C a s s i a n

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I found Stella in the middle of a pack of Strays.

What's worse is that there was a Stray right above her, pinning her onto the ground. Although she struggled and tried to break free, there was no way she could get out of that.

When I saw that after about 30 minutes of looking for her and not being able to track her scent, this was the state that I would find her in.

Immediately, my heart beat boosted and there was no time to blame myself. I sprung myself from the tree and attacked the rogue that was pinning her down and pushed it off.

The other rogues were taken aback and stood still for a while. As for me, I rushed by Stella's side, but my heart sank when her eyes were closing slowly, the life slipping slowly.

"Stella, Stella, stay with me," I beg her and momentarily looked up to find the Strays already forming circle around us. When she wasn't responding in any way, I was crumbling and my mind was going haywire.

I wanted to cry.

The overwhelming emotions were getting the best of me and although I needed to stay calm and have control because I needed to protect her from the Strays, when I looked around me and at Stella whose eyes were almost completely closed and whose breath was growing feint by the second, my resolve was growing weaker.

If this is the end for her, it will be my end too.

"Stella, I need you to wake up please," I plead with her again and shake her lightly, but a Stray had already launched attack on me and soon, the others did the same.

I carried Stella, trying to evade the attacks, but I knew that that was not going to last. When I found an opening, I went for it and tried to run as fast as I could.

I could sense around thirty Strays and that would've been easy to handle had they not caught up to Stella first.

As I was running, a heavy weight came crashing against my back so I fell hard on the ground and dropped Stella. I got up quickly, but my anger was fired up when I saw a Stray picking her up and was about to run.

I was quick to catch him and jumped on him. Midway in the air, I shifted to my wolf form and attacked the Stray. I was successful in tackling him and quickly slashing his throat and just like that he stopped moving.

I quickly turned for Stella, but another Stray was already holding her while all the others were acting as shields.

I barrelled through them, not caring how many they were, because all I knew was that I had to get to Stella.

Unfortunately for me though, the rogues were coming at me one after another and I tried my best slashing through them, but it was inevitable for me to get hit as well.

I felt my hind leg getting injured because I recognized the smell of blood rolling off from me and then I felt the hissing pain of an exposed wound. I cursed mentally because I knew that these crazy creatures sometimes had poison with them.

As I fought with the Strays, I tried my best to locate Stella. It was still weird to me that I could not even trace her scent, all I could smell were the Strays and a weird scent that definitely did not belong in a forest.

And then I felt it, a numbing in my left hind leg, the leg that was injured earlier. Because of this, I lost my balance as I was jumping and fell hard on the ground. This served as an opportunity for my adversaries to lunge at me.

The poison was spreading faster than I thought because not only was my left hind leg numb, the paralyzing effect was spreading to my other hind leg and because I could not move as fast, nor attack at all as I was busy defending, the rogues have already latched their hits on me.

I was hit from left and right and from the air, but in the moment all I could think of was Stella.

I mean, if this was my last moment indeed and if tomorrow never comes, I want Stella to be the last person I see when I close my eyes

I want her to be the only one I touch, the only one to comfort. I want her to be the only one filling my heart and my mind. I want her to be the only one.

I want her.

With a desperate act to keep the rogues away, I growled and howled through the dark of the forest. It was an act of intimidation and as an Alpha, our howl was more compelling in subduing those around us. Although I was not sure what effect that would have on Strays.

Thankfully, it worked.

For a while, the Strays backed off a few steps away from me and stood still. I took advantage of the moment to take a breather, to gather up a few energy and hopefully escape from here, but it didn't last long because the Strays shook it off and started attacking me again.

At this point, the poison had already made its way through my systems. Maddie was right, these poison were different, they were more potent and although you have tolerance on poisons, there is nothing that can prepare you for these ones.

I was panting hard and even with my wolf taking over, it wasn't doing anything. The best we could really do was to evade attacks, but with ten of them coming in at the same time, it was impossible to completely evade them.

