Eclipse

1. Fight

Three short raps on the door, before it flew open, startling me out of my stupor.

"Megan, they need you out there!" Cameron snapped, voice bordering fury.

"No, they don't," I replied blearily, covering my eyes with an arm. "Everyone's doing perfectly fine without me. They've got you."

"I am not enough, Vaughn!" Cameron was angry now. Really angry. "Our pack listens to you. You are the Alpha now, and you lead us! The rogues are taking advantage of your rule, and if you don't stop them, we might as well be dead!"

I groaned and turned over in my bed, curling into a ball. "Go away, Cam," I murmured. My wolf was lethargic, and the last thing I wanted to do was to talk to some idiotic rogues who liked to play hide and seek. Well, perhaps I shouldn't speak so think of them like that. Their version of the game was a macabre and bloody one, killing my pack when they were alone. I knew that they all wanted me to act, but the thought of being caught alone by rogues and being butchered wasn't high on my agenda. Especially after the Leo incident. God, I wanted to forget it all. When I came back, drenched and close to collapsing...it felt like the very life had been sucked out of me. Like I wanted to cut my heart out, then and there. I did try once. Didn't quite work out the way I planned, with Cameron, my Beta walking into the bathroom by accident just when I was trying to stab myself with my father's razor. That was a month after Leo's death. Boy, he was pissed...

"Are you even listening to me?" I looked over my shoulder with one eye cracked open.

"Sorry, you were saying something?" He looked ready to explode. Cameron's jaw tensed and I watched as his fists clenched and unclenched, flexing the muscles in his forearms.

"Megan, I'm giving you this one chance to get the f**k off your ass and do something. I swear, if you don't, then I'm going to make you do it. The world doesn't revolve around you, so stop f*****g feeling bad about yourself and think about your pack, the people you got killed! This is your bloody mess, so go out there and mop it up!"

My second eye cracked open, and I glared at him with a cold anger. "This isn't my fault," I hissed. "They chose to go out by themselves. They had it coming."

Shock flickered in Cameron's eyes at my unfeelingness, though it was quickly concealed by fury. "How dare you! Did they deserve to be gutted and their intestines ripped out?" He was shouting now. "To have their eyes gouged out? To have their tongues cut out? No, they never deserved it, but now... I think you do." With that, he stormed away, but his words resonated in my head. Did I deserve it? Maybe I did. Maybe that's why he wanted me to face those bloodthirsty fools. They had had their chance in my father's pack, and they were kicked out for good reason. Why did they have to come back? Now I was left to deal with them. f*****g idiots. I slammed my fist into my pillow and pushed myself into a sitting position. God, I was tired. I didn't want to deal with this crap. I staggered into the bathroom and tugged my pyjamas off, glaring with slit eyes at the raccoon eyed reflection in the mirror before changing into rogue-worthy clothes. If I was to be the Alpha, then I would have to dress like one and not some lowlife. I rearranged my hair into something more presentable before plodding to the front of the house where Cameron looked like he was about to punch the wall. He instantly turned at the sound of me emerging, and a mixture of relief and rage flitted across his face.

"I suppose you're going to talk to them?" he asked shortly once I stopped in front of him with my hands stuffed in my pockets.

"Why else would I be out here?" Irritation was evident in his face, and rightly so. I rarely left our home anymore, other than when I needed to shift. "Where are the rogues?"

"In the middle of the forest." The building in which the majority of my pack lived was situated a mile or so away from a dense forest and away from the excessive civilisation of the urban sprawl that was only several kilometres away, just in case we had to shift and needed to get under cover. We did nobody any favours by turning into a feral wolf in the least pleasant way possible, and the chance of getting attacked by us was just too high, so the cover of the woods was a welcome addition to our home. Not to mention it was a nice place to just... scream. Of course, the rest of my pack could hear me, but I liked to think that I had some privacy, however stupid that illusion was.

I broke into a light jog; the sooner I got to rendezvous point to better. It was so much easier navigating the woods once I'd shifted... now at every turn I got whacked in the face by a branch. Somehow I thought that the rogues would crack up laughing as soon as they saw my face, scratched red and raw from twigs. Once a hint of the rogues' scent was detected, I slowed to a brisk walk. Running to them might be seen as a sign of anxiety or fear. Only then did fear start to trickle through my system, which had previously been clogged my melancholic depression. Did the rogues really cut out tongues and gouged eyes out? How clueless had I been before? Maybe be Cameron was right. Maybe I do deserve to be gutted by them...

The stench of the rogues quickly intensified, a mixture of wet fur, dirt and rotting meat. The smell wafted down my throat, and I quickly stumbled to a tree trunk for comfort, retching and dry heaving. Do they even have a sense of hygiene?

l avoided the thought of what they smelled in close quarters and kept walking. I had to get there fast.

The dense forest finally dispersed into a small clearing, in which half a dozen rogues stood waiting. I blanked out my face to hide my disgust. They looked like, to put it simply and bluntly, s**t. Like they'd spent half their life rolling in mud and blood and rotting flesh. Their clothes were matted with dirt and hung in tatters, and their hair looked like it was home to a dozen different parasites and vermin. Their leader was an intimidating sight, I had to admit, bare chested with a pair khaki shorts with every muscle tense and only too visible. His eyes were discoloured, the right a milky blue compared to the vibrance of the other, mainly due to a short but hideous scar that ran directly through the eye. His hair was matted and overgrown, hanging to his shoulders, and a twisted smile was spread across his face. If it was supposed to be welcoming, he was failing misery. According the Cameron, this man was Nathaniel.

"So, the Alpha has at last arrived!" he said loudly, stretching his arms wide in welcome. I kept my face composed and blank.

