The Cost of Love

Chapter 30

These were people, my people. And they were hurting other people. Some may say it's naive, but I wanted to believe that it's as simple as that. We're all people. This needed to stop once and for all. 

I saw my chance just when I noticed the same boy's hind legs shake as he was getting ready for another attack. I ran up to him just as he started to leap in the air once more onto another hunter. The hunter had her gun raised, but I could sense the hesitation in her hands, the slight shake of the metal she was holding. Without thinking much more, I stood in the middle of them with my hands spread out on each side, blocking the wolf's attack. 

"STOP!" 

I think it looked ridiculous, to an outsider, I mean. I didn't even think it would work. But the wolf immediately backed down, as if there was an invisible force that made him physically unable to hurt his future Luna. And knowing my dad, there probably was an order like that of some sort. 

But the weirder part was that the hunter lowered her gun as well, staring at me with her head cocked to one side. I was breathing heavily, scared she could shoot me and all of this would be over. 

The moment didn't last long, because I felt Connor's presence beside me. I almost let out a sigh of relief when he stood between me and the hunter, his back towards me. 

"Don't touch her," he said lowly to the girl. She only stared at him, wide-eyed. He stared back, his strong jaw tensing with controlled anger. I wondered if they knew each other growing up. If they knew they'd be in this position one day, against each other. 

"Everyone, stop!" I continued to scream, until everyone had paused their fighting to look at the scene, like we were an attraction or something. "Stop, please, this is - this is madness." 

"KIARA!" I heard my dad scream, and in a flash he was beside me as well. He's furious about me running away, that much I could tell. But there's not much he could say to me now. A group of hunters followed his steps to where we were standing, and I recognized them as the leaders of them all, the ones who Connor called family. "Kiara, get inside the house. Now." He tried to use his scary Alpha voice on me, but I knew better. I had a different cause to fight for.

"Can't you see what this is?" I projected, gesturing to the hundreds of wolves and hunters on our pack lawn, some injured and some dead. "This is massacre. No one will win this way!" 

It looked like a chess board, in a way. Both sides were facing each other with Connor and I in the middle, back to back and facing our home teams. I knew my pack wouldn't dare hurt me to continue the fight, and Connor knew the hunters had some sort of bizarre respect for him as well. He grew up with them, at least. Called them friends. 

"Neither side is completely good, and neither side is completely bad," I continued. "Werewolves and hunters both have their faults, but we've both been raised to think the other is evil. We raise our children to think that it's better to murder people than to understand them." I place a pointed look at Connor, whose green eyes shine with admiration. "But we're both just people. We're people, and-"