Unwilling Ch. 03

Darwin squirmed, testing the restraints on his arms. He could feel the rope shifting, and it gave him hope. A few tugs actually loosened his bindings enough to shake them off, even though the pain causing movements made Darwin black out for a few seconds. He still didn't know if he would be able to stand up or even crawl, but at least he wouldn't die like a lamb in a slaughterhouse.

Slowly lifting his head he took in the room. Three small windows sat high on the wall behind him. They were on ground level on the outside, but inside this cellar they were way too high to reach them when he was this badly injured. The door was only a few feet away, but if he went out that way, the risk of being found was extremely high. Unfortunately there was no other way out of the cellar, and with the first option being simply impossible, Darwin had to choose the door.

His shoulders screamed when he moved his arms in front of his body, but it was a healthy ache, and nothing compared to the stabbing pain in his fingers, ribs, face, legs.... The list went on and on, and he tried to recount every hurt as he pulled himself to the door with slow, crawling movements. A technique he had learned as a guide, using lists and counting as a method to accomplish highly exhausting tasks, got him right to the door without fainting again.

Luck didn't let him down though. When he pressed against the door, it just swung open, letting in blinding lights from the other cellar room. The surreal scene of normalcy there made Darwin's chest hurt, but it didn't stop his advance to the staircase.

There was a glass patio door right next to the stairs leading up. It took Darwin a few seconds to remember it was there, and that it led outside to a porch, but when he did, he started crawling faster. If Carl was still inside the house, he would hear the scratching and panting and gasping downstairs, so Darwin hurried as much as he could. When his crushed fingers touched the glass he winced and had to bite down a scream, but at least he had reached his destination without getting caught.

The sudden sound of steps on the floor above him made him freeze in a panic. Carl seemed to walk around in the conference room, but Darwin soon realized that his Alpha was walking in circles. Then he heard his muffled voice talking on the phone with somebody.

"Where are you? I've been waiting for twenty minutes!" There was a short silence, then more steps.

"I don't care if your car broke down, shift and run if you must, but get your ass here!" Again there was silence, but this time Carl seemed to listen for a longer time. Then the old man sighed, and stopped with an audible last step.

"Fine, I'll start digging. But I don't want to touch that traitor ever again, so you better hurry. The longer you wait, the bigger the mess gets. He bled like a pig."

As Carl walked out the front door on the other side of the house, Darwin swallowed a big gunk of bile. It was hard to hear about being reduced to 'a mess', like the dirty footprints an unruly pet had left on the floor, but at least he knew now that Carl really assumed him dead, and that the Alpha planned to go outside and dig. A grave, probably, which would take a good long time to do.

Darwin turned his head as far as he could and peeked up to the door handle above him. There was no way around this, he would have to try and get up to reach it, preferably before whoever was coming to help Carl arrived.

The burning pain in his spine was back as soon as he managed to pull himself up and rest on his knees, and this time it didn't fade. Gasping for air through the blinding waves of fire Darwin groped for the door handle with his elbow and managed to push it sideways into the open-position. Then he sagged back down and lay there motionless until the black edges around his vision started to retreat again, even though it took minutes. It was a bloody bad moment to black out, that much he knew for sure, lost time besides.

Then the moment of truth came and Darwin peeled the door open. If Carl decided to bury him on the steep sloped side of the area, Darwin would get caught as soon as Carl heard the patio door open.

Darwin kept quiet and listened to the pitch black night, trying to hear something—anything—over the furious hammering of his own heartbeat.

An owl cried its sad calls, but nothing else moved.

Shivering with adrenaline Darwin pulled his broken body outside and to the edge of the balcony. It sat right on the edge of a slope, with one side being on ground level and the other side having a drop of about three feet, so Darwin crawled to the upper edge and onto the grass. Now that he was outside, he realized that he couldn't go near the main road leading to their community center. If they found out he was gone they would start looking for him there, and whoever came to help Carl would stumble over Darwin instantly. That left him with the woods around the house, and the risk of staying hidden, but dying there without anyone ever finding him.

Darwin chose the woods.

