Grange and his pack stayed in the woods and made a circle around the dark buildings and sleeping townsfolk. Grange hadn’t wanted to risk the sheriff noticing them and trying to stop them, since the man seemed to do that often. He always wanted to check in on the ‘odd’, ‘strange’ and ‘make-believe’, trouble that might be brewing.
They were too close to home to be stopped now. Grange’s hands itched to touch his sons soft cheeks and his arms wanted to cradle the boy against his chest. For all his toughness and his rugged exterior, Grange knew that he was a family man through and through.
He knew that Dawn was equally as eager to see the boy and that Nickolai and Trig were eager to get home and see their mates.
Everyone was more than ready to be home. It was the middle of the night and they were all exhausted but they hadn’t stopped that evening to rest, knowing they’d make it home sooner if they just kept going. Grange was lost in his thoughts of home and so was startled when he heard a voice beside him.
“Grange.” Nickolai’s voice was quiet, almost a whisper as the wolf brought his horse up next to Grange’s. Dawn had her arms wrapped tight around Grange’s middle and her head resting sleepily against his back.
“What?” Grange asked with a frown. It wasn’t like Nickolai to look worried and the wolf looked worried just now.
“Do you smell that?”
Grange took a deep breath and Dawn pulled away from him as his entire body stiffened.
“Brendon!” Grange growled, ignoring Dawn who was asking who the unfamiliar scent filling the air belonged to.
Brendon rode up quickly. The look on his face telling Grange all he needed to know even before he spoke. “That’s him, Grange. That’s the pup that wanted me to kill you.”
“Grange! He’s probably at the cabins! The babies!” Dawn exclaimed. Grange’s roar of anger seemed to bounce off of the trees around them and then he urged the horse into a gallop, wasting no time. He had a strong feeling that time was something his son was about to run out of.
***
Brie and Farrah slowly opened the cabin door and stepped out onto the porch.
The five male werewolves stood, unshifted, in the front yard. Their hands were down by their sides, their fingers hanging lose and relaxed, and their stance wide legged as they stared up at the two women. They appeared unconcerned by the shotgun clutched in Brie’s shaking hands.
“Why hello there.” one of the men said with a smile as he stepped forward. It was clear from his scent that he was the boss of this group.
“Y..You all need to leave now. We have nothing here for you.” Brie warned, hating the way that her voice trembled. She guaranteed that Dawn’s voice wouldn’t have shown the smallest sign of a tremor. She had seen just how tough the alpha female was when they had been locked up together at Faugrimm’s castle.
Brie had to be that tough now. While she still could not remember every detail of her life before becoming Faugrimm‘s captive, she remembered enough to know that she had been born an alpha’s daughter.
She would have one day been alpha female if she hadn’t given that up for Nickolai and so she knew she had the potential to be strong. To be brave.
“We’re not leaving. Not yet. First we want to have a little fun.”
Brie shook her head and motioned with her gun toward the woods. “We’ll let you all go peacefully. No one needs to be hurt.”
The lead wolf laughed.
“That would be where you are wrong.” he taunted. “People are going to be hurt tonight. Very hurt.”
He twitched his hand, a movement barely visible, and yet powerful enough to send the four wolves beside him, leaping through the air, shifting as they went.
Brie heard Farrah growl with rage and she was faintly aware of the werelion shifting and leaping forward as well. Brie let out a blast from the shot gun, hearing one of the wolves whimper loudly and then the rest were upon her.
***
Maggie awoke with a start at the loud booming sound that suddenly filled the silent bedroom.
She smelled smoke, gun smoke, and then she smelled wolves that she hadn’t ever smelled before. Creed began to cry in his cradle and Maggie could hear growling, terrible growling, outside the cabin.
She smelled blood as well.
Where was her mommy? Trembling with fear Maggie ran to her mothers bed but the woman wasn’t there. She went to the cradle and covered Creed with his blanket, patting the tiny boy on the back to calm him and somehow, despite the smells and noises, the boy fell back to sleep.
Maggie was scared. She crept from the bedroom, scanning the dark cabin for any sign of her mommy or Farrah.
“Mama?” she called out but no one answered her.
Maggie went to the window and pulled back the corner of the curtain, barely holding back her scream of fear when she saw the fight happening outside.
She recognized her mommy, a white wolf. There two other wolves, they were boy wolves, and they were biting her. Something red was covering her mommies white fur and Maggie realized it was blood.
There was a werewolf just standing in the yard watching as Maggie’s mommy battled the two wolves and Farrah battled two more. He still looked like a man, he hadn’t shifted, and he was smiling.
