WOLF - pt.4
#4 of WOLF
Part 4, enjoy~
The paperwork was filed. The handcuffs were gone. And in a space of a few minutes I went from being a prisoner to being absolutely fucked over.
I huddled in the limosine's back seat with Linus sat opposite me. Luis was hidden up front with our driver.
"You don't seem all that pleased about evading jail time, Jack," Linus smiled as he said it.
I gave him a one-fingered salute and stared out the window as the city limits disappeared and rolls and rolls of countryside stretched out on either side of the long, black vehicle.
I flexed my hands in my lap over and over again. I glanced at Linus, then back at the wilderness that now surrounded me.
I'd been toying with the idea of making a run for it, but knew that with two, maybe three powerful were-somethings hunting me I'd be ensnared in no time.
No. Don't think about it. Don't even consider it!
"You will learn to love Haven," Linus explained.
"Doubt it."
He smiled as he sipped something pale and milky from a wine glass. He gazed at the wilds beyond the limosine's windows. "You'll learn. Everyone learns. Whether you'll remain in our care on a more permanent basis depends on one varying factor."
"And that would be?"
"That would be if you pass the initiation."
"Inititiation?" I repeated.
Linus nodded. "All good colleges have frat houses, and all good frats have initiations. We'll see how you fair during your...ordeal."
I thought about that and then said, "Wait a minute! You said colleges? Haven is a college now? I thought it was a rehabilitation institute?"
"Same thing," Linus shrugged, "Either way you'll learn from your wrong-doings."
"Wrong-doings?" I exclaimed.
"You are a wild animal, pissing in the wind and wreaking havoc wherever you go. At Haven you will learn that is very, very bad," he waggled a finger at me. He grinned and added, "I'll have the badness beaten out of you if I have to, Jack."
I considered Linus with a cold glare and replied, "Your insane."
He shrugged! He actually shrugged and said, "So I've been told."
"I'm guessing this place is surrounded by high electric fences and armed guards at all entrances? Real clichéd crap?" I asked as I resumed looking out across the countrysides.
"Haven sits amongst a dense woodland with no walls and no barriers to prevent students from leaving."
There had to be a catch.
"So what's to stop me just walking out the front door?" I asked.
Linus considered me this time, as he sipped from his glass. He propped the glass in a little minibar set against his side of the limo and pulled a blank manilla folder from a suitcase sat beside him on the seat.
He tossed the manilla folder at my booted feet.
"Take a look."
"What is this?" I demanded.
"Take a look," he repeated with command burning in his emerald gaze.
I swallowed and picked up the folder. I flipped it open and gazed down at a few sheets of A4 paper, notations typed and printed onto them.
A small, square photograph was pinned to the inside of the folder.
She was small, slender. Long, blonde hair in pigtails spilled around her shoulders. Wide, innocent blue eyes stared out of the picture as a smattering of freckles danced across the bridge of her small nose. She cuddled against a large husky in the image.
Emma! My sister!
"H-How did you-"
"Do not underestimate me, Jack. Rule one. The information enclosed is a detailed description, as well as a schedule that her oh-so-straight-laced parents keep her to. She can be taken at anytime. You run, she dies. Simple." Linus shrugged as he sipped from his glass again.
Several things happened one after the other. Nausea burned up my throat and threatened to spill out of my suddenly dry mouth.
The sickness was replaced by fresh rage in no time.
Fuck with me all you wanted, but I had had Emma adopted because of situations like these. I was a magnet for trouble, even before I became a werewolf.
Having her taken into care had been the only way I could protect us both.
"You've made a big fuck up, Eckhardt," I grinned.
"Oh? How so?"
I dropped the folder and thrust both hands up. I gripped the ceiling of the limo, squeezing the metal, hearing it groan as I anchored myself there. I lifted both legs.
I kicked out and watched as the blow sent Linus back through his side of the limo. The metal ripped away like wet paper as I watched Linus disappear into the brush.
I hopped out and rolled on concrete, before I hit the ground running.
I rounded a tree trunk, while the flesh and muscle in my hands stretched and elongated. The nails darkened, as the flesh on my hands and forearms lightened.
I picked up on that poisonous serpentine scent and was running toward it head long. I'd kill him. I'd kill him slowly for what he'd threatened to do to Emma!
I was almost there, when a blur of black material suddenly appeared. A great clash of flesh on flesh, and suddenly I was on one knee, fresh blood spilled from my mouth in an arc as I touched one hand to the undergrowth beneath me.
"Stay down!" an unfamiliar deep voice said.
I didn't know the voice, but I recognised the scent.
"You move quick for someone so big, Strong." I wiped the blood from my mouth as I looked up at the still very-human-looking Luis Strong.
"I'll let you have that one, mongrel!" this from Linus as he reappeared from the brush, straightening his tie as he went. His suit looked mangled...that was it! He'd been thrown from a moving limo and looked like he'd simply tumbled down a hill. "We'll call it a bad reaction to your contract."
"Contract!" I snarled back.
"You run, she dies. Same goes if you fight back," Linus said with a stern look.
"Accept it," Luis recommended.
"Fuck you!"
"Calm down!" his voice boomed, "Or your sister dies because you went and got ahead of yourself."
That was it. He was right. I was trapped.
I could feel my hands return to normal in a twist of muscle and strain of flesh. I exhaled and stood up.
"Good boy," Linus grinned.
I grimaced and wondered if Linus' men were watching Emma right now.
"Here." Luis held out a large hand. The photo of Emma clasped between his fingers. I glared up at the bigger man and then sighed.
I took the picture and mumbled, "Thanks."
"Now, lets make haste. Haven isn't that far from here," Linus beckoned as he lead the way through the wilderness. I followed, with Luis bringing up the rear.
I'd figure out some way, some way to kill Linus Eckhardt and protect Emma from ever being hurt like this again.
Even if it killed me.