The screaming is more than I can take. And that's saying something. I deal with women giving birth every day. But the sheer terror coming from the sight of the massacre, is something else entirely. It's the agonising volume and the amount of people screaming at once, that is literally killing me.
And then there is the blood. The stench of death that stretches out like a decayed arm, constricting and suffocating our entire pack with it's deathly grip.

Our packs blood runs freely now. The fallen lay where they fell. Broken and alone. I am immune to the sight. I have nothing left to give to the poor people I have known my whole life, their bodies now litter the floor of our homeland like dead leaves in fall.

This is the fourth time he had tried to take the pack after all. And this time, he won. Because he came and took it himself.

As everything and everyone I love tumbles down  around me, I no longer feel anything when I glimpse the iron flush slinking over the village grounds.

The rivers no longer flow clear here at Highmoon pack.
The parks no longer hold the sounds of our children playing carefree.
The houses are broken shells of our former life.
And now, in the final hours of our pack life, our Alpha lays dead on the front grass of his home, along with many of our brethren.

Red is all we have known for months. And fear. Many ran, fled to safe ground. The only safety net offered by the other packs.
No one came to our aide. Not one of our friends came to help. No one wants to face him. Because they know as well as we do, they would be next.

They can't risk it. And we don't blame them.

Pack comes first. Always. We raise the pack above all else. We always have. Always will.

Another scream penetrates my thoughts and wrenches me back to our current reality, but this time, it is followed by a smaller, higher pitched sound and I finally breathe and take in the last thing of beauty that lays before me.

"He is here." She pants out, beads of sweat cover her ashen face but her smile is bright. She is devastatingly beautiful, even in her worst hour.

"Emma, he is.... amazing." I say, taking in the pink, perfect form of her newborn. Her son. Our heir. Our Alpha.

She lifts the precious boy to her chest as my mother,  the pack midwife, hastens the next process, injecting her in the thigh to bring on the afterbirth. Once we assist it to birth, we check it over, as we have done with so many mothers before, sharing a smile that implies the sad truth;  we won't be working together again any time soon.
Once the baby is separated completely from her body, Emma holds him close, a lone tear running down her cheek.

It's a sight no one should have to see. The best and worst night of her life. Her son is born. His father is dead. And now. Now, she wants me to take the baby and leave.

Leave her for him. I start to shake my head again. I can't do this. I won't.

She knows what's coming. We have discussed it so many times.

"Alice, listen to me. This will be my final request to you, as your Luna. And as your best friend." She says slowly, cradling the boy to her breast, guiding him to drink from her, while he can.

"Everything is planned. The backpack on the bench has all his things in it, including some donor milk from the pack mothers, enough for a few days. It also has a diary with the travel documents and identification. You must read the notes once you get to the check point. Only then. And then you must dispose of the first page, leaving no trace. Everything you need is ready. Keep him safe. From this moment, he is yours. Don't call. Don't write. Don't speak of us. I will find you. I will survive this."

I'm not sure whether she says this for my benefit or hers. We have gone over and over the plan. I know it by heart but it doesn't help un- break it.

Her voice waivers on the last few words as she looks
down at her beautiful boy. This is all she never wanted.

I shake my head. The question I have asked so many times since she first asked me to do this comes bursting from my mouth before I can stop it.

"But Em please, why can't you come? He needs you. I can't leave you here. Please." I beg softly, sitting down next to her on the bed, dreaming this isn't our reality. I hate this part of being a wolf in the human world. Even though we have evolved, the wolf law still holds true. Tyrants can still destroy our lives and we can't do a fucking thing to stop it.

I take her hand in mine, closing my eyes and thinking back to all our escapades together as teenagers, drinking, having fun. Living lives with no fear or death. Not this. Not this despair and tragic bullshit.

It's too much. It's too hard.

She squeezes my hands and looks into my eyes. Pleadingly so. It's fucking tearing my already broken heart out.

"Al, you know why. Because you are the best person for this job. You know babies. You have worked along side your mother for years. I trust you and only you with my baby. With my very soul. And not just that." She swallows hard and continues; "Every other time he has taken over a pack, he has claimed the Luna for himself. Whether they live or die, is all up to him. But if they had children, if they had an heir, he has slaughtered them all. Every single child. Gone."

