A Wolf's Miracle

Chapter 69

Arden looked at me and said into my head 'Stay with Selene, I'll check the perimeter.'  

I shifted back into a human and took out one of her dresses from the bag. I helped her put it on. 

"There's something wrong, I can't shift," she said.

"Well, you shouldn't be trying to" I tried to remain as calm as possible but my voice was all shaky and so were my legs as I also put on a dress I packed - dresses were more convenient to put on and take off. 

Selene was laying against a tree and was breathing harder than normal, sweating as she dealt with the pain.

"We need to get out of here, now," she said and I turned around to see Arden still in her wolf form, checking our surroundings. "This is bad, this is really bad" she grunted grabbing onto the roots of the tree and snapping them in half by accident.

I needed to check how fast this was going, so I gave her a look and she opened her legs. I couldn't see the head, that was good. She was barely dilated, which was good in the sense that the baby wasn't going to be born right now, but was bad because the longer Selene was in pain, the worse for us.

"What going on?" she said gritting her teeth.

"Well we could still be hours away," I said, trying my best to remember a spell Callum taught me to help people deal with their pain.

"Great," she got up and started to walk.

"What do you think you are doing?" I asked, honestly immensely impressed she was moving.

"We're still hours away from the camp, the baby can not be born in the woods!" She snapped at me "So I'm going to walk all the way to the fucking camp if I need to."

Arden looked at us 'Selene, this is not a good idea'

"You know better than anyone that if we stay still we're done for, we need to keep moving," she said, waddling like a penguin at the speed of a snail.

'Yes, but you're not really the fastest right now' Arden replied.

I rolled my eyes. I knew better than to further piss off a pregnant woman in labor so I said "Get on my back, I'll carry you in my human form to make sure you don't fall off as I run"

Selene thought about it for a second and finally gave up and climbed on my back. She weighed next to nothing, but that was just because I was a wolf, had I been a human I could have never pulled this off.

"Why didn't we bring a car again?" I asked.

"Because what a car can do in 6 hours we can do in three," Selene said as we ran as fast as we could.

Selene was occasionally breathing hard and grunting to avoid screaming in pain and alerting others of our location. Sometimes cursing loudly and vehemently, but not a single tear. It seemed like she wasn't afraid, just really mad at everyone.

We were just about to arrive when something lunged at Arden and knocked her out of the way.

I stopped immediately, looking around. I knew better than to move as I surveyed my surroundings. Arden disappeared from my sight and I hoped and prayed she would be alright.

"Five of them," Selene said, getting off my back and I nodded, I could smell them too. 

Soon enough they approached me from every direction. One of them, the one that attacked Arden, was missing.

"Fuck" I said and Selene grabbed onto me for support. There was no way I could fight and protect Selene at the same time, I needed to find a corner where she would be safe, a corner to defend even if it meant putting myself at a disadvantage.

"Ah!" Selene screamed in pain as her knees gave out. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

I needed to remain calm as I remembered something Blaze used to say: "You lose your cool, you lose your life"

As they prowled in a circle, waiting for the right moment to attack I wondered what would Harlan or anyone else do. If I went to attack one of them, the others would jump on Selene or me. But I couldn't wait either.

"Diana, shift!" Selene grunted in between screams. And just as I was about to, Arden emerged from the bushes knocking one of the wolves down. I welcomed the distraction to grab Selene and jump as high as I could. 

I plopped her on a sturdy-looking branch and by the time I hit the floor I was now a wolf.

'We need to protect Selene as best as we can. As soon as you can, grab her and go' Arden said as we both positioned ourselves to prevent them to get to her.

'Are you okay?' I couldn't look at her, but I could smell her blood as well.

'I'm fine, now go!' She launched into attack and the one other went after me. This was bad because it meant the one left would attack Selene, I couldn't allow that.

I jumped once again, and without having to tell her, Selene jumped on my back. 

And we were off. She was holding on so hard she was pulling on my fur but I didn't care. I needed to get as close as I could to the druid's camp. I ran with her on my back for what felt like years, I was able to hear there were still following us. But they were male, and I was female and therefore, faster.

I saw something ahead, some sort of light. I ran toward it.  With every bit of the strength, I had left. But just as I finally reached it something hit me.

The last thing I remember before passing out was the sound of Selene's screams