It took another eternity to reach the edge of the forest, and when he finally felt the shadows of the leaved canopy above him he was totally exhausted. Changing into his wolf form wasn't even an option at this point, because it would take too much energy out of his already weak body, and probably cause his broken bones to heal crooked, but crawling as a badly hurt human severely narrowed his choices. His second leg had given up somewhere along the way and something in his head seemed to be damaged enough to ruin his feel for balance. It felt like his body was shutting down bit by bit, and soon he would be unconscious and quite possibly dead.

A small, hard rectangle pressed into his hip and added to the miasma of pain. First he thought he'd landed on another rock, but when he felt around it he realized with a shock that it had to be his mobile phone. He actually still had his mobile phone!

He could call somebody. Somebody would come and save him. Darwin didn't even care how helpless and miserable that thought sounded; he just squirmed and writhed until the phone popped out of his pocket, and shoved it closer to his head with his elbows.

The world around him went gray when he tried to dial with broken fingers, so he made do with speed dial. He only had Harry and his father on it anyway, and both would be able to find him.

Blinking furiously against the popping black and white stars in his vision he stared down at the phone as it dialed Harry. When he didn't pick up at first try Darwin started crying, but did try again. The world started to waver dangerously.

A soft click from the mobile phone told Darwin that Harry finally had picked up. He laid his head onto the small gadget and tried to sort his muddled thoughts-- Harry needed to know where he was.

"I'm dying. In the woods next to the pack house. Please help."

Darwin didn't hear the answer. He blacked out, right there on the edge of the forest.

~*~

When he came to again, he saw a face he hadn't expected to see hovering above him.

"Boy, did you fuck up this time." Trevor had his hands in the pockets of his black wind jacket, staring down at Darwin's battered body. In the moonless night he was nothing more than a lighter blotch in the darkness, but his voice gave his identity away. He was another dominant from Darwin's pack, thirty-ish with brunette hair and green-brown eyes and a swimmer's body that was slim and sinewy but still pretty non-threatening. He wasn't even high up in the pack hierarchy, since no amount of dominance could fix an unsteady, insecure, and egotistical character, but for Carl to call Trevor for assistance made sense. Trevor had never felt a sense of justice or morality and wouldn't mind dirtying his hands for money and status.

Darwin tried to breathe around the crippling pain in his back and fingers, croaking, "I didn't do anything, I swear, just..." He tried to squirm backwards, away from Trevor's looming presence, but the pain was too much. His breaths sounded wet, underlined with a soft bubbling sound that made Darwin think of broken ribs and punctured lungs. It didn't matter at that moment. "... just go, leave, tell him you killed me, I'll disappear, I swear."

Trevor actually looked uneasy then. "No can do, sorry. If I don't show up with your body, he'll suspect me too. You know how crazy he can get." 'He' obviously being Carl, scaring the shit out of one of the most jaded werewolves Darwin had ever met in his life.

The no-nonsense way Trevor talked to him irked Darwin to no end. Here he lay, bleeding internally, broken to the point of near death, and still that guy behaved as if nothing were wrong with that scene.

"I didn't betray anyone! Christ, can't you see? If he doesn't shy away from killing me, who knows who'll be next?" The shouting and straining made something pop inside Darwin's chest, and another wave of pain rolled through his back, robbing his ability to speak. Where the fuck was Harry?

Trevor looked back to the house, only turning his head. "Well," he started, squinting through the darkness, "since he killed his wife first, I'd say everyone of us is a target, until somebody finally has the balls to kill him. You see, she's the reason behind his madness. She betrayed him first, and he trusted her like nobody else. Slept with some other Alpha while she was out of town, for all I know. Lost her head quite literally when Carl found out." Trevor looked back at Darwin and squirmed a bit, which was morbidly reassuring. At least his killer didn't seem to be happy with his job.

But Darwin's thoughts raced down a very different road at that moment. Carl's wife was the reason for his insanity? She'd been dead for about seven years, died in labor while giving birth to Carl's one and only daughter, who had also died. Nobody had ever had any suspicions about her death, and Carl hadn't started his killing spree right away. That specific part of pack history had only started when...

