Nine-Tailed Love Story

Couldn’t Save

“Alright, just guard that location,” Seb said, and then he turned to Zack.

“Where is he?” he asked, and then Zack looked at his palmtop, pinning Leo’s location.

“Around half a mile from the cabin,” Zack answered.

Seb nodded his head.

“We should send another one to back them up as they guard the exit,” Seb suggested.

Zack nodded, and then he looked at Daisy.

“Daisy, you go,” he told her.

Daisy nodded her head and took off. She jumped onto a tree branch and then started leaping from one branch to another. After she left, Mikey looked at Zack.

“What should we do now?” she asked.

“We need to corner them,” Zack answered.

“We go down the tunnel and push them out and have the other team ambush them,” he added.

Both Seb and Mikey nodded. Then Zack looked at Seb.

“Doc, you should stay behind us. You are our medic; whatever happens to us, we need you to heal us,” he told him.

Seb nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.

“Copy that,”

Then Zack contacted the other group.

“We will be flushing them towards your direction. Make sure you guys are ready. Remember, you can kill the rogue, but we need the girl alive and safe,” he told them.

‘Roger that,’

Then Zack signaled Mikey and Seb that they would make their move. Zack took the lead, walking into the cabin with Mikey behind him and Seb at the back. They carefully entered the cabin, guns ready, while looking around, checking for any traps.

As the two elites continued to check for traps, Seb was checking on the prenatal vitamins and the food left on the table. He noticed that based on the vitamin dosages, he was certain that the girl was close to her due date.

Then he paused when his Lycan ears picked up something. He looked around, trying to find where the sound was coming from. Since he couldn’t find it around him, his eyes then darted downwards. He looked at the wooden floor, not wasting any moment, he crouched down and placed his palms against the hardwood.

He closed his eyes and listened carefully. He can hear it. He can hear a faint agonizing scream, but he couldn’t really make out what it was. Seb turned towards Zack and Mikey.

“I need silence,” he told them.

The two Elites looked at him, stopped walking, and raised their hands in surrender. Then Seb once again focused on the floorboards and listened carefully. Soon, he heard clearly the cries of pain that were clearly female, coming from underground.

“I think she’s in labor,” Seb said, and then he looked at his companions.

“Her human body wouldn’t be able to handle the wolf baby. Her life and the baby’s life are in danger. We need to go now.”

Zack nodded, and they started looking around for the trap door that would lead them to the tunnel.

“I got it,” Mikey said, rushing towards the kitchen after she used a spell.

Seb and Zack followed her, and in the kitchen, they saw Mikey pull the fridge from the wall. There, they saw a trapdoor where the fridge was once. Zack opened the trapdoor and tossed the small drone to check it first.

From his palmtop, they were able to see what was underneath the trapdoor. It was a narrow tunnel, dimly lit by small lights attached to the tunnel walls. As the drone moves further, they hear cries of pain.

“Labor,” Seb said.

“I’ll go first,” Zack said, jumping into the trapdoor.

Mikey looked at Seb and spoke.

“Follow me after a minute, doc,”

Seb nodded and watched as Mikey jumped in, following Zack. After he was left alone, Seb ran several scenarios in his head, and in the end, he was torn between following them into the tunnel or going to the other end of the tunnel and joining the ambush.

‘Just decide, damn it,’

Seb heard his Lycan complain.

‘That’s the thing, I cannot decide,’ he replied.

His Lycan Aguilla groaned.

‘Just get into the hole and decide there!’ he growled.

Seb heaved a deep breath and shook his head before jumping into the hole on the floor. Seb followed the tunnel, and soon, he found Zack and Mikey fighting a man with a crazed look on his eyes. He figured that it was the suspect, the rogue they are hunting.

He was about to join them when his eyes caught something behind the brawl. It was the missing girl; she was slumped on the tunnel floor, just behind the column. She was clearly writhing in pain, labor pains.

