25

I clung to the post of the tower, trying to think of what to do. All of these men were masked, all of them in SWAT gear that seemed impenetrable. The only positive to this was that Brandon wasn’t here. Maybe he won’t die after all. Maybe it would be me.

As these nameless, faceless, black-uniformed men closed their ranks around the tower, I felt fear freezing my extremities. Were these the DOPC that Brandon had mentioned? If so, why were they here?

I closed my eyes and called to Brandon in my heart, hoping that the bond we shared would prove its usefulness.

Don’t come down here. The DOPC is here. Run!

Right as I’d sent this telepathic message to Brandon, one of the uniformed men came up to me, holding a scanner of sorts to my face. Another grabbed me by the throat and pushed me against the post so I wouldn’t move.

It was pointless to scream.

As the soldier with the scanner scanned my face, I called out to Brandon again.

“Fellas, is there something wrong here? I mean, it’s just me and my boyfriend…” I said to no avail. My words fell on deaf ears.

“Reading’s positive,” the man with the scanner said.

“On your knees!” another soldier yelled.

At least this would be painless. A shot to the head, and I’d be dead. I’d die after having the best couple of days. Maybe I’d be reunited with my dad. Maybe there would be peace across the threshold that separated life from death.

I closed my eyes as I fell to my knees. I lifted my arms and held my hands behind my head.

Just then, thunder roared from above. I opened my eyes just in time to see the entire tower coming down. On top of it, Brandon stood in his wolf form.

The tower and the cabin crashed on half a dozen soldiers, crushing them underneath. Brandon rushed to my side, avoiding the flurry of bullets that flew in the wake of this chaos.

I kicked the soldier who had pinned me to my knees and got up, racing toward Brandon. I just wanted him to be safe. How terrible it was that my vision finally came to this awful fruition.

I saw Brandon wrestling with the soldiers as hundreds of bullets flew by in the air, lighting up the night sky.

In this madness, I crawled away from the fight and hid behind the hut. Brandon came running around the hut, turning into a human at the last stretch and grabbing my hand.

“We have to run!” he yelled as he grabbed me and pulled me toward the forest.

Before either of us could move another step, the soldiers had regrouped around us, trapping us between them and the hut.

It took me less than a second to realize that Brandon was in the line of fire, not me. He was shielding me with his entire body. I could not let my vision come to pass at any cost.

I jumped between the soldiers and Brandon, using my body as a shield as they pulled the triggers of their rifles.

After the first few, I lost count of how many bullets collided with my body. As terrible as the pain was, as unbearable the agony, I was still happy that I had saved Brandon’s life. As I lay there on the floor, writhing, blood oozing out of the many bullet holes, I saw with a fading vision that Brandon had managed to open the hut’s door.

“Alice!” he screamed when he saw me lying there, my body at the point of lifelessness.

I saw him turn into a wolf and thought to myself that this was the last time I was seeing him shift. Oh, how beautiful he looked, morphing into that great spectral beast. I had saved him somehow. I had protected my mate.

I never got to be a wolf, but at the very least, I had done right by the pack that had called me one of their own. I had lived by the rules of the Creed and I was dying by the rules of the Creed.

As my life faded, I felt a little sad for leaving my mother and sister behind. They would be devasted. Brandon, if he somehow survived this, would be filled with rage and anguish.

I could not help but think about what I had done to warrant being shot down by the DOPC. I was no danger to them. The wolves were no danger to them. Why, then, were they cleansing the country of werewolves?

That was the last thing I thought before I passed out from the pain and blood loss. The final thing I saw before everything turned dark was Brandon flying through the air into the horde of soldiers, howling maniacally.

It was the howl of a broken wolf.

When I opened my eyes—not that I was sure that I’d ever open them again—I was in an ethereal plain of pure white. It appeared that I was standing on water. In front of me, a giant moon hung low over the horizon. It seemed that it was dipping into the water that I was standing on.

A wisp formed in front of me, which then transformed into a trail of pure white smoke. The next thing I knew, I was face to face with a wolf made from smoke. Its eyes were blue, its form majestic. It walked in grandeur.

Hello again, the wolf spoke in my head.

“Again?” I asked. The absence of pain and the lack of bullet holes in my body had me by surprise. To that effect, I was not even wearing the clothes that I had been wearing back when I was shot. I was donning a white garb of some sort.

We have met before, the wolf spoke. Or do you not recall our brief communion at the reservation? If I remember correctly, you told me to screw myself.

“I’m sorry. I was a little overwhelmed back then. Actually, the thing I was overwhelmed about has already come to pass. It turned out that my vision … well … erm … I somehow altered the outcome of my vision. I have died, it seems, instead of Brandon,” I said.

I saw. I know of the vision. I know of its passing. It would seem, dear girl, that you have the gift of fate-weaving, the wolf said.

“What on earth does that mean? Erm. What does that mean? It does not look like we’re on earth anymore. All my life I thought I’d do an Alice. Instead, I’ve done a Dorothy. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Heh,” I said. “Can I call you Toto?”

I am the Wolf Spirit. A lesser name would not suit me such. As for where we are, this is the realm of spirits.

“Cool. So, this is the afterlife. I’ve gone and died, haven’t I?”

That is for you to decide. It can be an end for you.

“An end? Not the end?”

Yes. An end. Not the end. You may choose if you wish to live on and brave the waves of the life you left. You may equally choose to move on and be at one with the after-realm, this realm of spirits.

“As much as I wish to go back, didn’t you see what just happened? A bunch of soldiers shot me dead. I cannot physically recover, can I?”

The spirit cannot be grazed by lead and metal. No amount of blood loss can ever dampen the spirit.

“It sounds fascinating, Mr. Wolf Spirit, sir, but … I’m dead.”