Page 84 of Rising Luna
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Hunter
This was turning into a bloodbath. There were at least fifty wolves from Dylan’s pack fighting alongside us, and somehow Lupe had triple our numbers in her reserves. I disemboweled, ripped, and tore through so many wolves that I lost count. Blood matted my fur and oozed down my chest in a thick, viscous fluid. When I first claimed Dylan, I thought I left the brutality and bloodshed of the Enforcer life behind. Something about her told me she would bring peace to my life, and now I am back to square one, doing what I have been stuck doing for decades.
Slaughtering my own kind.
It wasn’t hard to see which wolves here were my foe and which were my friends. There was a scent about the ones that Lupe claimed for herself. Our opposition’s scent was more that of a wolf than of a man. These even shed their human skin faster than what normal werewolves could do, giving these abominations an edge with their speed and strength. Their minds were shattered, revealing creatures who had abandoned their human forms. These were pure wolves, no humanity was left in their eyes. Their ferocity and lack of control showed in their fighting style.
There was no strategy for how they fought, no advanced tactics or forethought. It was all teeth, claws, snarling, and lunging towards my stomach or throat like a wild animal. Even though I was doing the same, I knew to distract them with a bite to their limbs. I had the privilege of formal military training, and I learned so many ways to kill an opponent, and a lot of the ways were to incapacitate them first. That’s what I tried to focus on. Thesethings, however, only had one goal in mind ,and they were relentless to achieve it. If I were less careful, or lacked theknowledge to successfully block an attacker, an attacker could easily rip open my jugular.
Because of Dylan, I could feel a faint pull on the pack bonds within her. I had access to them all from my bond with her, and I tried to assess how the others were doing. There was only one death from her pack so far, which was a good sign that we could handle this. The man was a good fighter too, but he was quickly overwhelmed and taken out. I felt they were targeting the strongest fighters in the pack first to overwhelm them with numbers and savagery and then pick off the rest when the ranks broke.
It was the same for me, Jackson, and Silas.
The three of us fell into a rhythm in the chaos and coordinated the attacks so we wouldn’t suffer the same fate as our fallen comrade. We stuck by each other’s sides as much as we could to avoid being singled out, and it was working for us. We had lost sight of Dylan, making us all nervous. I didn’t know about the others, but I kept reaching for the bond to feel her. Her energy was still as strong as ever.
When we all felt her terror rise from the shadows, we went to find her.
Do you see her?Silas asked as we approached.Is she still alright?
Like I can fucking see through this any better than you can!I snarled.
Our girl is stronger than this. She will let us know if she needs us.
Jackson was right. Dylan would let us know if she was in mortal danger, but this thick fog of shadows worried me. Other wolves were jumping into the melee, and it was getting harder to tell who was friend and who was foe. I had to rely on the scent of the pack to tell me, and I almost got it wrong a few times. The intermingling of aromas and odors mixed, and the contact ofbodies fighting and wrestling, added to the challenge. My wolf went frantic; all he knew was that Dylan was somewhere lost in the shadows, and we couldn’t see her.
We will keep wolves from going in. Lupe could be commanding them to go in there and attack Dylan to make the odds in her favor.
Good plan!Jackson rang with agreement in my mind.
Why aren’t we going in there? She could need us!Silas growled.
A few more wolves came towards us, and we charged them in an attempt to keep them from disappearing into the fog. It didn’t take us long. Some of these wolves had no fighting skills. It seemed like they were only just coming into their wolves. I worried I was attacking the lycan equivalent of child soldiers, but I couldn’t let that bother me right now. They were still an enemy who would have no qualms murdering me, Jackson, Silas, or Dylan. Unfortunately, the bitter truth of it was, there was no reversal from whatever Lupe had done to them. Once a human was severed from its wolf counterpart, there was nothing left to save.
Dylan managed to get Lupe to drop the shadowy fog. It made me smile to see her not being rattled about the ongoing battle raging around her. It also made my heart sing to see Lupe pissed. Silas wasn’t as happy about it, but he would learn that Dylan was a powerful force to be reckoned with. We didn’t need to worry about protecting her so much; she was more than capable enough to handle herself. It was our privilege to be the ones who could protect her, but she didn’t need it. It helped in this fight to know that, but it still didn’t stop me from wanting to be where she was in this fight now. Despite her combat prowess and her headstrong nature, I desperately wanted to be the one who would protect her.
When the fog dropped, we all saw the four wolves, two on either side of Lupe. Teowulf joined our ranks, and his wolf gave me a curt nod, as if he knew we needed another to help right now. Just as those wolves stared at my mate, we took off. We didn’t even have to coordinate our attack. We stood in a similar way, and we moved to strike the ones who were in our direct line of sight. These, however, weren’t like the rest of the wolves who we wiped across the battlefield. These soldiers knew exactly what they were doing in a fight. It made sense as to why they were close to Lupe. They were her personal body guards.
They weren’t a match for us, though.
It took a little longer than expected, but I overpowered the wolf I took on and sunk my teeth into the skin of his neck. This guy’s fur was thicker than normal, but I found his skin and shook my head to rip a large bloody piece of it out. He pushed his claws into my underside, but it didn’t pierce to cause any damage. I felt his life force fade away and looked up to see more wolves coming in from the tree line.
What the fuck!
How could there possibly be more wolves coming into this fight? Where the hell did Lupe get all of them? This was becoming a battle I wasn’t sure we would live through at this rate. There were too many damn wolves for us to face. Every time it looked like we had the upper hand, more were coming in. We needed more reinforcements.
Before we left, I contacted the Monarch and told him what we were facing. He didn’t seem to care. It didn’t sound like the alpha I grew up with. If I would have told him this was happening in my youth, he would have sent hundreds of wolves to the battle to ensure the victory.
Why wasn’t he doing that now?
Most of the Monarch’s pack were those who went through the academy to become an Enforcer. We were the werewolves’army, and we knew what our job meant. We were the ones keeping everything in line, and I signed up for that life. When I found Dylan, I gave it up, but the Monarch gave me the blessing to do so.
How the fuck are we going to deal with this? There are too many of them!Jackson growled as he came to my side to stare into the field of oncoming wolves.
Good fucking question. I don’t know. The Monarch didn’t seem to care when I told him what was about to transpire.
This time around, it didn’t look like fifty wolves. There were more. So many more.
Lupe had been busy when we originally thought her to be defeated. We should have taken her down for good. Where she even found this many wolves to join her cause had me baffled. I didn’t think this many would sign up to become something that wasn’t even a werewolf. These were wolves in human clothing.
