The blood is not fresh. It's intermingled with an odor of decay, and something like musk and mange. The scent of a sick animal.

My stomach churns with fear, because I can guess what this means: Rogues. The feral, mindless werewolves that have been causing so much damage recently. From the pungent, heavy scent drifting from upwind, I can tell that there are a lot of them, though I can't estimate an exact number.

I start to shake, and turn my wide eyes up towards Shay. The she-wolf stands stone still, face to the wind. Every muscle in her body sings with tension, coiled and ready to strike. Her brow is furrowed, and her eyes are dangerous; focused and predatory, and brimming with fury. But, as the black-wolf turns and locks her gaze with mine, I also see fear within those jewel-like depths.

Shay places her hands on my shoulders, holding me steady a she stares down at me with a grave expression. "Nikole, can you find your way back to the cabin from here?"

"I-" My voice wavers, breaks, so I swallow hard and try again. "Yes, I should be able to follow our scent trail back."

One of Shay's hand's leaves my shoulder to gently cup my cheek, and a calloused thumb tenderly sweeps beneath my eye to gather the single tear that falls. "Good, that's good." The black-wolf smiles so sweetly that another tear falls. She wipes it away again, and the affection behind the gesture nearly shatters me. "I need you to run back to the cabin and warn the others. Get them away to safety."

With trembling fingers, I reach out to touch Shay's skin, caressing a scar that runs jagged along the ridge of her collar bone. A remnant of her previous fight. "What about you?" It's a question I already know the answer to, but I desperately want to be proven wrong.

"I need to try and draw them away. Buy us some time."

The words are like a torrent of ice water injected straight into my heart. I step closer into Shay's personal space with a whimper. "No! You can't, Shay! Not alone, you-"

My mentor cuts me off. "Nikole, please, there's no time to argue. I need you to listen to me, baby, and do as I say. I'll be fine." Her voice is firm, contrasting with the small, sad smile on her face, and leaves no room for argument. She pushes me away. "Go. Go now. Fast as you can."

There are fresh tears blurring my vision as I force myself to turn away from her. I feel her eyes on my back as I break into a run, but then Shay is gone. It takes every ounce of strength I have not to turn back around and chase after her; every instinct screams to follow. But I can't. I know I can't. Not with Marian and the others sleeping unaware back at the cabin.

Thick brush tears at my calves as I run naked through the forest, following the trail Shay and I had left the night before. How different things were now; a few hours ago I had been euphoric and fearless. Now, terror grips at my chest like a frozen vice as I stumble down a steep incline. The sun isn't even up yet.

"Change!" I cry out the order to my body. The wolf inside is already responding to my desperation. The shift starts while I continue to run. Even when my legs shatter, and I fall to the ground, I continue to drag myself forward, clawed fingers digging into soft dew-laden earth as I crawl. Misshapen and aching, but unwilling to waste any of the precious time Shay is fighting to give me.

The next few minutes are a blur in which I find my paws and continue to run, faster now that I'm on four legs. White foam drips from my jaws, and my lungs burn with exertion, but I never slow down. I charge through the dim forest, back towards the cabin, stumbling and hurdling over the jagged terrain until the earth begins to flatten and I burst forth from the tree line into the clearing.

I've made it. The cabin is in sight. Without losing momentum, I leap up onto the porch and slam against the back door, scratching at the wood paneling with my front claws like a frantic dog. Almost at once, Gavin opens the door. He's disheveled with sleep, his long ash-blonde hair a tangled mess, wearing only a pair of loose flannel pajama pants.

"Nikki, what the hell?" He starts, only to realize the extent of my fright a second later. I see the shock run through him, and his voice is shrill when he calls out to wake the others. "Kendra, Marian! Get out here now! Something is wrong!" The two women appear from their room a second later, still dressed in their bedclothes.

They hurry to the door, and Marian reaches out at once to smooth a hand through the bristling hackles along my shoulders. "Nikki, what's wrong sweetheart? Where's Shay?"

