Richard was trying to stretch toward me, but the heavy weight of the crowbar in his chest attached to Osmond didn’t allow him to move much. He craned his neck, jaws frothing as they snapped near my foot. His teeth were only inches away.
I pulled my foot back before kicking out viciously. There was the crunch of bone as he howled and pulled back, shaking his snout.
The bridge lurched nauseatingly to the left. It was only inches, but it felt like miles.
Dust filtered down from the wood above.
I laughed. Because I could.
I tilted my head back and against the wall and laughed.
“You’ll die here,” I told them as Osmond’s legs kicked weakly, hands burning as he tried to pull the bar from his throat. “Both of you. You’ll fucking die here. You failed. You didn’t get Thomas. You didn’t get Joe. You didn’t get me.”
Richard began to drag himself toward me, more bloody than not.
I had to move.
It’d be easier to not.
But I’d never taken the easy way out.
I pushed myself up the wall, using my legs instead of my shredded arms.
Richard snapped his teeth at the movement, struggling to move faster.
Osmond was starting to seize, eyes rolling up in the back of his head, mouth open, shifting between human and wolf, hands into claws and then fingers, scraping along the floorboards. His neck was pulled at a sharp angle as Richard continued toward me.
I stood above him. Above the wolf. He glared up at me, tongue lolling as he bared his teeth near my foot.
I said, “You’ll never have him. You’ll never be an Alpha. You lost. And now you’ll die. For nothing.”
The bridge began to break apart, the floorboards splitting, a large crack running up the wall as the wood splintered off. The walls and ceiling began to shift to the left, the bridge about to collapse.
And with all that I could, I ran again.
Every step hurt, my arms useless at my sides.
But I didn’t want to die in here. Not with them. Not like this.
I had protected my pack from them. Joe would find me. Everything would be all right.
I tripped near the end.
A floorboard had snapped up, hitting me in the shin.
I crashed to the ground, turning to land on my shoulder to avoid hitting my face.
A wolf roared behind me as the bridge broke down.
A voice whispered in my head.
It said, get up.
It said, we’re almost there but you need to get up.
It said, AlphaBrotherLoveSonPack get up get up get up.
It said, we love you.