TOO LATE TO RUN NOW

20 FEBRUARY, SATURDAY, CONTINUED

"Princess, we should go." Bell said.

It was way too late for that. I would have preferred the option of flight too - especially since I had promised Mum not to get into trouble, although tbh, I wasn't thinking of my promise to Mum when I was getting out of the car - I was trying to get Bell away to a safe place.

But now, it was too late - the metal wolf was crunching on any and every metal on the street. I could smell petrol leaks from the mangled wreckage strewn across the street.

"Sam!"

"Goddess!"

"Alpha!"

My three betas criss-crossed the street, wading through the general chaos to get to me.

Oh the mayhem! The red ants were swarming all over the place now, trying to evacuate the street. A few alpha wolves quickly put their lunas aside to safety and returned, shifting into their wolves in a bid to stop the metal wolf - there were three of them, all properly alpha, but in comparison to the gigantic metal wolf, they looked like very normal flesh and fur wolves.

There was always someone out there who was stronger. Even among alpha wolves, the difference in power could be staggering.

"The Titans of Alphas..." Ki murmured to himself. Harvey managed a half nod. Our eyes were all fixed on the scene before us.

The three alphas couldn't do a thing against the metal wolf. What could wild wolves do against a metal guzzling monster? It's not like they could bite through the metal fur (even though they did try). I looked around, was there no one to fight this thing?

Just as I thought this, tiny snowflakes began to crystallize and fall. But snow was cold rain that fell out from clouds right? Maybe I only imagined seeing the snowflake appear in front of me.

Suddenly my attention was directed towards a quick fizzing and snapping sound, my eyes widened at the sight. An alpha wolf and his beta wolf were approaching the scene at great speed. The new arrivals were nearly white, but not quite. The alpha one had light grey markings running down from his ears to the tip of his tail. His beta had a very light tan markings. They looked like wolves that had been dipped in bleach.

If their lack of pigmentation didn't give them away, their powers certainly did. They were snow wolves. The air around us suddenly felt crisper as they drew near, and unlike the icy wind at the yacht, this movement of air was less of a wind, than a suggestive breeze, dry and sharp, prickling up the little hairs on my skin.

Now I was sure the snowflakes were crystallizing, right before my very eyes, and then drifting towards the two snow wolves like iron filings towards a magnet. And oh! It was the most amazing sight! Through the billowing snow, the snow wolf alpha shot over the cars, gracefully slicing through the air on ice ramps that were fizzled together by sparkling snowflakes in the sun, and then SNAP! Broken when the snow flakes ran out. The alpha snow wolf never slowed though, gracefully leaping into the air until there was enough new snow to fuse a new ramp.

The beta snow wolf was no less flashy in his approach, running just behind his alpha, bounding from one fallen ramp to another.

The metal wolf turned to face his new enemy and charged forward while alpha snow wolf was in mid air. He would've taken a chunk out of the alpha snow wolf too if the beta snow wolf had not jumped at the last ice ramp, shoving it hard into the metal wolf.The ice hit the metal making a surprisingly loud crashing sound and the metal wolf was knocked off its projectile and onto the road. More loud sounds of metal scraping off the tarmac.

The alpha snow wolf landed safely, growling lowly. The metal alpha also got back on his feet, but he was snarling savagely.

Once again the metal alpha attacked the snow alpha first, charging head first, his metal claws digging into the tarmac and his metal fur like spikes - it was the closest thing I've ever seen to my own hair whenever it chi-ka-boomed and went into kraken mode. The snow alpha was light on his feet, and gracefully side-stepped the charge.

"My Alpha needs more water!" Someone was shouting from around the street corner across from us. It was Wilhelm. He was with River and Keanu. The three of them were trying to kick down a fire hydrant, but you know those things didn't come down easily because this wasn't a movie. Real fire hydrants didn't just pop out of the ground and splash water everywhere. Plus, might I just point out that the three of them were just human... and River and Keanu were the kind of the wimpier variety of humans.

Luckily or unluckily for them, the metal wolf came charging towards them.

"River! Watch out!" Wilhelm was the first to react, grabbing River with one hand, and then Keanu with the other and dragging them out of the way of the metal beast. And then it began to look more like a movie set because the metal wolf had crashed into the streetlamps, a food cart, and yes, the fire hydrant too, and now the water was spurting out of the hole in the pavement like a geyser. The spray went up quite high too. Who knew?

In moments, the water began to flood the street. The snow alpha in particular seemed to want that - he froze the gutters shut. I realized why when the snow beta ran into the water that began to raise pillars of ice out from the water pooling on the streets.

Now the snow alpha was flanking around the cross junction. The metal alpha took the chance to chomp on the street lamps. They broke like pokey sticks between his teeth. Every time he ate more metal, he grew larger and wilder. It was amazing to watch.

But the pillars of ice were now taking the form of a very sturdy large cage. The snow alpha was in position, and in a flash, he charged up an ice ramp with a flourish of snow that turned into hard sharp blades each the size of a large throwing knife. The blades fell on the metal alpha, most of them breaking on the metal, but it pelting on quite hard and the metal alpha drew back snarling and then charged again.

Once again the snow alpha side-stepped the charge and the metal alpha ran head first into the ice pillar cage. The snow beta drew up the last two ice pillars to close up the cage. The snow alpha made a ramp over the top as a lid. The metal alpha snarled and slammed against the pillars, it shook but didn't break.

"Harv, report to the elders. Ben, get my princess to safety. Ki, you're with me." Bell decided to make a move now.