With three sets of anxious eyes all locked on me, I whine and do my best to explain while lacking a voice. Growling at the woods, scratching at the earth, then motioning towards the cars with my muzzle. I'm too stressed to attempt the change back into human form.

Thankfully, Darren returns a minute or two after I do. Naked and on two legs, he comes sprinting up to the group, broad shoulders heaving with every deep breath he takes. There are droplets of sweat on his brow, blood on his face, and horrific set of deep claw marks across his chest.

"Rogues." He growls, and Marian gasps, stepping closer to Kendra who wraps a protective arm around her mate as her lips curl into a snarl.

"How many?" Gavin asks, his voice surprisingly steady despite his wide, fretful eyes.

"Too many." Darren grunts, already turning back towards the woods. Every inch of him screams that he's ready for a fight.

"Should we run?" Marian queries, still pressed close to Kendra with a hand tangled in my fur.

Darren shakes his head, and my heart sinks."No. They'd catch us on the access road before we hit the pass. We make our stand here."

"Nikole, where is Shay?" Kendra rumbles, staring down at me. My broken whine is the only answer she needs, and the Amazon closes her eyes for a second and sucks in a harsh breath. "Fuck. Always trying to play hero on her own."

"I picked up the scent of two different hunting parties. No doubt Shay is dealing with one as we speak. We'll have to hold out against the other." Darren steps into the role of leader as easily as breathing, and the handsome beta begins to give orders. "Gavin, you're with me. We're the front line. Kendra, you take Marian and Nikole into the house and keep them safe while they call for backup."

There's no discourse, no questions. Darren gives his commands and suddenly they're all in wolf form; torn clothing, bristling fur and sharp teeth, ready for a fight. Kendra herds Marian and I back into the house to the master bedroom, nipping at my flanks when I hesitate.

Immediately, Marian finds her phone and makes a call. But when the line disconnects, her face is pale and her hands are shaking. "Help is half an hour away."

Kendra snarls, standing between us and the door, fierce as ever. It is the only sound for a long while. Everything else becomes eerily quiet. The calm before the storm.

Then, we hear the first howl.

There is no soul behind it, no emotion. It is a sour, harrowing note meant only to instill fear. And it is one of many. I lose track of the number of distinct voices.

My veins feel like they've been pumped full of ice water as Marian ushers me towards the center of the room, away from the windows and doors. "It'll be ok." She tries to comfort me, but her smile is weak, and I can see the way her hands quake as she holds them protectively over her pregnant belly. I whine, and press myself against her legs, making a silent promise to do everything I can to protect her.

Kendra begins to pace the perimeter of the room, her brindled fur bristling as she growls low and threatening, deep in her throat. Outside, the howling has subsided, but the quiet doesn't last for long this time. All at once we are surrounded by the sounds of combat. Snarling, barking, and yelping. The attack has begun.

The noise seems to surround the cabin, and with it comes the scent of blood, thick and heavy. It makes my stomach roll with nausea, and something else. It isn't until Marian places a hand on my back that I realize that one of the wolves snarling is me. My black lips are pulled back to expose the sharp white of my glistening canines, and my chest rumbles with sound.

"It'll be ok." Marian repeats. "We-" She's cut off by the crash of breaking glass. The window behind us shatters. Before either of us can move, Kendra has sprung into action. She leaps across the room and intercepts the intruder in the air. The brindle she-wolf's great jaws open wide, then fasten around the throat of a mottled grey rogue. It lets out a raspy scream of surprise, before blood begins to bubble up from its throat, choking it. Kendra hoists the beast into the air with her teeth, and shakes it like a rag doll until its neck snaps and the wolf falls still.

Kendra drops the corpse, victorious, only to be assaulted by a second assailant. Marian screams as another wolf, larger than the first, leaps from the window and onto Kendra's back. The she wolf snarls, bucking like a rodeo bull until the rogue comes away with a mouthful of flesh and dark fur. Though partially emaciated, and covered with patchy, lice-ridden yellowed hair, this wolf is as large as Kendra. I can smell its hot, foul breath from across the room as it growls and charges.

