Lady Vivian

Chapter 8

Jacob's POV

"Stay put, Jacob. I smell trouble with this plan of yours. The tides of war might be against us right now, but that doesn't mean we should be taking foolish risks," the voice of my oldest brother, Lucien, rings through my mind as I run through the night in my wolf form, moving half a mile away from the motel to the abandoned gas station.

All within werewolf territory.

I could feel my scent and aura leaking lightly through the cracks of the scent cloaker, those stuff were hard to get your hands on, even as a royal.

But I got them, and I came here.

Why? Because I had to prove myself.

Lucien was the great strategist and Gabriel the tank that scorched earth when he needed to. And me? Well, I was the mess, the one they were always covering for. Lately, all I've been able to do is stand by the sidelines as everything was crumbling, all as my brothers and I were being pushed further into the corner.

The Viper's face crosses my mind.

Seeing her face-to-face like that filled me with rage, yet she had been calm... confident. She says she wants to help me, to help us. I shouldn't have a lick of trust for that woman, but riding on emotions wasn't going to win us this war. If I could play along with her and bring her back home, she'd be more valuable a prisoner than dead.

My claws scraped along the cracked concrete of the abandoned gas station, with weeds and wildflowers popping out; a sole, flickering artificial light remained as the only source of illumination. My head swirled from one side to the next. I wasn't supposed to be alone here... maybe because I rushed out a bit early.

But how was I supposed to remain there?

I had held her into myself, and she fit perfectly into me. Insane. She might be a woman, but she was still the Viper. Why was she provoking these kinds of thoughts in me?

In my dilemma, I heard footsteps and growled as I folded, scraping my claws and leaving lines in the concrete. Muscles twitched and turned until I was out of my wolf form and standing on only two feet.

"You're here early," a raspy voice cuts through the eerie silence of the forgotten gas station.

Walking into the light was a woman, she wore all black, her head dipped downwards.

"So are you," I pointed out. "Did something happen?"

She was an informant, a werewolf that was planning to go rogue. I had already met her two times and, while the information she gave me did not exactly lay werewolves in our lap, at the same time, it would be a lie to say it wasn't helpful at all.

If only I could remember what had happened this time in my previous life, I wouldn't have to take the risk of coming here. But they were blurs in my memory space I couldn't fill, and my instincts were screaming at me to get out of here. I had to know, what choice did I have other than to smother them? Because times were desperate enough for desperate measures.

"Nothing happened. I was just surprised," the informant replied, scratching her arm and looking sideways. "...But you weren't followed, right?"

I nodded, coming closer. "I wouldn't make such a clumsy mistake."

She nodded. "Good. That's good... At least for me, it is..."

"What do you…" Before I could finish what I intended to say, I was suddenly surrounded. Two burly wolves, coated in scent cloakers, grabbed me by my arms. Before I could react and push them off me, the informant or should I say, traitor marched forward and stabbed me in the leg with something. Where she pulled it out from, I couldn't tell, but I identified it as an injection, and its contents had been completely drained.

"What did you just inject into me?" I demanded to know through gritted teeth.

Her eyes turned dark. "You will soon find out, Lycan."

Right after she said that, my leg started to feel like jelly, and this weird, wobbly sensation was gripping the rest of my muscles. Before I knew it, I was shoved down to my knees with force that scraped them against the concrete, but the pain from that was nothing, I had endured worse. I lifted my head, and it seemed to take all my strength to do so.

"I should have known better than to trust a wolf. All of you are traitors, spineless cowards, every last one of you!"

"Sure, say anything that makes you feel better." She pulled out a silver dagger, not affecting her because her hands were covered with black gloves. "Just remember that you were put down by these spineless cowards, going down as nothing more than a proud fool."

She came closer, and the men holding me tightened their grip as I tried to struggle through what was holding me back. Even though I lacked compared to my brothers, I was still a Lycan Prince, and they were noticeably struggling, trying to keep me still. The traitor, probably worried that she might hit one of her own people instead of me with the silver dagger, looked utterly frustrated.

"Looks like I'll have to give him another dose. It might take away the opportunity to personally end his life, but..." She lets the rest of her words hang free in the air, then pulls out another injection of a dark greenish liquid with blots of red in it.

The current dosage was already going through my system, rippling through and loosening every muscle in a very wrong way. It was making keeping my eyes open a challenge I had never experienced before in my life. And as she came closer with the injection, I wondered if, truly, in my attempt to prove that I was worthy of my title as a Lycan Prince, I had only dragged my brothers further down.

Then, just as the blur in my vision began, a choked, strangling sound filled my ears, and then someone yelled out, "Lady Vivian!"