Her hold on the baby tightens as the bile in my throat begs to be released.

I know she is right. And I know she will fight to stay alive. For her son. For our pack, what's left of them.

"But he will know. He will be able to smell the birth. How are you going to hide it?" I stare at her face, wondering how the hell she is going to stifle the very evident smell of the afterbirth and baby.

She shares a look with my mother and gives a small nod. My mom disappears briefly from the room but returns soon with a small bundle of blankets in her arms.

"We have a plan." She says and turns back to Em.

"Place him in the bassinet." She says, and I step up to take the baby but realise she is not speaking to me but to my mom.

I watch with an open mouth as the tiny bundle is unwrapped and mom takes out a small, still form and places it in the bassinet. She moves away quickly to the table and takes out some of the still wet towels from the birth and returns to cover the tiny unmoving boy in them.

"Em what have you done?" I ask, shocked, as I take a few steps closer and take in the tiny, blue little baby now covered in her scent.

"He was the little one born to one of the mothers who was killed in the attacks last week. We kept him safe, in case we had to have a replacement." She says quietly, looking down at her little boy and over again at the poor still darling in the bassinet.

A loud bang above shakes us back to reality and i know we don't have much more time.

"Alice, take him. Please. Take him and run and don't look back."

Tears flow freely now, from all three women in this tiny room. One has lost her husband and son in one night. One is taking in the broken heart of a new mother in her care and watching her daughter leave. One is taking on something so astronomical, i don't know if i can do it.

Before I have a chance to say anything, my mom begins to strap a carrier to my back and slides the back pack on top. She gathers me in and holds me tight.

"Don't let this all be for nothing. Do it for me. For your dad and for your pack." She whispers, kissing me on the cheek and staring hard into my eyes.

My own eyes glaze over as I nod and watch her move to the bed, helping Emma to stand and move slowly towards me.

"Alice, this is Rox Amon Dmarc, the only Heir of Highmoon. He is my love and my life, and now, he is yours. I love you both, so much." Her voice breaks as she kisses his head and takes in his scent and then, carefully and with her whole heart, she places a tiny little woven bracelet on his arm, and when I look closer, I can see it has the pack colours. She lays his little body on my chest. He is dressed and warm and his tiny, sleeping form presses close to my heart as he is strapped in to the carrier and covered with a blanket.

I place an oversized jacket on top of the backpack and sling my arms in each side, zipping it up enough over Rox to keep him snug and tight.

I'll need it to run.

A loud bang sounds above our heads again and we all flinch. It's as if the sound is reminding us that the impending doom bringers are real, though we don't want them to be. And now, they trying to breach the last barriers that are keeping them from coming into the underground rooms. And to us.

"You need to go Alice. Through the tunnels, now."

Emma kisses her son's head once more and pulls me in close before she leans back on the bed and collapses in a flood of tears.

"Go Alice. Now!" My mom yells at me as she leads me from the room, I turn my head over my shoulder and yell to Emma as I leave;

"I will see you again Emma, promise me, you will find us."

She nods and I nod back.

"I will keep your son safe until you see him again. I swear it."

She looks up at me, her resolve all but broken now. Her body and soul are in tatters, like our village and our people and all of our lives.

"He is your son now." She weeps out and I feel her pain so deep within, I turn away, holding our precious cargo and praying that I can keep my shit together.

I run. I run holding on to the life that means more than all of ours combined.

I will need to access the tunnels that only a few in the pack know to exist. Only those close to the Alpha and Luna are aware of how to find them. Emergency only. And this is the first and last time they will be open.

I push on the rock formation in the memorised combination and as it opens, I turn to face my mom once more and she offers me a weak, sorrow filled smile.

"Once I go through, collapse it mom. And spray the masking scent. Ok? I love you."
She nods, taking the spray out of my hand.
"I love you Alice, I'm so proud, now go. Fast."

The entrance snaps and collapses behind me as i step in and I don't waste anymore time. I run. As fast as I can in this form.

"There is no turning back now."  I whisper to him. "It's just you and me buddy."