The Last Wolf Standing

Chapter Eighteen

     Zack and I introduced the guys to Aaron and some of the fighters in the pack. I could see my brother sizing up all of them. Silently I wondered how many wolves Vance was bringing with him and who they were. In my old pack there were so many guys that were so willing to hurt their ladies and some ladies who were willing to hurt their men. It sickened me; as much as I miss my family, I don't miss that pack's ways.

Multiple girls started to do the weirdest of thing to get my brother and his friends' attention. They bumped into them 'accidentally' or walked a certain type of way to draw their stares. It was actually pretty funny watching girls freak out over them, they weren't even that good-looking to me.

"Alright, so we have around seventy fighters, give or take a few." Aaron stated, some of them were in close proximity to him.

"That's a pretty good number, I don't believe that you will need all of them. How many extremely strong ones do you have?" Cole asked fervently.

"Probably thirty to thirty-five." He replied quickly.

"Great, Vance only has twenty fighters with him. We stand a pretty good chance against them but these persons are brutes, they will kill if they have to and will regret nothing." Cole warned, "Do not underestimate them, especially the girls, they are the most deadly."

"This sounds like it's going to be a massacre." Aaron voiced what everyone else was thinking. The air suddenly felt heavy.

"What if I run away? He might catch my scent and I can lead him away from the pack." I offered in hopes of helping my pack out of a situation that I put them in.

"No." Aaron, Zack and Cole said in unison.

"I know you, Maddie, you won't go back with him willingly. He has this idea in his head that if he can't have you then no one will. He will kill you." Cole looked me in my eyes as he spoke, his expression never wavering, he was serious and I knew that he was right.

My heart broke knowing that this could be the end for me; that it could be the end of all of us and it was my fault.

"Stop blaming yourself." Jaden lifted my chin with his finger, I had looked down after my brother broke eye contact with me.

Zack was standing behind me and I felt his body tense when Jaden touched me in such an affectionate manner. I reached back and let my hand touch him so that he knew that it was okay. His body stayed tense though. He didn't know that all of these guys were like my big brothers, if only he was there to see my childhood, they beat guys up that tried to hurt me when I was still in school.

"How did you know?" I questioned.

"I know that look, I always have." He said then let his finger drop, Zack finally relaxed.

"Little Bit, I can see that your boyfriend is going to seriously fight for you." Nick pointed out what I already knew, he was referring to how tense Zack got when Jaden touched me. Nick seems to never miss anything.

"I know." I smiled slightly and leaned into him.

"I thought he wasn't your boyfriend." Daniel smirked, I rolled my eyes.

"You know what I mean." I laughed a little before Zack whispered in my ear.

"Yet." He then spoke louder for everyone else to hear him, "I think we should start training."

Many heads turned our direction, tens of strapping young men and physically fit women came to us. I assumed that they were the fighters, they all looked very capable of putting up a good battle and all looked willing and even eager to engage in the upcoming war, for lack of a better word.

They all took instructions from Aaron as to who their sparring partners were and headed into the woods to shift. After a couple of seconds loud growling and things breaking could be heard, I assumed that their training session was really intense.

"I think that we should try three on one. To get a feel of what these cowards could possibly do. I know some wolves that like to gang up on one wolf in isolation before attacking, we should be prepared for that to happen." Aaron announced and we all nodded in agreement.

"I think that's something that they would actually do, especially with those wolves that look a lot smaller than them." Nick chimed in.

"From the time we realise that certain wolves look a lot smaller than other, we train with them a lot more so that they are more than capable of protecting themselves. We rely on an attacking wolf trying to take down our smaller wolves based on their size." Aaron smirked, "They are often greeted with a surprise that they never forget, if they survive."

"Good tactics, we don't do that back home but I think that we should. We hardly ever get attacked though and that's why we have so little fighters but they are all coldhearted and cruel." Nick continued the conversation.

"I need to do this three on one tactic with the smaller wolves to ensure that they are completely prepared for this fight." Aaron thought aloud, "Madison you can spar with Zack, Cole and Nick, you're smaller than the three of them I assume so this will be a good exercise for you since you are their actual target."

"Sounds good to me." I said to him before looking at my three sparring partners, "Don't go easy on me, I want to be ready for anything."

"Jason?" Aaron asked looking at Jaden.

"Close, my name is Jaden."

"Sorry, Jaden, you and your brother can spar with Nick and myself." Aaron stated and they all nodded.

Finally seeing my brother again made me completely forget about Lily, recently she had been so into Seth that I hardly noticed her much, I had a feeling that a lot of big things would happen between them. I excused myself, telling the guys that I would meet them in the woods in a few minutes, I had to find Lily.

It took a lot of searching but I finally found her, she was with Seth, Selena and Isabelle. Ryan was nowhere in sight but Isabelle didn't look upset so I guessed that their little talk went well. I greeted everyone then pulled Lily aside to speak with her privately.

"I'm going to be fighting, you nor Seth have to, I need you guys to make sure you keep Selena safe." I started, my voice becoming a whisper the more I spoke, "If I die, tell my parents that I love them."

The look on Lily's face was heartbreaking, she opened and closed her mouth multiple times, not knowing what to say. I wasn't expecting to die but I had to know that they knew that I was still thinking of them before I met my probable demise. She hauled me into a tight hug, sobbing a little as she did so.

"You're not going to die." She said sternly.

"Hopefully." I replied, "I only said that just in case something happens to me."

"Nothing is going to happen to you. You need to promise me that you will survive this." She begged, drawing back and keeping me at arm's length so that she could look at me properly and still touch me.

"I promise." I sighed even though I wasn't completely sure that I could make good on that promise.

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