Ursanthropy

Doreen

I didn’t like the fact that this battle or war was happening at all, but the need to guide my people to safety had been overruling any thoughts I had about this event. I just kept on telling myself that after this was over, I would do anything in my power to make sure that we would never have a single battle ever again. Not that I’m naïve to think that I could eradicate bad people from the face of the earth forever, but I would make sure that the chances for the happening of something as big as this, would be as low as possible.

Everyone was now in position, the hunters who fought the Lunas were being taken care off. In fact, they are done now, so I ordered for the bears to come my way and help the rest on the frontline to end the lives of the last remaining hunters.

Only a few dozen hunters were now surrounded at the back, close to the forest’s tree line. These were the only ones left and soon my people were able to overrun them, as the rhinos and wolves came closer as well. I had shifted myself into my bear too, fighting alongside all of the others.

Soon, my fur matched that of all the creatures around me, as I also was covered in blood and grime. It disgusted me to feel like this, that this had to happen, but my father and his people have caused so much trouble, it is beyond imagining how angry I am towards them. And even though I hated to have killed ignorant people, I knew that we couldn’t keep them alive. If we would have done that, they would just spread to the world that we exist, that we are indeed those rabid creatures that they deem us to be. Well… today we were, but normally we are not.

All that was left, were a few of those hunters, trying to shoot their way towards a safe position. But those actions were futile. It wouldn’t have mattered if they had hundreds of bullets left or not, they were easily overtaken and silenced.

Once I snapped the neck of one of the hunters that had attacked me, I shifted myself to human form again, and all the men around me shifted as well. A sudden outburst of happiness was being forced out of their throats, howls were being cast into the sky, hugs and kisses were shared towards each other, all because we had managed to win this war.

Some of the people even bowed to me, recognizing my strength and leadership, at which I didn’t want to smile back, but did softly nonetheless to not disrespect their respect towards me. I didn’t feel joyous or victorious though, I only felt shame for not being able to take up on the title earlier. For not being able to stop both my father and Dennis, before all of this happened.

I looked around me and saw numerous bodies lying mangled, shot, damaged or dead on the ground. Some of them even laid on top of each other as there was hardly any room left for them to lay on their own. Dozens of dead shifters and humans littered the place, dousing me with an amazing amount of sadness.

If only I could have avoided this war, all the dead people would still be alive and well. If only…

Mindlessly I walked back, towards the place where I knew my father and Justin, and perhaps Jack now as well, were fighting still. I was hoping that they had captured my father now and that both Jack and Justin were still alive. I know that Jack still was alive, as I would have felt it otherwise through the mating bond, but Justin wasn’t someone that I wanted to be dead either.

But what I saw was something that I didn’t like at all.

My father had held his knife against Justin’s throat, capturing him in a position of where neither Jack or Justin himself could do anything about, right this moment.

“Let him go!” I shouted angrily towards my father. He couldn’t really believe that he could get away with this, could he? I mean we had just annihilated his complete army, so he couldn’t leave this place in one piece, no matter what he would do next.

But my father just grinned to me, like he was certain he wasn’t defeated just yet. I rose a brow and looked at both him and Justin. How did my father manage to get Justin in a position like this anyway?

“Don’t get any closer to your father!” Jack suddenly burst out, and I looked towards him with a confused face. “I don’t know how, but he has taken the gas that Dennis had, and made Justin to inhale it!” Jack explained in full angry mode.

My father did what? But when did he- Shit! When I had decided to distract him, to get everyone out of the packhouse, he must have ordered his men to at least take one cannister from above the ceiling! But that would mean that my father knew about the gas and had seen what it had done to someone!

“I had seen Dennis use it on some guy he had taken from the cells, so I thought that I could use it to my own advantage. You should have seen the leopard’s tail and fur, they simply just fell off! It was beautiful!” He laughed to both me and Jack, explaining himself how he had come to know about it. And then I heard some deep growls behind me.

Maxwell stood there, ready to shift in anger, ready to attack my father head on. But I couldn’t risk anyone getting hurt by that gas again, so I ordered for some shifters to take hold of him and I would talk to him later about his missing leopard. And now I come to think about it, I guess that it must have been his Beta, as no other leopard was in that room with him, at the time that Dennis was crowned King. That bastard!