Maggie felt anger building up within her tiny chest. Her mommy was hurt and bleeding. Her aunt Farrah was hurt too and to top it off Creed had begun to cry again.
Who were these men? Why had they attacked her family?
That anger became rage and that rage began to swim through her veins.
Maggie felt the overwhelming urge to kill. She had never had that feeling until she had woken up a week ago after being very ill. Her mommy had told her that she was now a werewolf and would have to work hard to control her anger.
Maggie tried to breath, she wanted to be good for her new family, she didn’t want to be sent away from them. She closed her eyes and pictured the pretty place that her mommy had told her to always picture when she began to feel to angry.
It was fully of daisy’s and long grasses blowing gently in a warm summer breeze. Fat bumble bees flew lazily in the air and the sun shone warm on her face. Maggie breathed deep, feeling herself calming slightly and then she heard a loud cry of pain and looked out the window to see Farrah falling back and then jumping back into battle with the two wolves, with only three legs that seemed to be working.
It was more than Maggie could take. She had to save her family.
Pain filled her body and she cried out as it seemed she was being ripped apart.
Something told her it was the wolf. It was the wolf inside of her coming free. She was shifting.
Maggie folded her arms tightly around her stomach as she fell to the floor and her entire body began to convulse on the rough wooden floorboards.
***
Brie was hurt but she wasn’t about to give up. She glanced at Farrah who had her hands, or rather her paws, full of two werewolves. Farrah’s front leg was obviously broken and Brie was bleeding and covered in bites but both women were still fighting for all they were worth.
Suddenly the lead wolf, still unshifted and watching the scene with a smile, whistled loudly and the four wolves backed away from Brie and Farrah.
Brie was happy to see that she and the cat had inflicted just as much damage on the men as the men had on them.
One of the wolves Farrah had been fighting with had already lost a good chunk of his front shoulder and leg thanks to Brie’s shot gun blast.
“What do we have here?” the lead wolf asked with amusement. Brie turned her head when the cabin door, which had been cracked, opened fully a black wolf pup stepped out.
The pups lips were pulled back in a snarl and blood lust was evident in her golden eyes.
Brie quickly ran to Maggie and tried to urge the pup back into the house but Maggie snapped at her, ran between her legs and became a growling ball of black fury as she crossed the yard faster than anyone could blink and leapt at the lead wolf’s face.
He was too surprised by the attack to prepare for it and he screamed in pain as her razor sharp teeth sliced open his face and scalp. Brie watched in horror as Maggie’s mouth went to the wolf’s neck and he barely managed to shove her off of him in time to save himself from having his throat torn out.
Maggie’s tiny body was sent flying through the air and smacked sharply against an oak before falling onto the dirt in a heap.
Brie yipped and ran to her, reaching her just before the lead wolf. Brie placed her body between the wolf and her daughter and growled low in her throat.
Blood ran down the lead wolf’s face and coated his light hair. Brie took a step toward him, her growl intensifying and she was pleased to see him take a step back, the anger on his face, faltering momentarily as fear flashed through his eyes.
She was going to kill him for harming her daughter. No doubts. No fears that she wasn’t strong enough. This wolf was going to die and Brie was going to be the cause.
Brie lunged for him and he tripped as he jumped backward, landing on the ground roughly just before Brie came down on him.
She was aware of him shifting below her but she didn’t care. She bit, she clawed. Tearing with her teeth and her nails. Tasting blood, smelling it strong and cloying in her nostrils.
His struggles began to weaken then they stopped entirely and still she tore at his throat. It wasn’t until Farrah let out a loud, screaming cry to get her attention that Brie pulled away from the dead wolf.
There were still four wolves to worry about and now they were angry. Brie had just killed their leader.
The wolves closed in on Farrah and Brie and the two women prepared themselves to fight, though they were both heavily wounded and Brie was fatigued from her savage attack on the lead wolf.
She was scared now. What if they couldn’t do it. Then a familiar scent reached her nose, somehow overpowering the scent of blood that still seemed to be filling it.
“Good job, my Brie, though it might have been done with just slight overkill.” Brie turned her head to see Nickolai, Grange, Dawn, Brendon, Ella, Trig, Anika, Blain and three boys she did not know, step out of the forest.
“You can head back to the porch now, kitten.” Trig added, his blue eyes flashing with mischief as he stared hard at the four intruding wolves, who had all begun backing up and shivering terribly in their hindquarters. “The cavalry has arrived and we are not
amused.”