Chapter 2 - A Battle to the Death
"Alpha Kalio eagerly awaits your return to the Pack… with his pup." He leaned in, his head jerky, his voice a ghostly whisper. The sharp metallic tang of his teeth, evidence of his recent kill, filled her senses.
Her eyes widened. This was worse than a normal rogue. He was the type who couldn't be reasoned with at all. One that fed even on his own kind.
"He would give anythi—-anything to have you…"
His twitching hand moved from her thigh and hovered over the bulging part of the coat. Idalia's hands shot up instinctively, ensuring he wouldn't touch Arik.
"…both. I could use that." His hand dropped back to her thigh, followed by a short, low maniacal laughter. The next words that slipped past his lips were too fast; she almost didn't catch them. "But Ashfield? Of all places?" He giggled to himself, visibly trembling.
Idalia's heart dropped.
Wrong train.
The only thing that stood between Ashfield and Echelon was the Military Midline Boundary.
She had to get off this train!
But where to go?
The whole of Valmere had become a net with no escape.
Idalia pressed Arik closer as tears burned at the corners of her eyes.
"I don't remember if he said anything about— ha— anything about wanting you alive. Bad memory, but it doesn't matter which way, does it?" He asked in a breathy note as he rested his head on her shoulder. "It doesn't matter at all, not when you smell— smell- like nothing. I have never had that type of meal before."
Her nails dug into her palms as she tried to steady her breathing. But then, the heaviness of her comatose wolf in her heart reminded her of what she truly was.
Powerless.
Useless.
The rogue's slimy tongue slithered across the side of her neck as he pulled down her scarf, granting himself unwanted permission. She moved a hand towards her bag to grab her knife, preparing herself for anything that would come.
Arik stirred, nudging his head against her, then he began to cry.
The rogue hissed and pulled away from her. "Silence that thing!"
Quickly, she began to pat Arik for him to stop crying.
The lights were still flickering, and although other passengers from other coaches could be heard complaining, everyone in this coach was oddly silent.
Too organised—
Like they were all waiting for something.
Idalia took in a short, shaky breath as it finally dawned on her.
Did the rogue know? Maybe, maybe not.
Her mindless, tightening grip around her knife had sent the blade into her skin, and now she was bleeding.
Was this it?
Was it over for them?!
"Quiet it, or I kill it!" the rogue snapped, pressing his hands to his ears, his face contorting with discomfort.
Idalia sprang up to her feet, instinctively, and said to the rogue who now stood in her way. "She is not hungry, she feels…messy. I must get her to the restroom and change her, or she will keep crying."
Maybe if they reported back to him that the pup was a girl, he would doubt the prophecy and relent in this mad hunt for them.
What an outlandish delusion.
A growl rumbled from the rogue as he stepped aside.
"I'll be back in a moment." She headed to the exit of the coach, her heart in her throat as she wished desperately that she couldn't be followed.
From the corner of her eyes, though, she could see one of the people seated at the opposite side of the coach rise to his feet and begin to approach her.
"MINE!" The rogue growled, shifting into his wolf as he pounced on the man.
The man did the same, cloth ripping, bones snapping as chaos ensued. Everyone else followed, a fight for who would be the one to deliver her and Arik to Alpha Kalio. The seats were ripped up from the floors, the bars thrust through flesh to draw blood, claws rending deeply to the bones, and canines tearing into anything they could hold.
Idalia ran the moment the first fight ensued, Arik's cry ringing through the roof.
"Mummy is here. Mummy will get you out of here," she said breathlessly, now almost at the exit door.
But then a hand yanked her ankle, dragging her down. She twisted mid-fall, landing on her back to shield Arik. Pain exploded behind her eyes as her skull hit the floor. Groaning, she sat up and swept her knife across the already injured werewolf's face. He snarled loudly, grabbing her hand and ripping the knife out of her grip.
"You worthless piece of—— "
"They are mine!" Another werewolf lurched into the fray, canines ripping into the attacker's arm, as a battle to the death ensued.
Using the distraction, Idalia ran to the coach's exit door in an attempt to escape to another coach. She jammed her hand on the big red exit button, but nothing happened.
NO! NO! NO!
She looked back quickly to see that a massacre had occurred, and among the bloodied mess on the floor, the walls, and the roof of the coach, only one surviving werewolf stood.
She kept jamming her hand on the button that seemed unresponsive, as he turned to her — wolf from the waist down, human silhouette from the waist up, brown matted fur all across his skin, blood dripping from his fangs, and his claws out for more flesh to rip into. He turned to her fully, more madness in his eyes than she thought was even possible.
Her fingers were beginning to hurt terribly from how she kept jamming her hand on the exit button, but she couldn't stop. Not even if she wanted to.
She reached for the wolf within her. No response.
A guttural sound unleashed from the depths of her throat, hot tears spilling down her cheeks, the mate mark on her chest feeling like a cruel burn.
The rogue laughed, his sound mixing into her rough cry of defeat and rage.
"All that fight—— has made me—— hungry."
She smiled, a bitter one, and held on to her knife. A wolfless werewolf like her could never fight a rogue and win. But what type of mother would she be if she didn't die trying?
"Food…" he said jerkily, "…alive." He lurched.
She tensed. Grip firm. Death certain.
But then he retracted midair, and with a force she couldn't fathom, he slammed his back against the other end of the coach. There was horror written in his face as he hurried to his feet, turned his back to her and began to claw and bang at the steel walls of the coach.
Idalia gulped, staring at him in confusion.
"Open it! Ope—open I-it! Ah! He's here." She could hear fearful whimpering in his voice as he looked back at her. No, not at her, but at the sealed door behind her, like he could see someone beyond it.
Terror was starting to spill through Idalia's veins.
Could it—-
No.
The air in the coach shifted.
The rogue's ears flattened.
"Silver… is here."