Gatsby Wolves, Vol. 4

Kade was waiting for Celine to come to the club, but instead he got a mirror with a message that left everyone a little befuddled. It pieced together all of their problems, but Kade hated the solution Celine had come up with. He didn't know why she insisted on running into the literal wolf den by herself, but it was too late for him to stop her now. By the time they got her message, she was probably already there. So much for sticking close to Kade.

He set the mirror down and looked around at the rest of the pack. They were all equally concerned. Including Clyde, though he had only been with them a short time. Delia was clinging tightly to his arm. Tillie seemed terribly worried for Bobby too, knowing he was affected by the army when she wasn't. One face, however, was missing.

"Where the hell is Tommy?" Kade asked in a low voice.

"No one ever knows where he is," George shrugged. "He likes keeping to himself."

"Probably for the best if we're all about to get ripped apart," Leroy grumbled.

"Do not be fucking negative right now," Kade snapped. "Tillie, Bobby, you stay here with Clyde and Delia. In case anyone comes tearing the streets up. The rest of you head to the farm. I'm going to find Tommy and meet you there."

No one seemed too enthusiastic about it, but they did as Kade asked. He already knew where Tommy would be. Luckily, the apartment wasn't too far. He found the door slightly ajar and helped himself inside, only to find Clara banging on a door Tommy had apparently locked himself in. There were bloody claw marks on her arm.

"What happened here?" Kade asked.

"I don't know," Clara said through tears. "There was this strange whistle and he just went crazy. Now he thinks he's going to hurt me again."

"Tommy did this?"

"Not on purpose," she said.

Kade didn't have the patience to try and coax the teenager out anymore. Instead, he gave a firm kick to the door and knocked it right off the hinges. Tommy spun around with wide, stunned eyes.

"What the hell, Kade?!" he said. "You can't just go around knocking down peoples' doors."

"You both need to sit down, I don't have a lot of time," Kade said. "Clara, you won't like what I'm about to tell you."

When Kade explained everything, she seemed upset but not surprised. Not upset for her uncle, but for what he was doing.

"I should've known," she said shamefully. "He was so secretive and angry all the time. And he never wanted to be seen."

"You couldn't have known," Kade told her. "This is not your fault, Clara. But we'll have to talk about this later. We have to go help everyone before it's too late."

They both nodded and took off with Kade. By the time they got there, a full blown battle between shifters was going on. Kade had never seen so many in one place, and the feral army was starting to overpower Kade's pack. When he shifted and joined them, he noticed Leroy's limp form off to the side. When he looked at Bobby, his worst suspicion was confirmed. They had lost one of their own.

Kade almost felt guilty killing the feral shifters. After all, they had been turned against their will and forced to fight. They didn't deserve to die. He tried his best to non-fatally put them out of commission, and it seemed like the others were doing the same. Unfortunately, the feral wolves were fighting to kill.

While Kade did his best to get through the crowd, he searched desperately for Celine. He finally found her in the barn, doing some incredible leaps off the wall and trying to stab Elliot with the silver knife from the pawn shop. Elliot spun around and saw Kade, and Kade growled at him. The wolf just gave an exasperated laugh.

"I always told Wes he should've killed you when he had the chance," he said. "But no. No one ever listens to Elliot. Well, they're listening now, aren't they?"

Celine leapt at him again with the knife, but he swatted her out of the air. It should have hurt her, but she managed to do a backflip mid-air and land on her feet. It was shocking to see that she had apparently been a secret ninja this entire time, but there was no time to ask her about it. Just before Kade was able to attack, Elliot pulled out the whistle.

The sharp sound felt like daggers to Kade now, and he had no control over his wolf side anymore. The fighting outside had picked up with the whistle, too. Elliot had a smug grin on his face as Kade turned on Celine again. He had completely lost control, pouncing towards her, but she managed to dodge him this time.

"Kade, please!" she begged. "Kade, wake up. I know you can do it."

Kade wished she could see how desperately he wanted to, but even with her mind reading she could probably only hear the wolf. He pounced again, but this time was intercepted by Tillie. Despite being human, pure wolves were stronger than shifters regardless of what form they were in. While they only shifted on full moons, the day before helped.

Kade felt a crack in his collarbone and yelped when Tillie tackled him to the ground and held him in a chokehold to keep him away from Celine.

"I'm sorry, buddy," she said quietly, straining against Kade's struggling. "I'll make it up to you when it's over."

This served to distract Elliot long enough for Celine to attack from behind, plunging the knife into his neck. He cried out in pain and his skin sizzled against the silver of the knife when he yanked it out and let it clatter to the floor. Kade suddenly felt himself regain control and he went a bit limp. Tillie let go of him and put a hand on top of his head as she tried to catch her breath.

"Welcome back, brother."

Celine rushed over to him as he shifted back, checking him for injuries. Amazingly, she didn't have a single scratch on her. Kade, on the other hand, had a few wolf bites and a broken collarbone from Tillie.

"How were you jumping off the walls like that?" Kade grunted.

"A little help from Daddy," she said with a sly grin. "Come on, let's see what happened outside."

Kade put one arm around Tillie and the other around Christine so they could help him limp outside to see the aftermath of the fight. There were a lot of confused shifters out there. Many injured, and a few dead. Including Leroy.

"We can't possibly adopt them all," Tillie mumbled.

"No, but we won't turn them away, either," Kade said.

And they didn't. Most had been torn from their normal lives to be forced into this army, and with some help, they were able to return to those lives once they had control over their shifting. A few did seem interested in joining Kade's pack, though. They were lost and confused, likely picked for that reason.

Celine helped Kade get home, but as she laid him on the couch, she was starting to get tired too. Whatever effects from the vampire blood were boosting her, she was crashing from it now. She was still trying to clean Kade up, but he quietly took her hand and pulled her down to lay on the couch with him. They fell asleep there for an hour or so, finally getting a stress-free nap in for the first time in a little while.

When Kade woke up, he was already healing. Wolf bites took longer to heal and his collarbone was still tender, but he was alive. Celine's eyes fluttered open and she looked up at him.

"Is it over?" she asked.

"Is it ever really over?" Kade asked. "Seems like an annual thing for us now."

"Well, we won the day again, didn't we?" she said with a soft laugh.

"I guess we did. Tillie broke me, though. Literally."

"Oh come on, it's not that bad," Celine said, sitting up to assess the damage. "It's more of a fracture than a break at this point."

"I'm never going to let her forget it," Kade said. "I guess it could be worse. Leroy..."

"I know," Celine said softly. "I'm sorry, Kade."

"He started the pack with me," Kade sighed. "It's just a strange feeling. I feel like part of me died, too."

"Because you're the alpha," she said. "Alpha's feel a greater heartache when a pack member is lost. You're not alone, though. We're all in it together."

"We are. I wouldn't have it any other way."