Spilling the First Blood

MAX

The moment I woke up, I felt a sense of unease. It was as if something was about to go wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.

Sure, we’d been living under a cloud of threat for a while, but this felt different. It wasn’t just about that.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m worried about the situation. But I also know we’re ready for whatever comes our way.

I’ve got a stash of antidotes for even the rarest poisons, and when I’m not at the hospital or at Estella’s school, I’m training until I can’t stand.

Patrick told me I wouldn’t have to fight if it came down to it, but I think he was just trying to ease my mind.

The truth is, I can handle pressure. I’m not a fan of fighting, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m the second-best warrior in the pack, right after my cousin.

I won’t hesitate to stand up and defend my pack alongside our other warriors.

But I’m not in it for the thrill of the kill.

I’ve never done it. I’ve never taken a life. I just aim to disarm my opponents so the other warriors can handle them.

My wolf isn’t thrilled about my lack of killer instinct, but he’s learned to live with it. I became a doctor for a reason. I’ll do everything I can to avoid taking a life.

As I headed to the hospital, that nagging feeling grew stronger. I tried to shake it off and focus on my work.

Some of the women from the pack had volunteered to help out and were trained as nurses by my mom.

Even my dad had pitched in, saying the hospital needed a doctor on standby in case I had to join the fight.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, Dad,” I said, but he just shook his head sadly.

“I’m afraid it will.”

PATRICK

I was checking on our patrols when I saw her.

She wasn’t supposed to be here.

We’d told her to stay away from the pack, but she’d ignored us, choosing the worst possible time to rebel.

She was on her bike, pedaling towards Max’s house, oblivious to my watchful gaze. She looked worried, and she had every reason to be.

I moved quickly, and in no time, I was standing in front of her bike.

She hit the brakes, and the bike skidded to a stop. She looked at me, puzzled, but I didn’t have time for small talk.

“What are you doing here, Estella?” I asked, my tone stern.

I never spoke to her like that because she was a good kid, but she wasn’t supposed to be here. It was for her own safety.

“I came to see you guys,” she said, taken aback by my harsh tone.

“Didn’t Max tell you to stay away for a while?”

“Yes, that’s why I haven’t visited. But I missed you all and thought I’d drop by for a bit.”

“Estella, this isn’t the time to be reckless. We’re in danger here,” I snapped.

“I know about the attacks, but with all of you guarding the borders, no one would dare to come near the pack, right?”

She was so innocent! How could I convince her to leave without scaring her?

“We can’t be sure of that, and that’s why you can’t be here. It’s not that we don’t want you around, but we don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“Patrick, I’m not a wolf. Silver can’t kill me,” she said, smiling.

God, could this get any harder?

She’d been around the pack for years, seen our training, but she was still so young. It had never occurred to her that we could be violent or deadly.

Neither Max nor any of us had ever explained to her what a real fight between our kind looks like. She’s just a human kid, so we spared her the details.

Maybe if we hadn’t been so protective of her, it wouldn’t be so hard to explain the situation now.

“Regardless, it’s not safe for you to be here. I’m going to call your aunt and uncle to come get you,” I finally said.

“No, please don’t!” she pleaded, giving me a look that said it all.

“Did you sneak out?”

She nodded, blushing slightly.

Before I could respond, one of my wolves linked me:

~“They’re here.”~

“Fuck!” I growled.

“What’s happening?” Estella asked, but I ignored her.

I linked Eva to let her know, so she could protect the children in the pack. She linked back that they were also attacking her father’s pack.

I cursed under my breath and turned back to Estella. “You need to leave. Now,” I ordered.

“Why?” she asked, frowning.

“Because the rogues are here. We’re barely holding them back. You need to go. Now.”

“No,” she said stubbornly, and I was about to lose my patience. “I want to see Max first.”

“Max can take care of himself,” I said, my voice strained.

“I want to see him,” she insisted. “Maybe I can help!”

“You’re a human!” I yelled. “You can’t help!”

“I’m not useless just because I’m human!” she shot back. “I helped Sarah! I can go to the hospital and help there too.”

“Estella, go!” I commanded in my alpha voice, but she just shook her head.

“I’m a human, remember? Your commands don’t work on me.”

Before I could react, she was off, pedaling towards the hospital.

I was about to chase after her when I got another link: the rogues had breached our eastern border, and the wolves there were struggling to keep them from advancing.

Not long after, I received the same alert from our northern border. Eva sent me a message, letting me know she was leading everyone to safety. Her father’s pack was also under attack.

I swore under my breath for what felt like the hundredth time in an hour. I sprang into action, shouting orders to the warriors nearby while communicating with our border patrols.

Estella had already disappeared from my sight. I hoped she had made it to the hospital and to Max.

I didn’t have another moment to worry about her. The rogues had broken through both borders.

The fight erupted in an instant. Each time one of my warriors fell, I felt a piece of myself die with them.

UNKNOWN

She pedaled quickly, giggling to herself for managing to slip away from Patrick so easily. But her joy faded as soon as she saw the pack members running around in a panic.

She knew instantly that something was wrong. She pedaled faster, heading for the hospital. Maybe it was silly to worry so much about Max, but she did.

She didn’t want anything bad to happen to him, or any of her other friends for that matter.

But Max… he was always a little more important to her. She needed to make sure he was safe.

Suddenly, she saw the pack members shifting and growling. Then she saw ~them.~

The rogues.

She had never seen rogue wolves before.

They were different from the wolves she knew, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on what made them different. She didn’t have time to think about it.

There were so many of them, coming from two different directions. Fear gripped her as she saw how threatening they looked. But she didn’t slow down. She kept her eyes on the road ahead.

