A New Bond

Charlotte nodded at me. Her smile was all the confirmation I needed. If she would join me, then maybe we could escape and survive, for a while anyway. 

“You won’t be able to steal any of the landing pods, besides, we’re too far away from the star way to use them. What do you think you can do?” Charlotte’s voice was quiet, but resolved. 

I didn’t know how to answer her question, what could I do? We were stuck in space, on a ship controlled by a murderous lunatic. I may have been able to destroy a few of his bodies, but apparently that’s not killing him. 

I looked down at my hands, paws, the fur on them reminding me I had shifted almost fully. I had to try something, why else would I have this strength? I could use myself to save my only friend, I could easily do that.

I gave Charlotte a quick hug, whispering in her ear. 

“I can do what it takes.”

With that, I tore off down the halls. Using all four paws to increase my speed. I hadn’t even gotten past the third hall when two guards turned to see me coming. I lashed out, raking claws down the first one, and tackling the second. I bit the throat out of the shifter, and kept going. 

Continuing on down the hall. I turned left and three more wolves, fully shifted into beasts, waited. Gathering energy in my paws, I used a small amount to launch me into the air, the rest I sent flying at the wolves. Body parts scattered and howls rang out.

“Where is he?!” I bellowed. I was giving my all into being the beast. “Where is J!”

Several more wolves came running from rooms and other halls. I simply held my hands out and let energy fly at each of them in turn.

“Jaayyyy!!”

I was roaring at everyone. Riding the adrenaline. This new source of energy was giving me strength and confidence, and it seemed endless. I expelled it consistently, yet it never seemed to deplete.  

I left broken bodies as I went through the ship. I didn’t really know where I was going, but if I caused enough mayhem, J would come find me.

I blew a hole in the wall next to me, exposing the room on the other side. A bunch of bodies all curled up and shrank away from the debris. I looked inside, these weren’t wolf shifters. These were humans. Several of them were bleeding. All of them were chained.

“J!” I yelled back out to the hallway. The people all shrank away again. I didn’t have time to waste trying to free them right now. We had no where to go anyway. They just gave me more of a reason to kill J. I turned down another long hallway, this one was twice as wide as the others.

“Well hello there.” I knew that dark, silky smooth voice. He had killed Evan. He and his partner had been the one who kidnapped me. 

I didn’t even hesitate as he moved up behind me, I whirled and aimed a fist at him. He ducked back out of the way, then suddenly shot back at me. His fist hit my shoulder and I felt the bones in my arm rattle. Two more blows hit my chest and stomach.

“Arrgghh!” I yell as I unleash a wave of energy. I didn’t really focus on a direction, just on pushing everything around me away. The blue bubble that expanded outward from me, swept everything back against the walls. 

The shifter, still in human form, slid back but stayed on his feet. I turn towards him, punching the air between us, forcing energy to flow out with each blow.

The man simply leaned side to side, dodging all of them. Sick of his taunting smile I ran straight at him. I probably looked crazy, my eyes were wide open and I was screaming at him. 

When I got near him he lashed out. His right leg coming up at me. I used my left arm to block it, reaching out for his throat with my right.

“Just because you learned a new trick doesn’t mean you can beat me with it.” His taunt made me even angrier. 

I had been blowing shifters apart left and right with it. If I could just hit him I was sure he’d end up the same. The wolf fell away, causing me to trip over top of him. And just as I passed above his body, a blinding green flashed out of his body. I closed my eyes at the sudden brightness, and then coughed as I rammed head first into the wall.

When I stood, the shifter was no longer in human form. He had long shaggy fur around his neck. Ears pointing outward. His canines extended well past his bottom lip. The eyes burning yellow, his green aura was flowing in and out. It was pulsating from barely visible to blinding. 

I let the energy I had built up flow down my arms. Collecting a ball in one hand, easily twice as big as the one Charlotte helped me make.

“New tricks can be surprising.”

I let it go. Blasting it straight at him, we weren’t even five feet apart. His body split apart. The head knocking against the ceiling while his arms and legs scattered across the hall.

“You seem to be enjoying your new power girl!”

J. His deep rumble came from down the hall farther. I could just barely see him leaning against a wall. Had he gotten bigger? I still didn’t get why he was still alive, but Charlotte had come back in another body. And I was pretty certain the rest of these shifters could do the same.

“I’m gonna kill you!” I bellowed. The roaring that erupted in the hall, stopped me from launching myself at him however. There was another giant figure behind me now. I was trapped. 

This hall may be wider than the rest, but they had blocked me off from any way out of it now. No doors, no side halls, just one giant wolf or the other to go through.

Fine. I would go through both of them if I had too.

“Little girl, if you could kill me I would’ve never let you on my ship. You would’ve been dead along with that worthless town I picked you up from.” J sneered, derision dripping from his words, much the same as the saliva did from his mouth. 

The giant wolf behind me lunged. Reaching me, he wrapped both arms around my body. Our size difference let him easily wrap both arms fully around me, his weight holding me still. I struggled but couldn’t move.

“That’s a good pup, Mathis.” The degradation in J’s voice caused Mathis to squeeze slightly tighter for a second. 

How did J keep such a giant beast under his control? Talking down to him every time I had seen them together. Treating him like the lowest of the pack it seemed.

I tried to focus on the energy around me. J’s black aura barely outlining his new body. He had definitely gotten bigger. His muscles bulged on every part of him. The fur barely hiding the steel grey complexion underneath.

