Rise of the Underdogs: JACOB

Blood and Shadows

Outside, I watched sheets of rain batter the windows, throwing restless shadows around Logan’s cluttered living room. Old newspapers crowded the coffee table, and a mug of tea—Selene’s, I guessed—sat abandoned, its steam long gone. The sticky mix of humidity and tension pressed against me, making it feel like even the walls held their breath, dreading Grand Luna Clara’s reaction. I tried to disappear into my corner, but anxiety gnawed at me: Logan’s confessions replayed in my head, each one settling over my shoulders with the weight of a drenched blanket.

“They did WHAT!?” Grand Luna Clara’s voice exploded from the phone as Logan explained what he and I had uncovered about Ruby.

I winced. I totally didn’t envy Logan having the Grand Luna and Alpha as parents. Luxury was a front to strict rules and pack politics, and we all knew it.

“Mom, could you please not yell? My ears are far more sensitive than a normal Werewolf’s,” Logan pleaded, but her anger filled the room, vibrating through me just as much as him.

Luna Clara scoffed, “You better be taking the usual ensemble to this raid, Logan. Do you understand me? I’m entrusting you and your Guardians with eliminating those wretched bastards. And the girl?”

“Safely under secure watch with Ember and Heaven as her caregivers. Her clinic room window and door are both under guard until this is fixed. My Luna is also there, so Ms. Arden has a pack rep with her.” Logan replied as if he wasn’t just given the order to execute.

From the Brass of the Werewolf world came the order we were expecting anyway, of course. Can’t have a killer party without a few drops of spilled blood now, can we?

I watched as Valik slipped into the room, geared up and ready for battle. Behind him, the tall, imposing, yet friendly figure of King Kaden Cage of the Druid coven. My brother sat sharpening his claws – like brass knuckles, but more of a bear glove made for tearing things apart.

Valik moved to my side, his eyes searching me for signs of Taint. “Good. You’re keeping your head. I don’t wanna lose my bestie.”

“Same,” I said softly. “They have to pay the blood toll for what they did to my Mate.”

He nodded, “Do we have the kill order?”

Logan moved the phone from his ear again. “Mom! I get it, but I also got this. I won’t lose anyone, but they’ll need a funeral before the night’s out.”

“Aye! I jus’ got the list o’ names. Want t’ tell me why yer bringing your Delta?” Grand Alpha Henry, Logan’s adoptive father, asked. His tone laced with amusement.

“That’s just it, Dad. Jake’s coming to land the fatal blow to the boy who desecrated the sanctity of agency and the Mate bond. The one who fathered her child. He is Ruby’s Mate, so that piece of s**t will be on Jacob’s shoulder while the rest of us work through the other Rogues.” Logan’s words hit hard, but not as hard as finding out how Saffron was conceived.

When I tracked the i***t who had sired what should have been my pup by blood, I was already cleared to go feral on them. I honestly couldn’t wait.

I couldn’t wait for the scent of his fear, the sound of his pleas for mercy that would never, ever come, and the feeling of ending the prick with nothing but my bare hands. He stole something precious, and tainted Ruby’s mind into believing she deserved it when she didn’t.

He had knowingly tried to destroyed her self-worth, so I would be taking great pleasure in destroying him.

An hour later, and I was using my inborn Delta skills to track and trace the pattern of movement through the vast, dark forest of the north-eastern reaches. Logan yipped, low and soft, drawing the others to our location by a thick cluster of trees and brushes.

It was the perfect cover.

Downwind of the Rogues we’d hunted, the area protected us while simultaneously giving us a great look at the area. Several of them were sitting around a fire, others asleep on the ground, and there looked to be a tent of some kind hiding what felt like a few more.

“Jacob?”

“Almost twenty by my count, Alpha.” I answered.

Kaden crouched beside us, all pretense of his royal lineage traded for simple, but effective combat gear that seemed to absorb light. “Damn, you’re good. He’s right, Logan. This should be easy, but do let me question them. I want to watch them squirm while my powers burn them from the inside out.”

Chuckling softly, I shook my head. “Should is a trouble word, Kaden.”

“Go tell that to my brother,” he shot back.

