Blood Moon

Chapter [7] - The Attack

Sarah sighed as we looked off into the distance. Her body was leaning away from me, her whole aura letting me know she would rather be anywhere else.

"I don't want to hate you, I want to apologise for what happened in school, but honestly, I don't think I'd mean it. You represent everything that is wrong in our world."

We made eye contact for a second, her green eyes alive with conflict. I'd never seen someone look so torn. I could see her anger but there was pain in those eyes and a part of me understood it because pain was a horrible thing.

"Then don't apologise, especially if you don't mean it." I looked away back into the distance.

"Rogues have taken a lot from us, they took my parents. They changed this pack forever. Anderson found my parents dead, rogues tricked and killed them, that can't be forgiven." She sounded so angry and I couldn't blame her.

"No it can't, but I'm not the person that killed them, yet I'm paying the price for it. Actually, I'm paying for every mistake any rogue has ever made. That's a lot for a girl, especially when she didn't choose to be a rogue in the first place."

We made eye contact again and I wasn't the one who broke it. If anything, I had to get my point across. It made sense, the hatred that lingered through this pack, especially if their previous Alpha had been killed by them, but I wasn't the one who did that.

Hating me for it surely wasn't fair.

Nothing was said in response. A frown came over Sarah's face, a sort of vacant look coming over her eyes. In seconds she was back, stumbling to her feet, using the tree to hold her weight. I followed confused.

"What is it?" I asked, looking as her confusion turned to fear.

"Anderson's sent a pack message. They are here!" She panicked, looking into the distance. That's when I saw it, the flames.

It was like a light in the distance, a flickering that you wouldn't have looked twice at if it wasn't getting bigger. In a second, it was huge. They must have been setting fire to different areas.

"Anderson's sending...oh my god."

"What..."

Following her gaze, there must have been a dozen rogues vaulting towards the land. I couldn't quite make out what was in their hands, but I knew it wasn't good.

"Run." I demanded. She didn't move, so I pulled her away, desperately trying to put distance between us and the rogues.

"We have to go." I begged.

Howling erupted around us, the sound of the pack violently in the air. I pulled Sarah in front of me, pushing her forward. She seemed to be in shock.

"Run, don't stop." I shouted.

Turning back to help in the fight, I saw Anderson was heading towards the rogues with pack fighters but that didn't stop them. The rogues lit the rags that were in their bottles, throwing them onto the parkland.

"No." I gawked.

Smashing erupted all around me, the flames violently bursting into the air. I turned but thankfully Sarah was gone. The smoke surrounded me in a few seconds. I covered my mouth trying to stop it entering my lungs but it was useless, the air was thick with it.

"No, my baby."

I didn't know who screamed desperately in the distance, but a few seconds later a blurred shadow darted past me a few feet away. I ran towards it, something telling me that even although I was getting thicker into the flames, this was where I had to be.

'You need to get to safety.' Jess begged.

Ignoring her, I ran. In seconds, I saw a woman, a rogue gripping a child closely to her. She was running - fast. The child was pack. I had seen her around. Her small body was unconscious, the smoke too much for her to handle. I could hear her faint heartbeat and I went into protective mode.

I didn't think twice. Turning to my wolf, I vaulted after her. Jess was faster. The fire singed my fur, Jess howling desperately in pain, but I pushed her on, after the woman.

Lunging into the air, the woman fell onto the ground under me. She gripped ferociously to the child, her grip and eyes desperate.

"She's mine, she's my child." She shouted.

Biting her arm, I let her blood coat my tongue, the grinding of flesh through my teeth deafeningly loud. She let go, not for long.

"She's mine. I shouldn't have given her up."

When she grabbed her again, I bit her arm, dragging her as she kicked and screamed, trying to make her way back to the small lifeless body on the ground. When I made it to the border, I howled at her to leave. Stupidly, she let her animal out, landing on top of me. Jess growled, throwing her off.

'I'll take care of this, my human.'

Jess took control and I pleaded for her not to but she lunged at the wolf. It's a lot smaller than ours. Tumbling on the ground, the bites into my fur agony from the wolf. I could feel the pain in every part of my body. Jess had enough. At the first opportunity, she made a calculated move. Lunging for the wolf's neck, she bit. She bit until the wolf stopped struggling. She bit until the wolf lay dead below us.

We'd never killed anything before. As I looked at the wolf, covered in blood, I felt sick to my stomach. I had watched the life leave her body and nothing could ever prepare someone for that.

'It had to be done human, it was us or her. This is a war and I'll protect you at any cost.'

That didn't make me feel any better, but I had more important matters to deal with. Turning back into my human form, I stumbled back through the flames, the agonising burning of my skin continuous. As I got to the girl, I lifted her, trying to breathe but, lost to the thick smoke that was entering my lungs. My steps were rigid, my body more painful than it had ever been, but I wouldn't stop until she was safe.

Breaking past the flames, the smoke was still thick but I could make out the shadows of pack members in the distance. My mind was foggy, my heart constricting in my chest as I tried to drag the oxygen into me.

It was no use.

Only when a pack member grabbed the girl from my arms shouting that her daughter had been saved did I let the darkness take me.

I remember the thud of my body as it hit the ground, the agonising pain overwhelming as the burns on my body rubbed against the muddy earth, but after that there was nothing and I had never been more grateful than to escape into the blinding emptiness of the unknown.