Chapter 2. The Pack Regrets

Jacob Riley, Alpha of the Crescendo Pack, had a bullet passed through his back by the Arlington werewolf hunters.

On another fortunate day, he could be on his feet easily as he healed slowly, but this was no ordinary bullet. It was a silver bullet crafted specifically for killing a werewolf.

He had stood up a few seconds ago but saw himself on the ground again. The pain was so severe that he had to move his hand to his back to feel where the bullet had hit.

He perused the injured area that was already worse and attempted to put his hand into the wound to retrieve the bullet, but the pain heightened, causing him to withdraw his hand immediately.

“Ah!” he yelled. He was sweating and panting heavily, pondering what to do next.

He stared at the hand he had just used to touch the wound. It was stained red with blood all over his fingers.

No one was around and he ordered his wife and his daughter to run away.

The werewolf hunters who shot the bullet were fast approaching.

He could hear their chants from some distance away as they approached him.

Jacob Riley, a dogged warrior who knew the value of being a gallant fighter, could not just lie on the ground and let the hunters come and get him.

He scrapped the ground with his hands and began hitting it slowly while increasing his momentum to stand.

“I can’t lie here and let these people get to me. If I die today, I die like a warrior!” he groaned.

***

[Flashback: A day before the attack]

“Alpha, the new leader of the werewolf hunters, Graham Potter, has sworn to extinct our kind from the town of Arlington,” one of the warriors said to Jacob during their meeting, which they held occasionally at an abandoned building beside the town’s power grid.

There was an urgent meeting called due to the rumors of the arrival of Graham Potter as the new head of the werewolf hunters in the town.

“We heard about it too, but what is your source?” Jacob turned and asked him.

“I received a text today from an anonymous individual, asking me to leave the town immediately with my wife and children and go somewhere far away.”

“Your children?” he asked with his eyes wide open in surprise. “Are they planning on attacking children too?”

“Unfortunately, it seems so,” replied the warrior.

Everyone began to murmur as some discussed quietly amongst themselves.

Jacob turned to his Luna, Olivia Riley, and he could immediately see the sadness written on her face.

“How are we certain this is a reliable source? No one knows about every member of this pack, talk more of attacking our families. I don’t think this should be taken seriously,” Charles Dura, the Beta of the Crescendo pack, suggested.

Charles Dura was a man trusted by Jacob as his beta, and he took his words seriously.

The murmuring among the rest of the warriors heightened immediately.

“Quiet you all!” Jacob yelled, “Allow me to think.”

He was paranoid and did not want to risk the lives of not just his family but the families of every other warrior present in the meeting.

After some minutes of scratching his long, curly beard and pacing around the room, he finally stopped and spoke.

“In as much as this information might be false, we should not sit back and watch. I have heard a lot about Graham Potter and how he wiped out the whole Tsunami Werewolves pack in Chicago. If it is true that he has assumed head of the hunters here in Arlington, then I fear that we should prepare for the worst in the coming days.”

Jacob was scared on the inside; his heart pounded faster than normal, but he needed to be the strong, courageous alpha they knew him to be and that they needed to see.

In times like this, everyone looked up to Jacob whenever they were terrified and lacked the courage they needed at that moment.

He scratched his bald head and walked towards his Luna. Olivia Riley was sitting beside him.

“What would you have me do?” he whispered to her.

She did not know how to respond for the first time. She usually had a quality response and advice to his pending questions, but she did not have one this time.

“I am sorry, but I do not know what advice to give you. You are our Alpha, think,” she replied as she struggled to hold back the tears from flowing down her cheeks from her eyes.

“If this attack should ever occur, our children and the women should be taken away from the town,” Jacob mumbled as he turned towards them and continued.

It was of utmost importance that they saved their families, just in case they ended up losing.

“We are 57 warriors here right now. The strongest of us are present in this meeting and I know the women here are strong enough to fight. Ten of the warriors would be set up to protect the children and the rest of the women on their way out of the town, while 47 of us would stay and fight back,” Jacob finally spoke after a long silence.

“Did the message contain the exact day for the supposed attack?” He asked the warrior who had earlier informed him of the planned attack.

“No, Alpha, I was just informed to leave town immediately, so it could be tomorrow. I am not certain—”

“Quit spreading fear among the pack!” Charles Dura yelled at him, interrupting him immediately with his husky voice.

“Go about your normal day duties tomorrow. No one is attacking us today or tomorrow. We meet here, same time tomorrow,” Jacob concluded, closing the meeting immediately.

He did not know he was making a huge mistake by going down that path.

[End of flashback]

***

Lying down on the ground, the events of the previous day kept playing in his head.

He screamed at the top of his voice as he struggled to get on his feet, but he fell to the floor again.

Tears streamed down his eyes as he heard the voices of the hunters already approaching him.

“Well, well! Look who we have here,” Graham Potter scoffed as soon as he sighted Jacob.