Page 146 of Wolf Outcasted

“I’m disposable,” I huffed, completely out of breath.

“True,” Roberto admitted as he locked the ammo in and directed his gun to the shadowed entryway. “Sadly, it looks like Willow has taken a liking to you.”

“That shouldn’t be a reason to jeopardize yourself, sir!”

“You love to talk a lot before a shoot-out frenzy,” Roberto complained. “It’s annoying.”

“Rober-” I was cut off by the sudden sound of gunshots which forced me to go into assassin mode. I watched the madness go down, the memory unfolding as if I were living it all over again: the bullets, the bloodshed, body after body that riddled the floor.

Even after Roberto’s gun ran out of bullets, I didn’t stop my assault, knowing that his survival relied on me. Not just his survival, but also all those who depended on him as their Alpha.

The businesses that were saved thanks to his interference and all those who benefited secretly without the world’s knowledge.

This cynical man who covered his hands with blood and made enemies left and right was also the man who saved so many that were forgotten by the world.

He was a man whom I was willing to lay down my life for, and that was why I fell into the frenzy of killing until all I had left was a blade drenched in blood in my grasp. My chest moved up and down, just like the me in this unfolding memory, and there I stood drenched in blood that wasn’t my own.

Every inhale and exhale sparked shocks of silver across my body, the rips and tears of my combat gear revealing the glowing incantations that worked on healing any wound I’d taken during this extraordinary fight against an entire pack of some of the most elite killers in NYC.

What was most frightening wasn’t the tower of bodies I stood upon but the gleaming smile that graced my lips.

The smile of a serial killer who wasn’t ashamed to steal the lives of anyone who fought to destroy what was deemed worthy of my saving grace.

Roberto rose up from where he’d been crouching, dusting off his suit and sighing.

“To think these magic bastards have such a base hidden in the depths of my city,” he complained in annoyance. “I could crush them with my very fingertips, but no. Elphaba says it’s not my battle to fight.”

He lifted his hands up as if he wished to present these results to the woman in question - the woman I now knew to be Willow’s real mother, though the past me knew nothing of it.

“Well, look. Utter fucking bullshit. If it wasn’t for these magic shitheads, I wouldn’t need to deal with half the nonsense that’s happening in my territory, but I have to act like I don’t know what’s going on under my nose. ‘Think of Willow,’ she says. What foolishness. If it was my way, I’d get rid of all of them so my child could have a fucking childhood.”

He continued to mutter in Russian, but the sudden click forced my reflexes into motion. My body moved to stand right in front of Roberto a second before a gunshot went off.

Even though I was watching this unfold from a memory I could remember, the start of this part was completely new, as if I’d forgotten it entirely.

Past me waited for the pain of the bullet to shake him up, but the seconds of silence were followed with a thump – and then a cloaked man in black face-planted onto the floor.

The fall knocking his loaded gun out of his limp grasp.

The weapon glided across the floor until it knocked into my black shoes. The reality seemed to settle into the room as blood began to ooze out of the final culprit’s head.

That meant someone remained in that dark hallway, their footsteps echoing against the brick walls until the culprit walked out holding a gun in their hands.

The culprit with pink and white hair.

Whether it was the sight of the little girl in my memories or my body reliving the same amount of shock my past self was experiencing in the moment, we both remained glued in place as time went forward. Roberto was the one to acknowledge the elephant in the room.

“Willow?”

She had to be ten or eleven, and from the pink bandages on her arms, I vividly remembered this had to be a few weeks after the suicide incident. I could remember it clearly now because Willow would get so upset at seeing white that Roberto ordered them to get pink and purple bandages so she wouldn’t pull them right off.

“Good evening, Papa Dearest.”

Her voice was dull in emotion as she simply stared at us.

Roberto was just as shocked as I was, and he proceeded with caution as he began to approach her. “Why do you have a gun?”

“I took it,” she stated with a slight shrug. “There was too much noise in the room and the guy was trying to take me somewhere. I told him Viktor was coming for me, but he wouldn’t listen to me.”

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