Page 19 of Eclipse of the Pack

“Don’t do this.”

For a split second, Jonathen was confused. The PEACE agents did not respond. They were unmoved… But, Ivy did not seem as though it was them she was pleading with.

The shift happened so quickly that Jonathen could hardly even process it.

Screams and gunfire filled the alleyway, but they did not last long. Ivy’s breathing was rough and ragged as she stood over the agent’s mangled bodies. Their blood was all over her. On her clothes. Her face. Splattered all over her arms.

She was drenched in red. Slowly, her wolf features changed to human once again. She was crying. Sobs wracked her body as she gripped at her hair.

Overhead, the grey skies began to rain themselves down.

23

IVY

It was only when the adrenaline had worn off and when the haze from shifting had lifted did Ivy realized she was being stared at. She did not have to look over her shoulder to know. Ivy could feel his eyes on her. Trained on her every movement.

She shakily moved from her half crouched position and stood upright. Her bones cracked and creaked as they righted themselves and popped back in to place. Shifting was painful. It had always been painful.

When her eyes finally met Jon’s, she found them wide with shock. Jonathan’s expression was frozen. Partly in awe at her transformation, partly in shock from the brutality and gore of the gruesome scene before him.

He had gone pale. So pale, that for a moment, Ivy feared he was going to be sick. Neither party spoke. Just staring in silent understanding.

“… I had to.” She said aloud to no one in particular. It was not quite directed at Jon. Or herself. It was more likely that she meant it for the bodies laying dead at her feet, but Ivy was not sure. She continued to speak without Jonathen’s input.

“There’s no going back.” She spoke quickly. The words fell out in a rambling, rapid pace. “This isn’t about them. It’s not about Galen any more, this – this is about us and our survival. We can’t afford to be kind…”

She trailed off. Guilt ate it’s way through her chest to her heart. Her entire body felt heavy and slow. Ivy shook her head hard in an attempt to clear it, but it did not work.

“… Are…” Jonathen started off slow. “…TheAre you alright?”

Ivy blinked in disbelief once – then twice. Was…Sheok? She let out a shaky, half manic laugh. She had just shifted. She had just slaughtered a PEACE unit in front of him. She was soaked in their blood and he was askingherifshewas alright?

Around them, the sky continued to rain down. The water slowly started to wash away the blood from her tired form. Quickly, she stepped forward. Expecting him to flinch away from her. When he didn’t, she closed the small bit of distance between them.

She flung herself into his arms. She looked like a madwoman as she laughed and clung to him. Jon’s arms wrapped around her slowly. He held her tightly but carefully. As if she was fragile. As if she had not just murdered his own kind in front of him.

“The only way we make it out of this is if we expose what happened. That’s the only way – only option I think we have right now.”

Jonathen nodded quietly. Ivy vaguely wondered if Jon was entering to a state of shock, but quickly pushed the thought from her mind.

They left the alleyway as the rain poured down. A good deal of the blood from the unit had been washed away. What remained clung to their clothes, their hair, their shoes. Ivy could feel the blood and bits of flesh and gore underneath her fingernails.

She pretended she could not feel it as they walked out into the roadway. The street was packed with first responders, crawling the streets looking for the wounded. They walked as quickly as they could down the adjoining street.

While Ivy wracked her brain for a game plan of some sort, Jon scanned the street. She jumped when she heard the abrupt smash of glass. She whipped her head around to see Jon had stopped, grabbed a decent sized rock from the curb, and smashed a car window open.

The car was light blue in color, it’s paint faded from years in the sun. Jon smashed the rest of the glass out of the window and stuck his arm inside the vehicle. He set about getting the glass cleared away and off the seat after unlocking the door.

The two climbed in in near silence. It took Ivy a few moments, but she managed to hot-wire the car. The engine turned over, sputtered and finally came to life. The car had definitely seen better days. Then again, so had they.

Ivy glanced over to Jon as he tugged his seatbelt on. He met her eyes and simply nodded. She nodded too, unsure of what she was agreeing to, and stepped on the gas. Together, they raced into the unknown.

24

JONATHEN

The car ride had been near silent for the last hour and thirty minutes. Jonathen had long since given up trying to get the busted car radio to work, the station stuck between playing intervals of music that was interrupted by bursts of static.

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