Chapter 21

Author's note: Wanna get updates on my stories early, hear what's going on and why my dumb ass is behind on updating or when updates might be coming/what stories might be coming next? Follow me on Tumblr: Hopedfulbadgerjunara

An old friend

"Jes-" Lena yelled ant attempted to jump out from behind the table they had been hiding under, but she was held back by Kara with one hand covering her mouth and the other arm pulling her back down.

"We are not ready to get into this right now!"

Adam yanked at his bonds and attempted to lash out, growling and barking in fear, doing anything he could to hopefully scare off the threat.

"Yoo hoo! I heard you! Now open up!" Eve sung almost jovial. "I know you are home. I hear a little puppy barking."

"Damnit Kara! That is my best friend! We need to get her back!" Lena snarled through the alpha's hand that covered her mouth.

"Lena! We can't win this right now, especially not with Alex passed out on the floor!"

"I'm waiting." Eve sung louder.

"What do we do?" Cat pushed for an official decision from the pack leaders.

"We!? You just knocked out half our fucking forces and our only chance at getting her back safe with them!" Kara subdued her seething snarl.

Lena's eyes darted around, praying an answer would somehow shine through for her, to give her a way to finally bring her friend home.

"We don't have much time guys." Cat grimaced.

"Well, who's fuckin fault is that?!" Kara's face twitched and grew a hint of furr as her palms hit the floor, assuming a threatening wolf's stance.

There was nothing, Lena was still relentlessly surveying the room, but she could still see nothing; nothing at all that could help them get Jess back.

"I did what had to be done, and I saved all of your asses!"

Something in Lena broke, whatever had been holding her back and sane deteriorated, crumbled in her hands. Suddenly those hands were wrapped around the collar of Cat's jacket, the fabric balled up tight in her fists as she snarled just a little too loud. "You! It's your fault! You lie to get us out here! Mislead us as to how you need our help! And now because we are here you've even put your own son in more danger!? You think Eve would have hurt him if he were chained up like that, unable to do anything but prove her strategy right?! No! But now that we are here! That bitch will slit his throat in front of you just to watch that part of you that thought you had a chance die!"

"N... no!" Cat rejected the thought feebly.

"I heard that? Trying to wrangle some wolves for me to test on?" Eve was beyond joyous as it traveled from the other side of the bar's door. It was clearly the result of quite an overindulgence in blood.

"Eve!" Jess's voice broke out before the sound of her clearly being hit hard and then the crack of her head on the cement outside.

"I told you to shut up! Now don't speak unless spoken to; by me! That is an order!" Eve snapped and even Jess's whimpers silenced with a confounding speed.

"You did this! Whatever happens to him now is your fault." Lena accused, her face burning in fury. "You did this and even if we somehow escape, you! It is you who did this, put us in danger!"

"There is no escaping this. The full moon might be close, and it may be daylight but with Alex unconscious, there is no running." Kara ruled out aloud.

Catching the sight of what she perceived as a 'well why not leave her' look on Cat's face, Lena began to shift and claw into the so called ally. "We are not abandoning her to save your skin!" Lena snarled.

"Shh." Kara may have agreed, and deeply appreciated her mate eager to stick up for her family, but she knew giving away both their position and identities was a recipe for disaster and death.

"She was going to!" Lena snapped.

"I know, I know baby. But I have an idea! An idea which won't work if they know who and where we are already.

"What are you thinking?" Lena released Cat from her claws.

Kara's eyes darted around and she grabbed two bar rags which had been left out on tables from the previous night's clean up. "Here, take this and follow my lead."

"What about me?" Cat spoke up.

"You have done enough." Kara snarled.

"At least tell me what your plan is. Should I move Alex and Freya?" Cat offered again.

"You have done enough!" Kara repeated harsher. "You need to sit in that corner and wait to save your own ass along with your child while leaving the rest of us to get killed."

Cat's jaw dropped, she had nothing to say after such a cold refusal from her pack's alpha, the woman who had gone to such lengths to protect her, but who now damn near wanted her dead.

