Sacrificed Soul

Chapter Six

The sirens of Kernville's lone ambulance wails just outside Doctor Borris' clinic. The lights still flash, red then white, painting the world in shades of blood. Mammy Orion waits on the seat of her pink walker, her hand resting in her grandson's, the other clutching his wife's liver red fur. Her worst fear had come to pass. The bloodline she'd so painstakingly hidden had run true. The moon glared at her, calling in the debts of her secrecy.

They'd all heard the screams. Leanne was a good runner, a fast runner. She couldn't have been ten minutes from the house. It would have been too late by then anyhow, Mammy recalled. Some of the children, they had stayed on the skin-side and had rushed to their phones when the beast had found them. Their wolves were too shaken to aide them. Larry was there the quickest. Had told her of the chaos and blood. Of a liver brown wolf the same color as his wife and twice the size of even his own.

It was a rampage, and she was vengeance incarnate with only one wolf in mind. Cori and her second soul had led the berserker on a grand chase, but Mammy refused to think of the bitch as valiant. She'd been running, tail tucked and yipping, her only saving grace that of the beast's recent birth and the lack of coordination that came with it.

She felt the silent rumble of her old girl tucked in her chest. Cori should suffer for she's done. Mammy agreed, but she shushed it. Now was not the time, not when they were so close to having lost so many. It was a testament to packs strength and cunning that they had all survived.

Even the alphas had struggled to catch her attention. No singular wolf would sway the thoughts of the beast her granddaughter had become. It had taken all the clan leaders, every mature pack member to keep her corralled and away from those that had killed Honey-girl.

Someone called the national guard, no one was sure who, and whoever did it kept their mouth's shut tight. The government wasn't supposed to get involved in pack trifles, but they'd come for something like Honey-girl. Ill equipped to calm her, to satisfy it's cravings for the blood of a traitorous pack, the army were the ones who descended.

Black helicopters swooped in after six hours of playing prey, of herding a wolf gone mad. Mammy wasn't sure how much sedative it took to drop her, only that it was a long time before it took effect. She'd arrived as they covered her granddaughter's nude form. Strapped Honey-girl's body down with chains. Gagged her unconscious body. They promised she would be fine. Two years to retrain. Two tours in the military. They knew what she was. Had the experience required.

The front door of the clinic slams open, stealing Mammy away from her thoughts. Morris is haggard. He nearly stumbles out of his brother's clinic, but the alpha of the pack cannot afford to look weak in the wake of such tragedy. His sorrowful eyes glance over the Orion clan and their weeping members. He begins to walk towards them, but Siobhan is there, blocking his way.

Mark Cobbler approaches instead, his hands twisting the once blue ball cap he wore to hide his receding hairline. He was nervous. He was right to be. Old girl perched up, and if her bones weren't so old she would take a bite out of the man who raised a shifter unable to contain their wild.

"Larry," he says, ignoring Mammy's and her wolf's glare, straightening his shoulders, "Meeting in thirty. Will you be alright for it?"

Larry, the strongest leader ever of the Orion clan, shakes his head drops his eyes, "I didn't know. I swear it."

"We know," Mark says, dropping the hat as he pulls the younger wolf in for a hug, "She'll be safe. The army... They'll take care of it. Whatever she's become. She'll be fine."

Larry was always a hugger. Most shifters were, and he embraced the fellow clan leader with every bit of strength that was left to him. He was taking Leanne's fall the hardest. He wouldn't say so, but Leanne was his favorite. She saw in him the deliberation. He didn't want to be there, but if pushed, he would go. Self sacrificing wolf that he is, he would let the others mourn for him.