The snarls got louder and one turned into two and then there were four, all from different directions.
"Do. Not. Move." Lavina warned as she circled Lola to make sure she covered her every inch.
Lola looked toward the path they had walked on as they left the warrior's training grounds and thought that they would all be running up here any second.
She remembered her lesson with Ash on pack rules and laws, one of them being that there was border patrol at all times and that whenever an outsider stepped over the border it was sensed by the Alpha and his warriors.
If that were true then where was everyone? Shouldn't the cavalry be arriving?
The snarls got louder and closer, moving in on them as the girls tried to stick as close to each other as possible.
In that moment it truly dawned on her just how useless she was in a fight against werewolves. Lavina was all alone if a fight were to break out.
She remembered the story of the Doe and how the Doe supposedly had powers beyond healing abilities but she hadn't ever accessed them and had no idea where to begin in learning about them.
"Oh my god," Lavina said in an exhale.
The first wolf stepped out from the forest line baring his teeth. He cast a large shadow on the ground in front of him and the breeze swept through his clean brown fur.
Lola remembered Ash telling her about the rogues, they were dirty and wounded, and sometimes they had more scars than actual fur on their bodies but this one didn't fit the description.
Another stepped out from behind the path of the warrior's grounds.
Lola furrowed her brows, she and Lavina shared a look and as the wolf got closer they wondered how nobody could have seen it.
Her golden brown fur shone under the little light that was left and her snarl grew more vicious the closer she got
Lola had seen them in their wolf form before, both Jax and Ash had shifted around her but she had never seen wolves so angry and threatening.
The slight tremble on Lavina's hand gave away that she too felt fearful.
"What are you guys doing?" Lavina asked.
She knows them?
Two more wolves stepped out and stalked toward them.
They responded with growls that sent Lola back another two steps.
Her eyes were as round as the moon and she tried to see everything at once but the wolves all came from different directions and they all seemed to have set their sights on Lola.
Lavina stepped to the side to block Lola's right side when the wolf on the left jumped at her as she was left unprotected.
Lola squealed and fell back- Lavina shifted into her wolf and stood guard, trying to keep them all at bay on her own.
One of them jumped at Lola, they all seemed to be zeroing in on her. Nobody was paying attention to Lavina but she was watching all of them.
Lola dug her nails into the grass and crawled back slowly. Laying on the ground and watching the wolves was the equivalent of a hare staring up at a lion.
Small and vulnerable, with no measurable strength and nowhere to run where the wolves wouldn't be faster, Lola slowly stood in defeat.
She looked around. The blood trickled down Lavina's neck from where one of the wolves had bit her to get to Lola.
it didn't seem to slow her down, Lavina was still circling, making sure that nobody got to Lola.
As if a shift went off, the wolves seemed stressed and they raised their heads, growling as they jumped all at once.
Saliva flew from the sides of their mouths and their bared teeth were soon covered in blood as Lavina stood firm to protect Lola.
She gawked in horror, wanting to help but knowing she was useless in fighting the wolves.
Instead, she stood back, her body frozen in shock as the wolves attacked Lavina, knowing they had to get through her to get to Lola.
They grew impatient, more aggressive as if something set them off. Just as one of them sunk its teeth into Lavina, a shadow covered the ground and Lola looked up, a black wolf came flying over her head in a jump, shreds of clothes on the path behind her and he landed on one of the wolves.
Lola stepped back, her hand clutched her chest, and her breaths were stuck in her throat. She moved until something stopped her, her back pressed against the soft fur and she turned to see another large wolf, standing like a statue behind her.
He was watching, like the predator he was, taking everything in before his chest rose and a loud howl filled the grounds.
The wolves that were attacking Lavina, the ones whose mission seemed to be to kill Lola stepped back, they lowered their heads and stood on shaky legs.
He growled, stepped around Lola, and shielded her from the front.
Whatever he did it seemed he forced them to shift as they all kneeled on the ground in human form.
Lola gasped. It was Chelsea and her friend, the girls who told Lola to leave. The other two were guys that Lola didn't recognize but they were covered in wounds and blood.
Lola recognized the wolf that had jumped over her, it shifted back and Ash stood there, naked. The wolf in front of her covered her sight and she knew him too, the first wolf she ever saw.
He watched her, one eye darker than the other.
She heard the faraway sound of a zipper being opened, the bag tossed on the ground with a thud and then she heard nothing. It was complete silence making her question if anything had even happened. But the crimson stains on the ground were her reminder, they were always the reminder that blood had in fact been spilled. Just like at the lake when the bodies of her family drifted away in the water and the stains covered rocks and leaves.
You couldn't forgo the evidence when it was right in front of you, as it was for Lola at all times.
Jax stepped aside, revealing the four werewolves in human form kneeling for their Alpha. All of them with shocking looks on their faces, as though they had no idea what had happened.
Chelsea looked up with furrowed brows, her lips were parted as though a question was about to be asked but she turned her head down and closed her eyes.
Jax shifted back and got dressed in a pair of shorts. The lack of humanity in his eyes caused Lola to swallow a lump of fear.
The smell of rain and grass sifted in the air and occasionally dragged the particles from the blood along with it, the metal seeping up her nostrils.
"You will have one chance to explain your actions to me now before you are taken away. And another chance at your hearing before I decide your faith." Jax informed.
The four of them stayed quiet, looking down at the ground. Those seconds were all they were given.
"Take them away." He ordered.
At first, Lola was confused, she looked around and didn't see who Jax was talking to but then they showed up from behind the hedges as though they were just waiting for the order and then she remembered their ways of communication- mind link.
Ash lifted Lavina into his arms and walked her back to the mansion.
In shock, her hands trembling and her mind a complete blank, Lola began walking back as well. That was until her arm was grabbed and she was pulled into one of the wolves that were being taken away.
The warrior's eyes were black as he shouted "She must die!"
He pulled harder so she slammed into his side and dragged on the ground.
His screams transitioned into an agonizing scream as his arm was twisted, his hand ripped from Lola and broken over his knee. Jax stepped between them as he held the guy's arm, the nothingness in his eyes a dark pit of emotionless depths.
He dropped the broken arm and watched carelessly as the Alpha's guard took him away.
Jax turned to Lola, a subtle hint of emotion now hinting in his dark eyes.
"We need to talk," Jax said.