"Open the fuck up already or else I'll break the door down!" Eve demanded as she hammered her fist down on the bar's entrance which suddenly seemed so feeble.

"Here, help me undo his chains. If we are gonna do this, silver is our best chance."

Cat watched on, desperate to speak out, to question what they were planning, what they would do with her unleashed pup, if he would even be safe. But she didn't, even as her mouth opened and her throat cracked emptily, nothing came out. She was mute in the face of her own actions and the repercussions they caused, the trust she had lost.

"Oof! Woah there boy." Kara whispered after dodging out of the way as Adam attempted to bite a chunk out of her.

"That's it! You have ten seconds to open this door!" Eve's patience was near empty.

"Eve sounds hammered. Like she fed way too much recently." Lena offered up what insight she had to the necrotic condition.

"I know." Kara nodded as they removed the bulk of the silver from the poor wolf.

"She will be strong but sloppy."

"We need to capitalize on that. Use it to our advantage! We need to surprise her with Adam and tie her down with the chains while she is preoccupied." Kara guided her mate.

"We can do this. We can get Jess back."

"I hope so." Kara agreed weekly, more than aware of absolutely everything that could go wrong.

"Plus, the second Jess sees us, she will help us hold her down. We really can do this!"

Kara nodded back scared, just giving Lena enough to reassure her, to ensure that the omega knew she would do her best. "Keep it just tied around his neck. I need us to be able to let him go as a surprise when the time comes."

"Four, three and a half." Eve was taking her time but both Lena and Kara knew it might come early any second now.

"Let me move Alex!" Cat requested of Kara under her breath.

Kara's head snapped to the elder omega, her eyes damn near glowing in a bright red. "Touch her and I will kill you myself!"

"Two!"

"Shift. Hide behind the wall and hold the chain in your teeth. Our only chance at keeping up with her is if we are shifted. Sit tight and don't move until I undo the last bit holding Adam back." Kara whispered before shifting herself, wrapping the chain up in the rag and biting down on it.

Some portion of the still stunned Cat wished to protest Kara's plan; to declare that her son was no tool to be used for battle. But she knew better. Her words could do nothing. Even if her words could change anything even in the slightest, it wouldn't matter. Kara's plan almost assuredly was the only way Adam had even the slightest chance at escaping alive.

"One!" Eve's first hard strike landed on buckling doors. But the boundary bounced back. The cracking of the hinges and the locked door's wood splintering from the inside threatened that it could maybe only take but one more blow from the vampire before it gave entirely. "Open up Freya! I've been patient for far too long!" She didn't even give a fraction of the time that would have been required for a response before she struck at the door once more. It bent and buckled, it's wood cracking louder as half the screws holding in the hinges popped out of the wood they had been in entirely. Kara nodded to Lena, giving a soft growl which Eve missed in her growing irritation. Lena returned it with a soft nod, she was ready, no matter what the next blow would bring.

Cat scurried into a corner, worried and unsure what to do, but wishing she could do simply anything. Anything at all that would help, aid in assisting and ensuring her son's safety. In the face of her uncertainty, all she could think was that it was her fault. Kara was right. If she hadn't hidden her plans from everyone else, then they could have prepared this better. Freya could have warned them of her planned meeting with the vampire, advised them. It could have even been the perfect opportunity for them to save Lena's friend. She wanted to move Alex and Freya, but Kara's words echoed in her mind. She had done enough alredy, nothing more she could do would change the situation they were in.

The final blow came without a lick of warning, Eve simply kicked the door in.

Not even a whole moment after the door bowed and broke Kara was in the air. The alpha dashed under Adam and then back over him, yanking the silver chain with her as she ran. The feral wolf had been freed.

Instinctively Adam lept after what his amped animalistic mind perceived as a threat. His feral instincts guided him as his body began the attack without any premeditation. One arm swung up, nearly catching Eve's throat, but even unbalanced with just the one arm she was just a mite too fast and successfully evaded with a step back. Despite the failure of his first strike, Adam wasn't done. He hastily followed up with the other hand. Yet again Eve easily evaded, but this time was different; this time Adam had overextended himself. He had overextended himself drastically and this vampire had zero intention of allowing such a mistake to go unpunished. She swiftly stepped back in, coming up with a cross that caught him right below his ribs. The blow was more than enough to halt his dying momentum and send him backward with a pair of broken ribs and a shattered sternum.

