Living in A Pack (Book One)

Chapter Nineteen

The pack gathered around the alphas. We stood at the edge of the woods waiting for them to give the signal to head out to the battle field.

"Listen up everyone, today is going to be one of the most dangerous days in our packs history." Doug began. "The last time we battled The Dark Forest pack they were a lot less strong. There numbers were lower and they did not have the leader they have now. The fact is that they are stronger then us, they have more numbers and have been training for this fight a lot longer then we have. Our odds of winning are very small, but it isn't impossible. We can do this! We will win!"

"IN OTHER WORDS LETS CRUSH THOSE STUPID WIMPS INTO THE GROUND!" Pearl shouted at the top of her lungs. The whole pack stood and cheered loudly. Doug folding his arms and muttered something under his breath about his speech being wasted. Then he sighed and shouted,

"ALRIGHT LETS GO" he leapt forward and shifted quickly into his wolf. Pearl followed directly behind him followed by Angel the beta and her mate. The rest of the pack took off after our leaders, shifting as they ran. Animals ran past me at, foxes, wolves, tigers, lions, leopards, lynx, Cougars, dingos, African wild dogs, dholes, jackals, more then I could name.

"Are you coming?" I felt something grasp my hand and turned to see Dylas smiling at me. His eyes were full of mixed emotions, sadness, fear, excitement, determination. I grinned at him,

"Let's destroy them." I shifted into my polar bear form and took off. Dylas ran with me, to battle, to what could be either our defeat, or our victory. We ran in sink together into the forest, it wasn't long before the others joined us, running in sink with us too. Sasha, Nate, Cameron, Amber, Dan, Dylas, and I. I grinned to myself and sped up, racing through the trees. I thought back to all I had been through these past months, all the friends I'd made, no all the family I'd made, I hope to god I don't lose any of them today.

We arrived at the clearing and shifted back into human form, joining the others. We stood together as a group near the front lines, waiting for the battle to begin. The Dark forest pack wasn't here yet, who knows when they would be. They were suppose to be here by now. A thought crossed my mind for a moment, what if they'd decided to just tell us to come here so they could attack at the heart of our territory, where the children and the elders were. No, that wouldn't happen, The Dark Forest Pack might be trying to invade and take over our territory but they wouldn't sink that low, besides the children, mothers with young children, and elders had left the territory that morning, they were staying outside of the territory until this was all over.

Suddenly Scarlet walked out of the trees on the other side of the clearing. She was alone, but I could smell her pack, they were hanging back just behind the tree line. Scarlet was wearing, to no ones surprise, red, she must have a fetish with that colour or something. She walked forward until she was about a metre from the White Valley Pack. Scarlet raised her hand and snapped her fingers, summoning her pack to her. They filled out behind her, there were so many, So many smells floated over my noise making me shrink a little inside.

"Hello." Scarlet stated calmly, but behind the calm voice I could see her eyes twinkling with an evil glint. "So nice to see you Doug, Pearl. I see you co-lead your pack, not strong enough on your own?" She sneered.

"A joint leadership makes for a stronger pack, everyone knows that." Doug growled in retort.

"Whatever you say" Scarlet muttered. "Anyway, are you ready to be pounded into the dust ?"

"I could say the same for you." Pearl said calmly. I zoned out a little. I wasn't much for these types of conversations. I'd rather just get this over and done with, so I can get back to the life I had just so recently begun to love. I didn't want to lose my family over again, I couldn't deal with it again, I needed this battle to start and I needed it to finish, the waiting was killing me.

"Are you okay?" Dylas whispered nudging me. I looked over and nodded but he must of seen the fear in my eyes because he grasped my hand and smiled at me. "It's going to be okay. With us fighting together there's no way we can lose." I smiled back at him feeling a little better.

"You're right, we are unstoppable." I agreed with a tiny smile.

"Hey Iris, there's something I want to tell you." His grasp tightening a little on my hand. "I've been thinking this for a while and I've been wanting to say something but I just didn't know how, but I think this might be one of my last chances to do so, so well," Dylas paused. He looked nervous.

I stared into his eyes, waiting for him to start speaking again. Time felt like it was slowing down as I stared at Dylas. The world around me started to fade and before I knew what I was doing I leaned forward and kissed Dylas. I could tell he was shocked at first but then he kissed me back.

The world around us disappeared, it was only us, me and Dylas and no one else. We were floating through the vast endlessness of space. The cold loneliness that surrounded us was unable to touch us, it was only warmth and love that I could feel, it was just us.

We finally broke apart and rested our foreheads together. I closed my eyes and smiled, I knew Dylas was smiling too because  we both knew what this meant.

"Mate." He whispered and the battle erupted around us.