Chapter 15: A Small Injury...A Biig Mess

Valene:

The sun had risen and set twice following Master Wade's visit. I hadn't seen sign of him or Master Slaughter since. As much as I would have liked to see them, I wasn't upset about it as I knew that with the Lycan King and his pack in town there was much to discuss. I was a prisoner so, to be honest, I wasn't owed a visit in the first place. The only thing left to do was wait for whatever punishment was waiting for me. If any at all.

There was no sign of trouble as of yet but I knew that I wasn't out of the wilderness yet. Sitting there, in the dirty hay, was enough to cause massive anxiety as my imagination created different ways that they would punish me. What were they going to do? Or would they do anything at all? I mean, it was my first offense, so I really wasn't sure how the procedure for this type of thing went. Maybe this was the crux of my punishment; sitting in a soiled stable of hay and wooden bed pallets with no food, drink, or interaction for two days.

I sat there on the floor fiddling anxiously around with the hay as I impatiently awaited the interruption that would mean my retribution

“You!” There were a few other vassals in the stable but I knew that this person was talking to me.

When I turned around, there finally, stood a guard at the cell door. Immediately, I hopped to my feet and approached, bowing my head in acknowledgment of him. Even before the least, I had to perform the duty of a lowly human.

The male didn’t say anything right away. It was hard not to look up and not stare into his eyes. It would have definitely given him reason to promptly carry out a swift and painful punishment. Those with little power are almost always the easiest to provoke. They need some way to prove that they have some semblance of control in life. In a less...extreme way, I likened myself to their way of thinking.

The guards of confined humans were usually the lowest of the low. They were cowardly toward real altercations toward their own kind and completely useless when it came to such complexities of war in general. Lowly inhumans such as these had very little to add to their society. So, to make some sort of use of them, the higher officers would give these wolves, shifters, vampires, or otherwise odd jobs such as this and boy did they take advantage of it. It was nothing for them to take assert dominance and aggression over a weak and docile human serf.

“You’re the Alpha’s human,” he said with realization.

“I am, sir.” I replied.”

“Did I say that you could speak?!” He snapped at me. I didn’t respond this time as it seemed to be the wrong move the first time around. “Answer me!” then again, maybe he just didn't know what he wanted.

I held in the heckling laughter that fought to escape me. Weaklings usually were full of contradiction. “No…sir,” I replied to the wolf with slight sarcasm. Of course, he was too much of an idiot to realize it.

“Look up, girl. I want to see your face while I'm talking to you,” he demanded of me. Without hesitation, I did what I was told, but I did not look him in the eye.

“You’re the one rumored to be a gold blood…are you not?” From my peripheral, I saw his eyes glower impatiently at me. He was waiting for me to answer.

“Yes, sir.” I obliged once more.

“Gold blood,” he scoffed. “It is quite the delicacy…rare in its taste.” He took a step closer to my cell and though the bars separated us, I took a subtle step back. “I’ve heard the tale of its scent driving one mad with bloodlust.” He sniffed the air. “Yet I smell nothing...but maybe need for a bath.” He wrapped his large, stubby fingers around the bars. "Although...with a human as pretty as you...I'd be willing to get past the stench of human." he sneered. “Tell me...why can't I smell your blood, human.”

“Scent-blocking gear, sir.”

“Scent blocking?! There is no such thing!” cried the guard with condescension.

“It was made special…to ensure that I do not upset anyone with my scent.”

“Upset?” he cackled. “Or…be killed?”I didn’t answer and it seemed that he hadn’t planned for me too as he continued on. “I want to smell…” he unlocked the cell and entered my cage. “A taste…just a taste.” he grabbed my arm and immediately instinct kicked in.

I shoved my hand into his forearm, pushing him back. He took his blade and sliced through my abdomen. Immediately the blood began to pour and he went berserk.

The guard was so crazy with lust, his grip loosened on his blade as he trapped me in a corner. I saw an opening to confiscate it and immediately snatched it out of his grasp. When it was in my hand I looked for a way to get around him. The only opening was between his legs. I waited for him to lunge at me again before I ran and slid between his legs, slicing the back of his knee cap which caused him to buckle. It only weakened him for a moment, however, before he started to stand again. Then I sliced his Achilles tendon and he buckled again. As soon as the guard fell, I took the blade and embedded it into his other tendon provoking a loud howl from him. The wound wouldn’t heal around the blade, so he was weak now. Or at least enough for me to take him down.

With my foot, I stomped down on the wooden pallet that was supposed to be a bed and grabbed it, placing the sharp, jagged end to his neck to keep him from trying anything else. As I stood there with him in submission, I realized that I may have gotten myself in even more trouble than I was in before.

“What is going on in here?!”

