Thirty Nine.

Eren

From the moment we walked into the clearing my heart raced. Actually, it hadn't stopped racing from the moment I sensed the other wolf, but I forced myself to focus on reaching the only help I could think to find.

Noel was not only my best option, he was my only option. I knew that he had a soft spot for Dylan and that he would do his best to try to help her in whatever way he could before having to call my uncle.

We can't link without our wolves so I begged Dane to stay with me as long as he could while I linked with Noel. Thankfully, Noel happened to be heading home and was much closer to the training grounds that I had been headed to. I told him where to meet and let him know that he wouldn't be able to link me and to just wait for me to arrive. 

The second I stopped taking I wasn't able to reach Dane again. "F*ck," I muttered under my breath to myself. My uncle really did know how to ruin everything didn't he. I'm sure if he could see me right now he would be beyond pleased, that sadistic pr*ck. One day, I swear I will pay him back for everything he's done.

I needed to shake off those thoughts right now, all I had was my physical strength and I needed to use every ounce of it to help Dylan and the Silveras. Getting to Noel and back to them as quick as I could needed to be my only priority.

Running was out of the question, so I was reduced to a quick trot. Repeating to myself that I was almost there helped me mentally push myself and in turn force my body to keep moving.

As soon as I approached the training grounds, I saw someone move out of the shadow of the building and felt my entire body ease a bit when I registered that it was Noel.

"By the Gods, what the f*ck happened to ya' boy," Noel asked confused, "why didn't he heal ya!" There was no time to explain to him why Marq couldn't heal me anymore than he did. Dylan was my main priority right now.

"Don't worry about me, I need your help right now, follow me, I'll explain on the way."

Noel chucked his teeth at me, "follow ya, I can hardly believe ya' even got here. Seems I'll have to carry ya' to wherever ya need to take me."

Pissed that he was probably right I sighed, "fine old man, help me and I'll show you where they are."

The look he gave me would have been funny if I wasn't in a hurry. "Them, who's them, you said you need my help." He walked closer to me and I thought that he was about to scoop me up in his arms like a child.

Backing away I looked at him in turn, "do you mean to carry me like a child?"

Laughing he swung him arm under one arm and grabbed onto my opposite shoulder."Ay, as funny as that would be, I doubt you'd come willingly boy. Now off we go. Who is the them you are referring to?"

Wrapping my arm around his shoulder and grabbing his shoulder worked well and we started to head off in the direction of the coastline. Once we were in the tress I spoke to him as quickly as I could.

It wasn't easy to keep up with the pace he was trying to set for us. "The Silveras and Dylan were headed to the beach and I caught the scent of an outsider, a strange wolf was in the area near them. I can't reach Dane right now so I came to get you."

He was quiet for a few steps as if contemplating my words and the first question out of his mouth caught me off guard for a moment. "What did he use on you to keep you away from Dane?"

Well damn. How he had come to the conclusion that my uncle was the reason that I couldn't reach Dane right now I wasn't sure, but he was right and I knew that if I didn't answer him, he wouldn't let it go.

"I don't know," I answered truthfully. "Marq wasn't in the mood for giving any explanations and I wasn't in the mood to wait around either."

There was a sudden increase in our speed and I was huffing and puffing much louder than I liked, but if this was the only way that I could get someone over to help them I would do it.

Noel didn't ask any other questions for a while and I was going mad with the silence.

"Do you think that we should call the patrols or guards," I asked him quickly. What if I had been mistaken and there wasn't just one intruder, but multiple.

Having no idea what we might be walking into I worried for her. I had no idea how she would deal with something like this especially after what happened to her this morning.

My thoughts were consumed of images of her from not only today, but any time I'd seen her. Images of her laughing, crying, shifting, and everything in between swam around my mind.

Noel's soft response pulled me back to reality. "No, we need to find out what is going on before calling anyone. If there are more than the one you detected I will call Vit or Marq, but no others."