That turned out to be a big mistake.

She was almost at the hospital door when a giant brown wolf leapt at her bike, sending her tumbling to the ground.

She felt a sharp pain in her ankle. Several parts of her body hurt, but her ankle was the worst. It was tangled with the bike and felt sprained.

She tried to get up, even though she was limping. But the large rogue who had attacked her was stalking toward her, baring his teeth.

Everything happened so fast. Just as the rogue was about to pounce on her, another wolf, a much larger dark-gray one, jumped in front of her and started fighting the rogue.

Everything was a blur. She felt dizzy. The dark wolf mostly blocked her view, but when he finally stepped aside, she saw a bloody mess of flesh and bone.

As the victorious wolf turned to face her, blood dripping from his snout, her eyes widened.

“Max?” she whispered. Then everything went black.

MAX

I had smelled her, but I ignored it at first.

I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me because I missed her. Then the alert of the invasion came, and her scent became stronger, mixed with pain and fear.

She was here.

Damn it, she was here!

I ran out of the hospital and saw her fall to the ground, her bike next to her.

The battle had already started all around us, but I only had eyes for her.

One of the rogues was about to attack her. To them, humans are easy prey, especially human children. They tear them apart and feast on their flesh.

I shifted immediately, letting my wolf take over. I was still conscious, but I wanted this rogue dead just as much as my beast did.

I should have been scared of these unfamiliar killer instincts, but I wasn’t. Not then, and not now.

The rogue was no match for my strength and training. I killed him within seconds.

After that, it was just me tearing him apart, taking revenge for him even thinking he could hurt my Estella.

I felt nothing as I looked at his disfigured, dismembered body on the ground. No remorse. No disgust. Nothing.

I know I should have felt something, but my human side wasn’t very human then.

Still in my wolf form, I turned to check on Estella.

The moment our eyes met, hers widened in shock and horror.

That’s when it hit me what I had done, and what she had seen. But there was no time to process it. She fainted almost immediately, but not before whispering my name in disbelief.

I shifted back to my human form and reached her in two long strides.

I carried her across the battlefield and into the hospital, placing her gently on a bed.

Her ankle was badly sprained, and she had scrapes on her hands and knees from the fall, but otherwise, she was unharmed.

I treated her minor injuries without even thinking about cleaning myself up or putting on clothes.

She was my top priority, even with the battle still going on outside. I didn’t know if we were winning or losing, but I hoped for the best.

I kept my mind-link open.

I was still cleaning her wounds when my father walked in and stared at me in shock.

I told him what had happened. He gave me a strange look before telling me to clean myself up.

“The rogues are retreating,” he said when I came back.

I had showered in my office bathroom and put on a medical robe. It was the best I could do under the circumstances.

“Did we lose many warriors?”

I didn’t ask about Patrick. If something had happened to him, my father would have told me right away.

If our alpha had fallen, all the pack members would have felt it. Our link with him would have been severed, and we would have felt his pain as he died. Not to mention, the rogues wouldn’t have retreated if they had won.

“I don’t think so, but we have a lot of injuries from silver and poison. They were brought in five minutes ago.”

“Can you go? I want to stay with Estella.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea, after what she saw you do?” he asked cautiously.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “but I want to be here when she wakes up.”

“Max…”

“Father, please.”

“Okay, I’m going. But be careful when she wakes up.”

The moment he was gone, I severed the link. The danger had passed. I wasn’t needed anymore, so I could turn my attention to my girl.

PATRICK

We were out of harm’s way.

We’d lost more men than I would have liked, but in the grand scheme of things, our losses were minor. Certainly less than Alpha Solomon’s pack had suffered.

They’d managed to repel the rogues, but not without a struggle and a significant loss of warriors.

As far as she knew, Solomon, Aurora, and Cal were safe, and honestly, that was all that mattered.

My first impulse was to check on Eva and the kids, but as an alpha, my pack had to come first.

So, after my mate linked me to assure me they were all safe, I inspected our borders, visited the injured wolves, and gave orders for the burial of those who had bravely fallen.

Seeing my warriors dead was a sight I hated. I’d known them all since I was a pup. Many of them were my friends before I became alpha. I knew their families, their children, their mates.

The only solace was that they hadn’t died for nothing. We’d triumphed over the rogues, even without the aid of our allies.

It wasn’t that our allies hadn’t kept their promise to send reinforcements—they had. But by the time they arrived, we’d already defeated the rogues.

After wrapping things up on the battlefield, I made my way to the hospital to check on the injured.

I tried to link Max as soon as I got there, but he shut me out, which struck me as strange.

I’d caught a glimpse of his wolf during the battle, but I was too busy fighting off three rogues to pay much attention to what he was doing.

I hadn’t seen Estella, so I assumed she’d made it to the hospital without any issues.

Approaching the hospital, I spotted the body of a rogue who’d been brutally killed and linked one of the warriors to remove it and place it with the others.

Instead of Max, Uncle Howie was there to greet me. Before he gave me an update on my warriors, he insisted on checking me over.

I assured him I was perfectly fine, but he wanted to make sure I hadn’t been touched by any silver or poison. He was particularly concerned about the poison, he said.

“Uncle Howie, I’m okay. My scratches have already healed,” I tried to reason with him.

“The poison can still affect you even after the wound has healed,” he reminded me. “That’s how Alpha Rohan almost died.”

He had a point, so I let him lead me away to run his tests. When I asked about Max, his whole demeanor shifted.

As he told me about Max’s first kill, my mind flashed back to the image of the mutilated rogue near the hospital entrance, and my stomach churned.

There was no way Max could have committed such a horrific act. No way.