Aiden POV
“Father, Leon and I are at the safe house. Update!” I called through the bond, flinching as I felt another bond disappear. Not including those in the safe house, there couldn’t be more than thirty bonds still intact. How had things become like this!?
After an agonizing minute, I finally got a response, but not from my father.
“Aiden! We can’t hold them off! There are too many of them! You need to esc—!” my mother, the pack Luna, said urgently before suddenly going quiet.
My blood turned cold as I suddenly felt my connection with her stutter and then disappear altogether. Before I could process what this could mean, I heard my father’s enraged howl followed by the howl of the other wolves out fighting.
This couldn’t be happening. My mother was the strongest woman I knew. She couldn’t be...
I felt myself spiral, grief ripping through me as I struggled to take my next breath. A whimper tore me from the overconsuming anguish, and I turned to see my brother trembling from head to toe.
Abandoning my spot at the door, I quickly ran to my brother, shoving my snout in his face and wrapping my paw around his small, trembling form.
“Den-den, I can’t feel mom. Wh-what if something happened to her?”
At a loss for words, I held his little body so close to mine that I couldn’t tell if the trembling was coming from him or me.
“SHIT! They planted—” Kai broadcasted through the pack link before a deafening explosion shook the compound.
I immediately threw myself down, using my body to shield Leon as dust and debris rained down on us. As soon as the explosion ended, I heard another detonation go off farther away.
Seventeen. I could feel seventeen bonds through the link. Including those still in human form, there couldn’t be more than thirty pack members left. Father’s link was so weak, it felt like it would disappear at any moment.
“Are you hurt?” I frantically searched my brother for any injuries and was relieved to only see minor scratches from when I pushed him down. We healed quicker than humans, so his minor wounds would be healed by tomorrow.
“I’m okay. But Den-den, I’m scared.”
I lowered my head and looked into those beautiful blue eyes that so closely resembled those of our mother. “I’m here, Leon, and I’m not going anywhere or letting anything happen to you. You got that?”
Leon nodded and pressed his head against the fur on my chest.
Looking over his head, I addressed the other pack members who were all in different stages of fear, shock, and grief.
“At this rate, they’ll reach the safe house in no time, we need—”
As I spoke, I noticed movement in the back corner of the room. The form quickly took shape as it approached, and I could tell it was man. But he wasn’t a pack member.
Hackles rising, I growled at the new addition to our party. How did it get he get in? The door to the safe house would have been guarded the minute the alarm rang.
One of the elderly pack members still in human form turned to the man and voiced my question.
The man laughed as he stopped a few feet away from us, his stance relaxed.
“You didn’t really think our Alpha came to the runt’s stupid birthday party to celebrate, did you?” he sneered. “We took the party as an opportunity to set up bombs and plant some of our people within the compound to be ready for when it was time to strike. And you stupid idiots just sat back as we got ready to destroy you.”
Taking another step closer, he let out a raspy chuckle.
“And as you’ve probably already guessed, I got the great honor of waiting in your little ‘safe house’. Which by the way, I took great care into making sure the door was faulty, so you’ll be sitting ducks once the others arrive.”
He crouched down with a maniacal smile spreading across his face. “Now, who wants to be killed first?” he questioned innocently a second before he shifted.
In the next instant, all hell broke loose.
I shoved Leon behind me as I charged at the wolf.
“RUN!” I shouted through the bond as I caught the wolf in the chest, throwing him several feet across the room. Being the son of an Alpha, I was larger and stronger than most wolves, so I had the advantage until his reinforcements arrived.
I turned to Lisa, a werewolf around my age and the only other wolf in the room who could fight, and gestured to the door with my snout.
“GET THEM OUT OF HERE AND AS FAR AWAY AS YOU CAN!” I commanded her, turning back to the wolf who had picked himself off the ground.
Hearing the chaos of movement behind me, I didn’t turn to look at the retreating crowd, my focus entirely on the wolf pacing a few feet away from me.
With a growl, the wolf lunged at me and I darted out of the way, grazing one of its hind legs with my claws. Taking no notice of its leg, the wolf charged at me once again, feigning to the right before suddenly changing course. Not expecting the sudden shift, I tried to duck out of the way but felt a searing pain across the left side of my abdomen.
In that moment, I heard a keening cry near the door and turned to see Leon, still in wolf form, take a few steps in our direction.
The wolf noticed him at the same moment I did and raced toward him, fangs bared.
“LEON!!” I charged after him, only a few steps behind the enemy. Unleashing a surge of power, I felt my leg muscles strain as I closed the distance between us seconds before he was on Leon.
With an enraged growl, I lunged at his throat, my teeth sinking into the warm flesh of his jugular. Shaking my head back and forth ferociously, I felt as the wolf tried to break my hold, a raspy cry tearing from his throat. I didn’t let go until I felt his body go limp, his pulse disappearing.
Dropping the body, I quickly stepped over it and grabbed Leon by the scruff of his neck. We weren’t safe here.
“Den-den, you’re bleeding!” Leon cried as I raced out of the safe house and out into the open air. The air was saturated with smoke and I could hear the growls and howls of wolves all around me.
“Most of it’s not mine,” I reassured him as I raced across the field toward where I could sense the weak presence of our father.
As I neared the area, I slowed my steps and kept close to the ground, quickly telling Leon to remain quiet.
We reached the clearing near the school, now engulfed in flames, and I felt my heart stop at the sight in front of me.
There were so many wolves, I had a hard time believing this was only the Dark Moon Pack. Further from the school, I could see several of our pack members huddled together, the enemy surrounding them.
Closer to the school was where most of the enemy seemed to be congregated, all looking at something on the ground. For a split second, the crowd shifted, and I caught sight of a huge wolf with midnight black fur much like my own prone on the ground.
“FATHER!” I called through the bond, turning at an angle where Leon couldn’t see what was happening.
The bond pulsated once with his power.
“…run…survive…” I managed to catch; the voice so weak I could barely hear it.
Another wolf, almost as large as my father but with copper red fur, emerged from the burning school building, my mother’s body dangling from his mouth.
I held back a cry as the wolf approached the group surrounding my father, his form and my mother disappearing within the crowd.
“…run!” my father commanded once again.
I felt myself break in half. A large part of me wanted to rush the group and save my father even if it meant my certain death, the other half knew I had to escape to keep Leon safe.
Trembling from head to toe, I burned the image in front of me into my memory before turning and running as fast as I could. I had to get away before they noticed our bodies weren’t among the dead or captured.
As I reached the edge of the property, Leon still dangling from my mouth, I heard the triumphant howls of my enemy. The connection to my father went silent and then disappeared.
As I ran from my family and my home, I swore I would be back. I would drown my enemies in a sea of blood and they would regret ever laying their hands on my pack.
I would not rest until each and every one of them was dead.
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