To the Wolves

Chapter 40

Ethan and Olivia entered the cave after crossing the maze. The old witch, who had once been sitting on the rock, was nowhere to be seen.

"Hello?" Ethan yelled into the cave but received no response. "Maybe she is not in the cave. Could she be dead?" He wondered.

"No. She's definitely in the cave." Olivia observed. "The magic of the maze is bound to her. Had she left, the wolves would have been able to enter."

Ethan nodded. The grunts of the wolves outside the maze were still audible. "What do we do now?" He asked.

"Mico's pack is nearby. We could divert the wolves there. The wolves might attack him because he has my blood and we could make a break for it."

"No," Ethan said with conviction. "Victor and Lillian are there too, along with hundreds of other people. We can't risk putting them in danger."

"But the wolves don't attack anyone except me!" She reasoned.

"That may not be true," Ethan said, "You may be the primary target but there's no guarantee that everyone will be safe."

"That doesn't explain why they don't bother to attack you during every one of our encounters."

Ethan remained silent, thinking of all the possibilities, before saying, "maybe because they recognize me to be one of them. I do belong to their pack from my mother's side."

Olivia thought about another plan. "We could still divert the wolves without putting anyone at risk. The wolves would definitely go after Mico first. Assuming the bystanders will evacuate in the meantime, this plan should work." She paused. "But there's still no permanent solution. Whatever happens, the wolves are always going to be after me."

"No, they won't," Ethan said. "Let's go. We don't have much time left."


***

Victor's eyes remained bulging, with his mouth hanging open, as he watched the wolves repeatedly attack Mico until all of Olivia's blood had been devoured, leaving not even a single speck of it.

Mico's internal organs hung in the open as he gargled blood from his mouth. His breaths became short and shallow as the light in his eyes dimmed.


In the faintest voice and with the last of his energy, he said, "I... will...not... die."

Victor seemed to snap out of his shocked state when he heard the screams of the people that rushed into chaos after witnessing the horrific scene. He saw some people run into their homes, bolting their doors, while others started to flee the pack territory altogether.

Having no interest in Mico anymore, the wolves, stood in a coalition looked at their next target. Aubrey felt like her end was near when the wolves sprinted towards her. She stood glued to her spot, expecting Dino to intercept. She watched the wolves and their deadly eyes getting closer and closer. Nevertheless, she remained transfixed, until Lan pushed her out of the way. The wolves attacked Dino who had been standing behind Aubrey all this time.

One of the wolves managed to bite him on the stomach, but Dino was quick to use his magic. A thunderbolt went off in the sky. Dino, un-phased by the injury, stood tall while the wolves let out a cry in pain.


***


Olivia and Ethan sat next to each other on the grass of the hill behind the pack house and had a faint view of the scene.

"'The girl entered the house only to be devoured by the Prince because the Prince was too good to be true.' I remember saying that after listening to your narration of the story." Ethan said, looking at Olivia as she recollected her first conversation with him. He continued, "our desires consume us until there's nothing left to consume. Mico had it coming for a long time now, and so did I," he said lamenting. "My mother is dead. She has been for 16 years and that's how long it took for me to realize it. I was always chasing a dead-end-- how pathetic and meaningless."

"I beg to differ," Olivia said. "Though you failed to achieve your end goal, which was out of your control, you did act as a catalyst for so many situations. Think about it. If you hadn't been able to revive your pack Mico would have succeeded with his malicious intents. He would have used your pack's wolves for his sadistic purposes. He would surely kill me once I was of no use to him. You have saved all these people-- Victor's pack, Aubrey's pack, and me."

Ethan looked at her with a small sad smile upon his face.

"Thank you for trying to make me feel better." He looked ahead again. "What am I going to do now? I had been so sure that I would reunite with my family. I never even thought of a backup plan or considered the possibility of my plans to fail."

"That makes two of us." Olivia snickered. "Given my sheer bad luck, I'm sure to expect a rejection letter any time soon. We could wallow in self-pity together. At least we won't be alone."

"You'll get accepted," he said, placing his arm on her shoulder. "I could move with you. We could live in an apartment; get a dog. You can study and I'll work at a job."

"Sounds boring," she said. Ethan snickered before she continued, "but I'll do it if it's with you." She looked at him. "I always hated those typical couple things that everyone does."

"We are anything but conventional. I'm sure every day would be a whirlwind of adventures," Ethan laughed.

Olivia laughed too.

"I look forward to your exaggerated predictions." She paused before saying, "do you even have any qualifications to apply for a job?"

"Your boyfriend is a professional artist and a designer," he said while pretending like he was holding a paintbrush in his hand.

"You're kidding," Olivia said before looking at the serious look upon his face. "You paint? Why have I never seen you paint or seen any of your paintings?"

"Umm, I don't know, between kidnapping you, dealing with a sociopath ex, and running away from wolves I didn't get time much time to show you any of my works," he said sarcastically.

Olivia rolled her eyes.

"I spent most of my time alone so I had to take up a hobby," Ethan said.

"I see. I'm gonna need to see some proof to believe it."

"We will have to go to Elliot's mansion for that," he said. "I'll take you."

"Great, any more secrets that I should know about?" she asked jokingly.

