“The barrier around the pack, it’s been breached!” She yelled and threw herself back from the window when gunshots started to echo through the night.
Mixed with it were the howls and growls of wolves, and soon it sounded like a war was being waged outside the house.
I ran out of the house with Nazanin on my heel, and we skidded to a halt when a human with a shotgun fired at a wolf in his transformed state. The bullet tore through his hind leg.
Beside me, Nazanin shook with the bang of the shot, and we watched as the human was tackled by another wolf. Humans were swarming the pack, arms with guns and firing at everything that moved.
It was chaos.
“Go back inside!” I yelled at Nazanin, and she shook her head, her fangs and claws elongating. “Please, Nazanin,” I pointed to the wolf on the ground who’d transformed back to his human body. “These are anti-supers, and something’s wrong with those bullets. He’s not healing.”
Nazanin watched the wolf lying unconscious on the ground, and another wolf bit into his shoulder and began dragging him into the protective darkness of the forest.
“I-I’ll gather as many people as I can and make our way into the forest,” Nazanin said hastily, and we bent down when an explosion echoed through the pack, mixing with the screams and howls of death.
First Colin and now this!
“Okay,” I yelled. “Be careful.”
“Be careful? Come with me, Diana! You said it yourself we’re being attacked by anti-supers, and Kaleem isn’t here. We have to run!”
Amid the smell of blood, gun powder, and humans, I picked up on a familiar scent. Crunched down to remain out of sight, my eyes scanned all around until I found what I was looking for.
“Colin,” I growled, and Nazanin stood up. “He’s here. He’s working with these anti-supers.”
Colin was walking through the street like he owned the place, and he wasn’t being attacked while wolves were being shot. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I couldn’t believe how low Colin was willing to go.
These humans kill our people every day across the world, they killed grandpa, Colin’s father, and now he was siding with them? But if he was here, where were Kaleem and the others?
“Go, Nazanin, get everyone out of here,” I growled, and this time she left without question.
Kaleem wasn’t here, but I was. I was his partner and a future leader in this pack. Colin wasn’t going to break in and take over while I was here.
While stepping out to stop in Colin’s path, I understood that this was his plan. He drew Kaleem away, which would leave the pack defenseless. But we weren’t defenseless.
“Wherever Grandpa is right now, he’s regretting the day you were born,” I growled, and a vein popped on Colin’s neck despite how smug he seemed.
“Hello, Diana,” Colin replied. “How are you settling into your new pack?”
When an anti-super, a woman with a mask covering the lower half of her face, aimed a gun at me, Colin held up his hand to stop her. She walked away, and I felt sick to my stomach that I was related to this man.
Behind Colin, I spotted someone else familiar, the human I’d met when I visited him at his office with Jackson.
“You had this planned from the start,” I growled, and Colin smiled. “How far back was this in the works, Colin? Were there any anti-supers in our old town voicing their hate, or was that made up, just a means to set things into motion?”
“No, that was real,” Colin replied, his cold blue eyes glowing. “But they were there at my command.”
“So you showed up at the supermarket, talking about your mother and integrity when you’ve sided with the people that killed her? That’s rich!”
Colin growled, but I didn’t care. He was a disgrace to his mother’s memory while using her to justify his delusions. If this land was so meaningful to Colin, he’d never, in his life, bring anti-supers here to stain the earth with our blood.
“Look around you!” I yelled. “Aren’t the wolves being killed by your mother’s kin? In a sense, Colin, aren’t we all family, but you don’t care about that. All you care about is yourself!”
My shoulder dislocated when I called on my wolf. The pain was nothing compared to the unwavering hatred I felt for this man.
“I did what I needed to, to protect our pack,” Colin growled. “I picked a side Diana, a side that would help us. When I was approached and told anti-supers would turn a blind eye to our pack if we provided them with a few wolves, I saw an opportunity to save us and gain the power I needed to reclaim this land.”
“Reclaim? It was never yours!” I growled. “Goddess, why can’t you get that through your thick skull Colin? This land never belonged to our family! You’re greedy. That’s all this is! You take and take and suck the life out of everyone and everything!”