“They’re approaching.” Mike’s voice was on the other end.
“Got it,” I replied and hung up. I sprinted out of bed and ran to bang on Alpha Antoine’s door. Then I ran down to the beta floor and did the same on Luke’s door. Both of them flew out of their rooms, along with Luna Marie. The four of us rushed outside and instantly stripped our clothes, shifted into our wolf forms, and sprinted toward the northern border. Snow fell around us as we ran, covering the ground in a sheet of white.
As we were running, I quickly mindlinked all of the seniors, informing them of the situation so that they could round up their juniors. When we got close, I felt it, a pain pulsing through my body. And I instantly knew—Mike was dead. We approached his location, about a mile out from the border, to find him lying lifeless on the ground, three darts in his shoulder, arm, and leg. I ripped one of them out with my mouth and smelled it. Wolfsbane.
Alpha Antoine’s and my troops appeared, sprinting to congregate. Suddenly darts began raining on us. They were fighting dirty. It was also completely reckless. Part of the reason werewolves didn’t use weapons was the risk for friendly fire was too high. Unless you were close enough to someone to smell the pack they were from, it was close to impossible to differentiate between friend and enemy, with the coloring of a wolf’s fur almost never being indicative of the pack they were from. Before I could fully process the situation, sharp flashes of pain pulsed through my body, one after another. My pack members were falling. Fucking cowards couldn’t even fight us the right way. I took the lead, and several darts hit my body. Luckily, I had spent years building a tolerance and was fine.
We all moved forward, and finally the cowards showed themselves, running toward us. They must have run out of darts. We all bolted toward them, attacking as we could. I quickly plunged my claws into an enemy wolf and tore out his heart, watching as he fell dead next to me. I moved forward, beheading another one. As my pack members fell, I continued to feel it pulse through my body, trying my best to move past the feeling.
Not long after the battle started, Autumn Moon Pack joined us, increasing our numbers. I continued to fight among our ally packs, taking down wolves as I could, sustaining several blows to my body. But I realized I was made for this, the energy of everyone pushing me forward.
Suddenly more darts were launched into the crowd—completely reckless. That was when Luke, who was fighting next to me, let out a loud, pained growl that pierced my bones, and fell from my peripheral vision. I turned to find he had dropped and shifted into his human form, a dart protruding from his neck. On instinct, I rapidly pulled the dart out with my teeth, spitting it onto the ground. Then I brought my face close enough to his chest so I could hear his labored breathing, confirming he was still alive. I turned my head back to battle only to be met with a wolf in midjump, claws extended and teeth bared, pouncing on me. It was as if it happened in slow motion. Before I could get into a defensive position, a huge, black, graying wolf jumped on top of me, pushing me flat against the ground. He was instantly beheaded, a debilitating pain pulsing through my body. I quickly got up and attacked the enemy wolf, plunging my paw into his chest and pulling out his heart. Then I looked next to me to see my father’s human head separated from his body. My father was dead. He had sacrificed himself for me.
Before I could fully process what had happened, I realized that Luke would die if I left him where he was. He had already been injured even before the wolfsbane hit his body and wouldn’t be able to heal quickly in this condition. So, I made a split-second decision to flip him onto my back into a wolfman’s carry and take him away to a place where he could be safe until he recovered from the wolfsbane. I ran deep into the forest.
I didn’t get too far before I came across two naked men with dart guns pointed toward me. I stood on my hind legs so that the darts would hit me instead of Luke. I felt several plunge into my torso. As I released Luke, the men shifted into wolves. At this point, I’d had so many darts shot into me that I was starting to feel my insides burning. But I powered through it, pouncing on one of the wolves, ripping out his vertebrae while the other one jumped onto my back, his claws shoving deep inside me.
I quickly flipped both of us onto our backs, using my body weight to flatten him against the ground. He kicked me off him, and I landed against a rock, my ribs cracking. He grabbed my leg in his mouth and began flinging me against the same rock, injuring me. I was eventually able to kick him off me. I could feel the final couple darts taking effect and used the last of my strength to behead the wolf.
And that was when the burning sensation finally became unbearable, the wolfsbane had fully pulsed itself into my bloodstream. That mixed with the injuries I’d sustained forced me to shift into my human form. I lay in the snow, completely immobile, unable to shift or mindlink.
I looked over at Luke who was the same. I had to hope that no one would find us here, as impossible as that was. I had barely gotten us away from the battle. It would only be a matter of time before someone finished both of us off, and our pack would no longer have an alpha or a beta. So many years of training, my father’s sacrifice, and I’d still be finished off during the first battle I ever fought as an alpha. I used what little strength I had to crawl over to Luke. He looked at me, as powerless as I was, breathing heavily, holding on for his life.
“Luke,” I said, feeling sadness come over me. “Luke, you have to make it. You can’t die. You have a pup on the way. Just hold on until the wolfsbane’s metabolized and you can heal again.”
He coughed, blood flowing out of his mouth and nose, unable to speak. I lay down next to him, wondering if this was it—if my friend and beta would be taken from me. Was that my fate? Was everyone I cared about going to die, an endless cycle of pain? Would I finally become numb to it at one point or would I eventually lose my own will to live?
A huge white wolf approached us, his teeth bared, in a fighting position. And I knew it was over. Neither Luke nor I could fight anymore. I was helpless and naked, immobile against the freezing, wet snow, sure it was stained red from the cuts all over my body.
The white wolf stood over me and I realized I knew that scent. I figured out where I had smelled the scent of the mystery pack before. The wolf standing over me was Alexander Adalwolf, a man I had gone to Grey Wolf University with—a man whose life I had saved. He was the alpha of the Pine Forest Pack in Ontario. I looked up at him, wondering if he would take my life.
That was when he shifted into his human form. “Wulfric?”
I nodded.
“Fuck, man, I didn’t realize this was your pack. You look like shit.” His eyes darted upward, in a mindlink, then he shifted back into his wolf form. Another wolf came sprinting over—a female one. And that was when I realized that the scent of the wolf that was able to survive in cold water was this other wolf’s. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t realized it was a female scent at the time, too concentrated on figuring out the pack it was from.
Alexander flipped me onto his back, and the female wolf flipped Luke onto hers. They carried us away, bringing us farther into the forest, into a cave, and dropping us there.
Alexander shifted back into his human form and looked at me. “You saved my life, so I am sparing yours. Now we’re even in that regard. But I am also going to do you a favor, and I expect a favor in return. I am going to withdraw my pack from this war. You will easily be able to win it without us. But it’s not a completely selfless act. Your pack’s much larger than the Bois Sombre Pack, and I prefer your alliance. So, when we have to fight our own war, I am going to expect your cooperation.”
“Absolutely,” I replied.
“Good, now you’ll be safe here until you can heal.”
“Who is she?” I asked, curious about the wolf he was with.
“That’s my sister, Sara. She’s much better at survival in the cold.” He laughed, then shifted back into a wolf and turned to leave with her.
I sighed and forced myself to sit up, still weak from the wolfsbane that was burning through my body. I looked over to see that Luke was shivering. Being stuck in our human forms was not good for freezing weather, not having our fur. I moved toward him and lay my body on top of his, trying to put myself in the least intimate position possible, which was really not that possible at all. At least we could keep each other warm, as awkward as this was.
“Blake, what are you doing?” Luke asked weakly, clearly finally regaining the ability to speak.
“Let’s just pretend this isn’t happening. This is awkward enough as it is.”
He chuckled, coughing up some blood. “Yeah, this is extremely awkward.”
“Well, we can just pretend we’re kids again.”