Greykin Valley

| 20 | The Woman in Silver

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| Jackson |

Jackson's vision was blurring. Pain surged through his numbing body, and everything started spinning. He whined and groaned, unable to get up, unable to do anything to help the pack. All he could do was lay there, bleed, and watch his packmates fight.

Bullets rained in every direction.

The distorted voices of both the hunters and the pack echoed around inside Jackson's head. He watched the wolves collide with the men, snapping their jaws and snarling ferociously. Several horrified screams came before Wilson's monstrous growl, and Sebastien's blue flames swiftly lit up the battlefield.

But the pain in Jackson's leg worsened. He groaned and winced, and when he looked down at his wound, he saw that he was lying in a soggy puddle of blood and melting snow.

Something started burning through his veins. It was like fire eating him up from the inside, and it was the most excruciating thing he'd ever felt.

A hunter landed in the snow beside him. The man grunted and gripped the wolf bite on his left arm, but before he could try to get up, Wilson pounced onto the man and savagely tore his throat out.

"Jackson!" he exclaimed worriedly, turning to face him.

Jackson stared up at the massive tiger; his sabre-like fangs were covered in blood, as was his fur, and several cuts and wounds were scattered over his body.

As a circle of blue flames surrounded Jackson and Wilson, Sebastien descended and landed beside them. "Shift back," the winged hound told Jackson. "Now!"

But no matter how hard he tried, Jackson couldn't shift into his human form. He strained and groaned, but his ethos didn't respond.

Wilson examined his wound, and when he told Sebastien, "The bullet's silver," both the tiger and hound adorned anxious frowns.

"We gotta get him out of here," Sebastien said hastily.

The tiger nodded and began helping Sebastien move Jackson so that he was lying on his stomach.

What were they doing? What about the pack? What about Damon? They were still fighting the hunters—he could hear the bullets and snarls and yelled. He couldn't just leave!

Sebastien gripped the underneath of Jackson's front legs, and with several flaps of his wings, he began lifting him into the air.

Jackson didn't have the strength to try and pull free. When he attempted to tell Sebastien to stop, all that came out of his mouth was a wince. The hound pulled him higher, revealing the battlefield to Jackson's blurring vision. He could see Damon in his Prime form defending three of his packmates as they tried to get to the trees, but there were so many hunters. So much gunfire, and so much blood in the snow.

He could hear his racing heart; it started slowing, the pain surging through him grew weaker, and his limbs began to feel numb. It felt like his head was spinning. He wanted to close his eyes, but he had to fight and stay awake. He couldn't pass out now, not while Damon and Wilson and his packmates were battling those men.

But Sebastien didn't turn back. The hound carried him away from the tundra, and just as Jackson saw the forest beneath him, his blood loss defeated him, and the world started fading away.

And the last thing he heard was a distorted yelp, and the sound of clanking metal.

Something ensnared him, and he started falling.