Chapter 41: Song of Battle

The two Packs took another calculated step back from Dolores as Rose and Thomas appeared on either side of her in their human form. Their hooded features and dark robes illuminated Dolores as a warrior goddess. Dolores silver white loosely braid down her back lifted with the evening's wind. Her icy blue eyes narrowed at the Alpha of the Silver Heart Pack, her bowstring pulled back, ready to fire.

"Mother." Dolores's voice was calculating as she called her mother, her eyes never leaving the threatening Packs. "Ellie. Come behind me."

Ellie and Diana slowly walked towards Dolores and the two wizards. Dolores bared her teeth when a rogue werewolf reached an arm out to grab Ellie. The wolf froze, his head shrinking into his shoulders as he stepped back. Dolores moved her gaze to Polly once Ellie and her mother were safely behind her. Polly glared at her, her eyes a mixture of anger and madness.

"You!" Polly spits. "You put lies in my daughter's head!"

"If by lies you mean the truth, then yes. I did." Dolores calmly answered, turning her arrow to Polly.

Polly screams a deafening sound that has the wolves shrink into themselves. She pushes her way to the front of the Silver Heart Pack, wildly pointing her finger at Dolores.

"She did it!" Polly insanely said to the Silent Maw Pack. "Princess Dolores is the one who killed Jakobe! She killed my brother!"

Dolores flicked her eyes to the survivors of the Silent Maw Pack and saw two shift instantly at Polly's words. Dolores pivoted her feet and fired her last arrow, a warning shot, past the growling wolves as Ellie desperately shouted to her mother's Pack to stop.

Dolores felt a prickling sensation across her chest and back and felt the familiar feeling of a quiver. She reached a hand back and found over a dozen arrows ready to defend. A quick glaze at Thomas, and Dolores knew he had conjured them for her. Nocking the shaft, she aimed at the wolves now slowly surrounding her.

A stead drum sounded in Dolores's veins, and a feeling of strength and power flooded her blood. Suddenly she saw the wolves around her differently. Each had a thin outline of moonlight, the color changing from faded yellow to a worn out red. Dolores looked at the Silver Heart Pack's Alpha and saw the same thin line outlining her, only the Silver Heart Pack's Alpha was blue, and her Pack behind her outlined with yellowish aurora.

A Silent Maw wolf snapped at the space between him and Dolores, and she jumped back. The wolf's color was red, his eyes clouded over with hatred, and Dolores remembered where she saw those eyes. They were the same eyes of the Rogues that had taken her mother all those months ago. They were turning into Rogues, and somehow Dolores could see their status. Was this because she was the true chosen one?

The wolf swiped a big clawed paw at her and fired her bow as she leaped back—the point went through the wolf's paw. There was no time to figure out why she was seeing these wolves' auras. First, she needed to get her mother and Ellie out of here.

Dolores pushed her mother and Ellie back behind her, letting Thomas and Rose take the lead as the Silent Maw survivors attacked. As Thomas conjured up a gust of wind, creating a barrier between them and the rogue wolves, Dolores fired wounding shots into attacking wolves' shoulders and legs.

"For a rogue to attack a Princess means death." Rose sang as she threw a feather like a blade to a wolf attempting to leap over the spiraling wind between them.

"No!" Ellie begged, grabbing Dolores's arm and forcing her to look at her. "Please don't kill them, Please, Lo."

Dolores said nothing but gave her sister a curt nod before shooting two more arrows into a wolf's hind legs that had slipped past the wind barrier.

"Thomas, take my mother and run." Dolores orders. "There will be no killing if we can help it."

Thomas nods, sweeping Diana into his arms, and runs into the woods behind them. Dolores takes Elle's hand and begins to pull her in the same direction.

"Wait!" Ellie stops. "What about Polly?"

"Rose?" Dolores asks.

Rose dances through the fading wind towards Polly, but the Silver Heart Pack's female warriors form a tight barricade around Polly.

