My voice had come out in barely a breath, but the figure's head snapped in my direction. I don't think he can see me from there, as I am still hiding behind the rocks to stay away from the Darkness. But maybe it's a mate thing, that he can sense me, or his wolf is hyper aware for his mate and can pick up my voice with ease. I'm still not entirely sure how it all works.

Jupiter gazes up at me, electric blue eyes brighter than they've been in weeks. "Really?" He whispers excitedly, "he came for us?"

Now that I know it's him, it's easy to recognize his dark hair, matching his sister's who stands directly behind him. Her head tilts around slowly, taking in the peaks and tumbled rocks before her.

Focusing again, I strain my ears to listen in on the conversation.

"I'm here for my mate." Bryce announces.

The Darkness scoffs a laugh. "Oh really? And you think we have a pathetic little she-wolf held hostage here somewhere?" I'm surprised the guard speaks so freely. Often we play dumb, even with wolves, pretending to be some off-the-grid village of mountain native people having no clue of the supernatural world.

Bryce squares his shoulders. "She's not a wolf."

Coming to his senses, the Darkness coughs, "your mate's not a wolf? What else would she be then?"

"A dragon!" While she's trying to stand strong next to her Alpha, Kiara's voice gives away her awestruck perspective. Bryce elbows her back a step.

The Darkness cocks his head. "I'm not sure that's possible. Dragons don't have destined mates." He must have decided to just stick with facts, knowing this Alpha isn't up for the game of dancing around words.

"This one does, and I know she was taken here, most probably against her will."

I flinch, hating that he's wrong about that. I left on my own accord, barely needing that much of a push from Aislee. But, I justify to myself, I regret it, and it didn't take me long to miss the Pack.

From some signal I missed — or maybe there wasn't one — shifted wolves start pouring from the treeline, barking and howling as they race across the rocky terrain. Bryce glanced over his shoulder, seeming just as startled as I was. He didn't give this order.

"Wolves!" A shriek rings out through the air, echoing off the smooth boulders. Instantly, the Caves becomes a panic zone.

I don't leave the lookout yet, just pull Jupiter against me as I slam my back against the boulder we're behind in an effort to stay hidden.

From the angle I'm at, I can't watch Bryce any longer, but I can see another Cave mouth, and Aislee appears from the hole. She mutters something before letting out a war screech. "Wolves! Dragons, attack!" She leaps off the cliff edge and shifts midair, her blue scales shimmering like river ripples in the cascading sun rays.

"Oh no." I mumble to myself.

Several more screeches bounce off the surrounding stones and rocks. Aislee disappears from my sight but it's not long before an Earth leaps after her, then two Waters and an Agriculture. After a pause, five Darkness guards fly off after them.

"What do we do?" Jupiter asks. I tear my eyes from the other mouth to stare at him, because I don't know what to say. I don't know how to answer that. I have no plan, no clue what to do.

"Should we hide?" He continues after my silence stretches for several moments. "Or help?"

No way am I letting Jupiter anywhere near the fighting. But I can't send him back to that prison of a room either. My eyes drag from him to the forest. "There." I tell him, meeting his eyes again. "I want you to shift and fly over to the trees. Stay up in one and keep yourself as small as possible. I will come get you when it's all over."

His eyes welled. "But what if you don't?"

"Shh, no. Don't say that. I want you safe, and I will come get you. Okay?" He nods. "I can take care of myself, and I'll have Bryce."

He nods again, wiping at his nose. "Is Jasmin here? Or Cole? Or Mason?"

"I can't say for sure, but Mason is definitely much too young. Wolves don't shift as early as we do. But when this is over, and I come get you, we'll go find Jasmin and Cole okay?"

He grins. "Okay." Throwing his arms around my waist, he squeezes me in a tight hug and rests his head on my stomach. I place my hands on his back and squeeze back.

"Bebe erit." I whisper to him. He hangs on to me a moment longer, and soon I feel power coursing through my veins, a surge of energy hitting me as if I were suddenly holding the sun in my palm. I smile to myself, he'd given me strength. "Save some for yourself." I whisper.

He steps back, gives me a half-smile, and transforms into his golden and brown scaled dragon. Flitting his wings, he hops across a few stones before hurtling himself into the air in the opposite direction all the other dragons went, where I can hear the screeches and howls drifting up here. I stay pressed against the boulder until I see Jupiter form be engulfed by the leaves of the forest branches. Please be safe there.

"Hey!" A voice suddenly calls. I snap my head to the dark cave in front of me. "What are you doing?" The speaker comes into the light and I recognize her as an Ice. Her frosty blue hair is twisted back in a series of complicated braids.

"Nothing." I pipe back, hoping she doesn't recognize me as Aislee's personal prisoner.

"Shouldn't you be in your bedchamber?" Damn it.

