I think J-Dog has officially screwed himself. Going and killing one wolf by accident is one thing, but killing dozens on purpose is just plain insane. Gee, if he were a human he would have to go to Texas and be hit by a brick…what! That's what they do! Anyways, J-Dog is being pursued by Age, I mean, if your mass murdering brother targeted your soon to be mate, you'd probably go after his throat too!

Better Than This

Chapter 17

He Who Bleeds Others, Bleeds

Age had locked firmly onto J-Dog's scent, a secret he'd picked up from his Alpha training before his teacher was killed in the avalanche. The smell was growing stronger, and he treated it as if it were a deer being hunted down for its flesh. No matter which way he looked at it, Age was out for blood, J-Dog's. It was a feeling that he didn't like, he thought, as he kept his nose close to the ground and repeatedly sniffed the forest floor, the pheromones he sensed growing stronger and stronger from the injury he had dealt to J-Dog earlier. Age still couldn't bring himself to believe that his own brother would go on a mass murdering rampage, and when all was said and done, he'd go after his own brother's soon to be mate. The nerve that was building up inside Age's body could be compared to when he finally asked Hayley to be his mate; it was a moment his nervousness would be compared to for the rest of his life.

"Hayley, I love you, with my whole heart, soul, body, mind…and other important parts of me that can feel love." She giggled at his attempt to try and say his feelings; it was still entrancing to her. "And…I got this feeling that, when you feel this way about someone, no matter how long you've known them, that it is an omen of something."

"Oh Age, I feel exactly the same way. There just something about you that I feel I wouldn't be complete without." Hayley said, going up to Age and wrapping her paws around his back and burying her face into his side.

"I know Hayley, and I plan on fixing that right now." Hayley pulled away a little, and stared at him in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Hayley asked.

"I mean this…" he said and kissed her deeply, she returned the affection and once he finished he looked her right in the eyes and asked, "Hayley…will you…make me the happiest/luckiest wolf in Jasper…by…by becoming my mate?"

The look in her eyes was astonished, awe, excitement, shock, love, and other assorted positive emotions a girl should feel when they're proposed to. Hayley couldn't even pretend to think about it she wanted to say 'yes' so badly. "Of course Age, I'm yours, and I always will be. I love you."

Age's nose still hadn't left the ground, just the memory of his proposal brought swear to his forehead and made him nervous. This however was entirely different; he was out to kill his brother before he could kill anyone else. Age didn't want to be the one to do this, but J-Dog was smart, very smart, Age was sure he could set up traps that could fool any number of Alphas. Only Age possessed the skills needed to first of all, reach J-Dog, and then take him down. In fact, just as the thought of J-Dog setting traps traveled through Age's mind, he hear a very faint snap of something overhead, and then felt a very small rumble coarse through the ground beneath him. He remembered what his mentor had told him,

"Remember Age, sometimes even small signs can be the signal for real danger"

He didn't have to think, he threw himself to the side, and a massive tree trunk came and smashed down where he was, after he noticed, there was a swarm of bees heading towards him. He guessed they were from the tree that had just fallen down. The crashing of the river nearby told Age which direction to go, he sprinted away from the bees as fast as he could and dove paws first into the water to hide. He thought it wouldn't be necessary to look above the water's surface to see if the bees were following him, so instead he just swam downstream until he couldn't hold his breath any longer. When he surfaced, he knew exactly where he was. He had found himself floating in a small stream that led to the main river passing through the east and west side of Jasper. He climbed out of the river and onto the western side, but he got out where he was, not in the big and obvious clearing that held the main river. He thought this would be a good hiding spot. While attempting to try and dry himself off in the cool night air, he stopped to notice a small foot-print indent in the mud near the river. Age could tell by the look that it wasn't J-Dog's, in fact; he actually couldn't tell whose it was. Worried for whoever it might be, he frantically inhaled all the different smells in the area, searching for his brother's. Finally, after he was starting to get a nose cramp, he picked up a small smell of his brother's foul smelling odor.

The scent came from an area past the trees, and through the clearing. Age was worried he was in Jasper's main canyon, to go there you had to pass all the dens where everyone went for safety. He dried himself as he ran, letting the water fall off as he moved his front and back feet back and forth. When he passed the first den in Jasper on the way to the canyon however, as he ran by his nose picked up the pheromones of something foul. Despite the fact that he was in a rush, he turned around and looked inside. His eyes have never forgotten what it is they saw, it was a mother, lying dead with her two puppies. Their blood was lining the walls and the floor, and on top of what was left of their corpses, was a pile of stones. Age guessed that his brother had rigged a trap to every den just like this, and the moment they entered for safety, boom, stones, dead. Fearing for everyone's lives now, Age absolutely hurled himself to look away and completely dashed for the canyon. Once he got to the rim, there was a stone pillar in the center where the altar used to be. On top of it was a wolf, the wolf. Age's eyes almost lit on fire as he found out who it was and stormed down the side and coming up to the rock. As he climbed to the top, he saw that J-Dog hadn't moved, and once he got up, the ground all around the rock caught ablaze. Age didn't know how the fire below him started, or by what elaborate scheme J-Dog had done to accomplish that, but there was in fact to turning back now.

"Finally, it took you long enough." His brother said in a deeply malicious voice.

"You sick, insane, mass murdering…!"

"What? Mass murdering what?" J-Dog said as he turned around and faced his little brother. "I'm only doing what lesser wolves deserve. If you're not smart, you don't survive."

"Killing them is not the answer Joe! Just because they're not as smart as us!"

"Our family reigns as the smartest of all, our species is few, Age. If we live and take out the incompetent wolves who dare to even call themselves wolves, we can finally take everything that should belong to us. We deserve it, WE are the superior class!" J-Dog declared. Age growled and he and his bro began to circle one another. "But clearly, you're here for something else."

