His Runaway Luna

10. Under Attack

* Trigger warning: fire. * 

Iris

I dressed up and looked out of the window. My eyes immediately found Alpha Zack’s huge black wolf, an impressive and imposing figure. He was already running among our attackers, clawing, biting, killing them restlessly. Beta Grey and Colton were also there, fighting wolves and lycans. 

Marching through our land and leaving a trail of blood in the snow, the army of werewolves, both in their wolf and human form, joined by a dozen lycans were attacking our people with weapons and brute force. My eyes trailed to a couple of lycans, they were much bigger than werewolves, looking like gigantic wolves with human-like features, they stood on two feet like humans, which made them easy to recognize from miles away. In their huge and menacing form, they could easily crack bones as if they were toys. 

I gulped hard, recalling that one of these creatures killed my mom. Our pack was strong and always prepared for the worst: invaders, bare land and cruel weather. However, every time someone succeeded in breaking through our borders, we faced so many losses, dread and death. 

We had already lost so much, I had already lost so much. I couldn’t stand here safe, while my pack was under attack. The other times it happened years ago, I was too young and didn’t have my wolf, so I couldn’t do anything. But now everything has changed. 

“We are their Luna, Iris. We don’t need a title or ceremony for that, we have to protect our people!” Sapphire howled in my mind. She was absolutely right, I felt the energy flowing in my body and in my soul. Regardless of the Alpha and his will, I was these people’s Luna. 

The noise of an explosion filled the air and I saw flames starting to build around the Pack Clinic. It wasn’t snowing, it was in fact a dry day, meaning that the flames would spread fast, lethally. 

The ranked members and warriors were too busy fighting their attackers and only a few people ran towards the clinic to help them extinguish the fire. 

My heart clenched in my chest when I realized that besides other sick and vulnerable wolves, Zita was there. I couldn’t stay here and let it burn, I had to do something about it. 

“Let me take care of it!” Sapphire said with determination and I opened the door and gave her complete control, shifting to her form. This time I could shift much faster than in my first two times, and it was almost painless.

I heard a couple more explosions and my heart beat with determination. 

Sapphire ran down the stairs as fast as her paws took her, the house was empty. Surely the omegas were, with good reason, hiding somewhere. 

I shifted back for a moment, only to open the door, and left through it running fast towards the clinic. Even in these horrible circumstances, shifting to Sapphire’s form filled my lungs with the fresh sensation of freedom. 

Within a couple of minutes, my paws were running through bloody snow into the middle of the battlefield. The heat of the fight, their anger and the fire—the aftermath of the bombs they threw in some of the pack buildings—made the temperature around increase a few degrees. 

We didn’t stop. Not even for screams, dreadful noise of bones breaking, shots fired, nor knives and claws slashing through the flesh of the fighters, which overwhelmed Sapphire’s ears. We kept running even asSapphire saw the lycans ripping through our warriors and blood being spilled in the white snow. 

Strangely no one spared me a look. Were they too focused on their fight or was Sapphire too white that she was hard to notice on the snow?

But a few feet further, something made her paws halt and her breath hitch in her throat: a brown wolf was circling two small teenage girls. I couldn’t leave them there, they didn’t stand a chance and no one was around to help them. 

Sorry Zita, but you will have to wait a little longer. 

Sapphire jumped on his back before he even saw her coming. She was a silent wolf, even though she seemed bigger than other she-wolves. She bit his ear, almost taking it off, as he turned around violently making her fall off him. But just like a cat, my wolf managed to fall on her paws. 

She stood in front of the two girls protectively, they were trembling and I could smell their fear and listen to their racing hearts. Sapphire snarled at him, baring her fangs in a menacing way, demanding his submission and surrender. But he didn’t relent, I had to distract him at least long enough to give the girls time to leave and run into safety.  

I didn’t have any fighting experience, all I knew was by watching my dad sparring. I sent Sapphire a mental image, a memory and she knew what to do. Reproducing one of my father’s most used fighting techniques she leapt forward, her eyes fixed on his front paw. 

The brown wolf was expecting her attack and when he took a defensive stance, she pushed her body down and dove under him, biting the upper part of his chest and clawing his belly. He was down, whining and rolling onto his back.

I watched it from the corner of Sapphire's eye as the girls ran as fast as they could and entered a house nearby. A long sigh of relief escaped my constricted chest. 

“Pup!” Sapphire murmured in my head, her eyes on the wolf on the floor. We had the chance to kill him, but neither of us wanted to, he was out of the fight and that was enough. 

I heard a high-pitched growl, a light-brown wolf was approaching us and he wasn’t part of my pack. Damnit! I had to go for Zita now that the girls were safe. 

