Chapter 18 Bloodlust Wolf
1520 Words
Chapter 18
Bloodlust Wolf
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Joseph
“Zodiac! Turn around!”
“No! Blood! Louise! I’m not weak!”
“You stupid mutt, why did we leave her…?”
“That scent…” Zodiac howled. “It makes me – furious … I want to kill!”
I exploded from my human form in a roar that rumbled the ground. I shoved myself off a nearby tree, sending an echoing crack through the air. It crashed to the ground with a vibrating thud that sent all the critters scattering.
“Blood ... Louise’s blood!” I ran between the towering trees, letting Zodiac take over with trepidation. Each large footfall sent more wild creatures scattering into burrows.
“No!” Zodiac gnarled, sending spittle over his grey elongated wolf snout. “She’s bleeding but not on heat!”
As a collective, the two of us were one. We shared our forms but still fought for control of our thoughts. Each other dominated their specific form with more power.
I dominated the human form, but Zodiac pushed when his emotions got the best of him, and lust was our most potent emotion, especially when it came to Louise.
Zodiac dominated the wolf form, but in this state, we were dangerous, and I couldn’t reign him in.
“Must keep running…” Zodiac thundered as he pushed his muscles to the brink of exhaustion. “We can’t go back! Dangerous!”
“Protect Louise!” I warned him, trying to rein in his anger. “She’s our mate!”
“Blood... So much blood!” he roared as we skidded around a clump of wild, prickly blackberry bushes.
“Louise. Death. Cancer. Killer!” His thoughts were a jumbled mess, mingling with my own.
We couldn’t go back and risk Louise’s life … or risk revealing, especially to the Alpha, that she was our fated mate. We would be shunted, ridiculed and forced out of the pack.
In the distance, Zodiac and I could hear the heavy footfalls of an incoming wolf.
Zodiac suddenly stopped, digging his claws into the muddy earth. He sniffed the air, catching the scent of our Beta Dynamite – Kingston’s wolf, in the distance.
“Uncle Levine must have sent him to search for me! He won’t involve my father unless he needs to!”
Zodiac snarled, his hackles standing on end, his shoulders tense, as the shadow of the white wolf closed in on him. “Leave!”
In my short time with Zodiac, he had been argumentative. But Louise had brought out an unpredictable side that troubled me. Right now, my wolf was dangerous.
The second Zodiac met Dynamite’s giant blue eyes. I caught Kingston’s worried glance behind them.
A primal rage bubbled up inside. A heat consumed both of us.
“Alpha…” He growled, slowing his footsteps. The wind rustled his white fur, throwing his scent. “You need to return!”
“Blood…” Zodiac peeled back his lips and gnarled, gnashing his canines in frustration. “Louise’s blood! So much sickness!”
“Alpha…” Concern shadowed Dynamite’s face, reflecting Kingston in it. “Louise is with Doc at the hospital. She lost a lot of blood. She’s weak and needs her mate…”
“No!” Zodiac snarled, scrunching his nose in frustration. “We can’t have a sick mate! No… Alpha’s must have a strong Luna!”
Something odd passed in our Beta's expression. Was it pity? Sorrow? Either way, it made Zodiac furious, and I had no control. He lowered his body, poised to attack.
“What are you doing?” I hissed at him. “He’s our clan… our pack…”
“You need to calm down, Alpha Zodiac…” Dynamite cautioned as he tentatively stepped closer. “I’m not here to challenge you... but to make you see that Louise needs you!”
“I won’t accept a sick mate!” Zodiac snarled.
Dynamite halted, then stood back. He howled towards the sky before holding Zodiac’s glance. “If something goes wrong during the surgery, this might be the last chance you get with her! Why would you give that up?”
With a nonsensical growl, Zodiac pounced at the white wolf. I had no control. I was suddenly a passenger.
“Enough!” Dynamite demanded, squaring his shoulders and throwing his body into the oncoming beast.
