The above song is called Running With the Wolves by Aurora. Just saying, she sounds waaay better without auto tone. I'm jealous, her voice is so pretty but I sound like a strangled toad.

The picture is A Penny for Thoughts!!!: Withered Rose at truethoughts-niranjan.blogspot.com

While you read this 110% awesome chapter, make sure to comment. I love comments 💙

My jaw slightly opened as a silent cry left my lungs. The clearing was littered with the dead. Sharlet's limp figure laid a few bounds away, glazed eyes staring into the abyss as blood trickled from her gaping mouth.

The ones who were still alive hosted the marks of a battle and were closely huddled together, a short distance from where my mother cried at my fathers limp, battle torn corpse. A series of long, haggard claw marks swept down her side, visible past her white cotton shirt stained dark red and ripped in multiple places.

However, this is not what truly horrified me, in the air above the Luna, my father's head hung, his blank eyes seemed to stare straight at mine as his dislocated jaw hung down farther than what it should. Even at the distance I stood, I could see the passage from his mouth and down his throat where it opened up to show the ground below.

My eyes filled with tears in the clearing that had fallen silent, dead silent.

My gaze slowly followed the hand that clenched my father's dark, black hair. Its bruised knuckles were white from gripping so tightly. I gradually lifted my eyes, and as I met the yellow pair that glared back, my mother screamed a heart felt cry, and my heart stopped.

Before me stood, what appeared to be an enemy Alpha, roughly the same age as me. His human form was covered in blood, my pack's blood. His yellow eyes glared maliciously at me, seeming to sense whose daughter I was. My world spiraled to a crashing halt as I stared into the eyes of the one who had ruined my life, my pack, and my home. I felt bile rise in my throat as a growl ripped from my lips.

I was vaguely aware of one of my pack sacks being opened and the contents being thrown to the ground until a knife was ripped out. Talon, who had at some point shifted and was very exposed, sprang to Jade and Ivy to release them from the carcass they had hauled to camp.

"Run!" he yelled at us, not having time to cut the belts that remained wrapped around me before retreating to where we had previously passed through the barrier, shifting back to his large black wolf. The others quickly followed his lead while the young enemy Alpha barked orders to his pack, his face contorted in a snarl as he scrutinized my fleeing patrol.

Ivy shoved me out of my daze and we rushed after our pack.

"What's the plan?" Ivy panted.

"Stick together, we need to defend ourselves if it comes to tha-"

"No," Geyser interrupted Jade. "We'll slow each other down and be easily tracked, we need to split up."

Ivy broke in before they clogged the mind link with their dispute, "It's up to Crystal. She holds the highest rank."

She glanced at me as we zipped past a tree. My mind was in mental turmoil and I shuddered at the thought of their lives resting in my hands.

"GET A GRIP, CRYSTAL!" Brook screeched in my mind. "You are destined to be a leader and your first and foremost task is the safety of your pack. They're depending on you."

I knew she was right and I determinedly pushed my emotions that agonized me into the darkest corner of my mind that I could find before I called to my companions, "Geyser is right, we need to split up or we'll just slow each other down. Regroup tomorrow around sun high at the east corner of Silver Springs. They'll have a harder time tracking all of us."

Jade cast me a terrified look before wishing us good luck and branching off towards the West. Likewise, the others disappeared until only Storm and I remained.

"May the light guide your path, Cuz," he murmured.

I dipped my head, "May it guide yours as well."

We shared a final glance, our emotions flashing in our eyes. Fear. Confusion. Dread. Sorrow. Pain. Determination.

Storm and I have been inseparable for longer then I can remember, until now. As we parted ways, I drifted towards the right as he went left, the sounds of our pursuers crashing through the woods behind us decreasing while they tried to track everyone. Eventually, it reduced more and more until it fainted into silence, only the sound of my rhythmic paw steps beating the ground was audible. Even the night's creatures were silent, as if they sensed the massacre that had just occurred.

__

The lake sank in the distance behind me, miles away from camp. The border was three wolf's lengths away but I was too exhausted to continue.