"I hope that we can come to a peaceful resolution," I reply stiffly, repeating what Cameron had told me to say. They sounded fake to my ears, and apparently to Nathaniel's ears as well. He c****d a thick eyebrow in amusement.

"Megan—can I call you that?— I think we both know that this isn't going to be a peaceful meeting."

"Not if I can help it." But he was right. Someone was going to die. Or at least be very, very injured. And I had a bad feeling that it was going to be me.

"I have to say I'm surprised, though. Didn't you bring any backup? Some protection?" His words stung, because now I knew that he knew what I'd been up to all these months. Wallowing around in self pity.

"I have men around," I lied smoothly, not letting my anxiety show in that twitch that always ran through my hand. I didn't have any backup. They were all back at the manor, guarding it from rogue attacks. "So what do you propose?"

Nathaniel grinned wickedly. "I was waiting for you to ask that. I want you to step down. Give your title to me without a fight. Give me your territory, and you and your pack can stay alive. Or mostly."

Anger licked the walls of my stomach. How dare you! "I'm afraid that that won't be possible," I replied as calmly as possible. I am not a coward. I will not sacrifice my pack's safety for my own.

Nathaniel's blue eyes hardened and his thin lips parted to reveal a hint of a chipped-toothed snarl. "Miss Vaughn, I don't think you are in a position to bargain for your pack here..." he began slowly, taking a step forward threateningly. I took two backwards.

"I am not bargaining for my pack. You'll find that I want to find the best option for all of us."

"Ms Vaughn, I think that you'll find that there is no other option." Nathaniel moved closer until he was just a single step away from me. His cronies stood where they were in their place.

"Is that a threat, Mr Crowe?" I asked softly, meeting his steely gaze firmly. And then I realised it. He knew that I had nobody backing me up, and then a horrible thought struck me. What was Cameron planning?

Nathaniel smiled at the sudden realisation in my eyes. "I, Nathaniel Crowe, challenge you, Megan Vaughn." The colour drained from my face. "And remember—we're rogues. I'm just choosing to play nice."

Suddenly, I felt very, very small. Small and insignificant. Starving oneself for over a year doesn't give the said person a very healthy physique. Nathaniel's smile suddenly seemed cold and mocking. He was right. These were rogues, and Cameron had pushed me into a corner full of them.

I met Nathaniel's stare and replied with a trembling voice that I cursed as I spoke. "I don't see a choice here, do I?"

Nathaniel's smirk sparked a flame amidst a sea of oil inside me, and all of a sudden I was furious. Furious at him, at Cameron, at Leo for pulling me down in this never-ending downward spiral. He didn't say anything as he walked away, but then he pulled down his shorts and discarded them carelessly. A challenge is the fight of the wolf. One does not wear clothes unless they want to be covered in torn fabric.

I gulped nervously as I removed my jacket and my shirt. My arms seemed like sticks next to his muscular arms, and my pale stomach was concave, accompanied by my ribs that protruded like knives.

Wake up, I whispered, nudging my wolf to wake up. She was still sluggish, and didn't want to be woken up. Wake up! I hissed again with more force as I pulled off my jeans. All I got in response was a weak growl. Wake up, you coward! I almost shouted, and I was successful. She snarled in fury, just as I'd stripped, and a shriek ripped through my throat. Pain shattered through my bones as they snapped and moulded and aligned themselves into new positions. As always, my right hand was the first to shift, and then I was joined my Nathaniel's roar of anger and pain melded into one terrifying scream. I felt the silver fur sprout from my skin and my teeth lengthen into fangs.

My wolf was so weak compared to my human form, but the anger was enough collide into Nathaniel's onyx-furred side. My weight barely managed to knock him over, but I had enough time to sink my teeth deep into his shoulder, eliciting a howl of agony. The coppery taste of his blood in my mouth tasted foul, but I latched on until Nathaniel managed to shake me off and pinning me down. I knew it was over then, as he raked his paw across my chest to my hip. It wasn't particularly deep, but it still hurt like hell. I bucked desperately under his weight, trying to rock him off, but he was too heavy. I bared my teeth and managed to close enough to his muzzle, but not enough to draw blood.

My fur was matted with my own blood when Nathaniel finally drew away. I was curled up by the base of a tree trunk while Nathaniel's bones snapped back into place.

"Shift!" he snapped kicking me in the ribs before going scavenging for his clothes. My wolf was only to willing to escape this broken body to my broken mind while I was left in the dirt a bloody naked mess. I covered myself with my hands as much as I could as Nathaniel returned, back in his shorts. A crescent of deep wounds line his shoulder where I had first bitten him, and a red scratch ran across his cheek, but other than that he was unharmed. He bent down and grasped my chin roughly, forcing me to meet his eyes.

"Listen to me very closely, Vaughn," he said quietly. "You are very lucky, because I'm letting you get off. I have a little bird who wants you out of his way, but I reckon this will do just fine. Tell your Beta that you have one month to clear out. When I come back, I expect to find the Vaughn manor empty, you here? When I come back, it will be my territory. I will be the Alpha of my pack, and you will be long gone. Do you understand?" I tried to say something, but blood seeped through my lips and down my chin. "Do you understand?"

I nodded vigorously within his grip, and he let go, pushing my head away as though I disgusted him. My head hit the trunk with a painful thunk, but it hurt no more than the rest of my body. I heard the crunch of his footsteps on dried leaves as he retreated with his six silent henchmen, and I lay convulsing and stricken with pain. It took me at least half an hour before I could find the energy to move, and I only just managed to start crawling away from the clearing.

Being Lupi, I knew that these wounds would stop bleeding and start scabbing over by the next day, and be nothing but scars the day after, but my body could barely cooperate now, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to make it to the manor. I must have managed half the distance before I blacked out, and everything was gone, even, thankfully, the terrible pain that tormented me. Just obsidian black nothingness.