Forever Luna

solidarity

noun ~ a feeling of unity and mutual support among people who share common goals, interests, or struggles

CHARLIE

Calida's wolf slammed the enemy wolf into the ground and tore through its throat before it could get back up. Another came at her from behind, and she twisted with impossible speed, catching him mid-leap.

Her wolf had come after me and defended me when I thought she never would. After everything that had happened. After I left her in that forest, believing it was goodbye, believing the bond between us might never be enough to call her back to me...

She had followed.

Not as a shadow, or a creature lost to instinct, but as a choice.

Her wolf had chosen me, and although her human mind wasn't in control, something about that gave me hope.

"Calida," I breathed.

Her head snapped toward me, her jaw dropping the decapitated wolf's head to the ground. Dark eyes met mine, but there was a sliver of colour around the edge I hadn't seen before. She scanned me, her nose twitching as she looked at the broken man in my arms. Then she growled, ears flattening against her head in a warning.

"He's my friend." I whispered, still shocked.

Her ears twitched, her tongue darting out in appeasement.

Something was there, something perhaps not Calida, but definitely something more than a feral rogue.

I never thought it was possible.

Then another wolf surged toward myself and Pollux from my right, and I tensed, knowing I'd have to shift again. But Calida moved instantly, placing herself between us and the attack, protecting us without me ever asking to.

My chest cracked open in more ways than the bloodied flesh the other wolf had created. Choices. Something feral wolves didn't have.

Was she finally coming back?

Or was I overthinking this?

I'd long since lost hope, but this definitely seemed... more.

Hope was all I had.

The wolf hurled itself back at her, but she met it head-on before another joined it. They sensed weakness in Pollux, recognised him as something valuable to their leader, and closed in around us.

I groaned as I shifted back to wolf, keeping Pollux beneath me as best I could. He sagged against the ground, barely conscious, one hand pressed weakly to his chest.

Calida fought beside me as we defended him from the back, as the rest of the pack defended the front. For the first time in weeks, we moved like water. She drove one wolf backward, and I finished it. I snapped at another's legs, and she took the opening to tear out its throat. We circled Pollux together, a brutal, blood-soaked shield.

For a few seconds, hope was a living thing in my chest.

Until Nova screamed. And not as a wolf, but as a very human woman.

My head spun, ears twitching as I searched for her among the battle. Phoenix snarled at the sound, and my eyes met the concerned ones of struggling Sean across the battlefield.

The strangled sound cut through the battle, and I swear my blood froze when I saw the wolf that had its teeth around her already broken arm.

Why was she human?

Phoenix was fighting to reach her, the other leader wolf surprisingly still alive but unconscious beneath his feet. More wolves threw themselves into his path, slowing him by inches that might as well have been miles.