[CHARLIE'S POV]
If I wasn't in a state of semi-shock, I would be crying.
Mike's here. Mike's here. Mike's here. Mike's here.
The thought continued to run through my head, as if on replay. And what was worse, my pack would be fighting for me, when I wouldn't be allowed to fight, myself.
The second I arrived, Ellie crushed me into a large hug, pulling me out of my reverie.
That's where I am now, with Ellie, packing to go to the safe house.
We were pretty much grabbing and throwing whatever we could into our suitcases.
I know I had been upset about being forced to go to the safe house, but I decided that Cole has enough to stress about, without me adding to the heap.
I grab another shirt, stuffing it into the overflowing suit case, and decide I have enough stuff to last me for a little while.
Rushing down the stairs, I call for Ellie.
Together we make our way out of the house and to the car, where two guards are already waiting for us.
"Luna, Beta." The younger of the two greets. I'm pretty sure his name is Jared.
"Hello Jared." Ellie greets him.
The other man was an older wolf. I did not know his name, and he seemed scary enough for me to not ask.
We climb into the car and I frown, smelling something odd.
"Hey, Ellie, do you smell anything?"
"Um," she stops to sniff the air, "no."
"Oh, um I guess we can go then."
As we drive towards the safe house, located along the perimeter of a nearby packs territory, the smell gets farther away.
When we are about two or three miles from the house, the smell returns.
"Ellie?"
"I smell it."
"Jared?"
"Rogues. I'm mind-linking-."
The car is slammed into and knocked over, by a heavy force.
A rogue.
The car starts to rapidly turn as the wolf rolls it with his snout.
"Ellie?" I scream, desperately needing to hear her voice, to know that she is okay.
"Fine."
"Are you two ok?" I refer to the guards, and am met with nothing.
When the rolling finally stops, I look around to find both guards unmoving.
The glass from the windshield is stuck into their bodies at random intervals.
My mouth opens and closes in shock, nothing coming out of it.
The car is slammed into again and I scream.
I hear Ellie scream as well, but it sounds too far away.
Looking up, I see the a large rogue has Ellie in his mouth. My terror soon turns into anger, and I growl.
My wolf side soon takes over and I shift, lunging at the wolf.
He yelps, clearly not expect my sudden attack.
He drops Ellie and lunges for my neck.
I dodge and instead lunge at his abdomen.
Ellie soon shifts into her blonde wolf and finishes the trapped wolf off.
Shifting back, we both look around horror.
I break down into sobs, terrified at the fact that I killed someone. Maybe it was indirectly but someone left the world because of me.
"Shh sweetie, they won't bother us any more." Ellie's attempts at soothing me only made me cry harder.
"How can you be so ok with killing someone?"
"I'm not. But I know that if I hadn't killed the man, he would've killed the both of us."
I scoff. "As if Mike would let him kill me. I wish he would let them kill me."
"You don't mean that."
I shake my head and remove myself from my previous position, huddled against Ellie, and go in search of my suitcase.
"We need a change of clothes." I tell Ellie.
"Charlotte Sky, both your mate and mine told us to stay away from that fight."
"Since when have we done what we're told?" I raise an inquisitive eyebrow at her.
She sighs and shakes her head at me. "Let's find our bags and something to wear."
The action proved harder said than done, for our bags had bursted and clothes were strewn everywhere.
I basically just grabbed the first shirt and pair of pants I saw, anything to not walk around completely naked.
"Remember, something we can move around in." I call to Elli, who was going through her own bag.
I, myself had a grey pair of athletic shorts and a black work-out-tank in hand.
We were going to shift and run there in our wolf forms, then shift about a mile from the battle. This way, our scents would not be as strong as they would be in our wolf forms.
"We're good, lets go." Ellie's voice holds a certain amount of urgency.
"What's happening?"
"I can feel Connors worrying and fear. Something bad is happening." Her voice trembles.
"Then let's go help them."
Together we shift and push the wreckage aside, trying our hardest not to look at the bodies of the guards.
Luckily the rogue had fallen enough into the woods that all we had to do was move a large branch over him to conceal him.
I bark at Ellie, asking her if she's ready.
She nods her large wolf head and we take off into the woods.
The feeling of twigs and pine needles whacking at my skin, is numbed by the racing thoughts shooting through my head.
I know that Cole is blocking his emotions from me. He is trying to keep me from worrying too much. Only powerful wolves, like Alphas, can hide their emotions from their mates. But why would he have to hide his emotions from me? Are things really that bad?
Well, it looks like we'll be finding out soon enough.
Can you hear me? I ask Ellie through mind-link.
