Anger of the Devil

15. Choices we make and people we break

The voices outside were muffled from the door between Lena and the owners of said voices, but the fogginess that still clouded her mind was a big factor as well. She could hear them yelling, but she didn’t listen. She could feel the animosity in the air, but she didn’t pay attention. She was physically and mentally drained. She was numb. The only thing she could do was to lean back in the bed and look at the cracks in the paint while letting her imagination run wild with the different visuals she got from the unintentional lines in the white paint. It was only when she had found a suitable figure for all of the lines that she picked up her phone and found a number. She pressed call and waited until it went through. 

    “Lena? What the hell is happening? The entire perimeter is going haywire! What the actual f**k were you thinking?!”

Lena swallowed before she managed to half-whisper a response.

    “Luke, I need you to be against me on this.”

The other end of the line went dead silent. Yes, Lucas had been mad as well, but he had mostly been confused and afraid. She could hear that in his voice.Lena felt her eyelids close as she calmly waited for her oldest brother to respond, but it was several seconds before he did. 

    “Against you? Lena, I’m almost as angry as the Harlows right now, but you’re my sister. You’ve always had a reason for doing what you do, so even if your choices has been questionable as f**k lately, I’m not going to be against you. I just need to know what the f*****g hell you were thinking?!”

Lena sighed deeply as she massaged her forehead to try to ease the headache she was feeling. 

    “Thinking? I don’t know… I guess... “

Lena stopped speaking as she fought the tension in the front of her head. 

    “Is Nadia okay?”

Lucas was silent for a while before he answered in a way that made Lena visualize the obvious frown of his brows.

    “I think so. They won’t let us know, they’re pissed. But I think she is, ‘cause I’m quite certain that heads would be rolling right now if she wasn’t.”

Lena nodded to herself. 

    “And that’s why you need to be against me on this, because they’ll never trust an Ashwood ever again if you aren’t. And then we’ll be doomed more than we already are.”

A loud bang on the door was heard as voices grew even louder than before.Lena opened her eyes, but the numbness in her body was so strong that she didn’t react even further. 

    “Lena… What. Happened?”

Lena gave a humorless laugh of defeat. 

    “We wanted to free Logan’s soul. I guess we should have been clearer about the whole soul part.”

A stabbing pain erupted in her chest.

    “Lena, this isn’t a joke, damn it! You were almost poisoned by wolfsbane, and Logan Black has escaped!”

The harshness of her brother’s words weren’t without compassion, but Lena didn’t care. The realization of the whole mess started to thunder inside of her, and she almost felt like breaking down and out of her numb state. Almost. 

    “Luke, I need you to be against me. That’s it. Lynch me, disown me, throw me to the wolves; make sure that we haven’t f****d up our chances of beating this evil.”

Lena could hear Lucas starting to respond, but she hung up before he could. She then slowly rose from the bed and walked towards the door, angry voices growing louder with every step. 

⧫ ⧫ ⧫

Nadia stared outside. The sun was up, yet she had trouble seeing the light as tormenting feelings and thoughts fought for her attention. However, one thing kept creeping back into her mind no matter how hard she tried to suppress it. Nathan. The thought of what might have happened to him was so violently horrible, yet she couldn’t stop going there in her mind. All she wanted at that moment was to know what had happened, but no one seemed to care. All everyone was fixating on right now was the events that had happened during the night. 

    “I will kill that girl if I ever get the chance!”

Natalie’s fury was greater than Nadia had ever seen it before. Nadia slowly turned her head to look at her older sister as she furrowed her eyebrows a bit. 

    “It was my idea, Nat. She just did what I suggested.”

    “The hell she did! She knew exactly what kind of danger she was putting you in when she opened those doors. She made you a target of one of the strongest werewolves that has ever lived, knowing very well that he wouldn’t harm her but was very much capable of harming you! And look what happened. She now lies in a comfortable bed while her entire f****d up Pack of bodyguards keep her safe while you sit here with the bruises that her boyfriend left on you. Who knows what would have happened if someone hadn’t seen the alert? If Logan Black hadn’t had to run immediately to escape? I swear…”

Nadia could almost see the fumes coming out of Natalie’s nostrils as she paced the floor. She took in a deep breath before she once more focused on the window when a soft voice spoke to her from her left side. 

    “What happened, Nadi? Why would you go in there?”

Nadia shrugged.

    “I had a plan. It may have worked, but I guess we’ll never know.”

Nadia managed to give Cassie the faintest of smiles as a tear broke free. Cassie looked sad as she slowly touched Nadia’s hand. 

    “So what happened then?”

