Callisto POV
I was again running for my life, but now I also ran for the life of my pups.
I was so determined to steer the danger away from them that the terror I had felt upon realizing the presence of pack wolves had faded away as I dodged trees and jumped fallen trees and large rocks.
I could hear my pursuer close behind me, but I was going too fast for him to gain any ground between us. Where were his pack members? I knew I had smelled more than one, but I only heard one set of paws hitting the ground besides mine.
They've gone after the pups, Callisto! If we smelled them, they smelled us too and knew there was more than just us! Let me take over to fight this one so we can go back to save our babies!
At her realization, the terror was back. I gave up control and automatically my body stopped running. We turned around to face the wolf chasing us.
When he caught up, he didn't stop running at us. He charged, mouth open in preparation to tear out our throat. When he was close enough to almost do just as he intended, Eliserah dodged to the right, quickly turning around and clamping her mouth down on his upper left hind leg and shaking her head to tear the flesh off of him.
He barely reacted to her bite, and he turned to do the exact same to us but Eliserah had already let go and jumped onto his back. She bit down into his scruff, and though he tried to shake us off, he couldn't. We had a tight hold on him.
When his scent finally registered with us, the smell of the forest and honey, Eliserah almost let go. Instead she whimpered and a pain shot through us.
Mate. He's our mate. We can not hurt him Calli, but he's attacking us. He should have smelled us and known! We have to leave him alone.
There was agony in her voice, and I felt the same way. If he knew we were mates, which he should have since he smelled our scent to catch us, why would he hurt us? He was supposed to love us.
Can we knock him out? I asked her quickly, seeing as our mate was still trying to shake us off and we were slipping. If he got the upper hand, would he kill us?
We have no choice, so we will.
Eliserah let go of his scruff and ran a few feet away when we fell off of his back. Without stopping, she turned back and rammed into his side. He was dazed from blood loss, so he was slow in his reaction time. He fell over onto his side and Eliserah went for his throat. When we leaned down with our mouth open wide, we finally made eye contact with our mate.
His eyes were beautiful. In his wolf form they were a dark golden colour, just like the honey in his scent. They widened when they met ours, and he let out a small whine. Eliserah didn't pause, and wrapped her teeth around his exposed throat even though his whine almost broke our heart. She bit down, and he didn't struggle. We kept biting until his body went limp, and then we checked to make sure he was still breathing.
When we saw that he was okay, we ran to find our babies.
---------------------------------------
We had followed the pack wolves' scent, which had been mixed with the children's for quite a distance, almost right to the entrance to our home.
It looked like the pack wolves had given up the chase, confused on where they could have gone. Their scent seemed to disappear at the foot of the mountain. Eliserah still had control, and she had us behind a stretch of bushes, watching what the pack wolves were doing.
They were sniffing around in circles trying to pick the scent back up in different directions. They were about forty or so feet from each other. Eliserah ran out from under cover, drawing their attention, and turned, taking off into the forest again, away from our pups.
We knew this area like we knew every little detail of our pups. There was no way in hell they'd catch us. We ran towards the river, which was a little less than a mile from our home.
I had a head start, so I was far out of their sights. When we reached the river, Eliserah gave control back to me, and I Changed into my human form. We had already gone over the plan during the run.
I slipped into the water and took a deep breath. The current wasn't strong, so I could swim down stream with no problem. I sank underneath the surface and started swimming with the help of the gentle current.
The river bed was hard to see, with all the dirt being swept around, but the water around me was clear. I watched the fish around me dart away when they sensed me near, and if I wasn't running for my life, it would be fascinating down here.
After a few minutes of swimming, we reached our destination. We were in a small cave-like tunnel that hung over the water. There was just enough room for me to get my head above the surface of the river, and I was holding on to the rock over my head so i didn't float out from under it's protection from the seeking eyes of the wolves after me.
I was close enough to where I had slid into the river to hear the wolves in pursuit stop and sniff around, trying to figure out where I'd gone. After a few growls of frustration, I heard voices. They must have changed back.
"These goddamn rouges are like ghosts! Where in the hell did he go? If he had crossed the river we still would have been able to pick up his scent. The Alpha's going to kill us."
I heard a few voices mumble in agreement.
"Wait.. where is the Alpha?" A different voice asked, a hint of panic in it. I heard some swearing, some scuffling, and then whines and barks as the group took off in search of their Alpha.
That must be our mate, the Alpha. I heard pride and sorrow in her voice, and I felt the same way. I asked her when it would be safe to go back to check on the pups, and she told me we should wait for a few minutes to be sure the pack wolves are truly gone.
---------------------------------------
Alpha O'Brien POV
Before I even opened my eyes, I heard my wolf whining and whimpering.
Mate. Our mate, you attacked her. She will never trust us. I tried telling you, you blocked me out and ignored me.
I sighed, getting up onto all fours. I knew I fucked up, in more ways than one today. I had forced my mate to hurt me. Even thinking about how I'd been ready to rip out her throat made my chest hurt.
I'm sorry, Maximus. I'm so stupid. How will I fix this?
I don't think you can. I felt her wolf, I felt how hurt she was at our attack. She thinks you attacked her on purpose, knowing she's our mate! We can't leave here, not without her. We stay and you fix this.
I nodded my head, agreeing with him. I could still smell her, so I took off in the direction she had taken. As I ran, I tried to think of solutions. Nothing I thought of seemed good enough.
I was still following her scent, lost in thought, when I saw my pack warriors running towards me.
Alpha O'Brien, are you okay, sir? One of them asked when they came to a stop in front of me. Their heads were bowed with respect, baring their throats in deference.
I'm fine. Did you catch any of them? I was worried about their reply. Everything had changed, and I wasn't sure catching and killing any of the wolves my mate had been with would help my situation.
No, Alpha, we didn't catch them. They ran too fast, I've truly never seen anything like it. One second we could tell we were right behind them, and the next second, their scent was faint, like they'd run by hours earlier. While we were looking, the leader ran right into the middle of our group, and we gave chase - my heart stopped at his words and I tensed up, ready to kill every one of them if they'd hurt her in any way - but we lost him at the river. They're like ghosts, Alpha. They're there one moment, and the next they are completely off our radar. If we all hadn't seen it, I would have thought I'd lost my mind.
I relaxed when he finished recounting what had happened. My wolf was in the back of my mind radiating confusing and pride at the skills of our mate, and I felt the same way. She was magnificent and strong, like no other female I've ever met before.
Listen up. The plan has changed. We will not be killing or hurting any of these wolves. The leader of this group is a female, and your future Luna. I do not want any of you sharing that information with anyone until I do so first upon our return with the lot of them, do you understand?
After getting confirmation from them all that they understood my orders, I could feel a wave of excitement and pride coming from the group.
I hoped they wouldn't resent me if I could not fix what I'd done and bring their Luna home.