Lauraine stands before us. Her hair is loose and falls in messy waves around her shoulders. Her eyes remain locked on both Damien and myself. The gun in her hand is pointed straight in our direction. My position changes to offensive as I stare at her. Her blue eyes flick my way. Her gun shifting to point directly at me. My heart races in my chest and adrenaline pumps through my body from the danger I'm in. My wolf paces nervously in my head but continues her offensive state, she's not willing to give up easily, even if we are face to face with a hunter's weapon.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the bitch from last time. Decided to come back for a second round, did we?"

He eyes flick up to Damien then back at me. "Another boy, huh? Two just wasn't enough for you?"

I growl at her viciously. The noise bounces around the narrow hallway: echoing all around us.

"Now, now." She scolds, "no need to be so loud. This will only hurt for a second."

She looks as if she's about to fie at me, but suddenly Damien shifts behind me. I'm assuming he started reaching for the door since he's so intrigued with it. She notices his movement, and at last second, redirects the barrel.

Boom.

I flinch at the loudness of the gunshot.

Behind me, Damien howls in pain. I don't hesitate as I spring forward and tackle the huntress to the ground. She grunts, not expecting my quick retaliation. I guess she supposed I would care a bit more about Damien being shot.

Well obviously, she was wrong.

Damien continues to whimper behind me. I struggle with the huntress. She holds the gun up above her face, protecting herself. My teeth clench the barrel, but a burning sensation rides through my lips. The Hunter's weapon feels like fire melting my flesh. I eventually flinch for a moment because the pain hurts too much and she catches me off guard.

She jabs her right leg up and rams it into my ribcage. I howl in pain as she kicks even harder a second time, sending me flying into the wall of the narrow hall. I hit it with a thud, but quickly pounce back up. By the time I catch my balance, I notice Lauraine is already off the floor and on her feet. She in the process of lifting her arm up, readying to aim the gun in my direction.

Before I can move, I hear the pounding of paws and nails scrape against the wooden floor. A black blob jumps out and tackles Lauraine. The two tumble toward the floor and down the hard wooden stairs. I flinch unintentionally as I watch them slam and roll off every step. Sounds of painful grunts, howls, whimpers and groans tumble together as they fall.

Finally they slam onto the ground at the bottom of the staircase.

Damien is sprawled on his belly, laying uncomfortably on the floor. The large impact was more than he expected. I can see the harsh tempo of his breathing as his chest quickly rises and falls. But no sound comes from him. He must have been knocked out cold considering the pain from the hunter's gun shot is still lingering in his body.

Lauraine groans in pain next to him. Her back firmly cemented to the ground and her limbs twisted uncomfortably at odd angles. It appears she may have broken an arm. Her head resting on the floor and she moans in agony, still groggy from the sudden fall.

Her gun had fallen a few feet away from her grip.

I don't waste time as I jump and trot my way down the wooden steps. My nails quickly tapping along the wooden floor. I reach the bottom and step over the two bodies which are still trying to recover from their impact. I grab the lone gun in my mouth and toss it toward the other side of the house. It lands on the hard wood floor with a loud thud and scraps its way to the wall until gravity and friction stop it.

From behind me I hear rustling. "You son of a bitch." She hisses.

I spin around on my toes. I watch as she slowly contorts herself back to normal. She pushes herself up and off the floor. She grabs hold of her right arm in her left, and I notice her flinch a bit as she touches it. It must be painful for her considering she broke it during the fall. She clearly tries to ignore the pain.

Lauraine is quick to notice her gun is missing. She glances behind me and sees that I have tossed it across the room. She growls angrily and in frustration. I notice a hint of fear in her eyes, but she tries to mask it.

My heart palpitates in my chest.

Unconsciously, she glances up the stairs. I notice tears start to well in her eyes. And that's when I realize what's up there. The baby. That's why she came out of hiding and that's why she shot Damien. Her child is hidden somewhere in that room.

Lauraine turns to me. She takes a step closer to me. I don't move.

"You could kill me right now you skank. So why don't you, huh? That's what you came here for, isn't it? So just kill me and leave." She hisses at me, anger and sadness laced into her voice. I can hear it shaking.

My legs tremble beneath me.

So this is what a desperate mother looks like? She's willing to sacrifice herself to save her child. She wants us out of here, and if that means having us kill her, she's willing to do it.

She steps even closer to me.

"Are you even listening to me? I said do it. I'm left unarmed. Once you kill me, you'll be satisfied, so hurry it the hell up." She growls in a demanding tone, her voice still shaking with fear.

I step back unconsciously.

My wolf doesn't argue with me. She feels some type of way about this woman too. I don't think she's all bad. I think I want her to live. I want her to be happy and raise the child. Why am I even here? Did I think I would be able to kill a mother after I had watched mine die?

My wolf whimpers out and forces me to step back again.

Lauraine watches me with confused eyes. "What are you doing?" She asks, her voice still trying to feign anger.

I step back again, gaining distance from her.

I don't want to hurt her... No, I can't hurt her.

