He looked around the area and he saw a reddish furred female werewolf standing off to the side watching. William thought that he recognized her, but he couldn’t place from where at the moment. She was standing there watching and therefore not an immediate threat. The four greys however were threatening his pack mates. He looked off to the side and saw Aceso had paused to survey the scene as well. She made eye contact with him and nodded once and shook her head to the right.
William nodded in understanding. William crouched down lower and waited. Aceso launched herself from her meager hiding place behind the bushes. William kicked off the ground as well. Aceso torn off and made a diving tackle to one of the greys on her right and William took out one on the left. The grey rolled with the impact however and flung William into the air several feet behind him.
William crashed back down to earth but rolled with the motion of the throw. It wasn’t as graceful as he would have liked but the maneuver saved him from any serious damage and he was able to turn around to face his opponent. He spared a fraction of a second to glance around at his pack mates. Aceso was doing fine with her target and Charles and Katherine had taken the initiative and were now fighting one on one with their targets.
William turned his attention back to the grey. Recognition sparked in his memory. He was one of the werewolves that jumped me in the forest. He tried to keep calm and focused but the anger that he felt over that insult was too great and he went into a berserker rage.
He charged straight at the grey. He feigned a tackle maneuver like the one he had used previously. He saw minute changes in the grey’s stance to indicate that he was ready for the attack. At the last stride, William pivoted and leaped to the side of the werewolf. William was able to see the look of surprise before he was completely past his opponent. As his body flew past the left shoulder of the grey, William reached back slammed his left foot into the exposed side of the werewolf. The grey let out a satisfying grunt as William landed. William turned on a dime and was ready to attack again as he heard another howl pierce the forest. He looked up to see that Achelois had entered the area. He glanced behind him to see Nicolas standing next to a tree as well. The blonde looked a little tired as if he had stopped running moments ago and had just arrived.
He turned his attention back to his opponent to see the grey holding his side and backing away from William. He looked around at the rest of his pack and saw that their opponents too were backing away from them making their way toward the reddish werewolf that was standing on the outskirts of the cleared area. William watched, in a ready stance until the last of them had disappeared from his sight.
H turned around but before he could say anything, Aceso’s voice was asking what he had been about to. “What happened?”
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Charles gestured toward Katherine. He shifted his attention to the cream-colored werewolf. She was met Aceso’s gaze. “I was careless.”
“What exactly do you mean by that?” Nicolas asked as he joined the loosely knitted group.
Katherine glanced at Nicolas and turned back toward Aceso. “I was hunting, which you said we should do. I went off on my own and for my troubles I was attacked by two of those grey werewolves.” She moved her arm from her side to show a set of very ugly red gashes that cut across her side abdomen muscles almost all the way around her body to her back. William heard someone wince at the sight of the wound.
Aceso looked at the three red gashed and bent down. Before Katherine could react or move, or even let out a yelp, Aceso snapped her head forward and bit into Katherine. William knew what it was that she was doing and Katherine too had a look of acceptance written on her face. Of course, she would know what Aceso was doing she had been in the underground city for quite some time.
William watched as the wounds closed themselves. Katherine couldn’t help but run her claws over the newly closed wounds. There wasn’t even a scar to show where Katherine’s skin had been cut open. William couldn’t help but be amazed. He wondered if he would ever get used to seeing that kind of rapid healing.
“Aceso?” Nicolas asked. “Have you ever considered going into the medical field?” he moved around Katherine to the black and white werewolf. “Do you have any idea what people would be willing to pay to have their wounds healed like that without any scarring?” Nicolas became very animated and excited. “You could make millions. Not to mention all those pathetic cancer patients that would pay anything to be healthy again. You could charge whatever you felt like and hospitals would be completely run out of business.” His voice took on a very sarcastic tone then. “And once you cornered the healthcare market you wouldn’t have to be a pack alpha anymore.” He turned his head looking off in the distance. “You could retire and go live in Saskatchewan or wherever the hell wolves retire to.”
Aceso turned toward William and Charles. “You two, go find us something to eat.”
William nodded but Charles just stood there accepting the order but not acknowledging it.
Aceso turned her attention to the rest of the pack. “From now on we move in teams, no less than two, three would be better.” She turned back toward Nicolas. “Nicolas, you and Achelois are to take the first watch tonight. Go back to the den and get some sleep if you can.”
“Are you sending me to bed without any dinner, mommy?” Nicolas had a fake wide-eyed expression on his face. “Please don’t do that mommy, I’ll be a good boy from now on, I promise.”
Nicolas’ comments were getting harder to ignore. William wanted to tackle him into the ground. He found himself once more admiring his alpha and the restraint that she showed in ignoring the annoying blonde.
Aceso looked over at Katherine. “Katherine, you’re with me. We need to scout around the area and see if those grey werewolves are still around or where they might be hiding.”
Katherine looked over at Aceso and nodded. Katherine didn’t seem too thrilled to be going with Aceso. To William, Katherine was much more withdrawn than she had been this morning and last night. He couldn’t help but notice that she hadn’t said much, outside of answering Aceso’s direct question, since she left the city that morning and he wondered what was going on behind those quiet, piercing gold eyes.