No one expected this attack, especially as the sound of explosions and gunfire echoed through the city gates. Elise and Hayden could only watch in horror as the pack and their men by the gated wall were under attack from the weapons.
“I need to go now,” he muttered, his tone racing in haste as he rushed to the door, with Elise right behind him, her eyes filled with adrenaline.
“I’m coming with you,” she muttered as Hayden stopped her, his gaze filled with a plea for her to stay safe. Elise frowned. “I can fight; you know I can,” she told Hayden, his eyes filled with rage and hardened from the ongoing attack. He couldn't help but feel his wolf wanting to protect her.
“I need you to be safe; you need to go check on Ethan too, just please,” he told Elise. They ran out the door, and she saw a quick shift of his wolf as he raced into the darkness and departed by the gates. Elise ran to Abby’s home while Hayden shifted to his wolf and raced to the gates.
They were trying to use bombs to bring the whole wall down, and Hayden raced towards the attack. There was a sense of urgency in his voice as he called for his men telepathically. Meanwhile, Elise reached Abby’s home. She broke open the door, her heart racing as she called out their names: “Abby? Ethan!” she shouted.
“Elise!” Abby came from her room with Ethan in her arms. A breath of relief left Elise as she saw they were unhurt since the attack was being strongly held off by their brave men by the walls.
She reached forward to kiss her son's forehead and faced Abby. “Oh thanks the moons..I need you to go hide in the bunker with the others; I’ll be back,” she instructed the older woman.
“Why aren’t you going with us?” Abby panicked, but Elise just shook her head in response.
“Hayden needs me; the men are injured too, and I can help, Abby.” Even though Abby could see the dangers, she couldn’t stop Elise when her heart was made up. She nodded in understanding. “Thank you. Take care, baby,” Elise muttered, kissing her son again before she ran out of the house and to Hayden.
The darkened sky from the smoke and bright fire was her guide to the gates. She raced towards the gate, meeting injured people who needed her help.
A few Deltas and pack members who weren’t hurt were relieved to see her, but she quickly noticed a woman crying desperately. “Please help him, Luna,” she cried to her husband. Elise took his injured arm, reaching for her healing powers.
She closed the wounds to their relief as the lady expressed her gratitude to Elise. “I need you all to go to the bunkers and send him to the relief center; Abby will be there,” she told them. They nodded and thanked her.
Elise healed over a dozen wounded members before she got to the wall. She reached the small estate by the wall that had collapsed, with wounded soldiers everywhere. She heard a scream and saw a woman on the floor with a man in front of her.
The man was in full bulletproof armor, a breathing mask, and a gun pointed towards them. He had shot her, and her small son was still alive, with his gun facing the small pup. They could barely move and began to choke on the smoke poison in their lungs. A human, Elise thought.
Elise raced at speed, her claws swinging at the human's throat, killing him immediately. Blood gushed on her fingers, but she didn’t care. Not after what these monsters had done. “You’re okay, I’m here,” she assured the small boy who cried for his mother.
“My leg is stuck under the rubble; my mother was trying to get me out; she protected me!” he cried, and Elise felt her face wet with tears as she pulled out his broken leg, mending the bone as best she could.
How could humans be so ruthless? How could they take so many innocent lives when they’d done nothing to them? She didn’t know how they found them in the first place. How did they know about the veil?
But what she didn’t know was that this attack was also happening simultaneously in other packs, as the humans had launched a frontal attack on all packs, which they’d been planning for years.
Elise took the pup on her back, giving him to a delta who ushered him towards the bunker. She heard the roars of the wolves and the screams of the humans; they were running out of weapons, and shadow wolves were taking the upper hand.
One mistake they made was to attack by night. The shadow wolves were born and trained to attack in the shadows, as that was when their skills came to life. They were getting outnumbered fast.
Elise was still in a panic and couldn’t find Hayden. *Where are you, Hayden?* she called through the channel but got no answer. She still couldn’t believe the distraction and the increasing injuries. She stopped her arms from trembling, and a dark thought loomed in her mind: what if they were getting hurt because of her?
“Please help!” she heard another voice, this time from a male who had been shot between his collarbones. It was Ian, his body leaning on a tree. Elise knelt in haste, watching in horror as blood poured faster than she could think.
“Don’t worry, I’m here,” she said to him. She put all her energy into it, but he was losing so much blood. “Keep your eyes open,” she told the man.
“Luna, please, what about my wife and pup? They were ahead of me,” Ian asked, his voice already croaking, having an idea why she didn’t mention his mate.
“Your son is okay,” she said shortly.
“And my wife?” he asked, his voice croaking already, having an idea why she didn’t mention his mate.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she muttered, tears streaming down her face, trying to patch up his wounds, her eyes blurry with tears and anger for her people’s pain. Just then she heard Hayden's voice: *Where are you?*
*By the walls... *Helping, someone is wounded* she channeled down. She tore her sleeve, tying it fast against his chest. Unbeknownst to her, a human had been hiding by the tree, a human with a sniper rifle pointed at her.
He aimed at Elise's head, pushed the trigger, and let the bullet fly. *Watch out!* she heard Hayden’s screaming as the gunshot rang out. Her body froze in shock when she heard the noise. Gunshot and the sound of someone toppling to the ground.
She looked back to see his wolf falling to the floor and yelping in pain; it was Hayden who’d been shot in her stead. And now he was bleeding and losing blood.
His betas immediately jumped and tore the human male to shreds, the human screams dulled out by their growls as they tore him limb from limb. While Elise could barely process what just happened, and now Hayden was on the floor, his breath thrashed harshly.
“No, no, no,” she muttered. She crawled to his side, Hayden shifting back to him. She cradled him in her arms, and for a moment she felt so numb she couldn't hear anything.
Her hand pressed against the bullet wound in his stomach. “I-I will heal you,” she muttered. She closed her eyes, begging for that power to slowly filter. She’d healed so many people that she hardly had any left with any rest, but she didn’t give up.
“Come on, come on, please,” she begged. She tasted metallic liquid on her lips; she was bleeding from her nose, but she pushed more of that power, going past her limit.
“El told you not to come here—ugh,” Hayden muttered.
“Shut the hell up and let me help you!” she snarled as she cleaned the blood, putting more effort into the powers that spread from her fingers, a heated stinging sensation to his skin.
She would heal the best she could before her power gave out. She pushed until she felt a dizzying spin around the forest, and there was nothing left. A whimper left her lips, hating that she wasn’t strong enough and not caring if she’d saved more than a dozen people with her healing. Hayden mattered to her the most.
But she saw his eyes closed, and with no response, she began to whimper in distress as she put a hand on his chest to hear a heartbeat but nothing. “Please, please!” she muttered. “You cannot do this to me; you cannot leave me, not now,” she muttered.
But there was no response. Elise felt like her body wasn’t her own; she felt mad pain, and her feral side wanted to take over, wanting to kill and destroy everything as she wrapped her hands around him tighter.
“I can’t breathe,” she heard his voice whisper.
“What?” she muttered as she whirled back up in shock. She held him up, her lips trembling as fast as her heart.
“I couldn't breathe because of how much you were holding me,” he joked, and Elise let out a cry in relief, and she hugged him.
“You’re back; you’re here,” she whispered with a kiss to his cheek. Their heads joined together, and the wolves finally won the battle but were left with their home destroyed by humans.
But Elise couldn’t think of them right now, not when she was holding Hayden; this was far more than what she thought she felt for him.
But they could only hold each other through the post-battle and were thankful they were okay. But they knew this was only the beginning.