"What?" Gwen was incredulous at Heather's request. She knew deep down that Courtney was right, but she tried to tell herself that it wouldn't actually happen.
Heather dug her claws into Trent's flesh, drawing drops of blood. "Please don't make me repeat myself."
"Don't…do it", Trent choked out, struggling as best as possible to loosen Heather's grip.
Courtney glanced between Trent and Gwen, worried. Izzy grinned, eager at the prospect of bloodshed and Lindsay busied herself with her phone.
"Fine! I'll do it", Gwen cried, the fight all but gone from her voice.
"Good choice." Heather dropped Trent to the floor. He coughed, the air returning to his lungs.
Heather grabbed the rope and tied Trent's hands together, leaving a length of rope free. She grabbed the length, pulling him along.
She extended her leg, tripping him. He fell to the floor with a groan.
Heather glanced down at him. "Better not try anything, hot stuff. I can strip the flesh off a human in under 30 seconds." She looked up at Gwen. "And I'm not the only one, am I?"
A scowl momentarily crossed Gwen's face as she met the alpha's gaze. She crossed over to Trent's left side and kneeled next to him.
"Finally, if there are no further cock-ups, we can proceed."
Gwen blinked away tears as Heather raised the book.
Trent shook his head. "Please, don't do this."
Heather groaned. "Why are you still whining, virgin? These are the worst last words I've ever heard."
"Okay, I get it. I know I'm a virgin. It wasn't intentional. I've just been unlucky in love." Trent looked up at Gwen. "Well, I was." Caught off-guard by this, Gwen smiled through her tears.
"Well, that's really sweet. Seriously, lovely and touching and-" Heather punched Trent in the stomach. He opened his mouth to yell, which allowed Heather the opportunity she wanted to stuff his shirt in his mouth. "I've been married six years. Trust me when I say romance is dead…just like you."
Heather opened the book. "Audite meus placitum, infusio is lux lucis, tribuo nos totus eternus nox noctis."
Gwen raised the dagger. She couldn't bring herself to blink away her tears any more than she could bring herself to lower the knife.
Heather changed into her wolf form and glared murderously at Gwen. "NOW!"
There were so many tears in her eyes, she couldn't see Trent's body…
…nor could she see the figure rushing toward her. Gwen shut her eyes as she plunged the knife downward. The blade tore into flesh.
Gwen opened her eyes. If she was upset before, she was downright inconsolable now.
The dagger stuck out of Courtney's back, embedded in her left side, right next to her heart.
Gwen glanced down at Courtney, who extended her pinky to a hook. Gwen, tearfully, hooked her own pinky with the brunette's.
Courtney's pinky slipped out of Gwen's grip, the last movement she would ever make.
"Goddamnit!"
Heather's curse snapped Gwen out of her mourning. Heather, wearing her human head, snatched the dagger out of Courtney's body.
"Too bad Courtney wasn't a virgin." Heather raised the dagger. Gwen charged at her, claws extended. Heather reverted to wolf form in defense.
Gwen swung wildly at Heather, scratching, biting and hitting her. The attack caused Heather to drop the dagger.
Izzy jumped on the two of them, gleefully nipping at Gwen. Lindsay groaned as she set her phone down and leapt into the fray, scratching at who she thought was Gwen.
"GET. OFF!"
Heather knocked Lindsay aside. Trent shook Courtney's lifeless corpse off of him and rose to his feet, the necklace slipping from between his toes onto the floor.
With blazing speed, the alpha rushed into Trent's path and raised her claw, back-handing Trent into a wall.
Trent grunted as he fell to the floor. He tried to move, but couldn't. He was paralyzed.
Heather picked up the dagger. Gwen charged at her once again. This time, Heather refused to relinquish the blade.
Heather jammed the dagger into Gwen's shoulder. Gwen growled in pain.
Gwen snarled as she grabbed the dagger and jammed it into Heather's shoulder.
Izzy leapt onto the two of them, jiggling the dagger out of Heather. She lapped at the blood on the blade.
So ensconced were Heather and Gwen in their scuffle, they didn't see Lindsay still on the floor.
The wolves tripped over her, falling through the rickety floorboards.
As the building was in great disrepair, the floorboards were always on the verge of falling apart, something the pack discovered as they fell all the way to the first floor.
However, one wolf managed to hang on to the floorboards of the fourth floor. She climbed with all her might, digging her claws into the boards.
She pulled herself up and glanced toward the hole in the fifth floor. She leapt up and dug her claws into the boards. She pulled herself up and gained some footing.
She spotted Trent's prone body lying in the next room. She ran toward it and peered down at him.
She ran her paw along his face.
At this contact, Trent forced himself to open his eyes. He smiled as best as he could, given the crippling pain. "Gwen."
Gwen, forgetting her wolf strength, wrapped Trent in a hug.
Trent yelled, still in pain.
"SORRY."
"It's okay." Trent groaned. It clearly pained him to speak, but he decided to get this all out, as he assumed he didn't have much time left. "I should've left like you told me. So, you're a wolf? That doesn't matter. I really like-"
Gwen put a claw to his lip. She shook her head. "NO." She grabbed him by his shoulders. "SORRY."
