The dirt path was cool on my feet as the sun dipped below the horizon. I was following the two Princesses to a spot just beyond the lake, where there were two concrete sheds that looked a lot like public toilets. Only they have been built so men and women can strip and shift with some sort of privacy.
"So what kind of prey are in these forests?" Detsy asked Grace as they walked hand in hand. Swinging them backwards and forwards over and over again as a show of excitement for the hunt to come.
"Mainly rabbits, deer and even the occasional wild pig." Grace replied with a loving smile.
"I've never taken down a wild pig before." Detsy declared. "Let's get one of them tonight."
"Are you sure about that?" Grace asked as her smile transformed into an amused one. "I seemed to remember you freaking out at having to hunt big prey. You always prefer to go for something smaller like rabbits."
"But rabbits are so much fun to chase!" Detsy defended herself with a whine in her voice. "Plus you can just terrorize them for a bit then let them go. There's no need to kill them if you're not hungry. A deer or a pig on the other hand will chase you if you give up or the hunt goes badly. They're scary when they're mad."
"Then make sure you get them before they can hurt you." Grace said in a deadpan voice.
"That's easy for you to say Miss Alpha of all Alpha's to be." Detsy teased her mate.
"I just think you want to show off to Eva." Grace told Detsy. To which Detsy blushed slightly at being caught out.
"If you'd like to taste pig then I'll happily get one for you Detsy. I've taken a deer down by myself before, so how much harder could a pig be?" I said
"You what?" Grace looked stunned. "How in the world did you manage that?"
"Easily enough." I replied offhandedly to annoy her before giving a serious answer. "I just snuck up on the deer and used the element of surprise. In the end the hardest part of that hunt was dragging the carcass back to the pack den for everyone. It took over two hours for four of the wolves from the pack to drag it back."
Detsy was looking at me in awe and big strong Grace actually had her mouth open.
"So if you two want to head into the shed and shift then I'll start examining the scents out here and see if I can get a trail while you're doing it." I said when the two still didn't reply to me.
"Oh no you don't." Grace said as she left Detsy's side to place her hand on my back. "You're not going to sneak away and get out of this that easily Eva."
I groaned. I know that I'd been trying to get out of spoiling their hunt together all day. But I honestly thought this was a good attempt at sneaking away.
I sighed in resignation and continued to plod along to the shifting shed, now fully aware that I wasn't going to be left outside so I could sneak away. I still wasn't sure why they wanted me to come with them so much.
We entered the shed and I laid down out of the way as the two women in front of me started stripping.
I realised in annoyance that human culture was rubbing off on me as I was embarrassed to see the two mates naked. When even a month ago I wouldn't have cared one bit. Maybe it's because I had to admit that Grace and Detsy were attractive, even for humans.
Without a word loud snaps and cracks began filling the shifting house as the two shifted. Grace smoothly shifted into her beautiful white wolf with her black mate mark and where Detsy was standing now stood a pure chocolate wolf with a black mate mark and the same deep brown eyes that her human form had.
I'd never seen a chocolate wolf before but Detsy was stunning. Although I wasn't very surprised that both of the Princesses were just as beautiful as wolves as they are as humans.
"You're both beautiful." I let the thought accidentally slip out over the mind link. Luckily no one else was close enough to hear it except Detsy and Grace.
"Thank you." Detsy replied though the link. "Now you know how Grace and I felt when we first saw you."
If I was a human I would have blushed, but I wasn't. So instead I lowered my head meekly in response.
"So Eva." Grace addressed me as I realised I'd just called her mate beautiful and Grace was a possessive Alpha. Fear shot through me.
"I believe the challenge for tonight is to find and take down a pig for her Royal Highness's pleasure." Grace continued on as she smirked teasingly as Detsy.
"Hey," She shot back. "I'm going to help as well."
"Sure you are." The smirk never left Grace's face. "Just like the time we came face to face with an angry cat and you bolted away."
"Hey, that cat was out to kill me with it's claws." Detsy defended. "You should have seen the look in its eyes. It was like the devil coming to get me."
I relaxed again as I saw that I wasn't about to get punished. But I really should learn to keep an appropriate distance from Grace and Detsy. Dying by making a princess jealous was not on my to do list.
"Follow me then." I told the mate's as Grace still teased her beloved.
I left the shifting shed without waiting to see if the two wolves were following me and got to work on sniffing out a wild pig.
...
