Enforce Me

Chapter 12: Hurt

My mind was hazed with sleep and my eyes burned dryly as I blinked them open, the sound of growling and claws scraping over rock in the distance, my body shuddering at the sound.

My eyes were swollen with tears from the night previous but it took them not one second to open wide as I pushed myself up out of the cocoon of blankets someone had wrapped me in and found myself precisely where I didn't want to be right now; in Tatum's room.

The growling was growing more vicious and violent as the seconds passed, making my head throb and my heart pound against my ribcage with fear like a drum being beat with excessive force.

When the growling didn't subside after several minutes and pain laced yelps started to methodically join the rhythm, I dragged myself out of what seemed like a hundred furs and quietly made my way towards the main room of the cave, the thrones devoid of the Alpha.

It seemed like the whole pack was gathered in a large circle, no one moving or making a sound other than the odd cheer, the rare snarl and the semi-frequent grimace as if they were glad it had not been them subjected to whatever was being done.

I don't know what come over me but I pushed my way through the sea of people with a newfound confidence and wormed my way straight to the inner ring of people.

There, in the center were two wolves snarling at each other, circling, one horribly wounded, his grey and white fur matted with thick red clumps of blood, his nose dripping red and his jaw slack. The other wolf, a black mass of muscle and dominance radiating hate. I could feel it pulsing off him in wave after crashing wave, his fur only touched by the helpless saliva of a failed bite.

I knew who these wolves were, I could tell from their eyes, the coat and my mate's unmistakable wild musk, that scent surging pulses throughout my body. The other wolf could be the only other green eyed wolf I knew who had a distaste for Tatum and seemed to be the only one brave or stupid enough to say a bad word to him

Tatum lunged at Dustin, ripping at his fur and face, blood pouring from the wounds and creating little rivers where the rock floor had divots and holes.

My body flung itself into the battle the moment I heard a growl of pain come from my mate's wolf as the grey one swiped his left shoulder. My arms ached as I tried to pry the two apart before my head flung back in a silent scream, tears spilling from my eyes as my knees fell to the ground. My back burned with a searing pain as if hot oil had burned and tore its way down my spine as the room filled with an eerie silence.

My right arm was sagging over Dustin; my head hung low and my body shaking with pain. I could see Dustin's head slowly move from one direction to me and then away again.

A soft whine of disbelief broke the echoing silence and then I felt a tongue lap at my back but it only caused more pain so I tore myself from it, stumbling and falling as I reached the opposite side of the ring of people.

I turned for only a second to see the way Tatum's head had hung and his eyes pleaded with sorrow.

The claws that burned a trail down my back had been his.

It took me only a few painful seconds to stand back up and carry myself anywhere my feet would take me. No one followed me and that at least eased the pain if only a little.

I eventually found the hot pool, my back screaming for me to stop, tears falling from my eyes only aiding the swelling from the night previous.

It was an unbearable pain; the pain of a dominant's claws. Even more so was the pain of an Alpha or Alpha-to-be's claws.

My back hurt.

Alpha's had this sort of toxin that seeped into wounds they had created, as a sort of warning to other dominants who challenged them in a fight. To a high ranking dominant or middle-rank it would be like the pain of pouring alcohol into a fresh wound, for a lower rank it would be a severe punishment but for an omega, the pain was catastrophic and often times fatal.