Greykin Valley

| 63 | Blood and Stripes

⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐

| Jackson |

Jackson's heart shattered into a million pieces. He stared at the ledge, and he watched as the tsunami of cadejo swarmed the place where Wilson fell. He tried telling himself that it wasn't real; he tried to fight off the shock and dismay, but he saw it with his own eyes. His friend was gone.

"Wilson..." he breathed as his throat swelled and tears formed in his eyes.

He heard Damon yell, and Raphael was torn off his back. Their arguing voices and savage snarls echoed around Jackson, but all he could hear was his racing heart and the sounds coming from the cadejo pit. The ripping. The tearing. The groaning. He scowled in dismay, letting his tears fall, and the longer he lay there staring at the place he last saw his friend, the more it hurt.

Why? How? Wilson couldn't be gone. He'd spent so long trying to find him—he'd nearly died several times—and he only had him back for a few days...and now he was gone again, and this time...Jackson wouldn't be able to recover him.

But anger quickly began creeping through the cracks in his suffocating despair. It evolved into rage, and when he took his eyes off the pit and set them on Raphael, who was getting ready to pounce at Damon, every ounce of fury that Jackson felt focused on him.

It was his fault! If he'd just let him run to Wilson's aid, this wouldn't have happened!

Jackson didn't hold back. He lunged at the orange wolf and sunk his teeth into his back leg.

Raphael yelped painfully and then snarled when he tried to yank his leg free, but Jackson wouldn't let go.

"Get the fuck off me!" the orange wolf growled.

"This is all your fault!" Jackson replied angrily as tears streamed down his face, and his voice muffled because he still had Raphael's leg in his maw. "He's dead because of you!"

He bit harder...and harder...and hard—

A loud snap was followed by Raphael's pained shriek; Jackson felt the bone snap under his teeth, and as the orange wolf's blood seeped into his mouth, his anger and rage were accompanied by bloodlust. This blood tasted unlike anything he'd had before; it blessed him with euphoria, and it urged him to take more. So he bit harder—

"Jackson!" came Damon's voice.

But not even that could make him stop.

"Get him the hell off me!" Raphael demanded, yanking his leg.

Damon grabbed Jackson's sides with his huge, furred hands and tried to pull him away from Raphael, but Jackson snarled in hostility as he gulped down the delicious, intoxicating blood.

"Jackson!" the Alpha insisted again.

"I swear to fuck, if you don't get this brat off me in the next five seconds, I'll break every goddamn bone in his body!" Raphael yelled.

The Alpha tugged harder.

He was starting to piss Jackson off. The rage consumed him, and he didn't even try to control it. What was the point?

But then Sebastien landed twenty feet away and raced over. "Oh, my fucking God," he growled, and when he reached Jackson, he helped Damon, and together, they managed to pull him off Raphael.

The orange wolf snarled angrily and swung around, and he immediately went for Jackson, but Damon stood defensively in front of him, and Sebastien pinned Jackson down with his wings.