Finally, with the paralyzing poison reaching my upper torso, my front legs gave up and I fell once more. I tried to move, but I couldn't. I pleaded with my legs to get up, but they didn't.

But I still fought, my body probably wasn't at its best right now, but my canines and my status as an Alpha was still with me. I used the same trick like earlier and howled at them and although they were unnatural rogues, being an Alpha who exerted dominance, they wouldn't be able to shake that off.

However, that didn't really last long because they started coming at me again. I was tiring out, the poison was spreading too fast and although I was losing control, my mission still stood the same that I needed to get to Stella.

While I fended myself, I looked around and wasn't able to see her anywhere and because of the damned thing in the air, the scents were all mixed up, but Stella's was not one of them.

A Stray lunged at me and hit me from the rib side and I landed on a tree and I could only grunt from the pain. I tried standing up, but now that really seemed impossible.

As I was forming another plan in my head, all of a sudden, a bright light blinded me and I'm pretty sure, all of us. When the light reached me, the crippling pain was gone and I felt all of my wounds healing, although I felt that not all of my cuts were healed.

The numbing pain of the poison was gone and when I stood up on four to shake my fur, I felt anew again.

The Strays all around me did not get the same effect from the light, instead, they all whimpered in pain and I only started to feel the overwhelming pressure and force that the light gave off. It was so overwhelming that all the Strays started backing away and howling in total chaos, as if the light was hurting them.

One by one, they started falling and dropping to the floor. I stride over to a Stray that dropped to the floor to observe and I could be sure that it was lifeless.

By this time, the light has already started fading and all the Strays already lied on the ground dead or unconscious. As for me, I started running towards it before it could fully disappear.

When I arrived at the source of the phenomenon, I was baffled to find another werewolf on the scene. But, this one was different from any werewolves I have ever seen, she was different.

She stood over the body of a Stray whose throat has been clawed at multiple times and because of that, blood dirtied her white-- no, grey fur.

And that's when it dawned on me.

The only ones I have seen with this kind of fur were... the other moon warriors.

I was too stunned to even do or think of anything, but soon enough, my mind was filling with questions that even my wolf could not understand.

Is this Stella? Sh-she's not human?

As the questions barrage my mind, the werewolf slowly turns to me and from there, I knew my assumptions were confirmed. She had to be Stella.

Her eyes had the same glowing crescent symbol in her irises that I once saw Maddie had in her eyes when she fought off Strays.

The difference with Stella and Maddie, however, is that when Maddie was in her wolf form, heck, if anyone is in their wolf form, they are able to control their wolf.

But with the wolf in front of me, I knew it wasn't the same. The way her eyes looked at mine hard on although I was an Alpha, the coldness in them, that was not Stella's gaze. The werewolf also exuded confidence and authority as she rightfully deserved and that was unlike timid Stella.

Shaking myself from the shock, I knew that I had to bow to her and so I did.

'Our mate,' she linked and I was caught off guard once more because I confirmed that she was indeed Stella's wolf.

'Greetings, great warrior of the moon, Effyía,' I greeted along with my wolf.

'No need to be so formal, we are mates after all,' she said and paused for a bit, 'She could not take the pain of the shift and is currently unconscious. As for me, I cannot stay in this form for too long as her upbringing did not allow me to have a bond with her.'

'We all thought she was human,' I said.

She shook her head in dismay and utter grief.

'She grew up with humans ever since she was an infant and with almost no contact from our kind, there was no way we could have ever developed a bond. You know how it is when werewolves do not have contact with their kind,' she explained and licked the blood on her paws, still with the coldest expression on her face.

'So if she grew up with our kind, she would be like the other warriors?'

'Exactly,' she confirmed and started walking past me. 'Come on, we don't have enough time, we need to get back to the pack before I lose my control. Besides, this forest is being watched.'