This time the Amazon is not caught off guard. The two opponents collide, twisting and biting in a savage dance. The rogue is mad with blood lust. It seems to feel no pain, ignoring the wounds Kendra inflicts in favor of charging her brazenly with snapping jaws and cracked, yellowed teeth. Kendra, however, is forced to fight defensively; protecting Marian and I in the cramped space of the bedroom is taking a toll on her.

Marian must notice this, because she grabs a fist full of my fur and drags me out of the room and into the kitchen. There, the blonde matron quickly grabs a block of butcher knives from the counter, withdrawing one from the wooden sheath to brandish as a weapon, even as her hands shake.

She's wise to arm herself, because a second later, the front door explodes into a cascade of splintered wood. Two more rogues, both huge and dark furred. They snarl and snap at each other, fighting to be the first through the doorway. When they make it into the cabin, they leave a trail of gore-ridden paw prints on the once pristine floor.

Beside me, Marian tightens her grip on the knife. Her kindly face is drawn with hatred. She will fight to the death to protect the lives of the pups inside of her. Again, I find myself snarling despite the fear that grips my heart. I will not let Marian fight alone.

The wolves are almost upon us when Kendra bursts out of the bedroom and tackles one of them to the ground. She's bleeding badly, and heavily favoring her left side, but rips into the rogue beneath her with vicious fervor, shredding its belly. The animal howls in pain, and its companion leaps into the fight. Marian and I watch in horror as the second rogue lashes out with a huge, deadly paw, and clubs Kendra across the skull. The sound of the impact is audible from across the kitchen, and Kendra crumples to the ground, stunned.

"NO!" Marian's scream echoes through the house, carrying with it more anguish than I have ever heard. She looks ready to throw herself into the fight, but I move before she gets the chance. Without thinking, I lunge. The only thing I can see are the jaws ready to close in around Kendra's throat; ready to kill. I slam into her attacker with every ounce of strength my body can muster. The blow leaves me winded. Both of these rogues must have at least 50 pounds of bulk on me.

Something inside me has snapped. The feral urges that I normally try so hard to ignore when in wolf form come surging to the surface with all the fury of a summer storm. I give in to the single minded instinct that drives me forward, burying my teeth into ragged fur: Fight. Protect.

Caught off guard, the rogue that had been ready to slay Kendra stumbles to the side. With my head still spinning, I lunge after it, refusing to give it any time to right its balance. Instead of sweeping in low and aiming for the throat and soft underbelly as I had seen Kendra do, I attack the monster's face.

My teeth find their mark, and an explosion of blood and vitreous humor fills my mouth as the wolf's eye pops like a rancid grape beneath my canine. The rogue screams, rolling over in an attempt to dislodge me, but I go with him. I wrench my teeth from its eye socket, already clawing at the other blood-shot eye with my thumb-like dew claw. The thick black nail sinks into the beast's remaining eye seconds before I am tossed into the air by a crushing blow.

I feel something break inside of me, and as I land, I find that I cannot breath without excruciating pain. Staggered, I come to the conclusion that my ribs are broken a heartbeat before another devastating hit lands across my already injured left side. I had been lucky enough to successfully blind one rogue, who now thrashes around on the ground, clawing at his own face....but his companion is still fighting fit, and bearing down on my with the full force of his fury.

Teeth sink into my flesh, and I howl in agony. It's all I can do to curl into a ball to protect my face and throat from the vicious onslaught. I'm nearly at my limit when suddenly the blows stop, and I hear the rogue snarl in pain. Though my vision is half blurred by blood and a likely concussion, I can see that the creature is twisting and snapping desperately at something embedded in his side. The handle of a knife, lodged deep between its ribs.

Marian.