She frowns. She glances to her left, then back at me. She slowly steps over toward a desk that's against the wall in the hallway. I step away again, I have a bad feeling about what she's doing, but I still can't bring myself to stop her, or even kill her. I mean for god's sake, we just ambushed her home.

She opens a drawer and pulls out a silver knife.

She turns to me, holding the knife. "If you're not here to kill me then I don't know why you're here wolf, but I want you to leave now." She steps toward me.

She's only a mere few feet away before she stops.

"I don't understand why you didn't kill me, or why you're still here for that matter. But since you gave me this chance, I will return the favor. I want you to leave."

I hesitate a little longer than she wanted. She frowns and goes to take a large step toward me, but she freezes as a loud growl rings through the house. It causes me and Lauraine to jump a bit in surprise. A moment later a large and familiar dark brown wolf races to my side and stands partially in front of me. Protectively he tries to get between me and Lauraine.

My eyes widen as I realize it's Greyson. I should have know by the force in his growl, but I believe he should be fighting with Harvey. What is he doing here?

I notice some gashes and fresh blood seeping from his side, and a little bit of the blood is dusted onto his paws and muzzle. Clearly their fight was not an easy one.

He growls as his hackles rise. His teeth exposed.

I notice her visibly shake at his angered appearance and large build. He towers over me in wolf form and when he's angry, he's not someone you want to be against. She hesitantly takes a step back as Greyson takes one forward.

Unconsciously I whimper.

My muzzle reaches out and I grab a little tuff of his fur and pull it gently to grasp his attention. His lips fall over his teeth and he slowly turns his head in my direction. I release his fur and look at him. I feed my feelings through my eyes, showing I don't want him to hurt her. He eyes me questioningly, not understanding my feelings. Then he turns back toward Lauraine.

Her left hand is shaking with the knife in it, her other broken arm is resting across her stomach.

Greyson straightens his stance and his hackles fall, leaving him looking far less menacing.

"You're... You're not going to attack?" she asks, her voice shaking with fear, but she is trying her best to mask it.

Greyson shakes his head.

She sighs but doesn't lower her weapon. "Once again I don't know why you came here, but please leave-"

Her voice changes from calm to a loud piercing scream in mere seconds. I watch with widen and terrified eyes as a black mass tackles her from behind, pinning her back to the floor. She screams but is silenced in mere seconds as the large black wolf with pitch black-angry eyes grabs hold of her throat. In one swift motion, he crunches down on her windpipes and bursts her jugular. Blood pours from her throat, coating Damien's muzzle in crimson red and drips in puddles onto the floor. His dark eyes lusting for more. He squeezes harder around the corpses punctured neck, just for pleasure. Then he drops her to the ground.

He straightens his stance and looks down at his kill. Lauraine lays lifeless in a puddle of her own blood. Her eyes, once a fierce blue, now lifeless and empty. My heart breaks a bit at the sight before me.

Damien, without glancing my way, turns and runs toward the stairs. He is quick to get up them.

Greyson looks down at me to check how I'm doing.

Suddenly my heart stops.

Damien went upstairs.

Upstairs is where the baby is.

My wolf comes alive in my head. I feel my stomach twisting in nervous knots. My feet take off as my wolf completely takes over my body in the rush of the moment. Instinct kicks in and she flings us up the stairs. We reach the hallway and find the door on the far left hand side is open. I trudge forward sprinting at full speed. My legs groan as I push them fast.

I skid into the room.

At the far end of the small room is a closet. Damien has his teeth on the door handle. He pulls with all his might, breaking the closet door open. It snaps and the breaking wood cracks and splinters onto the floor. He pulls the rest of the door off.

At the loud noise, a cry erupts.

A child's cry.

Damien growls angrily and reaches his head into the closet. My wolf doesn't hesitate as she flings us forward and wraps our teeth around Damien's back left leg, which is still bleeding from the bullet wound, and crunches down as she pulls him from the closet.

His growls as pain erupts from his wound and he falls onto the ground, I pull and fling him away from the closet.

I run up to the opened closet door and peer in.

A small baby, maybe only three or four months old, looks up at me through its wailing with big grey eyes. The little hairs on its head are wispy and adorable. Its loud and tedious cries lower as it sees me staring down at it. Then it stops its wailing. It looks at me. Its face changes from devastation to joy. It starts giggling. My heart flutters at the sounds. I regain control from my wolf.

I hear movement from the ground behind me, so defensively I turn around.

Damien stands to his feet and growls at me aggressively. I growl back defensively. I know I can take him in wolf form, I just know I can...

He launches full throttle towards me, hackles raised and teeth bared. I charge at him as well. We collide with equal force. My muzzle goes low, latching onto his lower left shoulder. He aims for my neck, so quickly I grab hold of his shoulder and crunch roughly down with my teeth and into his muscle. He growls as he wraps his fangs onto the scruff on my neck. He bites roughly and I whimper but bite his shoulder even harder, causing him to loosen his grip on me. I pull out of his hold, release his shoulder, and head butt him on his lower jaw. He cries out as I hear a small crack.

