Alma

Chapter Twelve: Dante

Dante:

Hearing the words she said, I needed to leave, but after the challenge, I can’t. I listen as Jeff tries to speak, barely managing anything. I realize he is being held silent by me, and quickly release him. “Apologies,” I murmur as I get further away, but Alma’s voice continues to ring out as if I am right next to her, hearing them over and over again. Bet looks worried, and she is texting furiously on her phone.

The quarter warlock only offers me a sad look. “She is trying to divert attention from you, you know.”

“No, she’s right. She has tried to get rid of me, but I…” I can’t find the right words.

“Can’t? You want to follow her, right to the ends of the world? Do everything to see her smile?”

I look at him, confusion clear. “Yeah.”

He brightens up. “We think it is her Fae blood. Her mother’s family was rather high in the chain of command, on the royal Summer court. It draws people to her, whether she realizes it or not.”

“Huh.” I am at a loss for words.

I didn’t want others to be so devoted to her. It set me on edge, and I felt my eyes change as again the wolf pushes for control where Alma is concerned. Does she not understand just how precious she is? How fragile? Bet taps my arm and shows me her phone to snap a look at who she is texting. Why is she texting Ms. Anxeki? And why is she preparing a sensory deprivation chamber? “Bet, what is this about?” I whisper the words.

“She is losing control on her wolf. She’s going feral.” Bet sounds like she is choking on tears, and I feel rage build up.

I dig my nails into my palm, drawing blood to try and calm myself. But I don’t smell my own blood-- I smell Alma’s. Whipping my head back to where the females were standing, I find Aubrey’s wolf pinned, and a dagger embedded in Alma’s stomach.

My mind empties as I try to get to Alma, but stop when Garv raises a hand to me.

“Ouch, that actually hurts a little. Thanks, Jackie.”

The words grate on my ears, but not as much as the sight does. Alma has removed the dagger, causing her to bleed profusely. She needs to forfeit the fight or she is going to bleed out. She doesn’t heal fast like full blooded shifters and fae. I knew this.

So why wasn’t she forfeiting?

“Submit willingly, Aubrey, or it won’t be pretty,” her voice was thick, she was bleeding fast. Too fast.

I can’t wait any longer, and go to interrupt the fight, ending it. But both Garv and Jeff are there. Garv is using what shifter strength he has to hold me back, which is a lot considering he is half bear, and Jeff is whispering under his breath. An incantation.

A faint ring of geometric patterns appeared around Alma and Aubrey, slightly above the ground. They were intricate and bright white, and worried me greatly. “What are you doing?” I snarled at Jeff.

“A precaution. No one can go in that ring without my say so.”

“Say so, now.” I begin to march toward it, determined to get Alma out.

She was pale now, and still bleeding. She needed help. I tried to reach her through the pack bonds, only to find her not there. “Why isn’t she in the pack bond?”

I directed my question to Jeff. “None of us are, Dante. That girl--” he pointed to Aubrey, still being pinned, while Alma tries to wrestle submission out of her, “threw us out of the Pack, with the power you gave her. We are our own pack, and Alma is the Alpha.”

Defeat crushed me. How had I not known this earlier? How had I not checked earlier? I count the people around me. Alma, Garv, Jeff, Heather, Bet. Four people. Being an Alpha, Alma would need at least 15 to remain stable. She needed more bonds-- of course she was losing control. She lost her home pack, which was what was keeping her stable.

Alma stumbled a little, but still stayed standing. She had to have an organ punctured. “She needs help.”

“She can’t, Dante. It will make her look weak.” Heather said softly as she walked up behind me.

“Then she needs to force the submission.”

“She won’t,” all four of this small pack said.

“I know.” I swore.

***

It has been about two hours now, and I was panicking. I couldn’t stay still, and my nails kept descending. My wolf wanted out. He wanted her. The thought should have surprised me, but at this point, it didn’t. I didn’t think about anything else anyhow.

Finally, after another hour and a half of the stare down, Aubrey relented. Alma let her go, and straightened. Jeff released the ward, and Alma stumbled forward, the wound had sort of closed as she was hunched over, slowing the blood flow, but when she straightened it reopened, and again she was bleeding quickly. She sighs in relief, but stumbles as she takes a few steps. The blood on the cement, now coagulated, was quite a bit. More than it should be, for sure. She shouldn’t have been bleeding still. I reach again for her through the pack bonds as I moved toward her, only to find she still wasn’t there. Worry and unease spread through me as I move forward to help steady Alma, and tell Heather to call the infirmary.

