The Black Soul
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‘Some men just want to watch the world burn...’
This was certainly the case for Chase Malakai Hendrix. A red-face screaming baby from the start, Chase was born with a deep, firey rage that would never cease. He didn’t understand it, and he couldn’t control it, but everything he came across, he hated. He was often moody and uncooperative, which wasn’t the issue. The issue started when he started fighting. He often fought with the other pups of his pack, and he liked it better when they started fighting back. His parents tried to control him, but when all he would do was fight them, there wasn’t a lot they could do. They then turned to their Alpha, who was obviously aware of the mounting issue, and stepped in to put Chase in his place, yet again. This tactic would only work for some long though, before the young wolf would start to rebel once more.
Despite the repeated ass-kickings, Chase didn’t get better, at least until the discovery of sex. When he realized that women were interested in him, he found a new source to channel the anger, and it made him well sought after. He never cared for the girls emotionally, but he could pleasure them physically, in ways they’d never been pleasures before. It helped Chase lose himself for the moment, at least until that burning would return.
Between fighting and sex, he tried hard to find a balance he could stand on. He didn’t want to be like this, he just was. He did try to learn, but he didn’t have something to ground him. Something to hold onto. He was always a ticking time bomb, with a constant fire stoking him. This was, until he met his ex-girlfriend, Emma. She was the one person who managed to capture his attention, and his heart, and she did it before he could realize it was happening. The feeling was strange, and he tried to resist it, but he fell hard, fast and completely.
The love he felt had even started to overcome some of that rage, which was a relief to everyone around him. Finally, they started to see a softer side. He still fought for fun, as a stress relief, but he started to begin to learn how to channel it better, he started to listen, he started to calm down a little bit. He was no less angry, but he had some reason to want to do better. At least until the day he found her with someone else.
On that day, he didn’t listen to reason, her excuses, her begging, anything. He found her with him, and he saw blood. He snapped in an instant. He actually doesn’t remember the actual fight. He just remembers the blood all over the place, his hands, his clothes. When he was able to come back to himself, the room was in pieces, and Emma’s lover was in pieces in front of him. Emma herself was long gone, and Chase was left alone with the body.
It, by far, wasn’t the first time he’d spilled blood, but it was the first time he had ever lost that level of control. Even as a pissed off wolf, he had always managed to keep at least some length of chain on the fire that burned inside him. No, losing that much control actually scared him. He’d always been angry, broken things, fought people, even hurt people. But he’d never blacked out before. And he’d certainly never killed anyone before.
Anger then mixed with guilt, and made a violent, guilty cocktail. Chase realized he couldn’t be around people, his family. Barely 18, he left, despite the objections, which surprised him. They just wanted to help him, but he refused. And he left. For a while, he was a drifter in the wind, a lost soul, searching for something. His dreams now haunted him, but still, even after all of that, that rage, that urge to hurt, destroy, did not cease. He started to genuinely wonder what was wrong with him, and if he was just cursed to be this way.
He got lost in a cycle of fights, drinks and women, until he was nearly beaten within an inch of his life when he picked the wrong fight. When he woke up, he was in a monastery. After wondering if he’d been kidnapped by monks, and indeed he was, he started to learn their ways. He learned the art of meditation and Thai Chi. This gave him the balance he was looking for, and continues to practice daily to maintain that level of calm. It took several years before he ventured back into public, living with the monks, who were not only aware of the wolf, but able to keep him in check.