Having dragged Kendra to the relative safety of the kitchen, the heavily pregnant blonde stands over her unconscious mate with her butchers block of sharpened knives. She already has another in hand, and when she releases it, the weapon arcs neatly through the air and finds purchase in the rogues flank. Again and again, Marian throws the knives with deadly accuracy until the ragged beast is filled with steel...but still he stands. The pain only serves to make him more vicious, and ignoring the blades lodged within his body, the monstrous wolf bares his teeth and turns to slowly stalk towards the couple.

"Get up, Nikole! Run!" Marian cries, still holding her empty block of knives, ready to use it as a blunt force weapon even against these impossible odds. She will never abandon Kendra, who lies still and bleeding at her feet. But she has provided me with a small window to flee.

Never. A voice roars inside of me. Never. Suddenly the roar isn't just inside my head, it's rumbling forth from my chest, and spilling past my lips. With the last of my strength, I let loose my war cry and lunge, intercepting the rogue before he can reach Marian. I lock my jaws around one of the knives buried between his ribs, and twist. The wolf howls in rage, rearing up, and brings his right paw down heavily across my face. The vision in my left eye goes black, but I don't relent.

At least I died fighting. I think to myself as I am once more thrown to the ground. This time, I am unable to find the strength to stand. Marian screams my name as the rogue prepares to deliver the death blow, and I close my eyes.

But the blow never comes.

Instead, I hear a roar like thunder, and the western wall of the cabin is demolished as a massive black shape bursts forth through the wreckage, and into the cabin. There's a rush of air, and suddenly the mass of the rogue bearing down on me is gone, tossed aside as if he weighed nothing.

My savior is a towering behemoth of black fur and rippling muscle. Standing on its hind legs like some Hollywood monster, it must be nine feet tall. With another roar, the werewolf dives at the injured rogue, picking it up by the face to heft it into the air with only one arm. It has articulated paws, each digit ending with a two inch long dagger-like claw. The rogue doesn't stand a chance.

With enough force to crack the floor, the creature slams the rogue into the ground. It's skull explodes in a shower of blood and brain matter. Splattered with gore, the black werewolf then turns its attention to the rogue I had blinded earlier. The injured brute is attempting clumsily to flee, but the bi-pedal wolf will not let him escape. Without mercy, it attacks, easily pinning the rogue beneath its massive bulk as it literally rips open its chest cavity. I hear the bones crack as the wolf's rib cage is torn open, gaping to expose it's still beating heart and partially inflated lungs.

I have never witnessed such violence. Standing at its full height with its tail erect, the victor raises is blood soaked maw into the air and lets loose a triumphant howl. The scene before me is rage personified, and my heart breaks.

This beast is Shay.

When she lowers her head and stares at me, I see no recognition in those beautiful heterochromatic eyes. I let out a small, broken whine before I can stop myself, and Shay's lips curl back into a snarl. She drops down onto all fours, arching her back as the thick mane of black fur along her shoulders and spine bristle.

"Nikole." I hear Marian's quiet, fearful voice from across the room call out to me. "Don't move. Shay is...she's not-" The beast in question swivels her massive head towards the terrified blonde, and Marian freezes, her large eyes wet with unshed tears.

I let out another soft whine, drawing Shay's attention back to me. We lock eyes, and she goes still. Suddenly, I become of aware of the she-wolf's scent. Beneath the layers of blood, and molten fury, I can detect something acidic and raw. Fear.

Shay is afraid.

This realization has me slowly dragging myself across the floor towards her, operating primarily on instinct. It hurts to move, to breathe. My entire left side feels like it's on fire, but there's an insane urge that keeps me moving forward; the need to reach out to the she-wolf before me.

Shay lets out a soft warning growl, her ears pinned back against her skull. I pause for a moment, then crawl forward another few inches, whimpering as the motion jars my shattered ribs. Again, Shay growls, and I stop. However, this time, she draws closer. Her claws make little clicking noises against the blood-splattered floor as she moves. From the other side of the room, I hear Marian let out a soft cry of fear. Shay is obviously not in her right mind, and I'm in no condition to defend myself should she become violent.

However, despite