Confusion twisted Trent's face. Gwen opened her jaw and clamped her teeth down on his shoulder blade. Trent yelled again as blood and drool trailed down his body.
Heather was still dazed at having fallen through the floor. Thankfully, Izzy and Lindsay were there to break her fall.
She briefly shifted her head back to a human one as she straightened out. "Gwen may not be a virgin, but she's going under that dagger tonight!"
Heather bolted for the stairwell, growling and panting the whole way up.
Gwen turned toward the doorway, her ears twitching a little. She knew who was coming.
She tossed Trent over her shoulder and secured him with one arm. She glanced down the series of holes.
She took a few steps back and got a running start. She leapt down the hole and, with her free arm, she dug into the floorboards. She tossed Trent onto the floor and climbed onto it herself.
Heather ripped the door open and peered around. Bypassing the small puddle of blood and drool, she took a slight sniff and stepped into the next room.
She glanced down the hole, taking another sniff. She jumped down to the third floor and took off on all fours.
Jarred by Heather's movement, the necklace slipped between the floorboards.
The room carried a faint residual air of cleaning products. Gwen set Trent's body down and crushed the inside doorknob before closing the door behind her.
"Who does she think she is?"
Gwen stopped and turned behind her.
She ran to the various doors on either side of the hallway. All locked. She outstretched a paw and swiped the knob off of a door and ran inside.
"Do you hear something?"
"Like what?"
"I don't know. Maybe, the wind. Maybe, a scary ghost. Maybe, my stomach. Probably should've eaten that homeless guy, but I think he went bad."
Izzy and Lindsay opened the door. While Lindsay was back in human form, Izzy opted to retain her human head on her wolf body.
"Y'know, Heather's not gonna be too happy about you being out of wolf form."
"I know, but, to be honest, I don't like being a wolf more than I have to." Lindsay counted off the points on her fingers. "There's the fur and the changing and the food. I was on a fast the week of a full moon a couple years ago. It so messed me up!"
"Better not let Heather hear you."
"What she doesn't know... Besides, the breeze is kind of nice."
The two of them passed a room with a giant hole where the doorknob should be.
Izzy's canine nose grew out of her face as she took a sniff.
"What?"
Izzy put a finger to her lips, making the 'shush' sign to Lindsay. Izzy threw the door open. Gwen shoved her aside and loped away as fast as she could.
Lindsay groaned as she wolfed out and gave chase after her.
Izzy turned on her heel to follow, only to turn in the other direction. She sniffed deeply. "VIRGIN."
There was a window at the end of the hall. Gwen was running so fast, she failed to notice a loose floorboard that caught her lower paw. She tripped and rolled onto her back.
Lindsay rushed up to her and pinned her. She shifted her head back to human form. "Where is he?"
Gwen shifted back herself. "Why should I tell you?"
"Heather's gonna find him, anyway."
"And when she does, you're still gonna be number two."
"That'll still put me in a better place than you'll be."
Gwen wrapped her legs around the blonde and thrust her head through the window. She flipped over and took off like a shot.
Izzy sniffed around the door to the supply closet. She swiped the handle off of the door and threw the door open.
It was empty.
She growled and slammed the door. Izzy watched as it swung back open. There was a hole in the ceiling. The building was so rundown, it couldn't be said for certain if the hole was fresh or if it had been there for years.
Izzy rushed down the hall until she came upon the broken window. Surprisingly, there was no Lindsay stuck in it. However, there was broken glass all around.
Her lupine features shrank into her face. "Lindsay, you around here?"
No answer. Did she leave? Heather would not have liked that very much.
Izzy hurried toward the window and opened it. She stuck her head out.
Heather trod the halls of the third floor. She was exhausted. She'd ripped apart every floor looking for Trent, but he seemed to be gone. Gwen also seemed to be missing. She jammed the dagger in the side of the wall.
"Oh, Heather, thank God."
"Where's…why are you out of wolf form?"
"Never mind that. Come with me."
Heather followed the young woman to the broken window. Their compatriot lied next to the window, a bloody shard of glass sticking out of their neck.
For the first time that night, Heather collapsed, shocked at what happened.
"I tried to stop Gwen, but she said she didn't care."
Heather dug her claws into the wall, scratching chunks of it out.
Thanks to a failed science experiment conducted by former tenants, the elevator had been broken for years. Still, it made for a decent hiding place if one needed it…as Gwen currently did.
Gwen kept her breathing low, so as not to attract any notice. Sharing Lindsay's point-of-view, she had reverted to human form. She crouched in the fetal position and cried to herself.
Gwen glanced up as the metal of the doors creaked. A pair of claws ripped the door open. Heather wore a twisted smile on her face.
"Gwen."
"Heather."
"I'm disappointed in you. It's one thing to fall for our sacrifice, but to kill a fellow pack member…"
"I couldn't see that that was Courtney!"
"What?" Heather shook her head. "No, and are you really still hung up about that?" Gwen's hand grew to a wolf's paw that she balled into a fist. "No. I'm talking about…"
Heather's body went limp. Gwen recoiled at the tip of the dagger sticking out of her chest, through her heart.
The young woman pulled the dagger out of Heather, letting her fall to the floor. "Is it just me or does she talk way too much?"