"We will be taking Lady Polly with us." The Silver Heart Pack states. "Along with Princess Ellie."

Dolores shields Ellie with her own body as Rose dodges a fauchard spear. The Silver Heart warrior advances, swinging her fauchard in front of her. Rose jumps, landing gracefully on the tip of the Silver Heart warrior's blade. Rose begins an enchanting song with tiny daggers shaped as feathers offering in the air as she flips the warrior's spear to the ground.

The Silver Heart warrior repositioned her fauchard as two more warriors flanked her. Rose smiled and continued singing her spell. The three Silver Heart warriors attacked, and Rose moved her feather daggers, an extension of her. Rose twisted and leaped as if she was performing in the Royal ballet, her blades accompanying her, cutting the female warriors in nonlife threatening areas.

A feather sword slit the back of the first warrior's leg, sending her to her knees. The fallen warrior trusted her fauchard towards Rose cutting Rose's side open before the blade struck a tree. The feather blades rallied and shot through the air piercing the fallen Silver Heart warrior in the chest.

Dolores's blood went cold as she watched the female warrior fall to the ground, dead.

"Run!" Dolores shouted, demanding. She shot arrows towards the angered Silver Heart warriors, aiming towards the ground before them, halting them so Rose could make her escape.

The second Rose was clear, Dolores grabbed Ellie's wrist and pulled Ellie away, sprinting as fast as her legs would take her. A howl rang through the woods, and Dolores knew that the wind barrier had finally fallen. Turning to Rose, she ordered her to shift into her bird form and hide.

Dolores didn't have time to answer Ellie's shocked face as Rose shifted into a sparrow, one wing barely flapping as she flew into a tall tree. Dolores pulled Ellie as she pushed her legs to move faster. They needed to get out of these woods, find a place to find something. There were too many for Dolores to fight all on her own.

Ellie stumbled, forcing Dolores to let go of her hand. Stopping, Dolores turned back, pulling Ellie from the ground to her feet. Dolores felt Ellie's shaking body beneath her hands and saw her knees wobbling under her. Ellie was afraid. Dolores sat her back down to the ground before pulling her bow and arrow out.

Planting her feet, she slowly moved her tip in a circle marking the many wolves and warriors surrounding her and Ellie. Her heart pounded as she counted six wolves and the four female warriors, too many for her to take on her own. She inhaled deeply, calming her nerves. She had to kill. That was the only way she and Ellie would survive this.

A Silver Heart warrior attacked, running at full force towards Dolores, her fauchard aimed at Dolores middle. Dolores drew her string back, the fletching lightly cutting her cheek as she released the arrow. The warrior cut the shaft in two with her spear. Dolores knocked another arrow in her bow, firing again. This time the arrowhead hit the warrior's shoulder, causing her to stumble.

Dolores readied another arrow as the wolves and warriors began their advance. Her wolf Saliva growled between her eyes, ready to take control when Dolores needed it. With a blink, Dolores saw a male standing between her and her enemies. Both arms stretched out on either side, a gesture of stop.

To Dolores's surprise, the wolves and female warriors obeyed. Dolores relaxed her bow but kept the shaft locked in the string. The male lowered his hands, and Dolores caught streaks of grey within his thick black hair gleaming in the moonlights, along with that thin colored outline, green.

"Why do you behave so cruelly to a Princess of the Kreqin?" The male asked, his tone had a calmness with a touch of irritation. The sound reminded Dolores of Daflon.

"Beta Stewart," A warrior began. A few wolves even stepped back as the male stared at them.

Stewart. The name set off an alarm of familiarity in Dolores's mind. She searched her memory, back to those God awful lessons she had to sit with the crone. Beta Stewart, of the Eclipse Pack. Richard Stewart. Dolores raised her now a fraction, her blood pulsing in anticipation. If this male was indeed Richard Stewart, that meant he was from Adam's mother's Pack. No wonder the wolves and warriors stopped their pursuit. None wished to anger the new Alpha King.