The more I thought of it, I knew he was right. If we called anyone else they would immediately call for additional guards and would probably link my uncle to let him know what was going on.

Odd that we haven't heard any warnings or alarms yet, but I hoped that maybe, just maybe my uncle was off the pack lands and had no idea what was going on right now. If the Gods truly existed, I prayed that this is why neither of us had heard anything yet.

Having to walk this way was easier, but too much longer than I liked and I could tell that Noel was a little anxious about the situation that we were heading towards. 

We walked like this for what felt like a good twenty minutes when he spoke again, but this time it wasn't a question, and more like a demand.

"You need to leave this pack. If you do not he will end up killing you. He is only keeping you around for the time being, but I'm not sure how much longer he will need you."

Even though his words were ones that I have thought myself, multiple times, it was hard to hear them. Outside this pack I had nothing. I was nothing. No family, no friends, no pack.

What was a wolf with no pack?

I've heard stories of lone wolves who lose their minds because they have no bond to tie them to others or another. Wolves are pack animals because that is how we thrive, we need our fellow wolves almost as much as we need our mates.

The thought of leaving this horrible life filled me with as much sorrow as it did joy. I held a secret wish inside that maybe one day I would be able to leave here, just not alone, but right now I wasn't ready to look at that hidden part of my heart.

Noel kept walking and didn't seem to expect a response from me. He knew just as well as I did that there was nothing to say in this regard and he was essentially right.

In fact, he was one of my uncle's personal guards and he probably knew the d*ck much better than I ever would. I'm sure that he was saying this because he believed it to be true.

One thing did cross my mind while we continued our walk to the unknown. Noel had always taken extra care to watch out for me, but I had never asked him why. Probably because I was afraid that he would tell me that my uncle had asked that of him.

Tossing the question around in my head I debated on whether I wanted to go there with him right now. Would his answer change the way that I felt about him, or the way that he interacted with me?

Afraid of what changes may come from either of us depending on his answer, I decided against it for now. The fact of the matter was that I knew that I had someone that I could rely on, especially in a situation like this.

When we were closer to the spot I knew they would be in, Noel let me know that he was going to link up with the patrol captain and find out where exactly that they were so that we would know how much time we would have before they found us.

I looked up at his eyes and watched as they took on that hazy shimmer that everyone gets when they are linking with another wolf. It was always interesting to see the way our eyes looked when that happened.

A minute or so later the haze vanished almost immediately, "there is only one patrol in the area tonight since it's a new moon and we have about ten minutes until they will be in this area.

Both of us quickened our strides and I could have sworn that I could hear my heart pounding relentlessly. 

Closer now, I was sure that I could hear multiple voices coming from not much farther away. I didn't know it was nerves or fear, but I suddenly remembered what happened this morning and I felt my stomach doing flips.

"Are you sure that you should be seeing Dylan right now, I thought that something happened between the two of you this morning."

My response to him came out quicker than I would have liked, "unlike this morning, I am choosing to be here and to help her."

The words stung as they left my mouth. I had no choices in this life. My life was hardly my own, but for whatever it's worth, I will keep her from as much pain and sorrow as I can, even if I am the one forced to inflict it upon her.

I could feel Noel's gaze digging into my soul as he looked not just at me, but through me and when he found whatever it was he was looking for, he slowly turned his head and faced the direction we were headed.

Curiosity burned in my heart and I wanted to ask him what he saw when he looked at me like that. Too bad I knew what he saw when he looked at me, he saw what I saw every time I looked in the mirror. 

Nothing.

About ten feet from the clearing, I could not only make out the voices from before, but I was beginning to see that there were two different groups ahead of us.

Continuing our pace, we reached the clearing and broke through the line of trees in time to see what looked like an argument between Dylan and Cruz and an argument between Vit and I assumed the stranger.

Seeing Vit eased my nerves a bit, but when I took in the man in front of him, whatever comfort I had felt , immediately vanished. 