I looked back to how my father held Justin and I could see Justin’s face being torn between anger and sadness. He had let himself slump down in my father’s arms and I could tell that he was feeling devastated and defeated.

“Justin, are you okay?” I asked him, but he couldn’t answer me, he truly didn’t know what he was feeling or how he must express himself right now. I was hoping that the gas hadn’t worked fully, just as it hadn’t on Jack, so I tried to reach him through the link but I could tell that there was no connection, that I couldn’t reach his primal self.

A dull pain stung in my eyes, as I was at the brink of crying for my brother to have lost his beast. His eyes were like soulless orbs, only now realising that he is missing a big part of his life. His strength and determination had faltered to that of the mind of a normal sixteen year old boy, who had been punished by his father. He was broken…

I started to become angry towards my father as he had used the most vile thing in the world, towards one of my kind, towards my own brother for crying out loud! My blood was boiling and fur sprouted out the back of my neck. I could feel myself be torn between not wanting to hurt my brother in a flash of anger, should I rush myself towards my father; and tearing my father apart without a single thought.

My father still had the knife against Justin’s throat, and even though he couldn’t shift anymore, making him human now, he was still my brother! I can’t just jeopardize his life, by fulfilling my anger and stomp my way over towards my father.

I breathed in slowly, feeling defeated now as well. “What do you want?” I asked my father.

“You.”

“You can’t have her!” Jack interrupted us.

“Oh, but I certainly can! You don’t believe that the people that you have killed now, were the only ones that were under my command, right?” My father asked me.

I looked behind me and saw hundreds of hunters slaughtered to death, hundreds! Did he have even more people? How many more were brainwashed by him?! How many more machines had he at his disposal?

He moved his arms so that he was able to keep the blade at Justin’s neck but also be able to touch his watch again. He tapped it a few times and suddenly a voice spoke through it.

“Sir, where do you need us?” A heavy voice sounded from the other side of the supposed phone call. “Get over here, use the coordinates that I have sent you and wait for my signal.” My father replied, assured of his position. He tapped a few more times on his watch and then focused his attention to us again.

I glared at him, silently asking for an explanation.

“If you don’t come with me, willingly, I will slit Justin’s throat and order for my men to release a bomb right here on this field.” He replied glaringly. “And you have about two more minutes to decide.” He laughed.

“You’re bluffing!” I yelled to him, but he just laughed even louder.

“I never bluff, my dear princess! If you come at me now, I only have to tap my watch again and it won’t matter if you kill me or not, if you make your people run away or not, the bomb will be released and it is large enough to obliterate everyone here!” He chuckled.

I know this face that he is using now, I know that he isn’t bluffing indeed. I could even hear a plane coming in, as the engines roared with a heavy tone through the air. I had to decide fast, and right now there was only one choice to be taken. There was only one way to end this charade of violence.

I looked towards Jack and he shook his head, knowing what I was going to say. “There is no other way, I have to keep you all safe.” I said. My stomach was making summersaults, driving me sick from the nervousness that I was feeling now. The tension at this moment was breaking my heart, but I couldn’t let my father kill everyone here.

“No! I won’t let you be taken away from me!” Jack roared in anger.

The plane was thundering his way closer. “What is it going to be, princess?” My father taunted Jack some more, and it was enough to make him roar in anger.

I stepped in front of Jack and held my hands against his chest. “Please, Jack, you know I love you. But besides being your mate, I am a Queen too and I have to keep all my people safe. You know I have to.” I pleaded with him, while I looked him in the eyes.

“We made a deal, right after I killed Dennis, right?” I asked him and I could see his mind think about what I was referring to at which he slowly nodded. “You only get to do that, when I go with my father.” I said out loud and he sighed.

“Just follow my voice. I will use my link to you, until you come to my rescue.” I spoke to him in his mind.

I took a few steps backwards, until I was standing close to my father. “I’ll come with you.” I said and he smiled in return. With a quick motion he dropped Justin to the floor and swirled his arm around my neck, putting the blade against my own skin now.

I looked towards Justin, as his saddened facial expression tore me up from the inside. I hated it that he had lost his bear, that he could never find out what it means to be one of us. But there was nothing I could do about it now. Tears were streaming down my face as my father dragged me with him, with still the knife against my throat.

“You never should have done this, my dear little princess.” My father whispered in my ear and he lifted his wrist, for me to see what he was going to do. And without another second to waste, he tapped on his watch.