I leaned against an oak tree and waited to let my pulsing heart catch up. The early morning's birds sang their once cheerful songs, which now seemed mournful. I slowly let go of the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and stepped forward. I took another step, and another.

"Wolves, no matter how strong, don't return once they've crossed the border," Mom's voice reverberated in my mind as I stared at the path etched in the land from moons and moons of patrolling. Taking another step forward, her eerily cold voice continued, "We like to think, the few unfortunate ones who's mate couldn't be found within our own pack- driving them to the disastrous choice of crossing- are still out there. Somewhere, mate in arms... however, too many remains have been found for anyone to consider it likely."

The memory of her voice ended as I stepped on the border, lifting my head at the endless fields of nothing that lay ahead of me, as empty as what I could see of my future.

With the last breath I'd ever inhale from my territory, I leaned back, then pushed forward, leaping into my momentum. My front paws hit the ground in front of me as I felt a glimmer of hope, the sweet smell of rain and smoke filling my nose. I cast my eyes up and felt confusion at the cloudless dark sky, the morning sun fast approaching.

My flank suddenly smashed to the right and I crashed towards the earth jostled out of my thoughts as the sky and grass swirled into a brown spiral and I rolled along the ground, a large black mass griping my left side.

Everything spun as my stomach rolled inside. I curled around the spiking lump of fur that was leached onto me. I yelped into the tissue I had latched my mouth to and clenched my jaw tighter as my leg hit the ground at an odd angle, pain igniting inside as blood filled my mouth, forcing me to gag.

We continued to roll until they rested on top, reaching their paws up to either side of my neck to hold me down.

Using the momentum that was quickly fleeing, I barely managed to flip them to the side, my once calmed heart again thrashed within me. I tried to stand as they quickly whipped around to face me but was delayed by one of the belts that momentarily still clung to me, caught on a crushed shrub as it broke off.

Before I could turn around I felt a heavy weight appear on my shoulders and my short lived adrenaline rush left me as the ground raced up to meet my collapse.

My breath was ragged as I lay subdued on the ground. Every cell of my being screamed at me to get up and fight for my pack, but as I tried to move my paws, all the power I could muster seemed to evaporate. I let out a gurgled cry at my failure and felt the creature on top of me lean forward, hot breath fanning my face as a nose barely grazed my ear, making it twitch.

A growl electrified the air, clearly masculine, as it demanded I submit. I felt a series of shudders rack my limp body, not from fear, but exhaustion. I hated myself for not being able to defend as I drifted into unconsciousness.

I woke as the sun came up to scare away the last remnants of the night. A pile of cloths fell in front of my head when I began to stir, soon followed by a smooth voice, "Shift."

I was too tired to argue and cautiously picked up the bundle of cloth in my mouth and carried it behind a full evergreen tree, every part of my body screamed as it unwillingly stretched its wary muscles.

After shifting, away from view of the stranger, I changed and my eyes were almost fully adjusted to the late morning light when I came back around the corner of the prickly tree.

I looked up, following the edge of another tree as my eyes were met with a pair of brown ones, only a wolf length away.

"Those eyes," I whispered in my mind as everything around me was forgotten except for the beautiful brown orbs. I felt something stir in me as I faintly became aware of the wind murmuring through the trees, the birds once again silent.

Brown eyes.

I subconsciously swept my own blue ones up and down the tall, dark haired man who stood in front of me, but they always found their way back to his eyes. I was already frozen, but my heart stopped and I felt a wave of warmth and unwilling happiness wash over me as I heard his strong but silky voice hum,

"Mine."

Okay, I really want a comment here more so than usual because I went from 70 views on this chapter, to 40 on the next and this is the climax so far. I thought that this of all chapters would be liked the most but I lost half my readers over it. Please tell me what is wrong with this chapter, even if it's a huge part of it. I can't fix it if I don't know what it is. That goes for all chapters, but especially this one. Thanks for your patience!

Rock on my vegetables!

-The Cool Cucumber