38 Chapter 36

Panic. Terror. Fear.

From the second Annabelle had answered the phone and Fenris could her the fear in her voice all that mattered was getting to her, but she was too late. Having rushed into the school Fenris had smelled Annabelle's fear and rushed over towards it, but she was nowhere in sight.

Relief had washed over her when she heard Annabelle call her name, but what happened next froze her. Johnny had come up behind Annabelle and pushed her from the top of the stairs, sending Annabelle face first down.

Spreading her wings Fenris took off racing towards her mate, but by the time she reached her Annabelle was laying on the ground blood dripping from multiple lacerations on her body and her forearm was bent.

Dropping down next to her Fenris went to touch Annabelle, her hands shaking, but was too scared. Seeing Annabelle's eyes were open gave Fenris a little hope, "A-Annabelle?" Opening her mouth Fenris thought Annabelle was about to say 'I'm fine', instead blood poured past her already pale lips. "No, no no no! Annabelle!"

Pulling out her phone Fenris called Duke and put him on speaker, after three rings he picked up. "Hey Fenris wha-"

"Annabelle's hurt bad I need help! Please Duke there's so much blood!" She cut him off tears staring to pour out of her eyes as she watched the light slowly dim from Annabelle's forest green eyes.

"Where are you?"

"The school."

"Ray and I are a few minutes away hang on."

Fenris watched as Annabelle slowly drifted into unconsciousness. "No Annabelle stay awake! Stay with me baby please! I need you please!" Fenris cried, her tears falling on Annabelle's face and mixing with her blood.

Slowly picking Annabelle up Fenris cradled her and silently wept into her hair holding her tight. Praying to the Goddess Fenris begged her that Annabelle would be okay and that she would live. She sat there for what felt like hours praying and crying.

Distantly she heard the doors opening and footsteps running towards her and in her blindness to keep her injured mate from being harmed further Fenris put her down and shifted. Her large black wolf hunched over her mate, wings spread down to hide Annabelle and growling to warn the intruder. Even in her wolf form tears rolled down her cheeks staining her fur.

In her grief stricken haze Fenris could only make out that the intruders were two alpha males. Wanting them to leave her mate alone Fenris roared, a horrifying sound mixed between a sorrowful howl and a tigers roar.

"Fenris, I know you're protecting your mate but she needs help. You called me remember?" The taller one of the two said slowly walking towards her. "If you don't move away and let me help her she will die. I can still hear her heart but it's fading."

Hearing that caused Fenris' grief and anger to subside enough to see that the two alphas in front of her were Ray and Duke. Whimpering Fenris slowly stepped back revealing Annabelle to them and dropped down to lay next to her.

Cautiously Duke walked closer and gasped when he saw the state Annabelle was in. He wouldn't say it out loud, but he would be surprised if she made it through the night. The poor girl had so many cuts along her body and a bad slash on her forehead that was still dripping blood. The most concerning thing was the blood steadily flowing from her mouth, from what he would guess she broke a rib and it punctured her lung.

Duke's heart broke when he looked at his adoptive daughter, her large wolf curled around her mate and whimpering as she rubbed her nose against Annabelle's cheek. "Fenris I need to pick her up and take her now."

He could see Fenris tense at the thought of someone touching her injured mate, but she nodded her head and moved back. Picking Annabelle up gently Duke turned to Ray, "Stay with Fenris keep her distracted." he said and then rushed to his truck.

Turning to Fenris Ray saw her in her wolf form pacing, a growl coming past her lips getting louder and louder. "Fenris, what happened?"

Fenris' head snapped over to look at him, the hair on her back standing up. Slowly she shifted back into her human form, her clothes stretched and slightly ripped from turning into her wolf. "What happened? Johnny happened! Annabelle was about to walk down the stairs and he came up behind her and pushed her!" Fenris roared.

Ray was shocked. He knew that Johnny had sexual assaulted Annabelle, but this was attempted murder how could he do such a thing. Despite everything Johnny had done Ray had held a sliver of hope that he could change. He knew it was naïve, but some of his fondest memories included Johnny when they were younger and friends. That hope was now extinguished and Ray felt nothing but hate and anger towards Johnny.

Fenris had continued her pacing, now muttering to herself, all Ray could hear was 'Johnny', 'hurt', and 'kill'. Slowly Ray could see Fenris' demon flames grow along her skin till she was gently wrapped in the embers of her rage.

"Fenris don't do anything rash." Johnny cautioned, putting his hands up and stepping back. Johnny needed to pay, but they had their own police system for a reason and if Fenris went after him then it would end in a massacre and Fenris would be sentenced to death.

"He will pay for this. He got away with the sexual assault because Annabelle didn't want anyone to know and I didn't want to push her to relive what he did for months on end. But this, he won't get away with this." Fenris growled walking to the doors and flinging them open. Extending her wings she shot off into the sky like Supergirl on fire.

Ray ran outside after her knowing that he couldn't stop her or even help her, but he could be nearby if she needed him. Breaking the window of Fenris' car he hot wired it and sped off after her.

***************

Landing on the outskirts of Johnny's territory Fenris could feel the Earth sink down beneath her from the impact. Once she crossed the border Fenris knew there would be no help coming, she would be on her own.

Shifting into her wolf Fenris let her rage grow till the flames that surrounded her were a pale orange color. Lifting her muzzle into the air Fenris howled, wanting to scare Johnny by telling him she's here for him.

