Chapter 31: My Enemy

I heard the sound of Maurice yelping in pain, and he snarled at Zander. His anger radiated off of him. I also smelled a hint of fear coming from Maurice, but he was trying to hide it. He didn’t want to appear weak.

Maurice failed to get away from us. He seemed to be weakening a little.

It would have been bad if I hadn't jumped in when I did. My heart ached when I saw Zander in trouble. I knew that I had to help him, no matter the consequences.

Losing Zander would’ve been earth shattering. That would’ve made me end Maurice with no remorse. Luckily, it didn’t come to that. I had never killed anyone and didn’t want to. I snapped out of my thoughts and came back to the present.

I kept biting Maurice’s shoulder with my canines and refused to let go. He deserved to have pain for all the harm he had done to Zander and his parents. I hoped he wouldn’t heal quickly from our fight either. It sounded horrible to think that way, but he was a terrible guy.

I didn’t care that Maurice was Ash’s dad. I would never forgive him for being a murderer. It was revolting to think of the nice guy image he presented to the pack. How could he live with himself? What kind of person murders his wife in cold blood?

My teeth sunk deeper into Maurice’s shoulder, which made more blood drip from his wound. Zander was still attacking his flank and trying to weaken him. He wasn’t easing up on the attack either, so Maurice wouldn’t be able to escape.

Maurice made ugly snarling sounds and kept struggling with our strong hold on him.

I shifted my body as Maurice attempted to get me between his teeth. I moved my body out of his way in time. Maurice continued to bite me and kept missing. Zander being around me increased my strength and power. I felt like I could take down Maurice with Zander by my side.

We didn’t want Maurice to get away from us. He was going down. I hoped we wouldn’t have to kill him, but I knew Zander wanted to do. Maurice was his parent’s killer; how could he not want Maurice to die?

I would probably wish the same thing if my parents had been taken from me. It wasn’t something forgivable. I was disgusted with myself for believing in Maurice for so long. How had I not seen through his act?

After a few more seconds, Maurice pivoted, making us both lose our hold on him. He threw me off his shoulder, which caused me to fall on my side. I quickly got up and started to go after Maurice again.

Zander was already trying to bring Maurice down by attacking his flank again. Maurice dodged the attack and then did something unexpected.

He telepathically told me, “You shouldn’t have interfered, Cleo. You’re now my enemy. You’ll regret crossing me!”

I replied back with my mind, “I plan on telling every wolf in the world what you have done. You have betrayed your pack and can never undo the evil act you committed.” I added, “I promise that you’ll lose leadership of your pack. You don’t deserve to be an Alpha after all the harm you’ve done.”

Maurice’s face turned into a grimace. He even slobbered a little. Maurice was letting animal instinct take
over. I prepared myself for him to attack me and stood my ground.

He gave a deep growl at me and bared his teeth. Maurice tried to get into a dominant pose and held himself taller with his tail up.

I wouldn’t submit to him and growled at him aggressively. I had to show him I was a future Alpha and not a Beta. He wouldn’t scare me into obeying him.

Suddenly, Maurice shifted back to human form. What was he doing?

We remained in our wolf forms, but I quickly ran back to our camp that was a few feet away. I checked to see if Maurice would follow but he stayed where he was. Maybe he was surrendering to us. Going back to his usual self seemed like a sign of giving up.

I remained in wolf form, though custom dictated that I should turn back. However, I wasn’t going to let Ash’s dad see me naked. How awkward would that be? I rushed to get back to camp before Maurice changed his mind and tried to hunt me. Who knew if he had a weapon on him?

I grabbed my clothes and noticed that Zander had followed me to grab his clothes. I shifted as fast as I could and got dressed. I guessed Maurice didn’t care about modesty. Not once did I peek at Zander changing a little bit away from me.

We had more important things to deal with at the moment. I couldn’t afford to be distracted by Zander and his very fit body. Maybe later…I shook my head and refocused on what we had to do. Maurice had to be brought to justice.

He wasn’t getting away with murder. Maurice made a bad name for Alphas everywhere else. I had to make sure he knew that we weren’t letting him get away for what he’d done.

When we reached Maurice, he had a sinister look on his face. “You've made terrible mistakes. Now you two will pay the price.”

He brought his fingers to his mouth and whistled loudly.

Warriors surrounded us out of nowhere. It was hard to see where Maurice had gone, and I worried he had escaped from us by bringing out subordinates. I should’ve known he would do something like this. Maurice was a coward.

Zander and I prepared to fight against these warriors who were armed with weapons. I didn’t plan on losing to them. I held my fists up and kept my eyes on the approaching warriors closest to us.