Now that I had their attention, I felt invigorated. Perception is a powerful thing. I knew if I appeared stronger than Gunner, then it would intimidate his followers. But I didn’twantto kill them - in the back of my mind, even as I was fighting them off, I knew that having them as allies would be more useful than having them asenemies.
I let go of a Scarlet Ridge wolf who was at my mercy, spitting out a mouthful of fur. He was bloodied and clearly beaten. Whimpering, he was about to scamper away before Ishouted, “Wait!”
He stopped - in fact, all of the Scarlet Ridge wolves did. Even Delta, who I saw pause in the corner of my eye. Gunner stood back from the fray with narrowed,suspiciouseyes.
“I don’t want to kill you all,” I stated. “We only want to leave this pack in peace. The only reason we can’t is because you’re all following Gunner’s orders. If you all just stopped, we could end this without moredeath.”
The Scarlet Ridge wolves exchanged glances. They seemed unsure. The air was electric with tension, like the calm before thestorm.
As if sensing my resolve, Virgil spoke up. “You outnumber us, yes. But none of you are prepared to fight an alpha father fighting to protect his mate and child. We don’t want to kill. But look around you, at all your packmates who alreadylaydead.”
I felt a flash of guilt, knowing that I was the one who killed the broken bloody bodies that lay scattered around the clearing. But I was only fighting to defend my family. The true villain here was Gunner, who forced us to fight and only sat on the sidelines, watching, like we were pawns for hisamusement.
Delta let out a snort. In a low voice that couldn’t reach his top alpha’s ears, he muttered, “Even if we did want to stop, do you think Gunner would let us? He would kill us all before you even reached theborderline.”
I was shocked. Of course it wouldn’t be that simple, and I was naive to think it would be. The Scarlet Ridge wolves were stuck between a rock and a hard place. They could be killed in combat fighting us, or be killed by their own leader for disobeying his command. I glanced at Hector, whose face was full of pain. He knew this situation all too well - he was one of the lucky ones to escape Gunner’s influence, but he paid the price for learning that lesson with the loss of an eye and a life ofexile.
“What are you stopping for!?” Gunner snapped, making all of us flinch. “Kill themalready!”
Delta and the Scarlet Ridge wolves looked at each other. As the highest ranking wolf underneath Gunner, Delta lifted his chin and looked his leader in the eye. Then, to my surprise, he said, “This is not a battle we can win, sir. We’re clearly going to lose if we keep fighting. I think we should fall back.” He paused. “And… I don’t want to kill a pregnant omega. It’s notright.”
Pure anger flashed across Gunner’s face. He radiated such hatred and fury that even I shuddered. He slowly got to his feet and walked forward, one deliberate paw at a time. Delta’s ears flattened against his skull for a moment, then he forced himself to stay strong. He stood hisground.
He was Gunner’s second highest ranking alpha, underneath Virgil - who had clearly now deserted him. Delta should have been Gunner’s most trusted wolf in the entire pack. He should have listened to his suggestions and considered his feelings, like any goodleader.
What he did instead was lunge at Delta and rip out histhroat.
The whole clearing went silent with shock. The only sound was Delta’s final choking gasp. His lifeless body collapsed on the ground and began to pool withblood.
In that moment, I experienced a lot of emotions. I was angry, upset, sympathetic, andafraid.
But above all was an overwhelming sense of justice. A living being had just died for speaking up for what hebelievedin.
Gunner had done a lot of evil things, but this time, something had changed. A ripple of shared shock and horror rippled through the remaining alphas. Their forced anger was no longer directed at us. Now all of their heated injustice was expressed as bared fangs towards their leader. He had murdered one of their own in coldblood.
The Scarlet Ridge alphas gathered in the clearing turned on Gunner. They streamed towards him in a furious mob, all fangs and claws. I couldn’t help myself. Overwhelmed by emotion, even I joined in. My mind flashed back to when Gunner killed my friend Tyson right in front of me. I knew exactly how these wolves felt. I wanted to help them get vengeance, and at the same time, a selfish part of me wanted my own revenge for Tyson’smurder.
“David!” Niko cried. “Hector, let goofme!”
“No!” Hector snapped. “You can’t fight Gunner! We havetogo!”
Their voices brought me back to reality. I spat out Gunner’s fur and fell back. This wasn’t my battle anymore - it was one for the Scarlet Ridge wolves. I had something else toaccomplish.
But Gunner was no pushover. Even with all the raging emotions of the wolves attacking him, it wasn’t enough - and I knew that if I helped, my mate was losing precious time toescape.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Virgil throw his head back and let loose a haunting howl. For a moment I wondered what he was doing - was he summoning more Scarlet Ridge wolves to join the fight? But whose side would theybeon?
But halfway through his howl, the sound utterly changed. Instead of a wolf’s low eerie howl, it turned into a raven’s deepraucouscry.
Suddenly the dark blue night sky turned pitch black. The air swarmed with huge ravens with sharp beaks and talons, their cries nearly deafening. They tucked in their wings and shot down towards Gunner like bullets. They were helping the Scarlet Ridge wolves attackGunner.
I went close to Niko’s side, and we stared at the scene,stunned.
“What’s going on?” Niko asked,awestruck.
“Virgil must have summoned them,” Ianswered.
“He can do that!?” Hectorasked.
