A Wolf's Tale (Book #1) The Secrets Untold

Chapter 17

Rascal's head snapped up at Jumper's call. Jumper, Baron, Frost, and Rascal were out scouting when Mortals were spotted among the thickest part of their territory. Barking was heard, then dogs swarmed from the shadows, and leaped at the wolves.

Rascal dodged a coming blow from a dog. The dog was big and burly, with long ears and a black and brown coat. His teeth were bared as he lunged at the wolf. Rascal met his match, with a hard smack to the face. Then he pushed his weight to his fore paws, and kicked out with his hind legs, striking the dog in the chest.

It whimpered, then growled with rage and bowled Rascal over onto his back. He was helpless, flailing his paws to block the coming blows. The weight of the dog crushed him, and he felt like he couldn't breathe. He tried his best to pry the dog off with his back legs, lashing, kicking, and pushing as hard as he could. But nothing seemed to work.

Frost, thankfully, noticed, and pushed the dog off, snarling with absolute hatred. She fought the dog off, giving Rascal time to scramble to his paws. He quickly gazed around. There were five dogs and three Mortals.

One of the two-legged creatures raised a Thunder-stick to his shoulder and was aiming for Baron. His eyes were evil and cunning, lips pulled back in a victorious smile. Rascal raced forward as fast he could, paws thrumming over the frosty ground, and side-tackled the Mortal. The Thunder-stick went off, the noise nearly deafened the black wolf. A ringing was echoing in his ears. The Mortal fell with a grunt, and Rascal just stood there, numb and rooted to the spot. Something wet trickled down his face. He delicately touched a paw to his ear, pulling it away to see scarlet blood. He brushed his ear again, feeling it was...different? It felt misshapen?

It dawned on him; His ear was near blown off. A hole was at the right side of his ear, he twitched it maliciously, and jumped up, missing a bullet from another Thunder-stick. He landed on the Mortal that shot him and killed him instantly. He glanced up, another dog was upon him. It was bigger than the last, an idea came to Rascal's mind.

He taunted the dog and waved his tail in mockery. The animal snarled and ran towards Rascal. Waiting, then brushed swiftly past the dog, landing a hit to the dog's shoulder. Then, he began to run circles around the dog. It spat in frustration, whirling around to face him, only to see his tail streaming out.

Rascal smirked to himself, with a mighty lunge, he spun in the air and his teeth met the dog's throat. Triumph surge in his veins, he turned around to see the wolves chasing the invaders away. He was left panting, heaving for breath, blood trickling down his face.

Baron limped up, eyes shining with exhaustion. "You okay? I saw what happened."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Rascal slumped his shoulders, weariness taking over. He couldn't believe Mortals would be so stupid to actually try and take on wolves so close to their camp. Then he remembered that they were stupid anyway.

He followed them back to camp, padding next to Jumper. The brown wolf was bleeding heavily from a wound above his left eye. He glanced at Rascal as they limped along. "You sure you're okay?"

Rascal didn't want to talk to Jumper. "Fine." He replied flatly, keeping his eyes focused forward. His ear stung, and he twitched it, trying to relieve the pain.

"Can you hear from that ear?" Jumper asked in concern. "Did you lose your hearing?"

He bit back a sigh. "Yes, I can hear just fine." He met Jumper's brown eyes. "I don't want to talk about it though."

Jumper's eyes glimmered with hurt. He nodded and didn't say a word the rest of the way back. They entered camp in a bloody group. Wolves came from their dens. When they saw the injured ones, they rushed forward to make sure they were okay.