ALLEGIANCE

Blinded by rage and a tempestuous wrath, Gabrielle's friend, Luna, did the unthinkable, setting in motion to commit the ultimate sin; death. Not of herself, but of a covenant friend.

Just in a moment, Gabrielle's life flashed before her. Gasping for breath, she thought this would be her last day on earth, before she'd transit to the world beyond. In split seconds, many thoughts ran through her head. 

 "What did I do to deserve such a fate? How could she betray me, when we have sworn an oath of loyalty and friendship," she thought to herself. Then with a fainting voice and with tear filled eyes, she said, why?

 

Just a feet away from her, stood Luna. She had poisoned a drink, and with subtilty, gave Gabrielle the drink, in the guise of reconciliation. She drank unsuspectingly, just for the effect to kick in barely a minute after it was injested. 

Luna, seeing her sworn friend Gabrielle, trying  hold on to her dear life, it finally dawned on her that there was no turning back from the plan she had set in motion, which was eliminate Gabrielle, and have the one she had grown to love all to herself; Shawn.

 

Looking  upwards, seeing Luna who was literally unphased about her plight, sent cold shivers down her spine. 

Still trying to grasp the reality of what was happening, not from an external foe, but one from within, whom she would take a bullet for anytime any day, and even die for, made her almost lose the little fight she had in her, to hold on to dear life. 

She had a lot to live for. Knowo fully well that many were counting and depending on her as the alpha of the pack, and as also the one who brokered peace amongst the various packs, being the alpha among alphas, she had no option but to put up a fight, against a friend turned foe.

She mustered inner strength of will, Gabrielle's weakened body still managed to summon the werewolf in her even when it wasn't a full moon, but barely three hours after noon. 

She could still transform, but not fully because of the poison which was meant to surpress that capability and eventually snuff out the life she had, but being the alpha of alphas she could transform at anytime. 

Transforming partially, she was strengthened  and  broke through the log cabin where she was, which was where Luna and her agreed to meet, because that cabin held sentimental value to them both.

The log cabin was where they'd run off to as kids to hang out as against the dictates of the territorial rule of the wolves of Fairway. Meeting there as kids, they solidified their friendship, and a bond beyond the barriers of blood was formed between. 

As they grew older, they would later face anything as long as they were together. It was them against the world. But in this same cabin, where such love and bond was birthed, was where the same was destroyed.

 

Luna never anticipated and foresaw that Gabrielle would escape her presence, knowing the efficicacy of the poison, the black moth poison, which had taken down other male alphas in time past.

Luna was no match attacking her head on in her human state, so she stood still in fright that Gabrielle still transformed, proving to her the extent of her will to live.

Luna stood there in utter shock, knowing fully well that she was totally ruined if Gabrielle survived, so she sought follow her from a safe distance and complete what she had started. 

     

Running through the woods, Gabrielle kept stumbling, hitting her weakened body against the trees, head spinning, her vision blurred, coughing out blood, but yet, she kept pressing forward, trying to make her way out of the woods, and just hoping she'd meet a passerby, anyone else at all, and find help, for she was willing to live.

      

So she kept moving. As fate could have it, she found herself by the wayside. Still stumbling in her movement, a vehicle passed by, she waved at it and the driver, who was a young man slowed down, but seeing her physical state, not in the warewolf state though, but as a human, looking so battered, he stepped on his gas and sped off.

With tires screeching, thinking to himself it was a plot to have him apprehended and robbed, and possibly killed, he did the most reasonable thing a person of his kind would do, rather than getting caught up in the crossfire of whatever that was.

Ten minutes had passed since Gabrielle got to the wayside after stumbling her way through the woods in excruciating pain, but ten minutes felt like forever. She kept fighting to stay alive, but it was a battle against time now. If she doesn't get help within the hour, she'd most likely die.

   

Having done all she could do with the little might she had left, her weakened body could go no further, hence she fell to the ground, not able to talk audibly, kept saying "help, help". Her vision kept getting blurred and dimmed, her strength faded, she could feel her life slipping away, the call of death seemed louder than before.

All she could do was wish that she had more time, to make things right with the man whom she loved, the human, Shawn, the one for whom she was undergoing this plight. 

A figure of a person stood over Gabrielle. She couldn't make out who it was because of her blurred vision. And the person called out to her saying, "can you hear me Gabby? Stay with me Gabby. Don't die on me now." It was none other than Alonso, a trusted friend and powerful warlock.

