Chapter 2: Leaving everything behind

The night soon turned into a bloody nightmare with my people fighting very hard to survive. Our dead littered the floor of the ballroom like rubbish on the streets yet more rogues kept coming. It was an attack on a large scale. Like something that has been planned for many nights. How didn't we see this coming.

I was tired, wounded and barely holding my own, and the only thing keeping me going is Zach fighting beside me. Between the two of us we have managed to kill a lot of rogues, but that barely made a dent in their numbers.

My father and few of our warriors were back at the pack defending it. The rogue planned their attack so well that they were attacking us on two fronts. I have been keeping touch with my father through our link and he was still going same as us. But I could hear his strength depleting.

Mum was safe, for now as the warriors were doing their best keeping the rogues at bay from where she and the rest of our packs who couldn't fight are being sheltered. Our cubs, pregnant wolves, our elderly. They are the vulnerable and the future of the pack and therefore must be protected at all cost.

Here in this room we aren't faring better either.

"You have to leave now!" Zach screamed into our link as we faced off another group of wolf. I retaliated screaming. "I am not leaving you!"

"You have to. Please! we can't both die here. Our pack needs a reason to survive, and you are that reason."

I wanted to argue that I am not more important than anyone else in the pack, but my father's voice intruded into the link. "He is right, love you have to make your escape."

"But..." I still tried to argue as my heart grew heavy at the thought of abandoning my family.

"You have to go now, Fallon. Now that we still have the numbers to hold them off," Dale, Zach's father and our Pack's beta. And even though his tone was pleading, it was laced with authority letting me know that he was giving me an order.

My agreement was felt by everyone in my silence. Another warrior made his way to Zach to take his place while I withdrew. Inside I began to weep as my wolf made her way towards the exit. Zach and the warrior did their possible best to keep the rogue from pursuing me. When I got outside there were few of them attacking my people out here.

I was about to join in the foray again when Zach leaped in front of me and took on the rogue that was my target. Keep going! he yelled as he fought with the rogue. I heed his words and kept on moving. Soon I took off into the forest running with no idea where I was going. My wolf was bleeding from all the gash she sustained during the fight, but she kept on. our family wants us to survive and that is what we will do.

I stopped abruptly in the forest when I felt a terror in the link, followed by an intense sorrow, and soon it was all I could feel. Something terrible has happened.

"Don't stop Fallon," I heard Zach whisper through the link. His voice was weak, which alarmed me. "Are you alright Zach?" I asked worriedly, wondering if he was the reason for the intense sorrow and great sadness I was feeling through the pack link.

"I love you, Fallon," I heard him say before our link disconnected.

"No!!!!" I screamed in my mind, while my wolf howled loudly into the night. Her pain and mine merging to create the loudest hurl in history. Losing Zach felt like losing a part of me, and yet the universe was not done dealing me a cruel hand.

I tried to contact my father through the link but got no response the same with my mum, Dale, and the others. I have been severed from the pack. I have never felt so lonely like I did at that moment, and the pain and grief that followed brought my wolf to her knees. I wanted to shift to lie there on the forest floor until death came for me, but that will be doing their sacrifice a disservice. They wanted me to survive and that is what I will do.

I heard a twig snap in the distance behind me and I immediately became alert. The scent carried by the wind was rotten. Rogues. They have followed me into the forest. It won't take time for them to map out my location in the forest. For now the forest is riddled with scents of every wolf that has run through it, but soon they will be able to figure out which one is mine.

I have to keep moving.

I took off running through our pack's forest. The idea is to keep going North until I have lost the rogues.

As I was heavily injured it didn't take long for me to loose my speed. I became tired, hungry and worn out. I was dying to rest, but I couldn't chance it. Even though I couldn't hear the rogues behind me I know they are still after me.

I din't how far I ran before my strength gave out on me and I collapsed on the ground. I was seeing spots, and barely have the strength to keep my eyes open, but I didn't want to give up. I tried to stand several times but my wolf was all spent and very weak.

"Come on, Frost, we need to keep moving," I tried to encourage my wolf. She tried to do as I requested but when she got back on her feet I felt her legs tremble before she collapsed back to the ground and darkness claimed us both.

I don't know how long I was out but when I came around I heard voices speaking above me. I held still wanting to know if they were foe or friends. I couldn't smell anything rotten which ruled out them being rogues. But their scent was one I didn't recognize. This was a pack we weren't familiar with. I wondered how far north I wandered.

"Do you think it is dead?" I heard one of them ask.

"I don't know. Maybe you should check it out," another said.

"Why me?" The first voice retorted

"Well you are the one worried if it is dead."

"Yeah, well she is huge. Almost as huge as the alpha which means she is an alpha too. Do you think we can take her if she is dangerous?"

"I don't think she will be taking anything. Look at how injured it is."

"Maybe we should call it in," the first voice suggested.

"Or we just kill it. You know how Alpha is about strangers trespassing into our territories."

"Yes. But I don't think it meant to trespass." There was compassion in the tone of the first voice. Remaining still hasn't helped me figure out who these clowns are, and if they think that I am going to let them kill me after everything I have been through they have another thing coming.

With all the strength we have left Frost and I got to our feet and smirked when the two guys talking about us jumped back in fright at the sight of us on our feet.