Darwin gasped softly. Submissives had started vanishing when his own adoptive father, George, had had his stroke, leaving him unable to fulfill his duties as a right hand. Unable to influence and stabilize Carl. The revelation stunned Darwin.

"Well, enough chit-chat. Let's get this done. Sorry, Dar, just doin' my job," Trevor sighed and bowed down with one hand extended towards his throat.

Darwin panicked. "Wait! Please!" he whined, and this time he didn't try to crawl away, but instead bared his throat in the first deliberate gesture of submission in five years, something a dominant wouldn't ever do in an inevitable situation. They liked to die with a stiff upper lip.

It stopped Trevor in mid-gesture, and then he pulled back with a hiss. "You little bastard, did you really fool us all?" he growled with an exasperated voice, and took a small, hesitant step back. Killing a submissive that was already baring his throat was against every instinct a werewolf had, and even though the human part of him could overcome those instincts, it was like walking over the edge of a roof in hopes of some invisible floor to stand on in thin air.

"Why are you making this harder on me?" Trevor sighed, and felt through his pockets. He probably had a gun somewhere, which was much easier than to strangle Darwin with bare hands.

The movement of his head brought back the blinding pain in his back with full force again, bringing back the dancing splotches of light and the creeping darkness, but this time Darwin didn't try to fight it, deciding he didn't want to experience his own death wide awake. As his eyes rolled back into his head, he heard running steps, than a vicious growl, and a scream that got cut off right after it had started, but the noises faded away quickly as he fainted once more.

~*Jared*~

Jared didn't see or hear anyone as he ran. There were people, but their faces were shapeless, meaningless, empty to him. He exploded out of Statsby Hall like a small hurricane, running the pizza guy over without hesitating or stopping. He didn't even know where to go, but it didn't matter. If push came to shove he would smell his way through the city, following the trails of scent Darwin had left hours before.

His face shifted partially and he didn't care. It was night and he was full-out sprinting, so nobody would really see his face, and he needed his increased wolf senses to track Darwin. A few late passersby gasped and quickly scurried out of his way when he shot past them, but mostly he had the streets all to himself.

When he reached the gravel road leading to the edge of the highway and two of Darwin's tracks mingled, he stopped for a second and jogged a wide circle to find the fresher trail. There was no distinction between his wolf half and his human half at this point: Both wanted to find Darwin, both agreed fully on the actions needed to get there. Never before had he felt this much at peace with his inhumanity, but instead of dwelling on it he just started off again as soon as he had the scents sorted out.

He followed the fresher trail to George's house and rounded it twice to look into the windows, but didn't intrude when he again found a trail leading away from it. He didn't know Darwin's family and for his frenzied mind the information that Darwin wasn't there anymore was enough to not bother going in. The anguished sounds of a man crying from inside trailed after Jared as he took off again, but the sounds of his own racing heart made it impossible to hear anything besides his own adrenaline fueled body.

Darwin must have been in a car on this part of his route, and it made tracking hard work. Jared had to slow down and jog if he didn't want to lose the scent, and it just fed into his panic and rage. When he finally reached the intersection at the main road, where a smaller concrete road led into the hilly woods, his arms and back were covered in gray fur that had gradually and painfully seeped through his skin. As a born werewolf his shifting normally went smoothly, controlled and with little pain, since it was just another part of his existence. But the running around and the panic had weakened his control over his body, and his wolf-self tried to wrestle its way into freedom bit by bit.

'When we find whoever hurt him', Jared whispered in his mind, 'you'll have full control over his punishment. Just wait until then.' He would have liked nothing more than to just let his wolf-self take over control, but they still were within city limits, and the risks of being detected and maybe even shot at was still too high. He couldn't be of any help if he got injured or killed.

The trail led up the road, and Jared followed it. He just stopped once when he saw a bicyclist working his way through the darkness and up the steep hill a bit further up the way, so he decided to try his luck in the woods instead of the road. Being seen in his state of change would mean killing the bicyclist, and that would make him lose even more precious time—not worth the risk.

In the darker forest Jared let his wolf take over navigating them through the brush. His face shifted further, taking the shape of a wolf's head and giving them access to even better night vision, hearing and smelling, and off they went.