The poor wolf exhaled a belabored and pained whine as he hit the floor, but his job had been done; he had succeeded even if unaware of the duty Kara had assigned him. He had not only distracted her just enough that she didn't notice the silver on the floor just in front of her, but she had stepped off balance herself in her counter. It was a perfect opportunity. Eve was off-center, overextended, and woefully unprepared for a follow-up or a counter. Kara had been planning, no, hoping for such a result; for such a beautiful opportunity. She snarled, a deep loud snarl. She was already back in the air before it had actually burst from her animal throat, signaling to Lena that the time was now to strike, for them both to encircle the vampire with their chains and hopefully, tie her down before she even had a chance for a follow-up or a counter-attack.

Lena received the growl before it had even come, she knew what her alpha was thinking simply from her mate's wolf posture, how she lept into the air with a grace strong enough to almost distract her from her duty, almost. Overcoming the stun from watching her fierce mate ferocious in the assault, Lena focused and sprinted, going around Eve in the opposite direction of her mate. In her wolf form she was fast, much faster than she had anticipated. Having only been a wolf for under a month, she had yet to actually test her limits, and certainly not in such a dire situation, where everything, potentially even her life layed on the line if she failed. Half expecting she would trip, Lena summoned all her speed, pulling at the chain to assist herself in making the right turn, working to encircle Eve as fast as she could. The first run round went easy, Lena lept over Kara, allowing her mate to catch back her speed, then the second raced closer and Kara lept over her mate. Their chains ran short, pulling at Eve's burning flesh as she shrieked out in pain. Somehow against any likelihood, the gambit had worked. Adam, in all his feral stupor, had done just as Kara had hoped, and the window it left them with was perfect.

Kara and Lena both shifted back as they rounded the last half revolution, the slack in their chains completely gone as they yanked them tighter; there needed to be absolutely no way that the vampire could escape this trap. The pair cracked victorious smiles, over indulging just a dash in the pain of a woman who had caused them so much worry and fear. "We did it." Lena's jaw dropped gaping slightly as her eyes bulged in a surprising relief.

"You… you did it." Cat stood from her corner, almost equally breath taken as the rest of them.

"We did it." Kara concluded for them full of confidence. Her eyes then drifted off to the wolf wide with relief as they locked on her best friend. "Go. I got her." Kara offered a tender smile as she offered a hand to take Lena's end of the chain.

"Wha-" Lena didn't follow, her focus like her gaze still glued to her friend awaiting any sign that she was ok.

Cat approached, seeing something lacking in Eve's eye.

"Go see your friend's baby". Kara gently eased the chain out from Lena's grasp, cautious not to burn her mate as she coaxed it away.

"Jess?" The name hadnt cracked from her throat without the overwhelming terror of knowing they may never get her back in so long that saying it with any form of happiness seemed so foreign it was almost impossible.

Cat's legs were weary as they meandered her over towards the others. Every alarm within her had began to sound. Something was wrong. Jess was still silent. How could the wise-cracking whip have been let free but at the height of its freedom have no snap, no quip, not even a peep. It didn't add up. An imbalanced equation illuminated further as Cat witnessed the ends of Eve's lips curl up, the villainous smile cracking and spreading across the vampire's face.

"Jess. It's been so long." The familiarity of relief finally found it's way back to her friend's name for Lena. It certainly was a good thing that Kara had taken her end of the chain given just how Lena's shoulders and arms dropped. "Jess." She repeated, lacking anything more that her mouth could form for a greeting.

"Jess?" Cat's hesitant tone called out over Lena's shoulder only to be ignored.

"Jess!" Lena leapt for her friend, entirely ignoring her own nudity and the fact that Jess was still standing roughly a foot outside of the bar.

"Lena step away from her!" Cat warned deaf ears.