My wolf doesn't know how to feel about fighting the person who marked her. She stays back in my brain, knowing I will do as I please anyway.

Damien growls angrily. He turns back to me. Without hesitation he runs forward, ramming me into the wall. My back smashes against it and I slump down. Before I can recuperate, Damien already has his teeth wrapped around my neck. I whimper as they sink into my flesh and fresh blood pours onto my snow white fur. I sideways glance up into his eyes. I notice just how black and filled with hatred they are.

That's when I realize something.

His wolf has no connection to mine. Sure, he marked me. That connects my wolf to his. Right now, it's a one way train. His wolf feels nothing for mine. To him, she is a mere subordinate. He wouldn't be injured in the least if he killed me right now.

He squeezes a bit tighter, clamping my airways together. The oxygen supply dwindles in my lungs, leaving behind poisonous carbon dioxide which has no way out. Yet, I don't whimper. I glare instead, into those pitch black eyes. My defiance never faulting as black spots filter into my vision.

A loud and disruptive crash and a warning bark comes bouncing in through the halls from the downstairs.

Now that I think about it, where is Greyson?

Damien's eyes widen. Suddenly he drops my neck. I fall to the floor, sucking in oxygen, coughing and trying to breathe. Luckily he didn't seem to damage anything important. He backs away from me and heads toward the closet again.

With all the energy left in my body, I pull myself to my feet.

I jump in front of him, obscuring his view of the child who suddenly bursts into a crying fit at the sight of Damien's black wolf. He growls at me, but then a gun shot fires from downstairs. Both Damien and I widen our eyes.

Either Lauraine came back from the dead, or another hunter is here.

Damien turns on his feet and runs out of the room. I sigh, for once thankful of his timid, self-centered, and cowardly ways. I relax a bit. My muscles still weak from the battles I've endured. My neck especially sore.

The child wails from behind me. I turn around and look at it again. It doesn't stop crying so I slowly approach it. I tilt my head to the side curiously. I've never really seen a child before. When Milena was young, her mom was still alive and kept her cooped up and away from the pack. Palmer came to the pack when he was already way past his infant stage.

I press my warm nose to the child's. It cries for a few more seconds, then it quiets down. The child's grey eyes open again as it peers up at me. It smiles and reaches up with its hands to grab hold of my white fur. The infant grips it and starts to giggle. I snort at its cuteness. My heart flutters at the adorableness of the child. Then I hear a gun click behind me.

I jump backward and the baby falls forward and hits the floor as it looses its grip on me. It starts crying again. I turn on my feet and give the child my back for protection. A girl with brown hair holds a gun in my direction. She is young, quite possibly around sixteen or so. Her hands tremble, she doesn't appear to have much experience with guns. I hold back a growl, I'm not sure if being offensive is the right move here.

Her eyes are teary. They glance down at the child behind me. I visibly see her sigh in relief at the sight of the baby uninjured. That must mean she knows of the child. If she knows of the child, she must have been close to Lauraine and Harvey.

"Get away from my nephew," she hisses raising the gun higher. Well that explains her connection to them... I hold my ground in front of the infant. I can't risk her missing me and hitting the child.

Right before she fires, a dark mass comes flying into the room, tackling her to the floor. She falls with a thud. The large dark brown mass pins her down and the gun flings out of her hands. She screams bloody murder as Greyson holds her down. He's panting hard with a bloody wound on his front left shoulder, possibly from this girl's gun shot earlier. He doesn't bear fangs with her. Instead he just holds her down and turns to me. He motions his head toward the door.

I nod, but before I go, I turn to the baby that's still crying. I trot up to him.

"No! Leave him alone you son of a bitch! Leave him be!" She screams.

I ignore her cries. I reach down with my muzzle and open my mouth wide. I wrap my teeth around his small back. Gently I hold him in my mouth and lift him. At my touch he quiets down a bit. Then he makes a bubbly giggling sound. I turn and walk him over to the little girl who is glaring at me. Gently, I place him at her side and nuzzle him upright, so that way his back is touching her. He bubbles and makes giggly noises at me, completely oblivious to his surroundings. I glance up and Greyson and motion for him to get off her.

He looks back at the gun which is far away from her. He agrees that it's safe and steps off of her shoulders. She sits up and grabs the child quickly in her arms. She stares at us with wide, frightened eyes that are filled with tears. She cradles the child and scoots away from us.

Greyson turns toward the door and I follow suit, giving one last glance at the little infant in the girl's arms. I trot behind him. He exits first, and I second. As I'm about to get out the doorway, something slices into my back left thigh. I cry out in pain as I stumble forward. I catch myself and look back to find a silver knife half way inserted into my thigh. My eyes look back to see the girl glaring at me. Her hand out in front of her; she is the one who threw the knife at me.

Greyson comes to my side worriedly. He reaches down with his snout and removes the knife.

I pant as a weird pain surges into my body. Suddenly I feel my muscles and bones shifting in me. A pain surges through me, a familiar pain. One I felt when I faced Lauraine the first time. I'm losing my shift.