"I love you," Ethan said. "But that's not a secret."


***


"Let me go," Lillian said, inside the pack house, fighting against her restraints.

Kyle ignored her.

"How can be siding with that monster?" Lillian asked. "He has done nothing good. All he is capable of is bringing misery to anyone who crosses his path."

"Shut up, Lillian," Kyle shouted.

"No! I will not," she shouted back. "I didn't see Paxton anywhere. Where is he?" she asked rhetorically. "Oh, right! He is dead, just like everybody else who decides to stick with Mico."

Kyle shut his eyes, trying to block her out.

"Why you're going to die too, Kyle, if you don't pick the right side. And you know what the worst part is? You will be discarded like trash; worse than that actually. I have seen how Mico treats people around him. He would probably just leave your dead body for the vultures to feed on."

Kyle banged his fist on the table. Not being able to take it anymore he left the room. Lillian's plan was working. Now that she was alone, she worked on cutting the ropes with the knife that she had picked up from the kitchen while Kyle was dragging her.

Kyle walked in the kitchen, taking a glass, filling it with water and drinking it to cool down. He was affected by what Lillian said, to say the least, though he did not want to admit it. He stood by the window, overlooking that disaster that was taking place far away. He could barely see the bloodshed but he knew that death followed everywhere Mico went. He turned around to keep the glass in the sink when Lillian took him by surprise and attacked him. She stabbed him with the knife until he fell outside through the backdoor. She stabbed him again on both of his legs so that he would not be able to chase after her.

"Don't worry, you won't die," Lillian said.

Her eye suddenly caught Ethan and Olivia sitting way on top of the hill. She waved to them, wondering about their idle presence.

'These two live in their own little world, don't they', she thought after looking at Ethan and Olivia, before thinking that she had no time to waste because she had unfinished business. So went back into the house, stole a gun with poisonous bullets, and exited through the front door, running out of the pack house and into the warzone.

Dino's magic had burnt some of the surrounding areas except the circle where he stood, alongside Aubrey, Lan, Oliver, Mico, and Bran. Victor was far away, helping the people escape.

Lillian immediately ran towards Mico. He looked grotesque. She stared at him with a deadly look upon her face, standing directly over his bloodied body. He looked at her and in a broken voice, he said, "h..h...help... me".

With a malevolent and disgusted look on her face, she said, "the last person you see before you die is the person you hate the most. Irony? I am sorry that your parents loved me more than you. Sorry that they saw me as the child they never had before you killed them." She looked at him dead in the eye. "The last person you see before you die."

Repeated gunshots were fired at his head. She only stopped when she was out of bullets, and his face, unrecognizable.




"Sounds like Mico is dead," Olivia said.

"And Dino is next," Ethan replied.

Olivia fell silent, thinking about her uncle.

"In some twisted, weird way, I believe that he cared for me," she said. "But does that sliver of affection outweigh his sins?"

"No. It does not," Ethan said. "Tell me, if he shares the same blood as your mother then that means that he could also have revived my pack, then why did no one ever ask him to do it? I detest the guy but I have to assume that people like Mico could've manipulated him."

"Dino would've never helped. I learned that from the only conversation I had with him. His intentions were transparent. He hates your pack and he warned me not to get involved but I couldn't help myself in the end." She paused. "No one asked him for favors or dared to forcefully take his blood because he's too powerful..."

Ethan continued, "because of his black magic."

***

Dino was on his knees, huffing incessantly after performing the same spell that his sister once had, the same spell that took her life. Though the spell was not life-threatening for Dino, it did drain all of his energy. Wanting to fake virility for the sake of witnesses, he tried to stand on his feet and succeeded, though his legs were slightly shaking.

The wolves lay asleep again at a distance. Aubrey recovered from the horrors as the thought of the future of her pack loomed over her head. She looked at Lan and Oliver, signaling them to carry out the task. The two soldiers immediately seized Dino and brought him to his knees.

"What... the hell...do you think...you're doing? Dino said while taking short breaths in between.

Aubrey took the knife out of her pocket and stood in front of him.

Dino laughed. "Do not be foolish, little girl. I am more valuable to you alive than dead."

"My father might've blindly trusted you but I'm not my father. You are guilty of colluding with the enemy and your punishment is death," she said holding the knife in the air.

"Wait! I could restore your pack." Dino said as his one last desperate attempt and it seemed to work. Aubrey stopped. "I could rebuild everything in days. You would be wise not to kill me."

She put the knife down and paused to think. Upon thinking of various reasons and explanations, she said, "you would just sell us out again", before slitting his throat. "You wouldn't have dragged us out here if you ever had any good intentions for the pack." She said as he bled out.

His limping body fell in the puddle of his blood as the life left his body.

Aubrey wiped the blade with her sleeve as she left the wretched land alongside her comrades.

***

Ethan stood up from the ground, watching the scene slowly become quiet. Olivia stood beside him. An invisible border separated the two from the rest

"Do you want to go inside the pack?" She asked, thinking that he might want to go in for his mother.

"No," he said. "I'm good." He took her hand in his. "Unless you want to?" He asked looking at her.

She looked up at him and said, "Nope. We don't belong in this place. I would like nothing more than to get out of here and go home."