Kara turned back and gave Cat an impatient warning growl, for she would not be having her mate's finally reuniting with her friend ruined by an overbearing elder omega; especially not the one who had nearly gotten them all killed.

Eve couldn't hold back her subtle chuckle, a growing indulgence in the moment's perfection, it's perfect wondrous beauty.

"Shut up Eve!" Kara kicked at Eve's chains disdainfully.

"Jess I can't believe we found you!" Lena had alredy begun to cry by the time she tackled the idle body of her best friend as it swung back and forth from the impact like a weighted punching bag with a rounded base. Lena was overly occupied with the simple fact that Jess was back and safe in her arms, too consumed in relief to realize that Jess still hadn't spoken, or even replied in any way whatsoever. "I am so happy! I was so afraid we would never see you again Jess!"

The vampire's face twitched out of Lena's sight, showing her inner conflict. She was in pain, it was clear as day for anyone paying her the actual attention to notice, but still, Cat was the only one who saw.

"Get away from her now! Lena! Something is wrong and you need to move now!"

"You need to shut your damn mouth before I tie you up with her!" Kara's snout unintentionally began to shift as a roar broke out in her throat against her will.

Eve doubled over laughing hysterically. The cackles cracked grossly from her throat as she indulged in the demented irony of what she knew was to come next.

Kara barked out angrily at Eve, more of her spontaneously shifting against her own control.

Eve's cackles grew even more unruly as she raised her head once more, her gaze landing on the alpha attempting to fight an uncontrollable turn. Her defiant eyes pierced the alpha as if she knew just how detrimental her challenging tone alone would be without even the slightest of acknowledgment for the butane her words would be to the vicious fire growing in the alpha. "Jessica, kill her."

"Lena move!" Cat ordered again, leaping for Lena. It, however, had already happened, Cat was too late, Jess had struck. She executed her attack with such simplicity, grace even that it was breathtaking. Or was that just Lena's punctured lung? Regardless of the cause, Lena's lungs emptied with a burning speed, her friend's clawed hand pierced straight through her as it rooted around, vampiric talons threatening to pierce and crush her beloved friend's heart.

"Jess." The name suddenly held more fear than it ever had before, breathlessly breaking through Lena's hoarse throat as little more than a whisper. Blood gushed from the new hole in her chest. She was amazed that she was even still alive as Jess's claws fought to puncture her beating heart, but failed at their initial attempts. Jess had truly tried to kill her. Not only had Jess tried to kill her, but Lena had near no idea as to why she was even still alive, why despite all of Jess's uninhibited strength bearing down, claws that should be able to so easily shred such a fragile organ. The only thin ideation she had was that what was protecting her must be that which burned at her left four finger, it seemed to constrain around the digit with Jess's claws around her heart. It was the ring! The ring Cat had passed on to Kara to give to her, it was saving her life. But she knew all to well that the ring was to give out soon. It's magic had alredy done so much to save her, but something about it's restricting around her finger, she knew it would not last much longer.

"Finish it."

Jess's face twitched again, clearly straining so much more than before as she attempted to resist the order. Only now that she had actually attempted with all of her strength to kill her best friend had the hold of Eve's command loosened just enough for her to work out a single word. "Run." It was a silent pleading order. In fact, it was silent aside from the opening and closing, she had been ordered not to speak without being told to by Eve, and her body refused to disobey the order regardless of her will. This, even this modicum, a kernal of control was an entirely novel concept for Jessica after almost a whole month of having lived entirely under Eve's order, incapable of fighting in the slightest until now, literally crushing her friend's heart in her hand.

"Jessica." Lena was still caught completely in shock as she was tackled away by Cat. It was still a mortal wound, but at least it now had a chance to heal instead of if Cat had taken even but just another moment longer. Jess's hand was still in Lena as her claws clamped down on the motion that would have killed her closest friend, but thanks to Cat, Jess's hand clasped down around absolutely nothing but the blood her hand had been covered in from the assault.

