Chapter 49: 50: Inside Job

ANGEL

I do everything I can to silence the voice that’s ringing in my head, threatening to drown out my own consciousness and take over my physical form.

I barricade the door to my room with a dresser and then begin banging my head against it.

The wood is not hard enough.

I hit my head against the wall.

It does nothing to quell the voice, which keeps growing louder.

I lie back down on the bed, gripping at my chest, trying to claw my way out of my own skin. I don’t want to inhabit it if I can’t control it.

It feels like my body is a weapon, but somebody else has their finger on the trigger.

And I know exactly who has me in their clutches.

I can see him in my mind’s eye, speaking those horrible words.

~“Take the baby. Take the baby.”~

It’s the Silver Soldier, his pierced face contorted into a gruesome smile.

~“Take it,” he commands.~

~“Why?” I ask him again.~

~“Because babies are blank slates. Babies have boundless potential.”~

~“Dom and Helena are my friends.”~

~“You have no friends. You don’t even know your real name. Now do what I say. Take the baby, like you took the last one.”~

~“The last one? Did I—”~

~“Of course you did. And you’ll do it again,” he says menacingly. In this moment, I know I have no choice. I’m fighting a losing battle.~

~“Ready, set…” the Silver Soldier says with a snarl. “Go.”~

As if on cue, my fingernails turn into claws.

I draw my own blood trying to stop myself from shifting, tearing into the images tattooed onto my chest.

But it’s too late.

My fur starts to sprout.

My bones start to break.

My muscles start to swell.

“As you command,” I say out loud, horrified by the words coming out of my mouth.

ARIEL

I pace around my room, anxiously awaiting Alex’s return.

Of course I want to find out what has happened, but I’m confident the worst has not come yet. If George were dead, we would all know by now.

I stop in my tracks as I hear footsteps running down the hallway.

It doesn’t sound like Alex’s gait. But who—

My question is answered when the door swings open, and Amy rushes in, never one for knocking.

But by the look on her face, I can see that she isn’t here to gossip more about Alex and Angel.

“Ariel,” she cries out to me, “it’s happening again.”

“Angel?”

She nods and continues. “We were in his bed just like—kissing a little—and then he got the same look in his eye that he did at the hospital. His eyes went all red. And he started shaking.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing! He told me to leave!”

“You just left him alone? Something might happen to him!”

“Something could have happened to me!”

“You’re right,” I say, “I’m sorry.”

“No I am,” she says, her eyes filling with tears. “I should have listened to you. I don’t understand what is happening to him like you do. Go help him, please!”

I take off running down the hall, Amy’s footsteps trailing behind me.

ALEX

I awake to the sound of my phone buzzing. I find myself in my dad’s room, slumped over in a chair next to his bed, still clutching his hand.

I must have dozed off; the early morning had finally caught up to me.

I let go of my father’s hand, setting his down gently, and reach for my phone. I turn it on silent in case the sound might disturb his rest.

Dom

Hey Man! We made it back home.

Dom

Come to my room! The little one wants to see his godfather.

Alex

Is that…me???

Dom

You bet your ass.

Dom

Do you accept?

Alex

I’m honored, man!

Alex

I’ll be right there, give me a few.

I slip my phone into my pocket and kiss my father on the forehead before tiptoeing out of the room.

But my attempt to be quiet proves worthless because as soon as I open the door, I hear a loud, gruesome roar echoing through the palace halls.

~What the—~

My walk breaks into a run as I tear through the hallway.

The roar is followed by the sound of more shouting. Of bodies being thrown to the ground.

~Oh no—~

I circle around helplessly, unable to figure out which direction the sound is coming from.

And then my phone blares again. A horrible, wailing siren.

It’s a pack alert.

PACK ALERT

This is an automated message to all members of the Royal Pack

PACK ALERT

There is a disturbance in the palace

PACK ALERT

All citizens are advised to avoid the area

~Like Hell, I’ll avoid the area.~

Any attack on my palace is an attack on me.

I begin sprinting full speed down the hall.

ANGEL

I watch in horror as my body does things I cannot control.

Unspeakable things.

One by one the palace guards approach me, and I claw at them wildly.

One by one, I take them down.

Drawing blood. Knocking them unconscious.

And the voice just keeps growing louder.

“Take the baby.”

“I need the baby.”

ARIEL

I need to get to Angel first—before any of the guards try to tie him up. Or worse…

~What if they try to kill him?~

I need to move faster, and there’s only one way.

I clench every muscle in my body, and in an instant, I’m shifting into my wolf.

From two legs onto all fours, I dash down the marble hallway.

I hear Amy’s feet making contact with the floor a few paces behind me. I wish she’d stayed behind, but there’s no telling her that now.

I sprint at top speed, getting closer and closer to the chaos.

Rounding a corner, I lay my eyes on the scene. It’s worse than what I had imagined.

Angel, in his wolf form, is surrounded on all sides by members of the Palace Guard and is fighting them off.

I need to put an end to this before a life is lost.

Rearing onto my hind legs, I ready myself to jump into the action.

And then I hear it—

My name being called out from the other end of the hall.

It’s Alex. He’s running toward me.

“Ariel, stop!!” he calls out. “What are you doing??”

“She’s helping him!” Amy calls out to Alex. “It’s Angel!”

“Ariel—No!” Alex screams again.

I want to answer—to quell his fear—but I can’t call back to him. And I don’t have any time to waste.

Storming through the circle of palace guards, I pounce on the one that’s fighting Angel from behind, sending him crashing to the ground, disoriented and confused.

When I look up, Angel is staring at me.

His wolf has recognized mine, and it has stopped him in his tracks.

He’s looking at me with eyes full of fear. Eyes that plead…

~Help me.~

Seeing the effect I’m having, the guards behind me take a step back. This seems to calm Angel’s wolf even further.

In my peripheral vision, I see Alex. He looks like he’s ready to shift if Angel makes even one false move in my direction. I nod at him as if to say: “I got this.”

“Because I think I do.”

But when I make eye contact with Angel again, I recoil. The fear that was once in his eye is replaced by a look of pure rage.

The edges of his mouth curl as he bares his fangs in my direction.

It looks like he’s about to go straight for my jugular.

I dodge, throwing my body to the left. I watch as Alex lunges toward me, shifting in mid-air and landing right in front of me.

But Angel isn’t coming toward me, after all.

He’s running full speed in the opposite direction.

Alex and I look at each other for an instant, confusion washing over both of our faces. And then we get back onto all fours and dart after him.

As we follow him in hot pursuit, I try to figure out what he could possibly be doing.

I thought Angel was just having another post-traumatic stress episode. But this seems like something entirely different.

He has a plan, that much is clear.

But what does he want?

I nearly fall over myself as we bound up a staircase onto the second floor. But I quickly regain my balance.

I howl as loud as I can, hoping the sound of my voice will pull him out of this trance. But it doesn’t. He turns another corner and barges straight into—

“Oh no!”

“Goddess, please no!”

He enters Dom and Helena’s wing of the palace.

All my internal organs tie up into a big, pulsing knot as it suddenly occurs to me what’s going on.

Angel is going after the baby.

I cross the threshold into their room.

Angel is lunging at a screaming Helena.

Angel has grabbed the baby by her blanket, gripping it carelessly with his teeth.

Alex and I jump toward Angel, just as Dom rushes out of the bathroom, dripping wet, covered only by a towel.

Camelia is wailing.

So is Helena.

Dom is shifting.

With unnatural precision, Angel bounds off of his hind legs and jumps through the open window.

I watch in horror as Angel lands on all fours and starts running through the palace grounds, carrying Dom and Helena’s child in his fangs.