The One

Chapter Eight

Emerald's POV

It was already nearing noon as I finished packing my military bag with my toiletries and my favorite stuffed piglet, Wilbur. I slung the bag over my shoulder and made my way out of my room for the last time and looked back one more time to take in the place that held all my memories and secrets with a mournful smile. Clyde miraculously, already had a black sedan parked out front and an unknown wolf was leaning against the hood of it by the time I walked down the steps of our old home behind Chase who had his blue duffel in tow.
"Are you ready for this sis?" he asked with nervous excitement, "As ready as I'll ever be." I huffed as the trunk of the sedan popped open on its own and me and him stacked our bags in. "Where's mom?" I asked Clyde, who was staring off in the distance as he waited for me and Chase to be done. "What, oh, she went to Elka's to offer her to come with us and join the pack, we could all use a well seasoned shaman, any pack would be lucky to have her, especially with her battle skills." He sighed. 'Mom! Are you coming? Is Elka?' I heard Chase ask through the link to which mom responded moments later with, 'Elka has decided that where we go she goes, she said something about keeping me out of trouble.' Mom giggled through the link. Me and Chase looked at each other in surprise, "Elka's joining a pack!" We basically screamed like school girls, jumping around and laughing, which earned a satisfied grunt from Clyde. "I've sent another one of my cars to pick them up." Clyde told us as he and the unknown wolf climbed into the front seats of the car. It was kind of funny watching my tall father climb into a seat that looked to small for the hulking man, but he managed and I chuckled to myself as I slid in the backseat behind him.
After a while we were merging on the highway leading another black sedan carrying mom and Elka onto the entrance ramp. All was quiet in the car except for the radio playing songs me and Chase had never heard before and we bobbed along with the beats. After a while I closed my eyes and before I knew it I had entered a dream.
    Eli's wolf, Fang had just tackled me to the ground in the training session our moms made us go through every Saturday to keep our battle training fresh in case of skirmishes with other rogues or natural predators in the area. His green eyes twinkled at me as his wolf's tongue flopped out of his mouth with a big grin across his jaw, me and Moon giggled at how handsome his grey wolf was, and Moon sighed heavily, 'I really hope he's our mate.' Which in turn made me scrunch my face, 'ewwwww Moon, he's like a brother to us!' I told my wolf in horror, 'No, Chase is our brother, Eli is a handsome wolf who knows everything about us,' she protested. We were pulled out of our inner monologue as a black form burst from the bushes and rolled Fang off me, 'and here comes the show-off' I linked my twin brother, as he playfully pinned Fang on his back with his nose and jaw to the dirt pinning Fang's neck. The boys wrestled a little longer as I made my way to the stream nearby and lapped up the cool, refreshing liquid. I heard a twig snap lightly in the distance and angled my ears to listen better as I continued to drink, 'probably a squirrel,' me and Moon concluded.
That was until a big brown figure burst from the brush and ran straight towards me, I scrambled back in surprise and yelped out of fear as it got closer and closer, I turned and ran back to the training area where my mom and everyone else was, 'Mom! Help, unknown wolf!' I screamed through the link. I could feel the stranger's breathe on my back haunches as I ran, I dug my claws deeper into the earth and was able to run faster and create distance between us. Just as my legs were about to give out, a grey figure soured over me to face the challenger, 'Fang!' Moon screeched as she took control of our body and turned to help fight the huge brown wolf he had tackled to the ground. As I sighed in relief to see he was okay, a black figure came flying through the bushes and as Chase was going to help Fang, we witnessed the unknown wolf bite hard into the grey wolf, foam around its fangs, 'Foam? Elka, you better come quick! Fang's been bitten by what looks like a rabid werewolf!' I sent the shaman. I was rushing in to bite down on the strangers haunch when Fang suddenly reeled back off the wolf, giving it the freedom to pursue again, as the wolf righted itself I looked at Chase and we both nodded as we started circling the animal on either side.
Before either of us could enact the training plan we had been practicing earlier that day, the wolf locked eyes with me and growled a deep growl and jumped towards me, I wasn't going to be fast enough to get out of the way, and that was when Blister, my mother's wolf, came out of nowhere and rammed the wolf in its side, tackling it to the ground, I shook off my fear, my family was in danger.  Finally moving I ran over and grabbed the strange wolf's neck and with a deep breath pressed my fangs deep into its windpipe with a bone rattling crunch, which was rewarded with the crazed thrashing of the creature suddenly stilling.  I was content with the kill and released the wolf only to find I wasn't able to breathe and before I knew what was happening I had shifted back to my human form clawing at my throat, looking at Blister and rasped out to her that I couldn't breathe and this wolf's blood was doing something to me.  After I communicated, I blacked out.

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I woke with a start, sweat pouring down my face, grabbing the seat below me tightly and accidentally shifting my nails and tearing the fabric.  "Em, it was just a memory," my brother stated as he moved to the middle seat and wrapped his huge arms around me, I turned into the embrace and relaxed my grip on the seat, before I started sobbing, this was a sob of loss, misery, longing, fear.  My brother held me gently as I let it out before I remembered where I was, with a start I pushed Chase back and wiped my swollen red eyes on the back of my sweatshirt and sniffed, "I'm okay, really, thank you brother." I said softly, the stranger driving the car met my eyes in the rear view, they were surprisingly filled with concern, and Clyde turned his head to look at me, "Are you okay daughter." He asked softly, I nodded my head, I couldn't speak I was so embarrassed, it had been a solid year since my last nightmare about Eli.  "She was dreaming of the attack, the one mom informed you of." Chase said quietly, "she used to dream of it more often, it's been a while since she's woken up like that." Chase said to which I leaned over and laid my head in his lap, he instinctually started gently playing with my hair, which had me pulling off into another dream about running through the woods as Moon, much more peaceful.