Seeing her bloddied mate, Kara broke, her whole body shifting back to wolf as she lept for Jess, ready to murder her. A fatal mistake. A truly fatal mistake as Eve stood tall, her bonds shrugged casually off of her body as she smiled wider. Even the best-laid plans of alpha and omega had done nothing to truly contain her. "Jess! Put the poor puppy down. As much as I would love to study her, I think it is best we put this one out of her misery."

Cat stripped off her shirt, balling it up and pressing it into Lena's gaping wound. "Lena! Lena! Keep pressure on it! You need to keep pressure on it no matter what!" Cat ordered, her head darting up to witness as Jess and Kara clashed, deflecting each other away in an initial strike. Kara was sloppy, her assault clearly flawed and animalistic, but even while not at her best, Cat could tell that Kara would be able to hold her own against Jess long enough that the two were not the most pressing issue. "As long as you don't bleed out you can heal!" Cat knew it wasn't a whole truth, but if Jess had nicked anything vital then she was already a lost cause.

"Now for the truly delightful surprise of the morning… Alexandria, oh and all so perfectly splayed out and unconscious for me. Ohh revenge is sweet and I'll take it a toasty dish any day." Eve wrung her hands eager to finally take back what was stolen from her when Alex took her progeny.

"Lena. Keep the pressure." Cat warned once more, standing, her bones cracking as her body threatened a strained shift. "You won't touch her. Aww good ol' mama wolf, where were you when I struck your poor cub?"

"You won't hurt her."

"No, I will kill her, and then I will kill her sister, then her mate and child." Eve corrected with glee.

Cat's stance fell down to all fours as she moved to stand in front of the vampire. Her turn was slow, belabored, her body was not meant to do this outside of the moon, not anymore.

"Don't be stupid, you have children. You won't sacrifice your life for her." Cat's pain in the shift was obvious to the elder vampire, giving away with ease that the woman was woefully unprepared for this fight.

"They are all my children. I was their omega. Mother to the pack." Cat settled into what she must do.

"You don't have to die here." Eve appealed.

Cat was still straining to shift the rest of the way wolf, watching on as Lena bled out and Kara began to lose ground against her adversary. "You are welcome to leave if you let Jessica stay." The words were almost unintelligible as Cat's voice distorted in the shift.

"You know that isn't how this ends."

Cat stood her ground silent.

"I could conduct my business, spare each and every wolf. You could prevent a war. All you need do is allow me to kill this one and her mate, I will even spare her child if you don't make me kill you."

"So that you can loom over our heads for decades or centuries to come with the threat of tainted wolfsbane?" The words grew awkward in her mouth as her snout sprouted.

"A chance to die in a decade is much better than certain death tomorrow." Eve attempted to reason to the deadpan wolf. "Please. You are smarter than this. We don't need a war."

Cat's posture was a clearer response than she could even hope to form verbally, declaring through disposition alone that it was her intention to win 'the here and now' and prevent any war with the death of a singular vampire.

"You've forced my hand." Eve crouched, serving a drop of respect to the other elder in awaiting the entirety of Cat's shift before striking. The wolf did deserve a respectable warrior's death, and not just a surprise attack before she was prepared. Evil and murderous? Yes, but Eve did have some form of code.

The attacks came quick, with a speed that made Kara and Jess's brawl look like a sloth vs. sloth slug fest. Cat landed an attack which would certainly be fatal to anyone but a vampire, her claws catching deep at Eve's throat, but Eve was playing a longer game. Cat realized her mistake the moment her attack landed on an entirely unguarded Eve. A lack of a guard was at least slightly more excusable given the lack of a second arm, but to openly accept a throat slash, something so likely to be lethal? Eve had a much larger plan. Her counter was masterful, surgical in its precision, using vampiric talons as a scalpel to sever a critical tendon in Cat's hind leg. It was more than enough, that leg was useless, the canine equivalent of having her achilles tendon cut, completely severed in three different locations. The only mistake of the attack was that she didn't have both her arms; for if she had the battle would already have been over.

Cat knew immediately if Eve landed a similar blow on her one good leg she would have absolutely no chance of victory. She would be left immobile, a sitting duck to watch on as Alex was murdered. Stepping back, limping on three legs, Cat found a protective posture, settling in with the intent of buying Alex time to hopefully awaken.