Zodiac bounced off a tree, coming back to face his confused Beta. “Must be a strong leader!”
“Stop this, Alpha Zodiac!” Dynamite defended, evading another careless lunge. “I don’t wish to fight! I want you to see sense! You need her!”
“You’re wrong!” Zodiac growled, lunging at him again.
Dynamite avoided the attack by rolling to the left. “Why are you behaving so irrationally?”
Zodiac skated across the moss-covered ground and then leapt back to his paws, his heart pounding.
My thoughts were again one with the great beast. “No! We need to be strong… We need to be respected! We are the Alpha!” Zodiac snarled at Dynamite. “You will yield to me, now!”
“I care for you, Alpha Zodiac…” Dynamite lowered his head. Then he lifted his snout and brandished his teeth in a display of irritation. “But you are also a hot-headed jerk who is too stubborn and selfish to care about anyone else but yourself!”
With a vicious snarl, Zodiac leapt at him again, throwing him into the tree behind him. He dug his claws into the ground and pinned Dynamite in place. “How dare you!”
“Joseph…” it was Kingston’s voice in our mind now. “I know you can hear me…”
“Yield,” Zodiac snarled, pressing his nose against the side of Dynamite’s snout. “I am Alpha… yield!”
“Listen to me!” Growling defiantly from deep within his chest, Dynamite turned his face, so his snout was nose-to-nose with Zodiac’s. “You found your mate. You need her!”
“No, we must reject her!” Zodiac snapped, pressing his muzzle against the side of Dynamite’s face again.
“Listen to me, brother…” Kingston pleaded in a warm voice. “Don’t let that fury take over! Don’t lose yourself, or you will lose control of your wolf…! We need you!”
“Enough!” Growling, Zodiac pushed Dynamite’s face into the ground and held it there.
“Don’t do this,” he warned, eyeing us sideways. “Open your heart and let Louise in… love her… be loved in return!”
“No!”
“Think about Josie-Anne…” Kingston said softly. “What would your little sister think…?”
“Snowflake,” Zodiac’s control released as he stood back from our Beta. “Louise…”
“Yes! They both need you… Especially Louise!” Shaking debris from his white fur, Dynamite stumbled to his feet. “She might die, and can you live with yourself if you never gave it a chance?”
“Die… She can’t die!” Zodiac faced the white wolf. “Can she? She’s a wolf… I-I…”
“Alpha—Joseph—Zodiac…” Dynamite limped toward us, favouring his front right leg, which was no longer white. A thin streak of blood tainted his fur, staining the outlines on the pad of his paw. He pressed his snout against Zodiac’s cheek and then licked it. “Listen with that heart you keep trying to protect…”
The moon’s glow shone over the treetops, lighting the eyes of the silent creatures in the trees. Its brilliant white glow reached through the tree canopy like gentle fingers encasing our bodies. Zodiac closed his eyes and allowed the sensation to calm him – to calm me.
“Let me take you to her.” Dynamite insisted. “It might do you both some good.”
With a deep sigh, Zodiac opened his eyes and allowed me to return to my place in his mind. We watched as Dynamite turned and limped away.
“Okay,” Zodiac and I replied together as Zodiac hurried to catch up to Dynamite. “We need to see her…”
“Great…” Dynamite said as he took a step, and his leg gave way.
Zodiac hurried to right him. Then Zodiac laughed in my mind. “It looks like we managed to get you back for the broken arm after all.”
“At least it’s just a flesh wound,” Kingston snorted as Dynamite held up his right leg and licked the blood from his paw. He placed his paw back on the ground, and Kingston huffed. “And it will be healed soon. We broke yours…”
“Because I we let you…” I chuckled as Zodiac shoved playfully into Dynamite’s shoulder. “Thank you for bringing us back down…”
“You’re my Alpha…” Kingston said as Dynamite licked the side of Zodiac’s face. “And my best friend… If I didn’t bring you to your senses, then who would…”
- Writer
