Behind The Alpha Book 2 WES
Chapter 13

(Chapter song ‘Shapeshifter' by Celldweller)

WES

The treetops shake. Leaves and branches are falling on our backs as the eagle grazes the trees during another dive bomb.

‘Where we running, guys?!’ Grey yells.

Luke turns. ‘This way!’

We all turn left and come out of the woods at the edge of a cliff. We leap and dodge the brush as we run the edge. The eagle swoops down and eyes us from the edge of the cliff as it flies beside us. It’s gold eyes looking at us like we were lunch.

‘SHIT!’ I link. ‘LUKE, WHAT’S THE PLAN HERE?!’

‘DON’T FUCKING DIE! HOW’S THAT FOR A PLAN? WHY DO I HAVE TO MAKE ALL THE FUCKING PLANS?!’ He yells as his wolf aggressively jumps up and down, throwing a fit.

The eagle flies up into the air, banks and dives down in front of us. Just before it hit ground, it shifted. A man slams down into the grass on his feet. His hand hit the ground to steady himself on the landing.

We all skid to a stop.

His head is down. He has slicked back, black hair and dark, tanned skin. His muscular, naked body, did not indicate he was a push over. The guy’s jacked solid.

‘Who the fuck…’ Cass growls.

‘Uh…damn.’ I grit as I size him up. I sense the asshole’s fucking old.

He slowly raises his eyes to us. His scowl is penetrating. He straightens up and we get a good look at what we’re dealing with.

He eyes us all. “You hunt me. Why?” His voice is dark and he has an accent that sounds almost old style American.

We shift. “We could ask you the same question.” I say as I push past Luke and Grey.

He tilts his head. He’s either sizing us up or doesn’t know what we are. “Why would I bother hunting your worthless hides?”

I look at the guys then back at him. “Who are you?”

He arches his brow as he shoots us threatening looks. “Artemis. My business here is not yours.”

“Oh, it’s our business, identity crisis.” Luke growls low.

He looks at Luke and nods slightly. “Well, if that’s what you want, who am I to deny.”

His eyes glow gold and he growls loud. We watch as gold shimmers around him and he shifts to gorilla. He stands and beats his chest. He doubles the size of a normal animal. His roar rumbles in our chests.

“Oh, shit! Luke, you fucking big mouth!” Deacon yells before he shifts.

“What did I do?!” Luke jumps in the air, shifts and turns tail.

We all shift and run as the gorilla starts a stampede behind us.

‘Fuck! We can’t fight that!’ Grey yells through the link.

The giant gorilla bends and destroys trees behind us as we tear through the woods.

‘What the fuck do we do?’

‘I’m fucking thinking!!’ I yell.

The ground shakes as the ape hits the ground with its immense weight. The forest screams as the pursuit destroys bends and curves. We weave and duck through the trees, but aren’t shaking him one bit. His oversized body jumps from trunk to trunk right on our asses.

‘HE’S CATCHING UP!!’ Deacon screams.

We run down a wide path and he comes up the side. He lands his back feet on a trunk and jumps at us. He hits Cass and they roll into the trees on the other side.

‘Cass!!’

The ape picks up Cass’ wolf and throws him down the path. Cass rolls fast and slams into a bunch of bushes. Luke lunges for him and he’s grabbed by the throat and slammed into the ground at his feet.

I circle around and try to get his head, but he grabs my back and throws me.

Grey and Deacon both jump on him and bite his arms and head.

The gorilla roars as he grabs Grey and slams him into Deacon. The two fly into some trees.

Cass jumps and flies at him with jaws open. He lands his teeth on the apes neck. He locks his jaw and shakes. I rush in and lock my teeth onto the gorillas leg, my legs skidding around and replaceing their traction. I pull his leg out. We’re bringing this fucker down.

Luke grabs shoulder meat and tries to use his weight to topple him over.

Artemis calls his shift and shifts to a rhino. We are thrown off.

The rhino lowers his head. He huffs loud, angry breaths. Dirt flies in clouds under his nose as he hoofs at the ground. He breaks into a charge and hits Grey with his massive horn. Grey’s thrown into the overgrowth and we all jump on him at once. He runs down the path as we bite into his thick, armored skin. He slams his sides into trees at full speed. Cass is hit by a trunk, I lose my grip and almost trampled and Deacon is smashed off on another tree.

Artemis runs into a clearing with all of us hurting, but right on his ass.

He bares down with head ready to ram me. I run out the way. We all dodge his rushes and circle him again.

We were about to dog pile him when the forest erupted in loud trumpeting. The treeline exploded and trunks flew across the forest. A very large bull elephant stampeded out the woods at us. We all jump out the way and the elephants head slams with the head of the rhino. The two animals made the earth quake.

Artemis shifts to an elephant and the battle is on.

‘Who the fuck is this other guy?!’ Luke growls.

‘How would we know?! Grey yells back.

‘Just asking. Geez.’ Luke links.

‘He’s on our side. That’s all the I care about.’ Cass says.

The two elephants push on each others heads leaving massive mounds of dug up grass under their feet. The new guy is shoved into the trees. Artemis slams his head into the new guys body.

