11 Luna’s Fight

"Ralphie!" I called and he halted simultaneously as his nose detected the whiff of iron in the air. He let out a menacing growl that frightened even me before racing down the cliff. He was speeding down so fast that I almost lost grip a few times, but he trusted in me to not let go and thus never once slowed.

When we reached flat land, he raced across the snowy field all the while roaring and growling. The astounded female wolves, some with humans or children on their backs, immediately gained back their spirit at the sight of backup.

Ralphie's unusually large size probably surprised the intruders who took a second to gauge the enemy, giving their targets some time to gain some distance and round back closer us because from the looks of it, they couldn't all outrun the perpetrators. As a pack, we were stronger.

Before I knew it, Ralphie closed the gap between us and one of the shadows. And the next second, I jumped off of him as he shifted his bones and transformed into a Lycan and pounced on the first Bloodsucker he could sink his teeth in. Mercilessly, he shredded the vampire who tore like a piece of paper would.

Once I took to the ground, I hit the floor running in their direction. There were at least a dozen vampires roaming around and chasing the poor wolves who didn't expect the sudden unannounced visit. Ralphie caught the slowest two but the remaining ten were unfazed and took advantage of the range to continue to chase and hunt down their initial target.

Not only that, they all cleverly split up in different directions, making it an impossible chase without casualties. My eyes darted around the field, analyzing the situation. To my right, the baby wolf boy sitting on his mother's back with his sister fell off when he couldn't hang on through the centrifugal force of his mother's sharp dodge. To my left, a girl in her teens shifted into a white wolf before bearing her fangs at the vampire who marked her auburn friend Ginger as his prey.

I could sense a small pause in Ralphie who was calculating the best direction to head in. The vampires were all scattered, tailing their own wolf of choice. This was far from the ideal situation as the allies present mostly consisted of mothers and children.

Ralphie vocalized as he ran, a feat not easily accomplished while sprinting, trying to alert any pack members for back up. At first he howled a few times but then stopped calling and focused all on offensive defense. I could only induce that no one was within the area that could hear.

He wanted to keep everybody safe and he trusted me to help him when I gave him my answer by jumping off without warning. Because of his complete faith in me and our shared mutual trust, he never once looked back in my direction.

On a whim, I drew the fang I always kept with me and ran it along my palm. It was so sharp that the simple graze caused a clean cut. As I expected, all the invaders stopped to turn their heads as soon as they caught the scent of the red liquid dripping down my hand. It took them another feel seconds to identify that I was the source.

Some stopped in their tracks, frozen in place. Ralphie took advantage of the distraction and jumped one of them, snapping the other attackers up from the diversion. But more importantly, the wolves were able to reassemble back into groups of two and regroup.

Nine left I mentally noted as I continued to run. Eight.

With everything flashing by in the white background, I could really only spot around four clusters of shadows running around.

"LUNA!!!" a high-pitch howl rang in my ears as I turned to see a little black wolf running in my direction and then tossing me onto his back. I almost didn't recognize him, but Aries was stronger than he looked for he managed to run well even with someone his size on his back.

"Regroup," I ordered as I hinted in the direction of the mother fending off two vampires who were after her twins.

Picking up on the strong scent of my blood, one of the vampires didn't hesitate to spring on me but not before my companion wolf tackled him down and tumbled a good ten yards. I ran to towards the children only to see their mother struggle with the male vampire who seemed to wield tremendous strength, most likely attributed to the blood he had taken earlier from another source that wasn't present at the moment.

Putting all my body weight into one attack, I drove Ralphie's fang threw the cold creature before pushing upwards and inflicting more damage. Luckily I got him right in time before he inflicted anymore damage. After confirming he went limp, I quickly went over to tend to the injured mother who seemed to have fainted in exhaustion.

I looked around and it was no time to rejoice. We didn't have any firewood on hand and knowing it would take too long to start one, the only way to stay safe for longer was to decapitate the vampire corpse.

"Tear the limbs!" I ordered the trembling pups. It didn't feel right to have children witness such violence, but in light of the predicament we were in, I made the exception. They understood too for they cooperated and with their teeth, did what they had to.

"Over here!" I yelled and signaled the rest of the family to run back in our direction. By now, as planned, Ralphie proved as much a threat that all the remaining six vampires had to band together to stabilize him.

One enemy decided to abandon his post and chase after us, only to have the Lycan swallow half of his body in anger before spitting it back out in distaste.

We continued to run and I quickly took attendance of the injured mother being carried by the baby black wolf. Her daughter and son who weren't able to shift yet rode on the two teenage wolves while the other pregnant wolf kept up.