Yeah. Should we stop here? I can hear the fight already. She replies.
We should, just to play it safe.
Shifting quicly, we both change into our clothes.
Even though our wolf forms are obviously faster, our human forms can run about 4 times faster than the average human.
The feild is a mess.
Blood and fur and bodies are strewn across the ground.
Disappointedly the fight seems to be going evenly for both sides.
The rogues are quite easy to distinguish from the wolves of my pack. While our coats are nicely groomed, theirs are matted and dirty from over use.
You need to take care of your human form and not spend too long in wolf form in order to keep your fur looking clean.
Cole is also not particularly difficult to spot. His large brown wolf stands out against the small, dull wolves surrounding the area.
Quickly scanning the area, I caught sight of Connor helping a younger wolf fight off two larger opponents, Ty sinking his teeth into a rogues neck and Kylie dashing off to help some older wolves.
Mike was nowhere to be found.
As Ellie and I step onto the battle field, I can feel the atmosphere shift.
Everyone obviously knows that we are here.
What the hell are you doing here? Cole's angry voice fills my head, making me flinch.
I glance beside me and see Ellie biting her lip. Cleary Connor is saying something along the same lines.
I'm here to help. I tell him.
Where are your guards? Why would they let you anywhere near the fight?
A-a rogue hit the car. They died in the crash. My voice trembles slightly.
And the rogue? His voice is softer than it was.
I did what I had to do. My voice is hard, like a steel door, keeping him out.
Charlie, I'm so-. His sentence is cut off and so is my breath.
I look up in sudden shock, as a large, dull, brown wolf tackles my mate to the floor.
Suddenly all I see is red and I let out a growl, the sheer power of the noise making every wolf on the field flinch.
I go to shift in order to help my mate, but ssuddenly a rogue in human form is in front of me.
"Well hello there little girl." He gives me a wide grin, showing off his decaying teeth. "Wanna play?"
I open my mouth, as if to answer him, instead lunging at him. This catches him off guard and he loses his balance.
I am not proud to say that I have killed, so I'm going to try to refrain from doing it again.
I quicly hit him in the head with as much force as I possibly can, knocking him unconcious for at least a few hours.
Hopefully this will all be over by then.
Rogues continue to bombard me, each ending up with the same fate.
The whole time I have been watching Cole out of the very corner of my eye.
He had gotten back to his feet moment after he was knocked down, and had quickly taken down the wolf who had lunged at him.
He seemed to be the main target for attack, because at least three wolves crowded him at all times. He seemed to be having no trouble, though. Limp bodies and blood were spread out across the grass around him.
Finally having a moment between fights, I take a deep breath. As usual my relaxing moments are just that-moments.
"Charlie!" A desperate voice calls out to me, more familiar than my own.
Ty. Without even thinking I am searching the battle field for him.
Ty had been rather vacant the last few weeks. I could tell he was even more shaken up from my kidnapping than even I was. And he found no ammusment in the way Cole and I treated eachother, him not having a mate and all.
There.
He was shifting back into his wolf form, as a wolf, at least twice as large as his own,charged at him.
I gasp as Ty falls backwards, leaving himself vulnerable.
Luckily, he twists himself just in time to soften the blow.
I try to make my way over to him as quickly as possible, but am continually stopped by rogues.
If anybody is listening, please let somebody be listening, Ty needs help. Please. My mindlink goes out to everyone who's listening.
I got it, sis. Connor's voice brings a breif wave of relief as I finally get close enough to Ty.
The battle looks intense.
Blood has matted both wolves fur, and both appear to be absolutely furious.
I watch in horror as the wolf pins Ty down.
I start sprinting, as fast as I can, knowing that shifting will only make the wolf work faster.
The regrets of my discision settle in as the wolf sinks its teeth into Tylers neck.
A strangled scream excapes my lips.
No.
I am about to shift when a certain brown wolf tackles the rogue to the ground, and away from Ty.
I sprint, faster than I ever have, to my best friends side.
He has shifted and he lies there, soaked in blood, in all his naked glory.
"Ty. Ty. Ty." I start to sob at the sght of the blood flowing from his neck.
"Shh, I'm ok. Just a little scratch."
I let out a mixture between a sob and a laugh.
"Charlie, you know I love you, right? You've been my best friend for only two years but it feels like so much longer. I could never ask for anyon better."
"Please stop talking like that. Stop talking like this is goodbye."
"This isn't goodbye, I'll be watching you, and your children. Please don't be too loud when making them." He stops to cough, sucessfully spitting up blood. "I just want you to know how much I have cherished you. Thank you so much for such a wonderful life." His words gradually get softer, until they are nothing but a whisper.