As it turns out, there aren't many pigs currently in the pack's territory. Between Grace and I, we have found plenty of rabbits, deer, foxes and even a porcupine. But unfortunately every time we found one Detsy insisted we keep looking for a pig.
So here we are at the eastern border of the pack's territory. It's already 1 am and I'm getting hungry. So if Detsy doesn't let me hunt something soon, I'm going to go catch a few rabbits to fill my stomach.
"I've found a scent." Detsy suddenly calls out from slightly behind Grace and myself.
"Damn it." I scolded myself as I realised I was so focused on catching rabbits, I missed the scent of our main prey all together.
"Are you sure it's not just a cute bunny rabbits scent?" Grace teased Detsy which earned her a small growl from the chocolate wolf.
I walked over to Detsy and for what felt like the millionth time tonight, I put my noise down and sniffed around.
"It looks like you've actually found a pigs trail." Grace said in amazement. Which earned her a nudge in the side from her mate.
I however, didn't stop sniffing around. While it was definitely a pigs scent, there was something wrong with it. It smelled strongly of blood, like the animal would have had life threatening wounds when it passed through here not long ago. But the woods were silent.
There was also a faint smell I couldn't identify under the pigs scent. It sent off small warning bells in my head but I couldn't place it.
"Well it's definitely a pig, but it's heavily injur-" I was cut off as a shrieking voice suddenly came through the mind link from the direction of the pack house. "HELP! Please help!"
I had no idea which member of the pack it belonged to but the three of us stiffened.
"Eva, go find that pig and make sure it's not suffering. Detsy and I are going back to the pack house to find out what's happened and assist. Come back when you're done." Grace ordered. A second later Grace and Detsy took off at full speed for the pack house.
I was a little annoyed that Grace had sent me off after a wild animal instead of allowing me to help, but I also understood that I wasn't as fast as a werewolf and would have slowed them down when they needed speed.
So I put my nose to the ground and followed the scent trail out of our pack lands.
The scent trail got stronger as I rushed along following it. Meaning that I was gaining on the poor animal quite fast.
The underlying scent was also getting stronger but I still couldn't place where I knew it from, until the voice in my head suddenly spoke to me "One of those scents belong to Beta Nathan of the Shallow River's pack and the other to Cody."
The hackles on the back of my neck instantly raise as I realise why there had been an alarm at the pack house. Unless my nose was lying to me, one or more of the pack pups had been taken by wolves from my previous pack.
Fury overtook me and I stopped thinking about the why's and how's. All I was focused on now was catching up to Cody and his captors.
All the training I had been doing since I arrived at the werewolf pack paid off as I flew across the forest. My feet barely seemed to touch the ground and I was sure I could put some of the best pack sprinters to shame in my desperation.
A couple of minutes later and I burst into a clearing that had a small river gently flowing through it. Too big to jump but the current was gentle enough to allow one to safely swim across. On the other side were five wolves including Beta Nathan. All of the wolves I recognized from my previous pack.
All of them had pigs guts still sticking to their fur, even though they just swam through a river, in an attempt to mask their scent.
Anger fueling my actions, I didn't slow down as I approached the bank of the river and I launched myself off a fallen log. Somehow I managed to make the jump and landed on the other side. Even if I only just made it by a wolf's tooth.
I turned to face the five wolves with my hackles raised in their most threatening stance. Cody was being held by his shirt. The wolf furthest from me making sure his mouth had a secure grip on the pups cloths.
"What do you think you're doing?" I growl out in a voice that would have made a grown man flee in terror.
I get no reply from them as the four wolves that weren't holding kidnapped pups turn to me and stalked closer.
Somehow I realised that Beta Nathan didn't look as big as he used to. In fact none of them do. I've grown since joining the werewolves. The thought should make me joyful, but instead it just makes me more confident.
"Leave now, this doesn't concern you." Beta Nathan growled at me in a voice that was way to husky to belong to him.
"It certainly does concern me when you're taking pups from my pack Beta Nathan." I spat back. "I'm honestly disappointed, I thought you were better than this."
"We follow the Alpha's orders." Beta Nathan replied robotically. "Now leave before we kill you."
"Not a chance in hell." I reply definitely. I would rather die here and now than let these wolves take our pups from us.
Two of the four wolves darted forward without warning. It was lucky I was ready or that trick might have actually worked.
I also moved forward and feigned to the left. Both wolves fell for it as they had no human based combat experience and I managed to sink my jaws into the front leg on one wolf and shove the other one quite hard into a tree.
