“Oh really? I do? Really? I should sit down?” Javier asked not letting it go. “Then tell me, why did Elder Ansuya show up after the fighting started?” Javier asked with his voice dripping with venom.

“You’re accusing an Elder, Javier,” Hysminai warned. The male brown wolf born Healer of Keva’s pack had black stripes running down his body and his look darkened as he looked at the beta Enforcer. Javier squared his shoulders menacingly towards the smaller Healer.

Keva interrupted both, “We don’t have time for this.” Javier immediately calmed down and turned away from Hysminai. Keva nodded towards the west, “The sun is already well on its way to setting.”

“This is the rendezvous point, isn’t it?” Michelle asked, her cream white fur shining in the late afternoon light.

“Yes, we’re in the right spot,” Keva answered. “We’ll wait here for an hour or two but then, if nobody else shows up… Then we have to move. The vampires will pursue us once night fall hits.”

The group waited.

As time slowly ticked by a pack would wonder into the clearing. Some scarred and bleeding, others coughing roughly trying to clear their lungs of the smoke they had inhaled during the fighting, every one of them though, looked tired and worn out. Their tails hung low and their ears drooped as they walked into the clearing. Most didn’t stay standing for long. Deciding instead to lean against the trees, sit down on the pine needle strewn forest floor, or be alone on the outskirts of the clearing.

Two hours later, the group had grown in size to almost eighteen Shape shifters.

“Keva, are you alright,” Aceso asked as she entered into the clearing.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just a little tired that’s all.”

“Whatcha been doing this whole time?” asked Nicolas as he came into the clearing. “Been on your knees too long?”

“Our Alpha was sent to cover every corner of the fighting and back again,” said a young silver furred Shape shifter that had brown splotches all over his body. “She was amazing and she saved our lives, and the lives of all these wolf pups and wolves! What did you do? Sit around and make yourself a target?” He sneered.

“Maybe if you could be trusted to do a job, you wouldn’t have had to have been told what to do every five seconds,” Nicolas shot back.

“What did you say, human born!” The silver Shape shifter stood up and charged Nicolas. The silver collided with the sandy blond. They rolled around in the dirt, tearing at each other.

William grabbed Nicolas and hauled him to his feet by the neck. The silver kicked himself to his feet and jumped after William.

“I wouldn’t try that, Soter,” Keva warned. “Setford may not look like much but he’s pretty tough, and he was personally trained by Ares.”

Soter stopped himself as William squared off against him. Soter was just an inch or two shorter than the Enforcer but thought better about fighting him. He glared at Nicolas. “You’re lucky you have your pack backing you up.”

“Yeah, it’s weird how that keeps happening with us, isn’t it?” Nicolas said with a broad smile.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“How the hell did they find us?” Billy suddenly asked. “We have been safe under the mountain for hundreds of years, why now? Who the hell is responsible for all this?”

The group of Shape shifters, especially Keva and Aceso looked at each other not knowing what the answer was or even where to begin. How had the vampires gotten into the Mountain?

After a few moments Billy spoke into the quiet, “Ok, this isn’t getting us anywhere. What the hell are we supposed to do now? We can’t stay here; we have to move. The sun’s going down a little too fast for me. I want to get as far away from here as possible.”

“We have to wait a few more minutes,” Physis said sternly from the side of the clearing. “My mate is coming. I can feel him. He’ll be here soon.”

The group waited and just as the white Shape shifter predicted, the eight foot tall brown Ares, broke through the outside of the clearing. He was tired and his golden eyes looked haunted. He gently laid a Shape shifter on the ground that had been thrown over his shoulders, followed by the Elder Tracker Ansuya. Ares went to his mate and nuzzled her neck. The white she werewolf returned the gesture and Ares bit her gently on her ear as he hugged her tightly in his arms.

Aceso meanwhile went to the unconscious body on the ground. She inhaled and bit at his shoulder. The older Shape shifter eye’s fluttered open but then shut again as he relaxed down into a restful sleep.

“Ok, Ansuya, you mind telling us what the hell you’ve been up to this whole time? And why you conveniently showed up AFTER the vampires attacked after having somehow gotten into our home?” Nicolas held none of the vitriol he felt from his words that he spat at the Elder.

“I was with Kenneth, and later Alexander Grun from House Brandt. I was gathering information on our enemies,” Ansuya replied showing a little distaste for being questioned by anyone.

“And you expect us to believe that you had nothing to do with this invasion?” Nicolas sneered coldly.

“I don’t like your tone, Scout. Frankly, I don’t give a damn what you think. The invasion was engineered by Kenneth,” Ansuya replied quietly. “I was told that he may have rediscovered the old practice of Dominating wolves.”

“Yes, we found that out the hard way a few months ago,” Willaim said. “We were ambushed in a construction yard where a group of vampuires had wolves attack us. We fought off the vampires but the wolves ran off with them.”

“Then Wolfgang wasn’t lying. Is it any wonder the vampires have rediscovered an ability? Has Nicolas not also rediscovered the technique of our Scout Sight?” Ansuya asked.

“So, that’s it then? It was Kenneth who was responsible for all this, and that’s it?” William asked.

“It was confirmed by Wolfgang Hammerstein, the Head of House for House Brandt,” Ansuya explained. “But this can wait till later. I can assure each and every one of you that I am still very much myself and am no traitor. And since Huan Li and I are the only Elders left, I am taking charge.”

Nicolas shot a dirty look at the Elder but William shot a look of his own and thankfully, Nicolas knew to keep his mouth shut this time.

Ansuya looked around at the group of Shape shifters. “We have to move.”

“I wanted to wait to give others as much time to reach us as possible,” Keva replied looking around at the small number of survivors.

“There won’t be any others,” Ares said coldly. “I, Elder Huan Li, and Ansuya were the last to leave the city.”

“Pepromene, Katherine,” Ansuya said. “We need to get to the Whyte Plain. Open the way for us, please?”

“So, we’re just going to tuck our tails between our legs and run?” Nicolas scoffed.

“Elder?” Billy asked. “You can’t be serious? Are we just goin to…goin to let those bastards get away with burning our home?”

Ansuya looked over to the younger Scout but answered Billy, “Billy, we can’t fight them with just the twenty or so of us here. We will get as far away from here as possible. We will give ourselves time to grieve, and to rest.” She turned around and faced the rest of the young Shape shifters in the clearing, including Amanda Miller who had by some divine providence survived the chaos of the last day. “Then we will plan. I swear to you we’re not through yet. This is not the ending, but a beginning. So long as we live, we choose how the story goes.”

“Amanda,” Ansuya said looking down at the young human. “I would not do this except for the extreme circumstances that we find ourselves in. When we enter the Whyte Plain, I am demanding that you tell us of anything that is wrong or peculiar, even something as minute as a buzzing in your ears. Let nothing pass your mind without telling me about it. Am I understood?” The Elder held the young woman’s gaze with intense focus. Amanda nodded.