𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐀𝐂𝐊⠀ ⁽ ¹ ⁾

THE END

The rogue swings his massive claws at me, grunting in aggression as I keep avoiding contact. Taking the rogue's arm, I twist and pin it at his back as he thrashes about. "Let go of me!" I snap the bone, causing him to cry out in pain. Pushing him to the ground, he withers in pain. Two more run at me and I run at them, making use of the tree trunk and kick off of it.

Bringing both my claws down, I scratch heavily across both their faces and land safely. 
Everything happens so fast around me that for every opponent, I only have one or two seconds to glance around. Allison is fighting alongside Vincent, and Cesáreo firing arrows and using a bit of team work to maim or wound the rogues.

Rex, Regan, Abby and Gates fight close quarters and far range able to fend off hordes of rogues together as well as separately. We may be holding our own but in terms of numbers we won't be able to hold out for long.

"Hey, alpha!" Before I have a moment to react a blunt tree branch swings across my head and knocks my face into the dirt. Groaning from the impact, I look back just in time to see Mitch come down on me and grab my throat. "Remember me?" He chuckles, applying more pressure. "I'm going to end you!" 

A loud howl erupts from behind and above us and a pitch-black wolf leaps over the hill tackling him off of me. Getting up from the ground, I rub my hand against my head feeling the gash already healing. Then watch as the black wolf shifts back into a human. "Dirk?" I ask, as he turns around to face me. "I thought you left." 

"I did." He says walking closer to me. "But I wasn't going to let the guy who killed my mom get off the hook that easy, which is why I brought friends." I blink in surprise. "Friends?" He grins and sticks two fingers on the entrance of his lips and lets out a high pitch whistle.

More howls echo all around putting a pause around the entire war itself. Dozens of wolves' leap over our heads similar to Dirk's entrance when a brown furred wolf with familiar green eyes stops and turns to look back at us. "Cade?" I ask, and he gives me a tail wag letting me know I'd gotten his identity right before dashing into the fight. Following a similar looking wolf who also looks back at us, nodding his head.

"He's the son of Tristan Thayer, Brom." Dirk tells me, smiling. I look at him in shock. "The Tristan Thayer?" He nods. "Thayer got the neighboring packs to join us too."  Dirk adds. I gasp. "All of them?" He grins. "All of them." He says, placing his hand on my shoulder. "C'mon, cous." He says, placing a hand on my shoulder. "Let's make our parents proud."

My initial shock slowly morphs into a confident grin. Dirk shifts back into a wolf, we rush in. The battle is starting to turn in our favor, we're all panting, sweating, bloodied and wounded. In the midst of battle I manage to find Allison fighting at her side and speaking in between opponents. 

"Are you okay?" I ask her, in the middle of firing another arrow, she nods. "Tired, but I'll push through. You look like hell though." I grin at her joke, sucker punching a rogue as he tries to scratch me. "Thanks for that, listen, I thought I saw your uncle heading in the opposite direction. I've told the other wolves to capture him."

"That's fine." Upon seeing us surrounded, she sticks out her hand and I grab it. Spinning in a circle, she kicks back all the rogues before I place her down again. "You should go find Quill." She says. "The faster he's dealt with, maybe this war can end."

"Good idea." I tell her, and move to run but not before she grabs my arm. When I turn around again, she's looking at me, softer and sweeter. "Don't leave without this." Allison grabs a handful of my shirt and drags me forward crashing her lips to mine. For a moment everything fell silent, like the world stopped, and the sounds of battle are drowned out. Nothing but the feeling of our lips moving against each other. We pull away. "You better come back to me when this is done, you got that?"