"You don't have to do this. You can live." Eve offered a final time through the blood filling her slit throat.

Cat snarled, lowering her wounded leg as if it had any chance to help her launch into an attack.

"Fine then." Eve garbled, her words nearing intelligible.

Cat's eyes flickered, a plan forming, a way to attain an ally and turn the tides. It was enough to push her to attack again. A pure hope came as she struck Eve's throat once more, this time intentionally not aiming for a death blow, but striving and succeeding in decimating what was left of Eve's vocal cords and voice box, ripping more than half of it out in her claws and destroying the rest.

Eve, unaware of the strike's intent, was in fact scared of another attempt at a life threatening blow, decided to end the fight in one fell swoop. Forfeiting her tactful attacks, Eve penetrated Cat's rib cage with ease, finding the wolves beating heart, crushing it in her hand and removing its remnants. The omega slumped to the floor, going limp as the vampire shrugged her off, leaving the wolf to die.

"Jyess" Eve attempted an order but her throat was far too destroyed to form any actual words.

Jess's eyes lit up, she had control once more, she could speak. "Kara! Kara stop! I didn't mean to hurt Lena! It was a mistake! Eve is my maker! She's been controlling me!" The vampire yelled as she dodged Kara's strikes, no longer counter attacking.

The alpha wolf was far from logical, and the pleas fell on deaf ears.

"Kara! Stop! Attacking!" Jess fought, evading without counterattacking growing much harder as Kara's fury built.

"Jess." Lena coughed looking up, the sound of her friend actually as herself again enough to make her rally.

"What happened to your girlfriend!" Jess dodged a strike that would have killed her by less than a hair's distance.

Lena fought through excruciating pain, striving to process and come up with something. "K… Kara." She painfully pleaded for her alpha's attention, more than aware that her need for her mate would calm the animalistic alpha wolf.

Kara's attacks slowed, her wolf eyes darting to her mate. She rushed right to Lena's side, licking at the wound. Unsure of how else to care for it, licking the wound clean was the wolf's first instinct.

"I! Baby. Don't. That hurts." Lena winced.

Eve moved in closer, her eyes focusing on the wolf who had taken Leslie from her.

"You can't speak can you?" Jess taunted, following up behind the other vampire.

Eve rolled her eyes, turning to Jess.

"I'm not your tool anymore."

Eve attempted to attack, but she was slow in her pain, weak in her lack of breath. Jess intercepted easily. It was a breathtaking shock, to see someone so easily catch her assault? It had been years since she felt so weak. Her jaw dropped. She was in danger! Cat's final actions were enough to turn the tide and make this a battle of two versus a damaged one, not to mention that if Jess thought to use her blood to heal Lena it would become a hopeless three enemies when she would barely have a chance to fight off one.

Jess moved in to strike, but Eve retreated, stepping back. She felt such a coward for an evasive retreat, but she hadn't survived so long by getting into an abundance of unwinnable encounters.

"Going to run?! Like a coward!?" Jess was astounded but not surprised. Eve was not an idiot, she had certainly learned that much in her month incarcerated. It was a hail mary, the idea that taunting her maker would be enough to goad her into another attack, to re engage. And as expected, it didn't work, Eve was gone, she had no intention of prolonging this threatening battle. She had lost more than enough to this lot for now, and the war could be won another day despite this defeat.

"Kara." Lena's voice requested weakly. "Baby shift back. Breathe, shift."

It was a clearly painful effort, Kara strained and growled, snapping at the air as she began to form a more human silhouette.

"Lena! Are you ok!?" Jess rushed to her friend's side, immediately offering up her hand and cutting her palm for Lena to drink and heal herself.

Lena took only a few drops, enough to ensure she didn't die of blood loss and she could stabilize and get back home without much trouble. "Kara. Kara. Are you ok?"

"Lena…" Kara snarled and stomped at the ground with a hand half paw. "Lena you need to tell me what the hell is happening to me!"

End of Chapter 21