Seb quickly moved past the people fighting to get to the girl.

“Hey, I’m a doctor, and I think you are about to give birth,” Seb told the girl.

“You think?!” she growled, glaring at Seb with her sharp eyes that are now changing shades. Seb figured that the girl’s wolf side is getting stronger, so she can survive childbirth.

“Look, if you want your child to be born okay, let me help,” Seb told her, ignoring her glares.

Before the girl could respond to him, she was hit by another contraction, making her scream in pain. At the same time, she grabbed onto Seb’s shoulder, her nails digging into his flesh.

Seb ignored the stinging pain and put his hand on the girl’s stomach, feeling the baby’s movements. He felt it rotate, but could not do it as if it was stuck. Seb continued to feel the fetal movements until they stopped. He also listened to its heartbeat that was slowly getting weak.

Seb looked at the girl who was breathing heavily, sweat drenched her face, and pieces of hair sticking to her forehead and cheeks.

“Miss, your baby is in distress. I believe it's in a breech presentation,” he said.

“What the hell does that mean?” the girl hissed, her face filled with agony as another wave of pain hit her.

“It means the baby’s feet might go out first instead of its head, but based on how it stopped moving earlier, it was now in transverse, meaning it's not presenting the feet nor the head,” Crane explained.

“Then do something! You said you are a doctor!”

The girl snapped, and then she screamed.

“I can take you to the nearest hospital only if you let me carry you out of here,” he said.

The girl shook her head, and then she glanced towards her rogue mate.

“He’s busy,” Seb spoke.

“Look, you can think about him later. For now, you have to think of your baby. The longer the baby is inside you, the more danger he or she is in. The heartbeat is slowly decreasing, and it's not a good sign.”

Seb told her, trying to convince the girl.

“N-No,”

The girl weakly replied while helplessly looking at her rogue mate. Then she looked at Seb.

“My mate needs me to stay with him,” she added, making Seb scowl.

“You are not making a rational decision. It’s your baby’s life we are talking about,” he pressed.

“He is more i-important,” the girl replied, and then she tried to get up.

The girl tried to make her way towards her rogue mate. Seb gritted his teeth, shaking his head as he stood up. Then he swiftly grabbed the girl’s arm before hoisting her up in his arms.

“What are you doing? Let me go!” the girl screamed.

“Saving you and your baby’s life,” Seb told her, and then he carried her towards the tunnel’s exit.

While they were leaving, the rogue noticed, and he was definitely enraged. He tried to chase after them, but Mikey cast a spell, a glowing chain of light coiled around the rogue, holding him back.

The rogue growled as he tried to get out of it, but it was no use. Meanwhile, Seb and the girl managed to get out of the tunnel, and the moment they came out of the exit door, Leo and Karen approached them.

“Zack and Mikey are still dealing with the rogue. I need to save her and the baby in her,” Seb told them.

The two Elites nodded, and Seb ran out with the girls in his arms. They hadn’t gone that far when the girl screamed so loudly, she was in real pain, and she started thrashing around.

Afraid of dropping her, Seb stopped and put the girl down, letting her lean against a boulder. Then he started checking her stomach, performing Leopold’s maneuver to assess the baby’s position as he listened to the baby's heartbeat.

Seb’s eyes widened when he learned that the baby’s heartbeat had grown lower than earlier, and it is now in a critical condition. He looked at the girl with a worried expression.

“Look, your baby is in danger, and this will put you in danger as well,” he pressed.

The girl still shook her head even though she was writhing in pain. The pain just intensified, and Seb noticed blood began to pool where the girl was seated.

“Damn it,” Seb cursed.

Then the girl passed out, and Seb checked her vital signs. He was concerned by how her stats began to drop.

‘What are you waiting for? Save her!’

Aguilla snapped at him.

Seb contemplated for a few seconds before he let out a curse and held out his hand. Then he removed his jacket and laid it on the ground as he let the girl lie down.

