IN FULL COLOUR - Dark Fantasy

Axel

“GET HIM RESTRAINED! NOW!” Alpha Blake’s voice barked angrily into the air as soon as Dorian and I leapt into the clearing.

Pack members, mostly warriors, rocks, boulders, sand and dust were everywhere. A commotion of dirt, filth and grunting drew my attention and at once, I shifted back into my human form, heading straight for the squabble. No hesitation.

Jarryd had his large hands wrapped around the back of the human man’s neck, pressing down so hard, his knuckles and fingertips were turning white. The muscles in his bulky arms twitched and spasmed under the force, but the human resisted, pushed back and fought with everything he had, an unbelievable display of power.

Behind him, Beast had a tight grip on the man’s arms, pulling it around his back to reduce his movement, causing him unbearable pain and discomfort. If ever the human felt it, he sure as hell didn’t show it. A few others were helping to push him down, trying to restrain him into a kneeling position, but to no avail. I had no idea how he was doing it. Four mature werewolf warriors couldn’t seem to gain control of the situation. Overpower one very ordinary-looking man.

“I SAID RESTRAIN HIM!” Alpha Blake ordered again, his voice echoing off the rocks and boulders abundantly scattered around the area.

Sweat, dirt and blood coated most of the warrior’s bare chests and arms. The human male didn’t look particularly strong, but he was fit and had a good complexion. No signs of malnourishment, poverty or physical injuries, well, none except for a few fresh bruises and Beast’s claw marks currently digging into the flesh of his arms. Still, the male was fighting to get away, his face contorted in anger. Inflamed red veins ran down the sides of his neck and droplets of spit were spraying out as he screamed.

This was absurd and quite frankly starting to annoy me.

With large, determined strides, I walked up to the males, placed my palm on the back of the human’s head and slammed it down so hard, his forehead hit the ground with a loud crack. I had used enough force for tiny rocks and stones to imbed into his skin, but not enough to kill him. I was mindful of that, careful not to use all my Alpha strength for the fear of splattering him entirely onto the dirt. As Jarryd pulled him up again to face me, his eyes were still rolling backwards.

Well, that got him to shut up.

I crouched down in front of the heaving, feral male and waited for the world to stop spinning around him. He blinked a few times and relaxed his shoulders, slumping down just enough for the warriors to hold him in place without feeling threatened.

“Who are you!?” I demanded when he started looking around, taking in everyone standing behind me, his eyes lingering on Alpha Blake.

The voice which came from him was not human. It sounded like a combination of different voices jumbled together as one. Old, young, feminine, masculine, human and animal.

The unworldly sound of it slithered down my back, like thousands of spiders scrambling over my skin.

“Let me go,” the voices purred in unison, “and I will leave you be.”

I glanced at the men around me, scanning my eyes over the warriors who were holding him down. They looked disturbed, but had a death grip on him.

“You’re not going anywhere,” I replied, “why are you here? Who are you?”

Alpha Blake and Dorian crouched beside me in the dust, waiting for his answers and looking for possible weaknesses.

The human observed each one of us, his actions were strange and animal-like. Almost more animalistic than that of our wolves. His head moved in jerky, rapid bursts of movement and his eyes did not stand still for a second. The pupils of his eyes dilated and constricted while frantically shifting from one place to another. When he was not speaking, he was making weird throaty, gasping noises with his lips slightly parted, but unmoving.

There was definitely something very wrong with him.

“That is not important. What is important is who are you?” He asked, the voices seemingly calm and smooth despite his body’s quite obvious signs of distress. The human had by now wet himself and the strong stench of piss and sweat irked my senses.

“STATE YOUR INTENTIONS AND BE DONE WITH IT!” Alpha Blake commanded in his Alpha tone. It did not faze the human one bit. Instead, he cocked his head to the side like a dog’s and clattered his teeth against each other, the same wheezing, gasping noise coming out of it.

A set of heavy boots sounded behind me and a quick glance over the shoulder revealed Locke, looking over us and narrowing his eyes at the unsettling male.

The human’s gaze snapped up to Locke and within an instant, his jerky movements had halted, his breathing stopped, and the frantic shifting pupils froze. Everything went holly still, as did Locke.

The hairs in the back of my neck stood on end and warriors started exchanging uncomfortable looks in question.

“There you are,” the symphony of unnatural voices purred. The human male slowly studied Locke from top to bottom, “we have been searching all over for you.”

And just like that, the man went limp. With a nod from their Alpha, the warriors let go of him and he fell face-first onto the dirt-covered ground.

Dead.

Blood began to ooze out of his mouth and nose, but we all remained frozen in place, overridden with shock and confusion. Just staring.

Hours later, we carried the man’s dead body back to the packhouse for a post-mortem, but an eerie quiet had fallen amongst us. None of the warriors had words to describe what they had witnessed and most of all, no one wanted to think about it, to admit that it had actually happened because to think about it made it real.

Too real and too close to home.