When I heard Master Wade’s voice, both relief and dread flooded me. Here I was, begging him to allow me to take my punishment like a true servant when in the end, I could not face it. How cowardly I was!

“I-I am..s-so sorry!” I exclaimed. “I-I-” Agitation forbade me to get my words out coherently.

“Valene?! Valene, wha-” he watched me with bewilderment, his eyes wide and dark. He knew I was injured before he had even walked in. “Are you alright?” Quickly, he rushed in, tearing his shirt and wrapping it around the wound. “What happened, Valene?!”

“I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I-he came at me! I...I didn't…I-I just, I-”

“This is your first offense,” said Master Wade. He was supposed to be setting you free, Valene. Nothing else. So you did the right thing. Had you not.." he snarled at the crippled guard. "You'd have died." He growled. Once he finished wrapping my wound, he turned to the injured guard, grabbing the broken wood from my hand. Then without warning, he pierced the guard in his back and through the heart. I jumped back startled by his swift execution. “Useless trash!" He spat. "Should have gotten rid of you years ago." He growled.

"Ma-Master Wade I-" I didn't know whether to feel guilty or relieved by the guard's death. “I...”

“I must admit that I am guilty of not remembering proper procedure for first-offense vassals," Master Wade confessed. "I guess I have been spoiled with such a model human it is easy to forget what doesn't normally apply to you." I had expected a smile to make light of the situation but there was none from Master Wade. "However...even if there was no leniency for a first offense, Valene...did you really think I’d allow you a lashing because of a one-time slip-up?"

I dropped my sullen gaze to the ground, realizing as he grabbed me and quickly led me out of the stable that regardless of my rebuttals, the final say would lie with him. Always.

"I’m the Alpha around here, and if anyone has a problem with the decisions I make. then they can take it up with me. Besides, it’s clear you didn’t want the punishment that you were asking for judging by the look of the guard before I even showed up. Not that he would have lived either way past this point in the day either way.” He glanced down at me and then kept forward. "I thought about the conversation that we had," Master Wade said. "for two nights, I thought about it," then he was suddenly quiet. I didn't need to ask for him to elaborate because when the time was right, I knew that he would continue on his own. "If you want to assert some form of control over your life, Valene, find another way...because it will not be this way. I will not allow it."

I felt so foolish as we stepped over the guard. He was right. “I’m sorry, Master Wade-”

“Stop apologizing, Val.” He hissed. “Now let’s go before someone else catches your scent-”

We rushed out of the confinement stable, and immediately, he tried to get me to the car. It was harder to move at a fast pace because of my injury. I didn’t realize that the guard had gotten me as good as he did. The blood had begun to soak through Master Wade’s wrapping.

“Alastaair!!” A thunderous roar ignited the area.

The lycan king’s voice was like a bombardment of aggression. I looked up into Master Wade’s suddenly concerned eyes and immediately realized that whatever was about to happen was because of me.

“M-Master Wade?”

“Get in the car, Valene.” He said in a dangerously low voice. Reluctantly, I obliged Master Wade's command and as soon as I did, Master Wade stood in front of his large truck. “Ares.” I heard him say calmly.

“Where is it?!” The Alpha Ares growled, hardly giving Master Wade to finish his thought. His body was drenched in sweat, and his head was restless as if he was trying to restrain himself against something more feral within. Something that was fighting to be released from him. His eyes continuously shifted between the darkness of a blood-hungry shark and that of his natural predatory eyes.

“Calm down, Alpha.” Master Wade continuously took steps toward the volatile lycan.

“I cannot!” He growled and began pounding on his chest, his incisors elongating from his lips. “What is that scent?!” He snarled. “I’ve never…I..” he roared as his face began to shift and then returned to his rugged and distressed features. It was evident that he was struggling and it was because of me.

I started to ask myself whether he realized yet why he was so out of control then his steel blue-gray eyes caught my gaze. His stare was startling, to say the least, pure bewilderment and forced restraint. He then returned his attention to Master Wade, who glanced at me.

“Ares, I have to get my vassal some aid. I cannot do that with you blocking my exit.”

“It’s her?!” He realized. “What…is she…aaagh!” his yell turned into a haunting howl as he began to shift. The Lycan Alpha was fighting hard to keep himself from turning but I could tell from the fur rising from his arm that his lycan was black and silver.

“Alpha Wade!” A large man approached. I recalled that he was the Beta of the Lycan King.

“Get your Alpha under control, Beta Holt.”

“Trust me, Alpha, I have been trying to get him back to rights! I’ve been on his trail since he went berserk! It might help if I know wha-" he started to say when suddenly, he stopped."What is that?” He sniffed the air and immediately turned around to face me. His eyes were dilated and filled with hunger suddenly as well.

“Beta, focus!” Master Wade pressed aggressively.