Paul army crawled under the bushes, shifting quietly as he took up a strategic position. ‘Let’s have a bit of fun.’

Beside me, Valik crouched, his hand resting on my shoulder. “I promised your sisters I’d make sure you got home. I never said unscathed.”

“Good, because false promises are a great way of making them both go haywire.” I told him.

His eyes glinted. “This isn’t the first time we’ve fought a battle together. This time is different. This time, we fight as brothers bound by fate and right.”

Nodding, I stripped and shifted into Thorne. ‘Ready, buddy?’

‘Always,’ he answered, his growl like thunder in my head. I glanced at Logan, who flicked his hand in an almost imperceptible signal. Moving silently like the shadows we were, we positioned ourselves at various points around the Rogues.

Paul would remain where he was, while Kaden would walk unceremoniously into the camp. Logan was on standby in the trees downwind of the men, while Valik and I would be on opposite sides of the area. The only open spot was a hundred foot drop into the churning ocean waves that crashed over the sharp, jagged rocks at the base of the cliff.

‘A page out of the playbook of Triple Trouble,’ Logan’s voice mocked humorously.

I felt nothing. Not fear. Not hate. Not even pleasure.

What was keeping me going with this task was that I wasn’t doing it for me. I was doing it for her. My Mate and the child who was too young to understand the circumstances of his birth.

While we waited, I listened for the guard change. Apparently these assholes understood how to watch their backs.

One stepped into the shadows where I was waiting. I sniffed the air, shaking my head. ‘Not him. The scent doesn’t match.’

‘No, but he is close,’ Thorne agreed. ‘Alpha said the scent was rust and burnt wood.’

Pulling one of my partial shifts, I extended a claw and slit the Rogues throat. He gurgled quietly, blood spilling into Gaia’s Cradle, turning the grass from green to red. Hiding the body in the bushes, I moved to my next target.

Across the clearing, I saw Valik and Paul take down their opponents with the same surgical ease we all trained with. Silent shadows of retribution and restoration bent on cleansing the world. The scent of blood filled the air, turning it stale. Only then did the Rogues realize they were being hunted. Only then did they understand that they weren’t messing with just any old enemy.

They were messing with cold calculation and mythological mayhem at its finest.

A howl rent the air, one I knew as well as my own. Maria had made it just in time to enter the fray. With her dark eyes, ink-black fur, and ominous powers echoing with every step, she sauntered into the middle of the encampment like Death’s Daughter. Ready and waiting for anyone to challenge her. Her entrance was the one we were waiting for.

Now that all five top powers (Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Captain of the Elite Guard) along with an uber powerful Druid King were on the board, it was time to make a mess. Oh, and what a beautifully bloody mess it was.

Without taking more than three lives, we rounded up the beaten, mewling Rogues who huddled together in terror of what they faced. Not just Guardian’s, but walking, talking primal vengeance in the form of a pissed-off Alpha that could smell the change in your breathing and heart before a lie ever left your mouth.

Back in my gear, I patrolled the Rogues until one scent stood out above all others. The one that partially shared Saffron’s scent.

“Found you.”

Logan’s head snapped up, letting me know he’d heard me. He nodded once. “We do this my way, Jacob.”

“Understood, Alpha,” I answered, snapping to attention. Kaden walked over, eyes glinting with deadly delight.

“Veritas,” he whispered. As the spell took effect, he crouched in front of the bound Rogue. “Tell me, what was your relation to Ms. Arden?”

“Don’t know no Arden.” Before the last word passed his lips, he screamed as if he was in agony. “f**k! Yes! Okay! I knew the w***e! It was a nice change of pace to be able to make a woman submit like that, but she had to go and have a pup out of it!”

“One.” I said, falling into a steady calm.

“Yesh,” a clearly drunk Rogue said. “He had to pin her hot arse facedown to do her, she fought that hard.”

Another deep breath, then I said, “That’s two.”

The first one, the one meant for me to kill, laughed crazily. “She said we’d pay in blood under a dark sky when shadows bore teeth of iron. Said that the Goddess would punish us for it, but who the f**k cares about some invisible b***h? I sent men after her when she ran, but I guess we know what happened now, huh? Little orphan found some so-called good guys.”