Unfortunately for me the third wolf took this as his opportunity to attack and jumped on my back, sinking his claws in and ripping chunks of flesh from my back. He tried for my neck but I was to agile thanks to my training and managed to flip him off before he could inflict life threatening injuries. It still doesn't mean it didn't hurt.
I used my larger size to charge at the third wolf. He tried to go for my throat but I quickly dodged him and found satisfaction as my teeth closed around his windpipe. I proceeded to rip his throat out and he fell over dying.
I took a quick look around and found wolves one and two still on the ground. Beta Nathan was nowhere to be found. "Coward." I thought to myself before I set my sights on the wolf holding Cody.
The wolf was backing away from me while trying to use Cody as a shield. At this point I would have to be careful as I'd lost a lot of my maneuverability to the giant chunks of missing flesh on my back.
So I mentally prepared myself to ignore the pain I was about to inflict on my own body and shot forward.
My intention was to dart around the wolf and attack it from behind. However I had to suddenly stop my charge as the wolf dropped Cody and placed his open mouth over his shoulder in the obvious threat to Cody's life.
Me halting my charge turned out to be a very bad mistake as I felt claws from the wolf I'd smashed into a tree rip through my flank. Somehow I was still standing as I tried to adjust my position was I was facing the wolf with Cody and the wolf who's just attacked me at the same time.
"It's getting too messy." Beta Nathan said from under the tree he'd retreated to watch the fight from. "Just kill the kid and we'll deal with it later."
My heart went cold at that order and before I even knew what I was doing I charged at the wolf holding Cody hostage and smashed them away from the pup.
The other wolf had also charged, but it's target had switched from me to Cody. So I did the only thing I could think of to save the pups life. I jumped in front of the claws and teeth that were descending on Cody.
I felt both claws and teeth rip into me as I managed to get in the way at the last second. But they didn't stop me curling into a ball around Cody a moment later.
I didn't move from my defensive position as the two wolves around me bit and slashed at me with their claws in an attempt to get at the pup I was protecting.
The pain was becoming overwhelming and I didn't want to know how many injuries I had. I could feel the darkness descending on me, powered by the pain when suddenly the attacks stopped.
Unwilling to lift my head away from it's protective place around Cody, I was simply trying to listen to why they'd stopped when I heard what had to be the most terrifying growl I'd ever heard.
I lifted my head up in dread to find out what was coming for me now to see an enraged chocolate wolf standing protectively over me. Standing off against the two wolves trying to kill me.
Grace's white wolf had torn the throat out of the wolf I'd immobilized earlier and was now making her way towards Beta Nathan. The waves of sheer, unbelievable anger that was radiating off both wolves had caused the remaining three wolves to be unable to move.
Unfortunately for the two wolves in front of Detsy, they managed to overcome their fear of her anger and tried to attack her together. Detsy simply swiped a paw at one of the wolves with her superior werewolf strength and sent it flying into a tree so hard that I heard it's neck snap.
The other wolf wasn't quite so lucky as Detsy pounced on it and started to rip it's flesh off piece by piece. About thirty seconds later she was finished and the only remaining wolf still alive was Beta Nathan.
Grace had him pinned and was snarling aggressively in his face. She looked like she was in a mental battle to force herself not to kill him.
"Are you ok? Where is Cody?" Detsy turned to me as a lot of the anger left her.
I uncurled myself to reveal an uninjured, although traumatized, Cody.
"Thank you Eva." Detsy said as she came over to us both and started inspecting my wounds. If her face could pale at the sight of me it would.
Other werewolves from our pack were starting to appear from the bushes as they caught up with the two Princess. Grace left the restraining of Beta Nathan to Thomas and came over to me.
Grace took one look at my wounds before nuzzling her face into mine comfortingly. Detsy decided to take the other side.
"Don't move." Grace instructed me. "Doctor Rory is on his way to help you."
"Don't worry." I replied, alarmed at how weak my voice was. "I don't think I could move no matter how much I wanted to."
Detsy and Grace kept their face's nuzzled into my own to give me support as the pain radiating around my body intensified now that the fighting had stopped and the adrenaline had left me. The pain was bringing with it a blanket of darkness and I knew it wouldn't be long before I lost consciousness.
I managed to fight off the cloak of darkness long enough to see Doctor Rory arrive with two assistants bringing a stretcher behind him. As well as a hysterical Kaitlyn who went straight to comfort her distressed, but unhurt son.