He had tracked her, having received a vision of her demise, and luckily found her just at the nick of time, and using an incantation coupled with the symptoms visible on Gabrielle, he could decipher what was wrong, that she was poisoned with the black moth poison. 

She lost consciousness in his arms, and he knew it was going be a race against time, if he was to save his dear friend Gabrielle. So in haste, he held her up in his arms, laid in the backseat of his pickup truck, and he drove off at the twilight of the day.

Afar off, Luna saw that Gabrielle was rescued by Alonso. At that point, she knew that she'd have to launch an attack on her or prepare herself for an all out war. For daring to attack the alpha of alphas, that was a declaration of war.

But would her pack be willing enough to take her side on such a most probable carnage against her pack? Would they, she thought to herself. But that was a chance he was willing to take, capitalizing on the hatred that the clans had for the other, she knew it wouldn't take so much convincing to stir them to violence against the now wounded warrior, the alpha of alphas.

   

She'd have to risk an all out war. The other packs were loyal to Gabrielle. But the depth of rage that brewed within her, made her to damn the consequences of her actions. Luna was ready to take her revenge. 

Alonso sped off as quickly as he could, reaching a speed of 200 kilometers per hour at some points. The terrain was rough, whcih made the drive back to his place bumpy while they were still in the woods. 

But the defective and dilapidated state of the road didn't deter his speed, and moreover his truck, a blue Ford Ranger was built for such terrains. He was racing against time. For the help Gabrielle needed could only be found in the garden of herbs he had at home, so he drove s fast as he could making his way out of the woods. 

            

While driving, he wished he could have come along side the plant that could and can save his friend. But, so much for wishful thinking, for that was all he could do until he got home. He encouraged himself, quitting beating himself about the thought of him not having any remedy to the problem at hand. 

             

Finally out of the woods, he drove as one being chased by the cops, but this time, he was chased by death. So he drove fast to enable his friend Gabrielle escape the clutches of death. He broke every driving rule, ignored every warning sign. 

            

Bashing against vehicles while drifting at sharp corners, he damaged quite a number of vehicles. Nothing mattered to him anymore at this point, except the salvation of his friend who had gone unconscious, barely away from the cold grasp of death. 

            

 People insulted, many yelled, at the manner of his driving, and even the cops were alerted of the manner of his driving, and a pursuit by them ensued to catch him and have him arrested for the multiple violations he had committed. But as before, he drove fast, giving quite a distance between him and them.

                 

Pulling over at his residence, he jumped out of his truck, picking Gabrielle out of the back seat of the car, he kicked open his door not using his keys since he left it on the ignition of his truck, he hurried into his dark eerie house, laid her upon a table, and ran into his shed at the back of his house where he grows his herbs.

                

Finding the herb for the antidote, fireweed, he plucked it, running back into his dark eerie house, he placed it in a small mortar and crushed it, releasing the extract for the antidote. Then he drew in the extract into a syringe, since Gabrielle was unconscious and couldn't injest the antidote by herself, he admistered the antidote to her by injecting her with it. 

               

Alonso stood over Gabrielle, praying and hoping e wasn't too late. Her pulse could barely be felt after he placed her on the table in his house. Then after about thirty seconds, had passed and there was no response to the antidote from Gabrielle, Alonso feared the worst. Then, she jerked back to life gasping for breath. 

               Alonso hugged her tight in tears saying, never give me such a scare like this again. When Gabrielle gained full consciousness, she said, "I never knew you were such a cry baby." And they both laughed hugging each other.

              

Sirens sounded outside Alonso's house, the cops had finally caught up with him. They pulled over and requested through a megaphone that he stepped outside with his hands in the air. Gabrielle then looked at him and asked, "Seems like you got into trouble for my sake huh?"

   

"Well, it's no big deal. Nothing we can't handle". He stepped out as requested the cop speaking through megaphone said "on the ground." He knelt down, and he was handcuffed and placed in their vehicle.

           

He looked through the window and smiled at Gabrielle who stood by a window watching how they drove off with Alonso, the young man who just saved her, and she smiled back and said inaudibly to anyone's hearing, "I'll come for you."

                 

Not too long after the cops had left the residence of Alonso, unknown to them that she was within, she got into his truck and drove of to the west side of Fairway, for there was the hold of her pack, the Vander pack. 

                

Driving back, she reminisced on what had transpired that day, and she knew that the friend she once knew, Luna, was no more, and as far as she was concerned, Luna was dead to her, and she would treat this new and unknown individual who attempted taking her life as a foe, a dearly hated foe.