"No. Ty please don't." I shake him.
A weak, "I'm sorry," escapes his lips.
"No, I'm sorry. I love you, Ty. You've done so much for me and I wasn't here. I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry." Images flash through my mind. Me taking Ty bowling for the first time. Us getting kicked out of the arcade. Me breaking down and telling him about my life. Him telling me about the human girl who had broken his heart. Us harrassing strangers at the mall. Our random parties on Tuesday nights. Playing truth or dare every three weekends. Pranking our teachers once every month. Ruining picture day for everyone we hate.
Ty.
I plant a careful kiss on his forehead, before standing up.
My eyes lock onto the rogue fighting my brother.
He did this. He is the reason my best friend has left this world.
This wolf is clearly a talented soldier. He had taken down Ty, who was in the top ten fighters at school.
There were nearly a thousand students in that school. Connor is clearly preoccupied.
I look around and see Ellie, in her wolf form, underneath a skinny blonde wolf. Just as I am about to go help her, she gets the upperhand and finished the wolf off.
I turn back to Connor, just in time to see him knocked down by the rogue. Looks like I'm not the only one who was watching Ellie.
Connor's body goes limp, but I can still hear his heart. Too strong to be dying, but too weak to be healthy.
Again, my vision goes red, and I am over come by rage.
"Not my brother too, you filthy mutt."
I launch myself off the ground, landing on the wolfs back. He starts to trash beneath me, but my grip is steady. Screw my no killing rule.
I place my hands around his neck and start to squeeze. His trashing gradually gets weaker and I finally finish him off by snapping his neck to the side.
At some point during my interaction with the rogue, Ellie had rushed over to Connor's still-limp body.
"Is he...?" I trail off, my voice wavering.
"He's alive. But I think he's knocked out. I mind linked the doctor and he had me check a few things, he might be in a coma." Her voice held the relief of what didn't go as bad as it could have, but the worrying of what didn't go as well as we had all hoped.
Suddenly something out of the corner of my eye catches my attention.
A lone blonde figure stands at the edge of the battle field, his green eyes dancing over the fighting wolves and skidding to a halt at me.
He smiles, the type of smile I'd imagine a snake would have as it stalks its prey.
"I'm going to go help someone. You take care of him, get him to the safe house if you can. Just make sure you to don't get hurt." I direct my words to Ellie quickly before bolting off into the direction I had seen Mike.
This is why I didn't want to shift. I knew that I would have to face Mike, and I didn't want him to be too alert, so being in human form would only make sense. Shifting meant no clothes. Not the smartest idea when faced with you're love-struck stalker.
I reach the spot where Mike had been and, unsurprisingly, he had moved while I was distracted.
His scent was recent and clear, so it was easy to follow.
He was a short distance away, in the middle of a clearing.
"Charlotte, how nice of you to join me." His voice sends shivers down my spine.
"It's not quite by choice."
"I'd watch that pretty little mouth of yours." He snaps, his eyes going dark.
"Mike, you can stop this. All this pain and misery and suffering. Call off the wolves, go find your mate, make a compromise with Cole."
"I don't ever want to hear his name from you mouth." He takes a threatening step foward.
"He is my mate, and if I wish to say his name, then I will."
A vicious growl escapes his lips. "He is not your mate." And the fight begins.
I launch at him as he launcheds am me. I land on top and immediately start clawing at his eyes.
He cries out and flips us over, holding my hands above my head.
"Well don't I like this postition." He smiles at me, leaning in far too close for my comfort.
"Looks like you're the only one." The voice of my knight in shining armor sneers.
Suddenly the weight that was Mike is off me, and he and Cole are struggling on the floor.
It was so vicious that it was diffiulct to see what was happening.
A kick here, a punch there.
The outcome, however, was inevitable.
Finally Mike's limp body hits the floor.
I rush into Cole's arms, feeling like I am in a dream.
It's over, it's all finally over.
My true happily ever after can finally start.
"I can't believe it." I am in shock.
We both stumble to to battle field, clearly shocked.
The fight is practically over, only a few rogues remain alive.
Our pack stands, all wide grins and proud faces in front of the pack house.
"I love you." I tell my mate.
"I love you too." He tells me.
A/N
THIS IS MY LAST OFFICIAL CHAPTER AND I AM CRYING.
This is also my one year wattaversary so that is why this is being published so late.
I will write a longer last Authors Note discussing epilogues and sequels tomorrow.
Thank you all.
This has bee such a year.
I love you.
Kisses