She complies, and then Alma is walking away from me, again. “Where are you going?” My words sounded more like a demand, my patience gone.

“To the infirmary. It won’t stop bleeding, and it won’t close. f*****g silver and wolf’s bane.”

Her words are slurred, and when she sways, we all rush to catch her. I reach her first, and that was when I smelled the wolf’s bane. “Dammit.”

Alms surprised at my language, which made me want to laugh a little, but I didn’t. Silver prevents a wound from closing, but wolf’s bane is toxic. Once it enters a shifter’s bloodstream, it thins the blood. Combining the two? Deadly if not treated.

“I’ll take you. You can barely walk.” My wolf is pushing for control, hard, and my speech is little more than a growl.

“If you calm down, I’ll let you walk with me,” her voice is teasing, and I force my wolf back, appearing calm when I am anything but.

“Better?”

She gives me a little grin in response and waits as I catch up. The others are following at a safe distance away, though they are close enough if something happens.

“Why aren’t you in the pack bonds?”

“The rest of the pack doesn’t accept me. I’m okay with that; I have them,” she murmurs the words and vaguely gestures over her shoulder.

“So you uprooted the alpha female only to leave it open?”

Alma stops walking and turns her head to face me, her eyes lit up with anger. “I will not fight every member of your pack just to prove something they don’t want to acknowledge.” I wish that wouldn’t happen.

She tries to march off, but she is still bleeding and wobbles, nearly falling over. I hurry to her side to steady her, but only get a growl. “Don’t touch me.”

The words sting, and I lose the grip I had on my wolf, causing me to change my form, right there in front of all of the important pack members. My wolf throws a pack bond toward Alma, whose wolf latches onto it like a lifeline. Alma looks surprised at what happened but quickly shakes it off and continues to stumble her way toward the infirmary.

Pack magic is sweeping over me the closer I get to Alma, to the point where it feels constricting, but I ignore the pain as I get closer, just in case she falls. Quietly I feed pack magic into her, trying to keep her stubborn self alive until we reach the infirmary. The trail of blood she leaves worries me with each drop, and I hear myself whine every few steps she takes. Alma pretends to ignore them.

A hand touches my shoulder and my skin starts to crawl, causing me to stop. I look over at the hand and find familiar pink nail polish. Continuing my way up the attached arm, I find Aubrey staring at me, her gaze worried. “You’re not letting her get away with this, are you?” Her whisper is harsh, but I snort and make my way closer to Alma.

***

When we get to the infirmary, the nurse instantly accuses me of being the perpetrator, and I am sent away. This does not help me gain any of my control back at all, and I actually snarl. Luckily, Alma steps in. “Leave him alone. He’s innocent. She’s the perp-- her friend, anyhow.”

The nurse flushes with embarrassment before she continues on. “He still needs to leave. All of the males do. This is the female wing.”

I only sit in response.

“Give me a private room. My pack isn’t going anywhere.”

The nurse nods, but it’s clear she isn’t happy about it.

“I’m sorry about that guys,” Alma mutters as we make our way toward the private room the nurse unlocks. A quick look around the room shows that the four of us guys weren’t going to go anywhere anyway.

The room is quaint, with gray walls holding a couple of portraits of healing deities and creatures. Alma sits on the bench, and I stand on my hind legs, my front paws resting on the end, watching her.

“Change back, Dante. You’re useless as a wolf right now.”

I nod and hop down, walking over to a stand and grabbing some sweatpants, I exit the view of everyone in the room behind a small changing curtain. When I walk back around, I am human-- for the most part. My eyes and teeth are still wolf.

Alma weakly grins, and gestures to me to come closer. “You’re fine. C’mon.”

I stand beside her, leaning against the bench, as we wait for the nurse to come back. When a different nurse enters, I tense up. The small Fae nurse with hair so pale it looks white is gone, replaced by a male shifter. I feel a growl build up in my chest, but Alma quietly scolds me, “hush up and sit down, for f**k’s sake,” and I obey. She places a hand on my forearm, and I calm down a little, but not enough.