget the look of hunger, bloodlust, and fury.

I could almost taste his hatred for me.

I make a show of smirking at him, knowing this is it for him, he can’t hurt me or Angeline in the Elder Council’s max security prison.

He’s done for.

Keenan snaps his teeth at my face one last time before losing consciousness.