The Beta tried hard to focus but he simply could not. “I…I can’t!” his incisors began to shoot from his gums and without warning, he turned around and pounced on the truck, the power of his beautiful beast's weight, shattered the windows of the truck, denting its hood.

Master Wade cursed and then immediately used his power to throw the Beta off of the truck. I knew once he started using his powers that this would not end well.

Beta Holt started to recover slowly as the Alpha Barbosa stampeded forward, his beast finally bursting from his skin Once the giant lycan was fully settled in his form, his steady run turned into a four-legged stampede towards the truck. I had to help! I had to find some way to protect Master Wade. Sure, I was afraid for myself but I was even more concerned for my Keeper's well-being. I was human…I was injured, but I wasn’t useless and Master Wade was my Keeper.

I grabbed a blade that the Alpha kept in the door of his truck, and immediately went for the door to open it when it slammed shut again.

“You stay…where you are.” Master Wade Growled. “That’s an order, Valene!”

Despite my desires, I could not move against him. I could only watch as two humongous beasts stampeded toward my Master. “No!” I screamed as the Beta pounced, his large lycan trying to go through Master Wade to get back to the truck.

With a power that I had never witnessed in my Keeper, he grabbed the Beta’s beast holding each part of the beast’s mouth with his hands before he slammed the Beta with a force that cratered the ground. As soon as he did this, Master Wade used his power to break the Beta’s neck.

I wondered where the scream came from that followed when I realized that it was me. “Oh, no! No, no, no!” I couldn’t believe it. He severely injured a high-ranking member of a pack…over me!

A sudden snarl coming from behind the Alpha brought our attention back to the last beast standing, the one even bigger than the already huge Beta. The Alpha’s attention was garnered by the beast too late as the lycan Alpha was about to descend when a large dark brown and white wolf intercepted the beast, slamming him to the ground yards from the truck. It was Master Slaughter and his wolf, Kilder.

“Turn away, Valene!” Master Wade bellowed in demand.

Without hesitation, I did what he asked and with my gaze away from the spectacle my ears seemed to catch wind of everything else. Alpha Barbosa was still snarling but gradually his aggression became weaker until I heard a yelp. I was so curious, I nearly took a peek when Master Wade approached the driver’s side of the truck, opened the door, and grabbed a pair of jeans-yet another thing that he’d usually keep near the door of his truck and left again. I knew then that Master Slaughter had returned to his human form. I only could assume then that the situation was diffused.

“Are you alright?” He asked me once he returned. Master Wade dipped into the truck to get a closer look at me. "Let me see." He closely checked my wound and his exasperated breath told me how bad the wound looked, regardless of my answer.

I simply nodded. Apparently, the spectacle had taken more out of me than even I realized because I could barely move let alone speak. “Are they?” I asked once I saw that Master Wade was visibly okay.

“They’re fine.” He said.

“But you snapped his neck...can he-”

“He will be fine, Valene.” Master Wade further reassured. He got into the truck and grabbed a first aid kit that he kept in the glove compartment. He then removed the ripped part of his shirt from the large bleeding gash and re-wrapped it. “This is deeper than I thought. We’re going to have to get you to a hospital outside of Shadow Veil. And fast.”

I simply nodded with obeisance. “You alright, pup?” I heard Master Slaughter asking me from afar. When I looked up, he was on approach with jeans on, zipped and unbuttoned with no shoes on. It was intimidating how ripped and perfect Master Slaughter was.

“Yes, Master Slaughter.” I reluctantly replied as I looked past him and at the now unconscious Alpha. “Is…is he going to be alright?”

He watched me closely. “He’s better off than you are. You might want to get her out of here, Alpha.” His eyes were still completely dilated from the scent of my blood. “I’ll take care of everything here.”

“Keep me updated on how they’re doing. They probably won't be out long. Remember who we're dealing with.”

"Trust me," he glanced back at the unconscious Lycan and his Beta before returning his attention to Master Wade and myself. "I remember."

"I'll contact you later when I've got her situated and I'll probably need you to bring another car. Master Wade said, and after Master Slaughter agreed to the plan, Master Wade immediately dug off into the road and sped out of Shadow Veil.

It was only then that I actually collapsed into my seat and closed my eyes. My body finally forced me to accept how injured I truly was…how weak and tired I felt. I suddenly felt dizzy and was afraid to open my eyes, knowing that if I did, I’d get nauseous and wretch all over the place. Maybe I’d lost more blood than I thought.

“Valene?” I heard Master Wade call to me. “Valene, sweetie, wake up.” He said. “Open your eyes.” But I couldn’t. Why couldn’t I open my eyes? The answer was, that I was simply too weak. “Valene!” I heard him yell for me again as the engine of his truck suddenly became more aggressive. He must have pressed the gas. “Valene!”

Yes, Master Wade, I hear you….but you can’t…hear…. ……me...