Lowering her head Fenris stepped across the border, her flames leaving burnt prints of her paws in the grass. Once she was a few feet in she could hear the pounding feet of multiple wolves running towards her. So she stood and waited.

Seconds later she saw the first wolf, a tawny she-wolf running towards her. Summoning her alpha voice Fenris spread her wings and growled, putting more power then was necessary into the act and causing multiple wolves to stop and not only submit but to roll on their backs and show their bellies. There seemed to be a total of seven wolves.

"I don't want to kill you but I will. All I want is Johnny." Fenris stated, walking up close to a large greyish wolf and let her flames singe the ends of his fur.

The tawny she-wolf spoke up, "We will not let you get to our future alpha."

Fenris stalked towards the she-wolf growling low, making her submit and step back with each step Fenris took. "Your future alpha sexual assaulted my mate and not even thirty minutes ago attempted to kill her. So either you tell me where he is or I burn all of you alive and find him anyways!" Fenris shouted, showing off her massive teeth and making her flames dance bigger on her body.

"He ran towards a clearing about five minutes North from here" the greyish wolf spoke up.

Not waiting for more Fenris growled at them all one more time and took off North. With her speed it only took about two minutes to make it to the clearing, but she didn't find Johnny there.

Standing in the clearing was Poppy, holding a small pistol. Despite everything, when Fenris saw the gun she almost laughed, it was a Taurus Judge pistol one of the worst guns out there. The gun would wound her but it wouldn't stop her so she wasn't worried.

Stopping, Fenris lowered into an attack position, her flames dying down to a small ember, and circled the woman. "You. Because of you my mate, your daughter, was forced near a monster. He almost raped her and, pray to the Goddess, only attempted to kill her and didn't actually do it."

Poppy moved with Fenris holding the gun steadily at her head. "I never wanted that girl anyway. Does it look like I care what the alpha of this pack did to her." Poppy laughed lowly, evilly. "I was going to sell her to our old alpha as a sex slave, but she wanted to stay nearby."

"She is your daughter."

"She's a pathetic omega who was always too weak to take care of herself. It was her father that wanted to keep her, not me."

Fenris stopped at this and narrowed her eyes, "You would have killed her or sold her as a child?"

"The minute it was confirmed that she's an omega I wanted to kill her on the spot."

Fenris roared, "You have no right to call yourself a mother let alone a being created by the Goddess! You have no right to live!" Running at Poppy, Fenris leapt and aimed to close her massive jaw around Poppy's throat. She saw Poppy raise her arm higher to shoot, but Fenris knew that it was too late for Poppy to defend herself.

Halfway through the air a loud bang was heard and Fenris felt a searing pain tear through her side. The pain was so terrible Fenris could do nothing but scream as her body tackled into Poppy and they both landed on the ground. Fenris' flames fully extinguished, but not before they burned Poppy.

She lay on the ground screaming, the pain felt like knives were on fire and stabbing her repeatedly, deeper and deeper. Fenris knew that it wasn't Poppy who shot her but was someone else, someone who was hiding.

A figure stepped from the forest laughing, "So predictable. I knew you would come for me and I knew that you just couldn't give up the opportunity to attack Poppy." Johnny walked up to her holding a simple hunting rifle. "The plan has been to just do something little to lure you here to kill you. I hadn't meant to kill my mate, but she insulted me by choosing you, so I had no choice." Kneeling down next to her Johnny pressed the barrel against her head. "I killed her, now I'll kill you."

"She's not dead and you could never kill me." Fenris spat at him, holding back her pain.

"Oh yeah, that first bullet was drenched in a double-heartless wolfs blood. You won't survive." Johnny smiled down at her.

Fenris could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth, and that meant she was in trouble and she needed to get out of there now.

Using the last of her energy Fenris pushed off the ground and slashed at Johnny's chest with her claws. Catching him off guard she landed a deep slash and he went down screaming, releasing the rifle and clutching the wound.

Pushing through the pain Fenris ran for the border. She could feel her blood oozing out faster with the exertion of her body and her mind was starting to become fuzzy.

Hoping Ray would be nearby she let out a long howl as she made it a few feet from the border. The lack of blood was slowing down her movements and Fenris managed to just walk over the border before she collapse to the ground.

"Fenris!" Ray yelled running towards her and dropping down on his knees next to her. "Oh Goddess, this looks really bad." Ray went to put pressure on the wound but recoiled, where his skin had touched Fenris' blood was now burning away. "Shit. Shit shit shit." Taking off his shirt he ripped a strip off it and wrapped it around his hand then pressed it down on Fenris' wound. Fenris growled and whimpered trying to pull away from the pressure. "I know it hurts, but you're going to be in even more pain because you need to shift. I can't pick up your wolf let alone get you in the car like this so you need to shift."

Fenris whimpered at the thought of going through that pain, but Ray was right, if she didn't shift then she would die. Taking in a deep breathe Fenris clenched her jaw and forced her body to shift into her human form.

Usually after the first few times someone shifts the feeling of the bones breaking to form it's other shape becomes a numb ache. But being injured this bad made that feeling even worse then it had the first time. Fenris could feel her skin tearing and her bones shifting under her skin.

As the shift finished Fenris unclenched her jaw and wept from the pain and relief that it was over. Looking down Fenris saw a large bullet wound in her side, the flesh around it smoking like it was burned.

Making to stand up Fenris was stopped as Ray instead picked her up. Staring up at the sky Fenris watched as the colors and shapes slowly faded away into nothingness, the only thing on her mind being Annabelle.