Nadia could feel the earth-crushing weight of sorrow as she involuntarily saw Nathan’s green eyes in her mind. 

    “I was distracted… Nat, can you please see if they’ve heard from the Grey Pines Pack yet? I need to know if there’s any news.”

Something flashed in Natalies eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came. 

    “What you need is to rest.”

Nadia scrunched her face together as she stepped towards her oldest sister. 

    “Natalie, I’m not a child. I’ll rest when things have calmed down, but right now I need to know if there’s any news.”

    “Nadia…”

A flow of energy rushed through Nadia as she suddenly burst with a force while staring powerfully at Natalie.

    “Tell me!”

The shock in Natalie’s eyes was evident. She stepped back a bit while regaining her senses. Nadia could feel the power run through her as she kept her eyes fixed on Natalie. 

    “I… I don’t know, okay. The intel from yesterday was only given to members of the Lake Maroon Pack, and we’ve been pretty occupied by other things for some time, if you haven’t noticed. But…”

Natalie swallowed and looked at her feet.

    “But…?”

The internal battle in Natalie’s eyes was clear, but she eventually gave in. 

    “We still have a few scouts in California. Apparently something happened tonight, a fight of some sorts. There are some rumours, but we haven’t had anything confirmed.”

Nadia squinted as she grew more bold.

    “What rumours?”

Natalie looked towards Cassie with sad eyes, which angered Nadia. 

    “Don’t look at her. Don’t look at your fifteen year old sister while avoiding your eighteen year old sister. Cut the whole ‘she’s not a werewolf’ bullshit right this second and tell me what the rumours are.”

Natalie sighed deeply before she met Nadia’s eyes again. 

    “That the Grey Pines Pack suffered greatly. That Dom is dead.”

Nadia could feel her heart skip a beat as confusion, sadness, and more importantly fear formed inside of her. Then she felt a weird sense of determination take over.

    “I need to speak with Lena.”

Natalie turned from submissive to her usual dominating self within the split of a second. 

    “Absolutely not!”

She stopped Nadia, but Nadia only pushed away her hand as she pleadingly, yet firmly, raised her voice at her sister. 

    “Stop cuddling me! I was the one who chose to come here, I was the one who got us into this mess. I will speak with her, and you won’t get in my way. I know you’re doing this out of protective love, Nat, but stop. Just… stop.”

The exhaustion that Nadia was feeling was clear as she stopped speaking. She didn’t try to hide it like she didn't try to hide the pain she was feeling, but she wasn’t going to let Natalie stop her, and she made sure that Natalie understood that as well. 

Natalie looked concerned as she just watched Nadia for some seconds. Then she stepped to the side and crossed her arms across her stomach. 

    “Fine. But I’m not sure our dad or Alex will let you, and they’re trying to get to her at this moment. Just so you know.”

Nadia nodded as she gently walked to the door and opened it. 

    “I know.”

⧫ ⧫ ⧫

It was as if she walked into a furnace when she opened the door. The angry voices went from muffled to full blown screams, and while Lena still felt numb to her core, it was clear what they were saying now. 

    “That girl nearly got my daughter killed! You let me see her right…”

James Harlow stopped speaking as his eyes met Lena’s. Everyone turned to look at her as she slowly stepped into the corridor. More than a dozen of the strongest wolves from the Lake Maroon Pack were standing as a wall between her door and an angry group of White Pines Pack members, including Jess, Kendrick, and Patrick. On the other side stood Alpha James and his two oldest sons plus some other fierce looking fighters. Jess gave Lena a look that Lena hadn’t seen since her first time staying at the Lake Maroon Pack over a year ago. It was a look that said something in the line of ‘girl, are you f*****g kidding me.’ However, Jess didn’t have much time to scold her with her eyes before a roar was heard. Lena watched as Alpha James turned to a wolf only a few feet away. The Lake Maroon Pack members quickly acted as they too turned, and soon the corridor was filled with snarling, furry beasts. Lena opened her mouth to speak. 

    “Don’t!”

She furrowed her eyebrows as another voice broke through. While her mouth was still agape, she watched as Nadia ran towards them. The total surprise in her was the first true emotion she had felt for hours, and it seemed as if others were just as surprised as her. The wolves on both sides looked bewildered as Nadia, panting, made her ways towards them.

    “Please stop! This is not necessary! Please…”

Lena inhaled deeply as she felt a small sensation of relief. Seeing Nadia unscathed was a minor joy to what had been one of the worst nights in her life. However, the relief was only temporary, ‘cause just as Nadia had gotten to where they were all standing, Lena heard the unmistakable sound of howls - and it wasn’t the howls of pack she had heard before.