As his body leapt over fallen trees, dodged trees and branches, and evaded burrows he felt his trousers and his shirt rip and shred under the pressure of growing muscles and fur. Once or twice the man-beast stopped and raised his muzzle to scent the nightly winds, but it took another ten minutes until the smell of blood hit him like a sledgehammer and made him skid to a halt.

It didn't make him think of food, it made him growl with triumph.

Darwin.

With a low yip he started running again, zigzagging through smaller and denser groups of trees, and he only slowed when he smelled another werewolf mingling with Darwin's scent.

A few seconds later he could see the edge of the forest coming closer. Between the trees stood a werewolf dressed just like the bicyclist he had seen on the road. On the ground in front of the stranger lay Darwin, bloodied and lifeless.

Jared didn't stop to find out if that stranger was friend or foe. He didn't even hesitate, didn't want to hesitate. He just tackled the other werewolf in full speed and burrowed his claws into his flesh to rip bits and pieces out of him until he stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped being.

His fury was so intense, he didn't even recognize the feeling of triumph when his victim lay dead and broken before him. He just turned around with shivering muscles and carefully picked up Darwin's unconscious body. His instincts told him to retreat, and that was what he would do. Go somewhere where they were safe, nurture the wounds of his mate, and then take revenge.

While Jared's human side pondered over the thought of having a mate, the wolf just started running again, towards the city of Banes.

~*~

The hotel was on the other side of Banes, and it stank. Some of the rooms were paid by the hour, making it popular with hookers and their johns, other rooms were paid by the day and obviously never ever cleaned.

Three cars were parked in front of the street side rooms, and there was no security camera to be found. Jared gently put Darwin onto the ground around the corner from the main entrance and checked his pulse. The unconscious werewolf was nothing but a bloody, lifeless heap with a slow, hesitant heartbeat that drove Jared near mad with worry, but he didn't seem to get any worse.

The wolf still lurked near the surface, making Jared itchy and aggressive, but also sharpening his senses as he carefully peeked around the corner to watch the parking area and the windows of the hotel rooms. There were a few lights on here and there, and the soft sing-song of a TV show drifted through the ratty windows of the reception area, but besides that the area looked like a ghost town.

Jared couldn't carry Darwin around any longer, because the jerky movements made Darwin's condition worse with every mile they walked. He needed a car, and he needed it fast. His own Volkswagen Beetle was at the university, and even carrying Darwin there was not acceptable. Of course, he could always steal a car, but he needed more than that, he needed a specific car.

Crouching down next to Darwin he brushed a few strands of hair out of his face, kissed his forehead and whispered, "I'll be back real soon, I promise." Then he got up, shook himself and approached the hotel's main entrance in a jog.

The receptionist lost all color in his face when Jared barged in, but Jared didn't give him much notice. "I need to make a call. Give me your phone," he barked at the shocked guy behind the desk, and grabbed the phone without even waiting for an answer.

It took five minutes to get in touch with the doctor on call, but even though Jared felt the need to grab through the phone and pull the poor guy through the cables, he managed to make it sound urgent but not urgent enough for an ambulance. "We're in the last room on the front, please hurry," he whined into the phone and simply hung up. The receptionist had an uneasy look about him and seemed tempted to call the police, but it took just one good hard glance to make him forget that idea. To be sure Jared hissed, "Don't even think about it, you hear me?", and walked off without waiting for an answer.

He left the reception and ran the long route around the building, since the nosy receptionist watched him with the same uneasiness he'd had a few seconds before, and Jared didn't want to be too conspicuous about his intentions. Darwin's only chance at survival was a perfect emergency ambulance theft.

He didn't know how much time passed, but watching Darwin's chest struggle with each breath made it feel like hours. When a car turned into the hotel parking area Jared couldn't suppress an agitated growl. If he didn't get a grip he'd lose control and make things worse, and that wouldn't help Darwin, he reminded himself. Taking a deep breath he peeked around the corner once more and nearly hooted with triumph when he saw the doctor's car standing right there, next to the reception entrance. The doctor on call just got out of it, carrying a big first aid kit with him, and he didn't lock the car.