Though there were eight of us together, the ones strong enough to fend against those full grown vampires was still only Ralphie. We were lucky as those invaders seemed drunk and not all in their best senses. Still, from the looks of it, they weren't complete useless drunks. In fact, if I'm right, among them were two nobles.

When one of the wolf girls hesitated and whimpered while turning back to look at our Alpha, I barked at her to pick up her pace. It pained me to leave him to fend them off on his own, but our best bet wasn't to fight, it was to run. He knew that so he left me in charge to escape and bring back up.

"Contact the rest!" I shouted over the panic as I ran alongside them as fast as I could. The snow reached up almost to my knees but I continued to shuffle my way through, ignoring that my pants were drenched and felt ten pounds heavier. "Look forward! Go!" I directed as I fought my own desire to turn back to make sure no one was on our tail and that hopefully Ralphie would've ripped through another few by now.

But then my heart stopped when I heard a painful whine coming from behind and I whipped my head backwards to see three vampires sink their teeth into Ralphie's blood-stained body. All of us stopped in our tracks with worried looks and guilt for abandoning a pack mate.

Perhaps Ralphie noticed too for he glared in our direction with his wild golden eyes before standing back up, pulling the parasites off of their feet and far then shaking them off like annoying fleas. But the four remaining bloodsuckers quickly regrouped to surround him.

Our Alpha spared us a quick glance before trying to focus again. I turned back to see our group whose spirits sank at the sight. The baby boy began crying, followed by his twin sister. Ginger the half human wolf and her white-coated wolf friend Linde didn't have the heart to sprint anymore either.

We needed a better plan.

"Aries, put the madam down," I say, voice trembling but he obeyed. Turned to the two weeping children, I spoke as calmly as I could manage while taking them off one by one from their carriers' backs. "Watch over your mother." The nodded and immediately stopped their useless cries. I turned my head to the pregnant wolf who dipped her head, already knowing her role. The best friends step closer in unison, awaiting their mission.

"Linde and Ginger, both of you go and find help. Look for Beta Bryant and notify the Shadow Watch. They should be nearby. Stay together. There may be others roaming around. Don't get separated," I warned and they were off.

"Aries!" I summoned but the little black wolf already understood. Opening his jaw, he swiftly but carefully me from the back and tossed me onto his back and raced back to fight.

Even if it was just one we could take on, that would be one less for Ralphie was what I thought.

But as I sat on Aries much smaller back compared to Ralphie as he charged forward with all his strength, I could feel him shaking. I almost forgotten that he was but a child, a mere fifteen years of age with no experience in war and much less against actual vampires that oozed malicious intent to kill.

When one of the vampires who Ralphie swung off caught sight of us, Aries only picked up his speed. He was a brave one I give him that.

"Aries. Compared to you, most of the vampires have weak legs," I stated when one enemy marked us as his new target. "They are quick but lack good balance. If you can knock him off and bite off an arm, the victory is yours," I assured. "Their fangs are sharp, but not as sharp as yours," I said before leaping off and rolling across the snow as a thunder-like collision happened only a mere six yards from me.

I looked in my Lycan's direction. He seemed to be doing better with only three but still couldn't seem to eliminate any more. With a closer look, I confirmed my suspicions. Two of them had golden rings around their irises, vampires of noble birth, stronger than the average vampire.

The most I could do was diversion so I did just that. As I approached, one of the three was foolish enough to actually turn and take the bait. Ralphie was behind him in a millisecond before sinking his claws through his body and tearing it apart like how I instructed the others to do.

One of the nobles switched tactics and charged at me to use as hostage, but they underestimated Ralphie's sense of protection for he shielded me in a heartbeat before grabbing the vampire from the head and pummeling it to the floor.

A howl came from Aries's direction as he pronounced his first victory, stepping proudly over the mutilated body of his lifeless prey.

The last standing intruder laughed in amusement, but the laugh soon turned bitter when he sobered up a little. I didn't have the olfactory sense of a wolf, but I could smell alcohol on him. It disgusted me when I remembered how much they loved drinking, just as much as they loved women, blood, and their egos.

The vampire noble tried pulling a quick one by getting behind Ralphie to get to me as he knew my blood would replenish his energy. Beating him by only a single second, my savior yanked my arm and shoved me to the floor before ramming his silver body into that of the bloodsucker, which dealt considerable damage to the smaller creature's rib cage.

Trained as he was, the vampire ignored the sharp pain and attempted to reach for me again, only to be intercepted by Aries's lightning speed at pulling me from his line of reach.

But that short interaction surprised us both.

I finally got a clear look at him and I could only assume that from his expression, he got a clear one of me too.