Oh wait, no, no, no! We got front row seats to the most exciting live show I had ever seen!

"Come on, Sam." Ben came over. And then he winked. He winked. Hahaha.

"Oh, okay." I tried to sound disappointed or something. It was hard because I couldn't wait. This was going to be fun. I already knew exactly how Ben and I could take a detour around to the other side of the street to get a clearer view.

And then suddenly CRACK! The metal alpha slammed against the pillars with its huge metal body, and then he flared his fur outwards so that it spiked out. CRACK! The ice pillars were starting to give way. The snow beta tried to reinforce it, but the new pillars he made weren't as strong as before. CRACK! The new pillars snapped on impact. The snow alpha curved an ice ramp around his beta as a shield.

Oh no. Pieces of the new pillars were up in the air and were now raining back down like hail. There was a bit of screaming and scrambling of bystanders on our right, and then one particularly long piece of ice pillar shot down faster than all the other pieces and made its way directly at us like an oversize javelin.

"Sam!"

"Goddess!"

"Alpha!"

"Princess!" Mate used his body to shield me. And then we were both knocked down to the ground by Ben, followed by Ki and Harvey. Although I appreciated the gesture, I was now trapped under a body pile. Luckily my hair had a mind of its own and managed to go kraken and grow out a spherical shield around my precious luna and my three betas. I guess my hair liked them too.

There was a shattering sound when the ice pillar crashed on the shield, but otherwise, I think we were okay. My betas and bell got off me, so I released them from the dark shield and retracted my hair.

"You know, it would technically be more efficient if you let the one with inbuilt body armor stand in front." I told them wryly.

At this moment, I suddenly realized that this was my moment to bask in my alpha coolness, but Bell had other plans, "Dammit Princess! That was dangerous!"

"Like you taking the hit was a safer option!" I flared back at my stoopid mate, "You're welcome, by the way."

Bell growled.

"Rebel..." Ki prompted.

"Not now, Ki."

"Luna Bell..." Harvey prompted.

"Sam, look out!" Ben yelled.

Oh right, there was a crazy metal alpha mowing down the place - and it was right now charging at me. Eh!!!

I took a step back. It was charging straight at me. I would totally have attempted to do that neat side-stepping thing the snow alpha had demonstrated earlier, but my betas and bell had surrounded me, and I was cramped in the middle of them.

"Why is it charging straight at us?" Ben asked, whipping out a gun.

"Not us, beta. Its charging at our goddess." Ki smiled, gun already in hand. He was smiling, but it was a dangerous smile, "I've been wanting to shoot this a****** for a while now."

Eh? Did Ki know this metal alpha? Although now, he was also kind of more like a MENTAL ALPHA, huh? Hahaha. Oh! No time for jokes.

My betas shot, but the bullets ricocheted off the metal alpha.

"Aim at the eyes!" Ben said. Which made sense but the metal alpha was moving too quick and was already upon us. I pushed, or rather my kraken hair pushed, all my wolves out the way. Seriously! For super intelligent beta wolves - shouldn't they had figured out from just now that I was perfectly able to protect myself? They were just in my way.

Then I pushed Bell towards my betas, and threw back the order, "Sit on him. Don't let him get in my way."

And then I darted away from them to put them in a safe distance. Ki was right, the metal alpha was targeting me. The moment I darted off, the metal alpha skidded and tripped on the chunks of ice on the road and changed direction to follow.

"No! Princess! Oooof..." Bell was tackled down by Harvey. Good beta. Even though, I had to admit, his drastic obedience surprised me. I suppose it would be the only way to keep Bell from following me. I left my betas to deal with Bell. It was three against one so they should survive it.

The metal alpha snapped at me, but I ducked. Why was it chasing me? I was still in my human form - running on wolf power, and healing rapidly so the raw wolf power wouldn't completely shred my body into pieces - should I shift? But if I shifted... what if I appeared on the streets naked later? I'd rather die than walk naked on the streets. So I kept running. When I reached the next junction, I made a sharp (and illegal) u-turn because it occurred to me then that it might be a good idea to keep the destruction in one place. I know it wasn't Gate City, but I should be a bit more considerate of Henry and Alpha George's fat wallets.

I knew it was the right thing to do the moment I made the turn and found the ground iced over. And I don't mean like a thin sheet of ice, I mean like an obstacle course of ice ramps, ice pillar-steps, and ice banks encrusting the curb. It was like the Ice Queen went berserk.

I nearly slipped on the ice, but the ice alpha appeared next to me. I grabbed him around his wolf neck and managed to climb on. He didn't seem to mind, he only kept running and sliding across his ice ramps. Now would be a good time to be able to mindlink... but of course we couldn't, so we just had to guess the game plan.

The snow wolf brought me back to the junction we started in and stopped in front of Willheim, River, and Keanu.

"Sam!" River said, "Come with us. It's dangerous here."

Eh? That was not the game plan. And did the snow alpha know we were friends?

The snow alpha barely had time to turn before the metal alpha was upon us again. He had definitely grown even more now, and was the size of a tour bus now.

The metal alpha charged again and to my horror, the snow alpha took his stance. Wait, what? He was doing exactly what Bell and my betas were doing - trying to use himself as a shield to protect me - or rather River and Keanu too?

I guess there was no time to plan anything else, the metal wolf was now crashing through the ice ramps like a bull in a china shop - there was no way the humans could run in time either, although, what wolf would be willing to die for humans?