“I haven’t been in this body in a long time. Such good times I used to have with it.” He was showing himself off. Looking up and down each limb as if they were old friends. “You blasted the other one pretty good, but that was just another throw away body. This one. Haha. This one is special.”

He stalked over to me. Mathis adjusted one arm so it caught my throat and forced me to look up at J. I purposefully locked my gaze with his. No more was I going to be weak around him. 

I wanted to spit in his face, but the choke hold I was in made hard enough to breath. Let alone do anything else. For Charlotte, I would find a way to do something here.

 Suddenly the whole ship rocked. Spinning and slanting off to the side. J had to prop himself against the wall to keep his balance. Mathis and I crashed to the ground. His weight crushed into me. Alarms started blaring from the speaker system.

“Warning. Warning. Hull breached. Engine two failure. Fire in the command deck. Warning. Warning…..” it repeated over and over.

What the hell was happening?

“Dammit! Mathis, hold her and keep her here.” J rushed off. When he was out of sight the weight holding me down lessened.

Mathis rolled off of me and picked me up by the back of the blue hoodie Charlotte had given me. Surprisingly, he set me down on a crate. Gentle as a feather flowing in the breeze. I was so shocked that I didn’t even try to jump back up.

“Be patient, please.” Was all he said before sitting down cross legged. It sounded like he was speaking after spending weeks in a desert with no water.

Huh? What the hell was going on here? The ship sounded like it was under attack. The warnings made that clear. And Mathis was, disobeying a direct order?

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked suspiciously. This just didn’t seem right.

“Waiting.”

“Well aren’t you just a fountain of knowledge and wisdom.”

He looked up at me. One eye still closed as he growled slightly.

“No. But Charlotte, told me to stop you from killing J, and to wait here with you.”

Charlotte had told him? Why would she keep me from killing J? Did I somehow fall for the most elaborate betrayal ever? And what were we waiting for?

“Wouldn’t it be better to escape now?”

“No. The other ship, will blast apart any pod or ship, that leaves this cruiser.” His rough voice was dry and halting, but the large shifter was calmly answering my questions. 

So, what then? Sit here, and wait for either J to return and kill me, or for an unknown enemy to find us, and kill us both. Neither sounded like good options.

“Who’s side are you on? I can’t believe you’d betray your alpha so easily.”

“There are no sides. Only who is stronger, and more willful.”

“So you put up with J’s derision and condescension, because he’s stronger than you?”

A deep growl was my only answer. We sat in silence after that. The only noise was the constant alarm. Shudders would shake the whole ship every few seconds.

“Let’s go.” Mathis said simply. Before I could reply he had stood and began walking down the hall.

“Go where?”

“The command deck. Charlotte, has cleared the room, and is ready for us to join her.”

“You seem to listen and trust her more than J.”

“Alpha J.” He grunted. “And yes, she is the only reason most of us stay alive. It would be stupid not to trust her.”

“But your going against your alphas orders.”

“Again. The strongest ones, are the only ones I follow.”

“So J isn’t really that strong himself?”

“He would tear you limb, from limb. And Charlotte, could keep you breathing, and conscious the whole time. You tell me, which is a more frightful power?”

“Well, healing would keep me alive, how is that frightening? I imagine the being torn apart would be what should terrify someone.”

We stopped at a crossing hallway. Dead bodies littered it.

“She has the power, to control your bodies very life force. You don’t seem to understand what her power truly is.” His voice was getting clearer, but he was starting to lecture to me like I was a dunce in school.

In truth though, I guess I didn’t have any clue about these powers. Controlling life force? Was that how she helped me control my aura?

“So, she could force even the most tortured person to stay alive, and endure more torture? I guess that would be scary. But, she doesn’t seem like the person who would do that without a good reason.”

Mathis looked back at me. Assessing me for a brief moment before continuing on.

“She could also suck the life right out of you, in the blink of an eye. And trust me, she would.”

A thought stopped me in my tracks. How would he know what was going on? How was Charlotte telling him things?

“What?” He was looking back at me. He had stopped about thirty feet away.

“How do you know Charlottes waiting for us?”

He walked back to me. Annoyance clear on his face. Tapping the side of his head,

“Because, we are talking, through a mental link. I’ve been receiving messages from her since Alpha brought you back from that planet unconscious.”

“And how can I trust you?”

“Hmm… you can’t. But, if what Charlotte said about you is true, you could just blast me the instant you feel I’m not working in yours, and hers, best interests.” He said all of this with a flat gruff voice. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to fake me out or not.

“How can you prove to me that those messages aren’t coming from J? And that your not being told to mislead and manipulate me?” Honestly I don’t think I can trust him no matter his answer.

Mathis just stared back at me, his eyes dulling slightly. He took a deep breath in. As he let it out, a soft brown colored energy coalesced in front of him.

“This is how.” The voice was inside my head. Mathis had just talked to me with thoughts. I took a step back but then suddenly Charlotte’s voice was clear in my head.

“Please follow Mathis, Fenrir. I trust him to lead you to me. I distracted Alpha J in order to secure the main command deck. I’m almost done disconnecting the two halves of the main ship and if you don’t hurry you will be stuck there. Please, I have a plan.”

The energy flowing from Mathis faded, the voices stopped. And then I just nodded at him. We took off back down the hall, almost sprinting now that I agreed to follow along. I might still kill this shifter, but so far I hadn’t seen him do anything. I had heard his growl and seen his hulking form. But not once did I see him, or even hear of him doing something bad. Other than him holding me down a moment ago, nothing. 

I’d follow what Charlotte had told me to do.