The stranger was taller than Vit and was just as large as he was, but he had a mop of messy red hair on top of his head. But that wasn't all, he looked as though he was about to rip Vit in half.

When I looked back to Dylan, I was shocked into complete silence when I heard her growl in my direction. As if that wasn't bad enough, the stranger by Vit seemed to be enraged by it as well.

Noel quietly muttered to me, "I'm gonna set you down now boy, but if I were you, I would try to stay as quiet as possible, she looks like she wants to rip your head off."

Lowering me down to the ground, I listened to his words and sat there hardly moving and definitely not speaking, but I couldn't look away from her.

Even though I knew that I was probably the last person that she wanted to see right now, I was so glad that she was okay. As I sat there practically gawking at her, I started to feel Dane waking.

"Dane, are you there, are you back now," I asked him quietly while sitting near motionless on the ground by the tree Noel dumped me by. He didn't respond to me, but I could feel his presence and with it I could feel my strength slowly returning.

Noel, Vit, and the man in front of him were now all talking, but I couldn't focus on anything other than her. Hell could have frozen over, the moon and sun could have collided in the sky above us and nothing could have made me look anywhere else but at her. Except for when I heard then.

Did he say that he had come for Dylan? It wasn't just me that heard that, Dane seemed furious by those words. I was trying to wrap my head around Noel's question, but when he answered his own question, those words cut like glass.

"He'll never let you take her." 

Even though I knew he wasn't talking to the stranger, each word seemed to mark my soul. It was as if he was talking directly to me.

I just sat there watching and somewhat listening and trying to keep my mouth shut, but I was on edge now. If my uncle finds out about this, I can't imagine what he would do to Dylan, or any of us for that matter.

But my eyes never left her, I watched her as she watched them. Watched Vit and the man behind him and I saw it. 

I saw the moment she lost her composure and the moment that she decided that she was done with everyone else making decisions for her. 

Gods, she was beautiful and powerful, and the second that she shifted into that sleek red wolf Dane pushed forward. He decided that he would follow her anywhere.

And so we did. 

I sprung up from the ground and shifted in seconds and we were already on the run before I heard what the others were planing on doing. 

Dylan did exactly what I knew that she was going to do, she ran right into the woods after the larger auburn wolf and Dane was right on her tail. 

Dane stayed close enough to keep her safe, but not too close that her wolf would turn and attack. The other wolf was gone. I couldn't even smell him. 

"How can he be that fast," Dane asked me as he followed Dylan's wolf. I wasn't sure so I didn't even bother to answer him. Focus, we just needed to focus on Dylan and make sure that that he was the only other wolf that entered our pack lands.

The words from earlier ran through my head, "he's here for her." They meant Dylan and I knew it. 

Whoever he was, he had managed to sneak unseen onto the largest wolf pack's land unseen and undetected. If they could do that, who knew what else they were capable of.

I followed her all the way to the edge of the Northern border where the mountain range began. Dylan's wolf stopped short of the foot of the hill side. Pacing back and forth she searched for his scent and I watched her from a few yards away.

Searching, she was searching for him and as I watched I could feel the despair taking over. Whatever she was hoping to achieve or find seemed to be slipping away from her.

Dane wanted to go to her, he ached to be nearer to her and I could feel his desire rising up in him or us, f*ck I couldn't tell the difference. 

She was gorgeous, even in this form and neither I nor Dane could stop from going to her, to getting closer to her.

As soon as we were within a few feet of her, Dylan's large wolf turned towards us and the snarl she let out was both one of the most terrifying and sensual sounds I've ever heard. 

Dylan's wolf cocked her head to the side as she prowled closer to Dane and he lowered his head slightly in submission to her, but stood to his full height. 

"Shift so we can talk to her," I demanded of Dane. Even though he wanted to be close to her, his desire to keep her safe was winning out and he was about to shift when we both heard a voice in our minds.

"Are you here to hurt her some more Eren Bluera?"