I shrug, peeking over my shoulder as a scream echoes around the plain. "Shouldn't you be fighting?" I counter to get her off my back.

She scoffs a laugh. "Aislee has enough warrior trainees to take on a pack of dumb wolves."

A growl rips from my throat before I can think through it. My limbs inch to pounce on her, a natural instinct I wasn't aware I had to defend the Pack. She raises an eyebrow an leans forward on her toes.

"So which side are you on, then?"

I open my mouth and close it several times, unable to give her an answer. Narrowing her eyes, she's on me in a flash, slamming her forearms against my throat and shoulder to prevent me from moving.

"I can freeze you here." She threatens.

"And I can melt it!"

Her eyes flash an icy white-blue as the arm pressed against my windpipe drops in temperature. My heart pounds, because while I countered her threat, I actually don't know how true of a statement it was. Would my powers save me if I were contained in a block of ice? I don't want to find out.

Grunting, I use my left foot to push myself off the boulder. The Ice's arm slips and I suck in a deep breath of much-needed oxygen. Barely giving myself time to cough on the air, I swing at her face, just clipping her in the air as she ducks. Reaching up, she gingerly daps the wound, her index finger returning covered in blood. I smirk.

Infuriated, she leaps for me. I roll against the cavern wall, wincing slightly as the rough surface scraped at my cheek. Not enough to bleed, but enough to skin a layer. She flies at me again, and this time I'm not quick enough. The blunt of her blow hits me in the stomach and I double over with a gasp, the wind knocking out of me as my body hits the floor. I scramble to my feet, kicking pebbles off the cliff edge as I move. I'm not dangerously close to ridge of the cavern mouth.

"I think it's time I take you back where Aislee wants you." She says, gesturing to my bent form as I try to stand straight despite the pressure on my rib cage.

"I think," I spit, "that I'm not going back to that prison cell!"

We fly at each other again, Fire and Ice tumbling along the gravelly surface of the mouth. Her skin is cold, but not enough to give me any sort of freezing. However, I'm able to launch fireballs at her as we grapple. I miss most of the time, but once I got her tunic and another lit her hair up. Both she was able to conquer quite quickly.

Suddenly, with a shriek, she kicks me hard enough I lose my grip on her arms and end up with nothing solid beneath me. It doesn't take me long to recognize I've fallen off the cliff. Calling to my dragon, I shift midair, not bothering to control the size. The second my wings sprout, Im pushing against the air, saving myself from the ground by several feet.

An icicle stabs me in the nose and I roar hard enough to shake a few pebbles off the rock wall ledges. I rip the ice from my scales and glance up to see a pale blue dragon slicing through the air as she zooms towards me. I push out of the way, and she changes direction instantly to follow me. Opening my mouth, I send a wall of fire her way, giving her no choice but flare her wings forward and stop. When I stop, I notice a few tinged scales and some holes in her wing webbing.

Ice melts faster than fire freezes. I reason. I need to burn her to stop her from following me further.

With that in mind, I do my best to dodge all her ice blasts and icicle weapons thrown at me and every change I get, I'm on offense, throwing fire and even a few spurts if lava. Lava variations aren't my favorite power to use; it takes too much energy that I'm usually drained and can't continue the spar. This, however, was a real fight and I had to melt that icy shell of hers.

Finally, I lure her closer to me by using less energy. When her outstretched claws grasp onto my wings, I falter and we plummet towards the ground, where the rest of the battle is taking place.

C'mon! I urge myself until my entire body bursts into flames, licking and climbing over every last scale until they reach the Ice's paws. Her dragon shrieks in agony as the flames crawl from my wings to her claws and up to her shoulders. She lets go and I open my wings up like a parachute to allow myself a graceful gliding hover. The flames attack the Ice and her wings begin to fail her. Slowly by surely, she floats to the ground in wails of despair as she tries to conquer them with a dowsing of water. Just as she slumps onto the rocky turf, the fire dies and she's left with burn marks across her scales. I leave her then, knowing she won't be coming after me anytime soon.

Flapping my wings, I search the slew of writhing wolves for one that could be Bryce. In this hunt, I realize two things at once. One, the majority of the wolves aren't even fighting the dragons unless attacked first, they're fighting each other.

Why were the wolves tumbling around and fighting other wolves? I know Bryce's pack wouldn't just go at each other like this, so was there more than one pack here? How did that happen and what does that mean for all of us?

The second thing I noticed comes when another Fire shot at an unnameable wolf. The wolf ends up fine, but a spark from the blow trails to a patch of wildflowers. A single rose burns against the others, and I know what I have to do. We as dragons were pretty fireproof, depending on the type, and it took a lot to take us down. But these wolves? They had no fire protection besides their healing rates. By themselves — especially if they're occupied fighting each other — they won't get anywhere. They need fireproof, iceproof, magic proof bodies on their side. And fast.