Second Chances

Ayda

When I leaped off the overhang, I aimed for the wolf that was right in front of the boy. I landed on him, hearing the satisfying snap of his spine as the wolf howled in pain. The other four wolves immediately turned on me.

I quicky pushed myself off the wolf and back so I was between the pup and the other wolves. They are warriors and while I may not be an Alpha wolf, I was a Luna for several years and I trained with our pack warriors.

I realize as they leap at me, that these are my previous pack members. I know these wolves. They won’t recognize me because I smell like a rogue to them, but I recognize them. I have no idea why they are attacking this pup, but I refuse to allow them to hurt or kill him.

It works in my favor that I know their fighting techniques. I may be out of practice, but I still remember my training and when one wolf leaps, I duck, turning my head away from him to counter the attack that I know will come from the other side.

It does, just as I expect and Asena snaps her jaws on the wolf’s mouth, snapping his bottom jaw as she quickly thrashes her head back and forth. I release the wolf in front of me as I feel teeth sink into my flank, yanking and ripping me to the side.

I grit my teeth as Asena rips her leg out of the wolf’s mouth, leaving a chunk of flesh behind. Another wolf, thinking he has an opening, goes for her throat. Instead, she rolls slashing her claws up under the wolf before quickly regaining her feet. The movement moved us away from the boy, but as long as the others stay focused on us, that’s okay. If I can get them far enough away from him, maybe he can run. I’m not even sure what he’s doing out here all alone. He’s too young to be on his own.

The wolf who first leaped at Asena, leaps again, and this time, two of the other wolves attack at the same time. This is new and I’m not sure if they’ve learned new skills or if they’ve modified their attack because I countered it the first time.

The wolf who leaps, gets a hold of the fur and skin on the back of Asena’s neck, holding on as he lands and just as she did, he shakes his head furiously, tearing the skin. Another wolf leaps at her, his jaws snapping on her front leg. I hear the snap of her leg and hear her howl of pain in the air and in my mind just as the pain hits me.

The wolf with her leg in his mouth gets thrown to the side as the wolf holding her neck continues to thrash us back and forth. Asena, taking quick advantage of the opportunity, sinks her teeth into the wolf’s neck, his blood filling our mouth before she is yanked off of him. One down.

Another wolf leaps at her throat, but she rips her neck out of the wolf’s mouth, dropping to the ground, letting the leaping wolf smash into the wolf that was holding her neck.

The wolf with the broken jaw attempts to pin Asena to the ground but instead, she swipes her back claws down the underside of his body, his insides spilling out on the ground. Two down.

The wolf with the broken back is still alive, but paralyzed and unable to shift. He’ll die one way or the other. Three down. We turn, focusing on the two who are left.

Asena is badly injured, one leg broken and she’s bleeding from the wound on her flank and the terrible tearing on the back of her neck. She stands her ground, holding the injured leg off the ground. She’s hurting but the adrenaline flowing through our body is keeping her on her feet.

The two wolves spread out, planning to attack us on two sides. Both of her injuries are on her left side, so she hops, trying to keep her strong side facing the wolves, but eventually, she has no choice but to leave her weak side open to one of the wolves and that’s when they attack again.

The one wolf dives for her front leg, probably planning to rip it off. She leaps up, but not before the other wolf, the one who had her by the neck, grabs her right back leg and begins yanking on her leg at a bad angle.

I hear the pop a moment before Asena howls in pain. Her back leg now dislocated and unable to be used. She turns, snapping at the face of the wolf, but he lets go and backs away.

We feel the air shift as the other wolf leaps at us from behind, but she turns her head quickly, snapping her jaws and just missing his throat as she grabs hold of the side of the wolf’s neck. We’ve both just come crashing down to the ground when the boy screams.

“LOOK OUT!”

We release the wolf and turn, barely getting our paws up to push the other wolf off of us, but the pressure on the broken leg and the dislocated leg causes Asena to howl out in pain again.

She rolls on her side, scrambling to get back up onto her feet. The adrenaline isn’t enough to keep the pain from radiating through our body. Our body is aching and every time she tries to stand, pain shoots from one part of her body or another.

‘Come on, Asena. You can do it. We’re all that pup has standing between him and certain death.’

I feel my wolf pull on her inner reserves. I know she’s strong, I also know that my wolf will kill herself to try and save me or those she cares about. This time, though, if she goes, I’m going with her.

The two wolves get to their feet, recognizing that they’ve won. I’m a dead woman, but I can still try to take down at least one more of them. Then there’s only one for the boy to fight and that gives him a chance.

I need to take out the stronger one, the one I’ve barely touched in this fight. The other one is injured and will give the pup a chance to live, or wait for his parents to return. The other one, I’m pretty sure it’s Masuzyo’s Beta, Marcel, is barely scratched. He’s the one that had me by the back of my neck. He’s also probably the one who ripped the chunk out of my flank. He needs to die.

‘Focus on him, Asena. We take him down before we go down.’

‘Okay, Ayda,’ she says, and I feel her resolve blending with mine. We know we will die, but we have to do what we can to save this pup. We couldn’t save our own, but we can save this one.

The moment they leap, we do too, aiming for Marcel. I hear a yelp, but I can’t lose focus. I have to bring this Beta down. His teeth sink into our shoulder, and the two of us hit the ground, rolling end over end. When we stop, Asena is on top, and she snaps her teeth into the side of the wolf’s neck. She yanks as hard as she can, ripping flesh away from bone. Marcel howls in pain, releasing her shoulder and she quickly spits out the flesh as her pushes off of him. She scrambles to her feet as he does the same and I can see that our landing has injured him, he’s favoring his back leg. Good.

We both snarl at each other and I vaguely realize that the other wolf is gone. I hope he didn’t go after the pup. I can’t look though, I need to focus on Marcel.

I trained with him many times when I was his Luna, in both wolf and human form. He’s formidable, but he’s very predictable if you know his moves. Since he’s injured, Asena and I guess at his next move. He’s going to fake a leap and then come in low, trying to get to our throat.

The moment he looks like he’s about to leap, she does instead. As predicted, he drops low, intending to go for Asena’s throat. Instead, Asena lands on top of him, her teeth snapping into his neck and crushing his spine. He yelps before she thrashes her head back and forth, making sure the spinal column is severed completely before releasing him.

She turns, stumbling away from him, looking around to check on the boy. He steps out of the thicket, watching us closely. He has blood on his hands and arms and I look to see the other wolf lying dead on the ground, a sharp rock imbedded in his throat.

Asena drops to the ground, pulling the shift that has me screaming in pain. The boy rushes over to me, pulling me into his lap.

“Hang on, my father’s coming. Just hang on,” he says.

“You should run,” I tell him, as I feel his tears dripping onto my face. “Run, little Alpha. Get away from here,” I tell him, realizing now that he’s close to me that he’s an Alpha pup. No wonder they were after him.

He shakes his head. “No, I won’t leave you. You saved me. I won’t leave you.”

I want to tell him to go, to hurry before more wolves come, but I’ve lost too much blood. We did what we set out to do.

‘We saved him, Asena.’

‘Yes. It’s a good way to die,’ she says, as the world goes black around me.