“This isn’t an ideal place for c-section,” he grumbled.

‘Like you have a choice,’

Aguilla retorted.

Seb ignored him, and then a knife made up of ice appeared, and he gripped its handle tightly. Seb took a deep breath and pushed the girl’s blouse, revealing her abdomen. He used the ice knife to cut into the girl’s stomach to perform an emergency C-section.

Seb moved carefully, making sure that he cut precisely and no foreign body could get into the wound. Soon, after layers of skin and flesh, he started cutting through the uterus. Once there was an opening, Seb dropped the ice knife and shoved his hands in and slowly, carefully pulled out the baby that was still in the amniotic sac.

Once he ripped the sac and the amniotic fluid gushed out, wetting him and their surroundings, Seb noticed that the baby’s cord was coiled twice around its neck. He carefully untangled it from the baby’s neck and checked the baby’s vitals.

Seb felt like his body turned cold as he couldn’t hear any heartbeat, and the baby did not take its first breath. Seb frantically grabbed the travel towel that he stuffed into his leg pocket. He spread it on the ground and laid the baby there before he started performing CPR.

He started chest compression on the baby’s chest with his fingers while breathing into its tiny mouth. Seb continuously does it, but every second that the baby remains unresponsive, the chances of it surviving are slim.

Seb glanced at the girl while he continued to do CPR. She was alive, and her heartbeat was starting to slow down because of the bleeding. So, Seb turned his one hand towards the girl while the other was doing CPR. He took out the remnants of the pregnancy before he started healing the girl; her uterus healed like it was never opened up, and once it's all healed, the other layers of her stomach followed, one layer closing after another until her whole stomach looked like it was never cut, nor pregnant.

After he made sure that the girl’s stats were almost normal, he focused on the baby. He started to hear a faint heartbeat coming from the baby when he was suddenly thrown across the forest. Seb crashed into several trees, and he felt like the air was knocked out of his chest, and was followed by a sharp pain in his side. When he sat up and looked at himself, he noticed a tree branch protruding from his side.

“Damn it,” he hissed, pulling the branch out of his body.

The moment it was out of him, his injury healed instantly. Then his attention turned towards where he was earlier when the thought of the baby hit him. His eyes widened when he saw the rogue in that location. It was kneeling in front of the girl and the baby that was lying side by side.

Using his Lycan hearing, he can only hear the heartbeats of the parents, but the baby, on the other hand, it was gone. At that moment, Seb felt like he was punched in the gut. He couldn’t save the baby.

Before he could really grieve the loss of his youngest patient, he heard a loud growl. He turned towards where it was coming from, and he saw the rogue glaring in his direction. It suddenly shifted to its wolf form and started running towards him.

At that moment, Seb thought that if the rogue didn’t throw him off, he could have saved the baby. His thoughts were just to make the rogue pay. Then his eyes turned icy blue, and he shifted to Lycan form, running towards the rogue, meeting him in the middle.

As soon as they clashed, Seb’s pure white Lycan wolf was bright in contrast to the rogue’s matte dark brown fur. They clawed each other, and then Seb was able to kick the rogue in the stomach, sending him down to the ground. Seb immediately pounced on the rogue, stepping on its neck. His white Lycan towered over the rogue, who was still growling at him.

‘Because of you, I couldn’t save the baby.’

Seb spoke in his head as he growled back at the rogue.

‘It’s your fault. You killed the baby!’

Seb growled that shook the entire forest. Then, before the rogue could do anything, he opened his mouth and sank his sharp teeth into the rogue’s throat, ripping it out. After spitting the flesh in his mouth, he once again chomped down on the rogue’s chest, creating a hole before his claw ripped its heart out.

The Elites who got there witnessed it all happen. They saw Seb howl to the sky after he mauled the rogue. After he howled, he glanced towards the approaching Elites before taking off deep into the forest.