Caged Wolf
Chapter Six: Crane

Song of the Chapter: I see your monsters by Nightcore

Dusk and I lean on each other, energy spent as she walks us down the hallways leading me away from the horrors of being an omega, guards follow us closely though we ignore them. I’m ashamed of myself and my actions, for three years I fought to survive but today I let fear consume me and my Wolf-nature take over. The others sensed this fear and tried to utilize it to truly make me an omega. My mind past that is fogged up until that girl entering my room. Somehow her presence worked its way through my feral state, both enticing and calming me enough that I thought I might get a grip on my control. That notion went out the door the moment the other humans stepped through the door as all I wanted to do was protect the girl and kill the intruders. I knew I was dead the moment I saw the rifle in the woman’s hands and the idea had caused me to scream for Dusk in my mind, to beg for my strong sister to protect me. I hadn’t had any contact or connection with Dusk in three years but today she came when I needed her. Dusk saved me no questions asked like she would have when we were kids. In my heart, I know that the moment past, our mutual saving, has restored our former bond as twins. It’s for this reason that I can feel the guilt, and pain that is layered within Dusk urging her to kill everything in sight until she can find Noah and our packmates again.

“Can you feel Noah and the others?” I question trying to see if Dusk has noticed the return of our childhood bond.

“Right now I feel our bond the strongest but I can feel them, just barely.” Dusk replies her eyes wandering about as if she hopes she might spot one of our packmates, or as if she is assessing.

“What are we going to do?” I ask knowing my sister and how her mind works, she will have a bit of a plan formulated already.

“Win over the Reaper, find our packmates and Noah, show the rest of the Wolves that we are worth following and then collectively bust the fuck out of here,” Dusk explains her voice confident in her plan even though there is no guarantee it will work that way.

“How are you so confident?” I poke genuinely curious.

“I have to be or else I fall back into the person these last three years has made me into. I’m not the same Dusk as before all this happened Crane, I’ve been put through a lot. If I don’t believe we can do this then I might as well murder everyone in our path so we can be free and then murder the world for doing this to us.” Dusk replies her eyes showing her vulnerability when it comes to her primal desires and reactions, she’s fighting to be the Dusk we need as an alpha, not the Dusk they made her into.

I can see the need to feel hatred, pain, and depression, I can see her need to tear this place apart brick by brick, human by human, for taking from her what she had finally retrieved, her family. What happened to Dusk has brought deep darkness into her soul, it has scarred her and made her initial reaction to hurt and kill anything standing in her path. She wants to be more than a simple killing machine but if we stay here than she will lose her internal battle and end up being feral killing everything with her power. Here we all will be reduced to our inner demons just as I was.

“The Reaper is the third most powerful Wolf in here after you and Noah. They don’t have him fighting because of his powers and his disregard for life, they don’t want us to kill one another. What do you have planned when it comes to him?” I question trying to return us from such a vulnerable lost state.

“The Grim Reaper himself, I already have that one figured out.” Dusk decides simply, I peer at her out the corner of my eyes interested in how she already has this one worked out and slightly hurt that she doesn’t just come right out with her plan.

“How so?” I prod for more details truly interested in how quickly my sister’s mind works.

Silence falls momentarily as we reach a part in the hall in which is smashed open like a dropped egg, the remains of what was a door and a couch are scattered about. Dusk leads us over the rubble and into the living unit that must be hers. Together we plop down on the floor, it would be the couch but she used it to break down the door along with her red-swollen knuckles.

“This place is testing us, our statuses, our strengths. It’s testing us all. That’s why I’m sure when it comes time for us to eat I can guarantee they will have the Reaper and I in the same area so that they can confirm what I’m sure they wonder about me as I know they had a spy watching me. Can they use the Reaper to kill the Hellhound and eliminate two of human’s biggest threats? Thus, in this time we make our only move that will win the Reaper over, letting him touch my bare skin to bare skin.” Dusk explains to me, a shaky smile ending her plan as I know she is uncertain about the last part but she must seem confident.

I flit the idea through my mind trying to be useful but all I can think is Danny would truly be more useful to her right now than I’m being. Finally a thought I deem useful comes into my mind.

“Assuming his touch doesn’t kill you as it should, I think my presence could provoke him into at least allowing us to find out. Again, assuming, you survive you will certainly be the first person he has been able to touch in a long time, this notion alone should win him over as he will want to keep you close. If it doesn’t then your alpha presence, though at first will anger him, will win you some respect with him hopefully on a higher level.” I speak freely following Dusk’s original line of thought.

She goes quiet and I can tell she wants to ask me about what we did to the Reaper but thankfully she doesn’t. She doesn’t push me on what I’ve helped do, or what I’ve done myself just as I don’t push her.

“Is Lora alive?” She asks instead causing me to think back to my time amongst the omegas, pushing past my terror of the memories.

For some unknown reason, they kept all the adults with the omegas even though many of them were not omegas themselves. I check my memory and sure enough, Lora is in it, she was there among the Wolves trying to kill me, not that Dusk needs to know the killing attempt part. My thoughts are redirected back to the moment I came out of my feral state and to that girl, Hayley and her contact covered white eyes. Something about her bothers me, the way she moved as if she knew how to deal with me. The way in which even in my half-feral state I felt a strong desire to protect her. Hayley, her name even causes a warming zing within my chest that alarms me.

“Earth to Crane.” Dusk’s voice retrieves me from my wandering thoughts.

“She is as far as I know,” I respond my voice becoming tired as exhaustion begins to set in over my ordeal.

Dusk simply nods as we relax. She looks me over as I look her over, we are assessing each other. For the first time, I notice the patchwork of jagged marks crisscrossing up and down her right arm, permanent scars. The sight of them makes my insides quake, I’ve already put Dusk through enough, she doesn’t need this too.

“Punishment for attacking the human,” Dusk explains as her fingers brush over the puckered scars.

Silence falls again as we both sigh. Neither one of us is sure what to say or how to be around each other, it’s been so long since we’ve been in each other’s presence for this long.

“Dusk, I’m sorry,” I say quietly as her eyes flit back to mine from where she sits.

She doesn’t say anything, she just leans towards me before pulling me into a tight hug, if not a little bit of an awkward one. This is a long-overdue hug, a hug that brings us both to tears as we fall apart in each other’s arms. At this moment I miss our parents so badly that it truly hurts.

“I miss them too.” Dusk whispers into my shoulder causing my heart to swell, with those simple words I know she can feel our old bond too.

My tears come quicky and more powerful than ever before. Dusk doesn’t complain as she composes herself and I completely come undone, she always has been the stronger one out of us. Everything I’ve ever done, everything I’ve ever caused, everything I’ve ever felt flows out of me through my tears. I’m done with that terrible side of myself, I am going to be different even if it means I die trying to be. I promise myself given the opportunity I will do better and not just for myself, for everyone I’ve ever affected.

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