King of Beasts

Chapter 23

It was raining outside.

No, raining was the wrong word.  It was a never ending tsunami, a rain so brutal you'd drown by stepping off your front porch.  The trees and grass were brutalized, the leeks in the roof spreading and bending, all living things seeking what little shelter they could.

It was early morning, not that you could tell.  The clouds blocked all light, allowed the shadows to wander wherever they pleased.  Where the child crouched in the corner, though, blood smeared pale skin trembling, not even the shadows were brave enough to near.

When the King of Beasts arrived with matted fur and an itching feeling of disaster in his chest, he was met with blood soaked mud and a town in shambles.  He was swarmed the moment he was noticed, by those on fours like him, and those on two.  Women crying, others shouting.  Men telling him too many things at once, beasts howling and growling.

Pandemonium, none of which he could understand over that damn rain.

Good old Odin, though, his highest friend among all his friends, his second in command, was able to pull him to the side, offer him a pair of shorts, and a brief, somber explanation.

Jason changed.  Jason changed wrong.  Jason's mother was fighting to keep another breath in her chest in the healers house.

And now Jason was in some corner, too fragile for anyone to come close to him at all without endangering himself or others.

From his vantage point, Gabe could see the blockade of beasts blocking Jason if he decided to run, but moving no closer.

"How long?" Gabe asked.  The rain pelted down, dripped into his eyes.

"His shift took five hours.  When he got his mind back enough the reality of what he did to his mum drove him back to madness.  He's been like this for three hours now."

Gabe gritted his teeth, flexed his jaw.  That beast within him was stirring, rising up, threatening to take control in beastly way.  His town was in distress, a member of his pack was in shambles, and it was his duty, in his very nature and coded into his own damn genes to do something.

He strode across the mud in bare feet, the rain and his beasts parting for him to allow a path to the small boy in the corner of the house.  Thoughts of Charlotte faded to the back of his mind.  Thoughts of her death, of the imminent future without her before him, thoughts of what the hell the point of anything was anymore faded back.

Because this was his town, his pack, and they have been for hundreds of years.  These people, beasts or not, were deeper than family, stronger than friends.  They were life, connection, everything.  

And one of them was rogue.  One of them was born rogue.  It was his job to protect and defend these people and he would until his very last breath.

He stepped close enough so Jason could feel his presence like the raw power it was.  He stopped trembling, froze up to the point of pain but didn't turn.

"Face me." Gabe demanded.  All other beasts faced him, stood with their backs straight, heads held high, proudly awaiting a command even knowing it wouldn't be directed at him.  All beasts but the boy before the king.  "Face me."

"Stop it, stop it, stop it." he said, quietly, a small chant on his pale lips.  His head twitched, shook, like he could shake off the pull to do as Gabe bid, to stand and face him.  The disease in his head, the madness, was taking hold, driving him, making him see red and nothing but.  Red like mom's roses, like her blood when he bit her.

Gabe was well versed in commanding those in his town, those who recognized him as the leader, as the King of Beasts.  He was well versed in handling those who became rogues when they challenged his status.  He wasn't well versed in creating a pack member from someone born outside, though.