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“This wasn’t how I planned it. Natalie, I was depending on you but you are weak.” The man was frail and I recognized him from the room next door, when I had climbed out of the window, which would certainly explain how he had access to the man.
He was virtually invisible, wearing a green hospital gown with the back open, holding it with one hand. He was also supposed to be on death’s door but rumors of his demise were greatly exaggerated.
“It can’t be! Time has been cruel to you but I’ve seen the photographs and I recognize you. She trusted you with her life and you were responsible for poisoning her mind. She thought you were helping. What would she possibly say if she had the chance to see you here today standing like this?” Natalie asked, the wolf form of Crosby was backing away, snarling something fierce.
“I know you, now it all makes sense. You’re Duncan. Aren’t you supposed to
be dead like your brothers? How is it possible for you to be standing here?” I saw him and I was fooled for one second by his weathered face but the eyes were the windows to the soul.
Alienating himself from his sons and daughter had come with a terrible toll. The oxygen tank next to him was a clear sign of his deteriorating health. The mask was placed over his mouth again and he breathed in the bottled oxygen before taking it back off and settling it on top of his head. He was the last of a dying old breed of wolves, clinging to modern medicine and relying on doctors to keep him alive.
The father’s sins had been placed at the footsteps of his sons. He was the mastermind but it remained to be seen the reason why he had gone to these extreme lengths. The only person who could answer that was standing with limited capacity right in front of us.
Chapter Twenty-eight
Crosby was terrified of him and I wanted to say something to calm him down but there really wasn’t anything I could do. He had just learned the mastermind was his father and was in terrible shock. I could sense his fear and trepidation, like his emotions were connected to me in some way. They were having this stare down from across the room and nobody said a single word. Crosby had to be shocked by this news and had many questions which stayed unanswered.
He changed back and I raced past the old man who was standing there, frail and looking like he was going to collapse at any second. I had to admit he did scare me but I fought past the urge to cower in his presence to find Crosby something suitable to wear. He was going to need the full use of his faculties and being completely naked after the transformation was going to leave him at a disadvantage.
There were some green scrubs, freshly laundered, sitting unguarded. I grabbed them without thinking, casting a glance down the hallway to see whether or not his brothers were going to make an appearance. The commotion had died down significantly but the hall was virtually deserted making me feel like something was crawling over my skin.
I returned to the room in a matter of seconds to find nothing had changed. Crosby and Natalie were adjusting to seeing their father up close and personal.
“I know you have questions. Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I never wanted to be a father, it only happened because of tradition. We were the infamous Black family and things were expected of us, regardless of our own personal opinions to the contrary. I was the only one who felt trapped and found a way out by playing possum when your mother killed my brothers. I didn’t ingest half of the poison they did. She was in love with me but we had to make it look good for appearances. The truth is, I used her for my own selfish need to break free from the never-ending cycle,” Duncan explained and then began coughing with very heavy wheezing sounds coming from his lungs.
“She talked about you like you were the second coming. Why didn’t you just come out and show yourself to me? We both have the same hatred for my brothers and everything they stand for. It doesn’t make sense to keep me in the dark when I could’ve been working side by side with you.” Natalie was perplexed. Her campaign was orchestrated by Duncan without any clear-cut reason about why he would go to these extreme lengths.
Crosby was teetering and I could tell being in his father’s presence affected him physically, more than emotionally. It was as if Duncan had taken the air out of the room, suffocating him with the knowledge that his own father was complicit in what had been happening to him and his brothers.
“I’m going to address the elephant in the room. You survived all these years but for what purpose. My understanding is that wolves heal quickly from any wound or disease. It just doesn’t make any sense and we both know without being told anything you’re not exactly long for this world,” I said standing with Crosby who had still been unable to say anything, becoming completely mute.
“I don’t have to answer to you. Women are nothing more than a means to an end. I hated my daughter from the moment she was born. Hiding it from her mother wasn’t easy. The men are the future. I’ve always been an Alpha. I couldn’t stand idly by and let these ‘boys’ corrupt everything we built. It’s time for those with the same ideology to take a step into the light. Donovan and his pack know what it takes to get things done without resorting to diplomacy.” Duncan never mentioned anything about what was ailing him. He was purposely deflecting to keep us off balance.
I jumped out of my skin when I heard screaming in the distance, of the blood-curdling variety. Callan was no doubt in the process of rescuing Wesley. They would become a formidable team feeding off of each other and their telepathic emotional connection.
Several loud bangs had me squinting in Duncan’s direction where he had the makings of a smirk on the corners of his mouth.
“I’m guessing what I’m hearing is some kind of failsafe plan in motion. Enlighten us. I can see you want to brag about your accomplishments. Trying to burn us alive was your idea. I have a funny feeling you haven’t stopped trying to kill us and relied on false information to get us all here in one place,” I proposed and the way that he touched his nose confirmed my suspicions.
“This place is locked down and nobody is getting out alive. Sacrifices are necessary for the greater good of the community. I’m already dying and this will be my last act to make sure none of you ruin what is going to be a new dawn for the wolf community. They will hunt humans until they are extinct killing for sustenance and changing those worthy of the transformation. A whole new world is about to emerge out of the ashes of the old one but I won’t be around to see it.” He looked smug, heavily leaning on the cane for more than emotional support.
A haze of smoke developed beyond the door and I could see it drifting through the hallway, outside the window. I started choking and held my sleeve over my mouth to prevent inhaling too much of the toxic fumes. The only one immune to its effects was Duncan with his oxygen mask preventing him from succumbing to whatever gas was being pumped into the clinic.
“I didn’t know you growing up but everything I learned made me respect you. It was the worship of a false god. You’re not what everybody thought you were. The face of deception is looking at me right now. What is preventing me from tearing you apart with my bare hands?” Crosby advanced a step before Duncan raised his hand to stop him from getting any closer with this huge cannon of a gun.
“What do you know about it? The building blocks were there when you inherited the legacy. What have you done with it? The three of you were supposed to be the future. Taking a stance of peace and coexistence with humans is wrong.” Duncan took off the mask still holding the gun and purposely drawing in deep breaths.
“You don’t expect to live through this and you’re planning to take us with you. That is only going to happen over my dead body.” Crosby moved quickly, removing the gun from his father’s hand, before tossing it to the other side of the room of no further threat to anybody.
Duncan had come prepared and a knife appeared coated in some kind of green slime. He allowed Crosby to get close and gave up the gun to distract him long enough to drive the pointed end of the knife into his ribs. He held it there.
I saw Crosby’s veins become pronounced all over his body, bulging and throbbing, quite easily recognizable on his face and hands.
Crosby stumbled back holding the handle of the knife before pulling it free with his teeth clenched. His legs gave out and he was on his knees.
“What you’re feeling is exactly what I have been going through for the past 20-years. Having daily transfusions to ward off the effect of this unstoppable disease was only a temporary solution. It’s funny, but the only cure is my blood to make some kind of counteragent but it won’t work on me. I won’t give you the satisfaction of making an antidote. In my eyes, you have all been dead to me and big disappointments.” He produced a needle and plunged the tip into his thin arms barely able to find a vein.
I don’t know what came over me and yet I found myself grabbing the needle and using my thumb to prevent him from plunging the effects into his veins. He looked at me amused by my efforts and then backhanded me across the room, like I was nothing but an insignificant insect.