Sapphire tried to outrun the light-brown wolf, but she wasn’t fast enough and he was getting closer. To my surprise and relief, Colton’s grey wolf jumped on him, causing him to sloppily roll on his back at the impact.

“Iris, you shouldn’t be here,” he complained in my mind. 

“Zita is in the Pack Clinic and it’s on fire. I had to,” I replied without stopping running. 

“You should have mind-linked me instead of jumping into the line of fire. Iris… just go there and be careful, I will try to give you coverage.” He sounded frustrated even through the mind-link.  

I sighed, with the chaos coupled with the worry I didn’t even think about mind-linking Colton to help Zita instead. But there was no way I would remain there waiting and brushing my hair like a fairytale princess while my pack was being attacked. 

The Pack Clinic was being consumed by flames, a curtain of smoke surrounded it. Sapphire closed her eyes and we focused on the sounds and smells, I heard the sound of beating hearts, many of them. But from here, I could only smell the toxic smoke and the fire. 

I looked around, there were only two men in their human form trying to extinguish the fire by smothering the walls with thick pieces of leather but it was far from enough. Sapphire went around the house, the front door was up in flames, so we had to find another way in. Her gaze found a large window, it was the only one in the whole house. That would do it. 

We both took in a lungful of air, and ignoring the yells of the two men nearby, she dove into the window, broke it and entered the small house. The smoke made her cough a lot, but she kept walking trying to catch Zita’s scent and other people’s heartbeats. We couldn’t only save Zita and leave the others to die. 

“There are only four people in the house, Iris. In the back rooms,” she let me know, and jumping through the flames as well as we could, we arrived there. 

Sapphire broke through the door like a wolf-rocket. This room wasn’t very affected by the fire, but there was a lot of smoke there. 

The pack doctor and a nurse were crouched in one of the corners of the room. A little pup, who didn’t seem older than five years old, was wrapped in a blanket like a burrito in the doctor’s arms. 

“Iris?” Zita’s startled voice attracted my attention, she looked intently at me, her hazel eyes wide open. I tried to mind-link her, but it didn’t work at all. Something must be wrong with her wolf. She ran in my direction and hugged Sapphire, I couldn’t miss the fact that she was limping. Goddess, what happened to her?

“Doctor, we have to leave now!” I mind-linked Doctor Liliana instead. 

“We should wait here, help is coming. I talked to one of the warriors, they are coming to help us, leaving here is much more dangerous. Jennifer tried to leave and she got this nasty burn,” she motioned to the nurse’s burnt arm, saying it out loud, her words cut by a fit of cough. 

“There is no time, the house will collapse soon! I saw it from the outside,” I told them. 

She exchanged a look with the nurse, telling her and Zita what I told them. They nodded hesitantly. 

“We can leave through the window in the room on the left.” 

The doctor repeated my words out loud and after taking blankets and towels to cover themselves, they all followed Sapphire. Zita leaned on Sapphire for support, my poor friend’s leg was badly wounded. How could that have happened? She was a werewolf, she was supposed to be healed by now. Unless she was injected with lots of wolfsbane and hurt with silver. Goddess! I will make that bloody monster of a beta pay! 

We walked through the hall trying to dodge the flames and jump over the burning carpets, pieces of wood and the hospital cubicle curtains. Sapphire’s lungs were clenching, desperate for air, but all she could breathe in was smoke. The doctor made it to the left room fast, she turned to look at us before jumping out of the window with the pup in her arms. 

Sapphire sighed in relief, which was a bad idea and only made her inhale lots of smoke, making her nostrils and lungs burn and sting. She pawed her muzzle quickly, but it didn’t help at all. It was getting hard to breathe and even to keep her eyes open, the dark smoke was poisoning her lungs and making her eyes water. 

We put ourselves together and took a few steps forward, seeing the nurse successfully leaving the burning house as well. While Sapphire’s stinging eyes were on her, Zita lost her balance, falling on some flames. She screamed in agony and Sapphire nudged her to the side, rolling her a few feet away from the flames. 

Zita smothered the flames on her leg with difficulty, screams leaving her mouth, she was panicking. I was panicking too, but I tried to push it to the back of my mind, otherwise, we would die here. Sapphire nudged her again, trying to help her to stand up but she stayed motionless, panting for air. 

“Iris, I don’t think I can…” more cough than words left her mouth, “Go without me…” she whimpered. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she fainted. 

Sapphire blinked a tear. And when we looked around, the flames were getting closer, eating up the structure around us, I felt a vibration. The house was about to collapse. If we didn’t leave within a few minutes, we would die here.