New guys shifts to a vulture. He flies out of the way and lands on Artemis' back. Its talons dig in and its beak starts to tear at the elephants head. The elephant swipes at it with its trunk and tries to slam it off with the trees. When that wasn’t working, he shifted to his eagle. The two birds flapped and pecked at each other. Feathers and blood flew everywhere as the birds fought, bouncing across the grass.

Their screeches threatened to burst our eardrums. I’m sure the entire forest has run away by now.

‘Guys! We gotta help!’ I link out.

‘Let’s do this.’ Grey says.

Our wolves run around the birds and try to get an in past sharp beaks and talons. They take to the air for about ten feet and crash into the clearing as they fight.

Deacon and Cass grab Artemis' wings and I grab his head. He shifts to a lion and we back off. Surrounding the roaring cat.

He swipes his large claws at Luke as his wolf snarls and tries to bite at him. I bite at his ass and he whips around, taking a swipe at my head. Cass grabs his tail and the cat curls around claws at his head. Deacon bites at his side. We each take shots with the lion in the center of our circle, but he’s not going down.

‘He’s healing too fucking fast!’ I link out.

‘Then we all take him down at once!’ Luke links back.

Our wolves all growl and move in. We pile on the lion and bite at anything we can. We hear a loud roar behind us and are pummeled by a Kodiak. The bear jumps on the lions back and sinks his teeth into his back. The lion tries everything to get the bear off. He scratches twists and bites. His painful roars filled the area. Dirt flies from his paws as he fights for footing. The bears weight shoves the lion into the ground. We growl and bite at his head.

Just when we think we won and set to kill him, Artemis shifts to a hawk. He scrambles to catch air and flies out of the clearing.

His screech echoes through the sky.

We all shift. We’re all exhausted and leaning on our knees trying to catch our breath. I look around and the bear is gone.

“Holy…shit…” Cass pants.

“We definitely need a better plan.” Luke says.

“We're definitely going to need everyone on this.” I say as I stretch out my back.

“Who was that guy?” Deacon asks

“Artemis Nobel.”

We look to the trees as a man who looked to be our age, walks out the woods. He’s got textured brown hair, gold eyes and tanned skin. He has a shaggy look. He’s muscular and around my height. He’s wearing old style jeans and shirt and boots. As he walks to us, he straps a holster belt with a pair of six shooters in them, around his waist.

“Ok. Who are you?” Grey steps in front.

“The names Jesse and you boys just done woke the diamond back.” He places his hands on his hips and eyes us through angry looking eyes.

I stand beside Grey with my arms crossed. “Who’s Artemis?”

He runs his thick fingers through his hair. “Artemis Nobel is a shape shifter. Not just any shifter. He’s the shifter. The first and my father.”

“That douche is your dad?” Luke growls.

Jesse nods. “Yes and I hate to break it you y'all. You can't beat him.” His hard eyes float across all of ours.

I step closer to him. “What’s he want?”

“My sisters. For reasons I will not get into. The less you know the better.” He turns and starts to walk away.

“No. No way. This guy has been stalking me and I want to know why.” I run up to him and join his side. I try to see his face.

“I can guarantee he ain’t the one the you’re looking for.” He side eyes me.

“How do you know?” I stop. After a beat, he stops too.

“Because, for the last 127 years he’s been hiding. He’s been drawn out. Which means I have to go.” He turns and goes to leave.

“No.” I grab his arm and stop him. In a flash, I hear a gun cock and I feel a barrel under my chin.

“HEY!” Grey yells and starts to run until I shoot up my hand to stop him. He stops and growls. His eyes flash blue as his wolf surfaces.

Jesse ticks his jaw as he glares into my eyes. I glare right back. “You have to help me.” I clench.

“There’s no helping.” He says low. “The only plan you got is to run. Take Thea and run. Don’t fucking look back.” His eyes are heated and his mouth serious.

“How do you know Thea?” I look down at the six shooter pointed at my throat and back up to his eyes.

“I just do. You can’t fight this, Wesley. You try, you die. Simple as that. Now, I tried to talk to Thea, but she ain’t listening to me because of you. I’m telling you straight. Leave. Tonight. The farther away the better. I’ll try to hold my father back as best I can to buy you some time. After that, he’ll be after you. You need to be quick. You need to hide. You need to stay hidden. If you don’t, bad things will happen. Thea will be in danger.” He slowly pulls his gun, uncocks it, twirls it at his side and holsters it.

I rub my neck. “Why Thea? Why’s she in danger.”

“She just is?” He says.

“What is she?” I ask.

He adjusts his clothes. “Just a terrified little girl that has no business going up against someone like Artemis Nobel. If you care about that little lady…you’ll run…now.”

With that, he turned and ran with inhuman speed into the forest. Disappearing into a blur with the leaves and forest dirt flying into the air. I watch the debris settle as I stared into the direction he left.

Grey walked up and stood beside me. We’re not running, are we?”

I tilt my head with a snarl. “No.”

I jump, shift to my wolf and run through the woods heading for home. The rest shift and run behind me.

If Jesse or Artemis think they can scare me off, then they have no idea who or what we are.

The last thing Alphas do is run.