"I'm here for everyone in Jasper you've killed Joe, and for your blood. I do agree, I'm a superb wolf compared to these, but I'd never kill them for that reason." He said while snarling grossly at him. "I've been covering for you for too long over these years, and now it's time for you to pay! This is for every last single wolf you've killed…" He said and lunged at his brother, teeth gnashing and ready to kill.

J-Dog swiftly moved out of the way, and spun to give a counter attack. Age picked up his movement with his ears and could pin point where exactly behind him J-Dog was, as he heard his brother jump off the ground he did a barrel roll under him and landed behind him. J-Dog turned around and snarled at Age, clearly aggravated by their equality in battle. J-Dog stopped growling and return back to his smiling face.

"This is pointless Age. We're evenly matched, oh wait, no we're not." He said and kicked a stone off of the platform and when it hit the ground it caused and echo sound to boom through the canyon. A very loud rumble was then heard up ahead, and a blanket of stampeding caribou was circling around the stone pillar, creating an arena from which neither could escape. The fire was now dead because of the caribou running on it and putting it out, but the battle had officially begun. "Try to get away now, unless you feel like giving in?" He teased.

Age growled and lunged back at J-Dog and he moved out of the way and tried to bite Age's back foot. Age kicked his feet up, and whipped his faced with his tail. J-Dog was pushed back; stunned by the sting Age's tail had given his face. And then Age charged J-Dog and aimed for his chest with his claws. J-Dog did a flip over Age's head and landed behind him, then quickly swirled himself around and pounced on Age's back and bit down hard, trying to paralyze Age. The howl of pain Age let out could be heard by Humphrey, Kate, Hutch, and Hayley who were running back through Jasper. Kate stopped and listened.

"Is that Age?" She said with fear in her voice. But Hayley's heart stopped,

"This way, he needs help now!" She said and dashed off. Humphrey, Kate, Hutch ran after and they found Age trapped on a pillar in the canyon locked in a battle with J-Dog. Kate's jaw dropped open at the surrounding caribou.

"I've never seen so many, where did they all come from?" She asked aloud.

"Probably one of J's dirty tricks!" Humphrey accused. Hayley ran to the side of the canyon and looked down over the rapids of deer.

"Is there nothing we can do?!" She said frantically.

"I sorry Hayley, it's too dangerous to try and get to him right now, we'd get trampled for sure. We'll have to wait until there's no more caribou." Kate said and a sorry tone. Hayley looked back out over the deer and saw Age was still in J-Dog's jaws.

"AGE!" She screamed to him.

At the moment, Age was losing consciousness, but he heard Hayley's scream and he shot right back awake. "Hayley?" He said weakly, and then noticed her standing where she was with Kate and Humphrey at her sides. This reminded Age of what he was fighting for, so he found the strength to shake J-Dog off, much to the surprise of J-Dog.

As Age took a brief moment to recover from his wound, he noticed J-Dog was temporarily dazed, he guessed that when he threw him off, he had hit his head on the rock. With a gulp of air and effort he charged at him and knocked him over. Then he grabbed J-Dog's neck and bite down hard. After that, he held on and spun round and round, and then let go, sending J-Dog flying out into the raging storm of hooves. J-Dog had regained focus, and leapt from the back of one caribou to another until he almost tripped up and forced himself to jump for the rock, finding he was only hanging on by his two paws. Age then came and stood over his slipping brother and watched him struggled.

"Age, help me! Come on, I'm family, I'm the only superior like you!" He begged.

"Superior? A superior wolf wouldn't kill lesser wolves because he feels the world is a better place without them!" He smirked and watched J-Dog get back some of a grip on the rock. "Oh dear, Joey, seems you've gotten yourself into trouble again. Only this time, Mom and Dad aren't here to stop me." He said and grabbed one of his brother's paws with his jaws and bit down so hard he drew blood. J-Dog cried out horribly, and then gazed at Age with fear and disbelief.

"You wouldn't do this, you don't have the heart!" J-Dog declared, reminding Age of his shy and meekness. Think he had won, J-Dog smirked, but Age looked down and smiled himself. His mouth dripping with blood, and speaking in a much muffled way,

"Watch me…" He said, J-Dog's eyes widened, and Age let go. J-Dog screamed as he disappeared beneath the river of hooves, and Age heard a terrible series of crunching sounds. From the view Hayley had, she thought it was Age who had just been dropped in; she thought Age just couldn't do something like that. But when she took a closer look, she saw the blood stained fur on his back, showing her that it was Age who was victorious. Kate and Humphrey raced down to the side of the canyon as soon as the last of the caribou ran through the valley, and Hayley was close to follow. When they reached the stone in the center, Age had remained on top, the perimeter of it still scorched from where the fire had been, countless hoof printed in the dirt, and a maimed wolf carcass lying in the tracks of it all. Hayley looked up at Age, who she noticed develop tears in his eyes, and then jumped off the pillar and ran off leaving a trail of tears behind him. Humphrey and Kate hadn't seen this, they were busy seeing if J-Dog was truly dead, but Hayley raced after Age, hoping he wasn't feeling so guilty that he was about to do anything drastic.

Hutch watched this, "I'll go look for survivors, I think J really had it in for all of these wolves." Hutch then ran off while Kate and Humphrey started dragging J-Dog's body to the main den.

Damn, that was so electrifying to write! I liked it, kind of seems like a mix between the Holocaust and The Lion King though. Oh well, I thought it works pretty well, enjoy, the lemon is coming up soon, so just watch out for that. Beware of conversation that will follow this.