Battle Of Alphas

CHAPTER SIX

D A N I E L'S P O V

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

My entire body shakes as I feel a vibration all around me. I'm in motion, but it is not by my actions. I regain consciousness after being out for a while. I don't know how long, but I think it must be long enough for us to have got out of Crimson Ville. I open my eyes and I see a dimly lit square surrounding me. It takes me at least two minutes to know that I'm in the back of a moving van.

I feel a soft, delicate and cold skin against my shoulder and I turn slowly, only to see the mighty queen of the Panthers, resting her head on my arm at the point where Dana tore down to reveal the bite, but just slightly above the bite — and I stare at her face and wonder how these groups of Walkers managed to bring her down. The mighty has fallen.

I recall all the moments Katerina hurt the members of my pack. I recall every life she and Nathaniel took and the havoc she caused. We now live underground because of her, as she was the one who sent Panthers to raid our camp at the craven forest a year ago.

She hates me as much as I hate her. The Walkers who threw her in must have brought her too close to me that her head fell on my shoulder the moment she slept off. She sleeps comfortably, and she isn't even aware her head is propped by an enemy's shoulder.

I can just kill her now and be satisfied. At least, it would make me feel like I've avenged those wolves she and Nathaniel murdered. My best chance is now, since she's still locked in her human form.

I push her off my shoulder forcefully, and she falls on the shoulder where she was shot with a diamond bullet. The pain that comes with landing on the bullet wound brings her to consciousness, and she screams.

I get up, and even as the van is moving, I try as much as possible to maintain my balance as I move quickly. I rush down to her quickly, curl up my hands around her neck and pull her up to her knees. I tighten my fingers around her neck and pull her to her feet.

The roof of the van is high enough and wide enough to accommodate us both, even as we are both standing. I push her back—with my hands still curled up around her neck—until I slam her back against the steel wall of the van and she moans in pain. She's clearly too weak to resist or defend herself.

“This is what you did to them, right? All those wolves, everyone of them. This is how you murdered them, right? In cold blood, knowing that they are too weak to stand against you!” I shout into her face as I try to squeeze the life out of her.

I feel as the steel behind her back resists, stopping me from pushing her any further. My strong hands, clasping her tender neck and raging against her soft skin.

I've never been so angry. The rage is taking over me to the point where I can't even recognise myself. I feel like I'm an entirely different man at the moment, who'd give anything just to have the woman before him killed.

I lose all my values, I lose everything that has ever made me incapable of committing murder. We have suffered so much because of Katerina and Nathaniel, and I want to make them pay for everything they've caused us.

“Please,” she says with the little air still left in her. Her hands curl up gently against mine as she tries to pull it off.

I can see her eyelids pulling over her eyeballs gradually. Her pulse fainting, and I stare into her eyes for a while.

“What am I doing?” I think to myself.

I can't kill her this way. She is just a harmless woman now. As far as she can't shift, she's just the model, not the panther. If I do this now, it means I'm just like her, a murderer. How can I kill her when she has no power to defend herself?

I decide to let her live for now, and whenever this device on our wrists are taken off, I'll complete what I just started. I know the bracelets are stopping us from shifting, because I tried to bring out my claws initially, but it failed.

I slip my hands off her neck and she slides her back against the wall of the van until she sits. She falls on her other shoulder and she massages her neck.

I can see clearly, my hands left a bruise allover her neck. The red top she's putting on better reveals her neck, enough to let me see that I left painful marks on her neck.

“I’ll do this again. And the next time, I'll make sure to snap your neck in a matter of seconds, and when I'm done, I'll hang your head high up, next to the symbol of my pack in memory of those you murdered. After all of that, I'll go for your husband to be Nathaniel, and then I'll decorate our camp with both your heads,” I whisper to her with such bloodlust in my eyes.

Even though I know when the bracelets are off, she'd be twice as strong as I am, and probably rip me apart even before I get close enough to get my hands on her neck. I prefer to give her a chance to defend herself. In that case, it will be seen as a fair fight.

I sit back where I woke up and I keep my eyes fixed on her as she continues to pant and struggle with the pain. I can't help but derive joy from seeing her in so much pain. Apart from the bruises I left on her neck, there's also a bullet stuck in her shoulder.

Suddenly, my mind drifts from her as I think of my sister, Dana.

She must be so worried about me right now. She must be looking everywhere for me.