57 - The Beach Ball

57 - The Beach Ball
~Ellie’s Point of View~

I’d been out all afternoon picking flowers with Grammy while my mom and Daisy made dinner. It was a dream, everything I’d ever wanted. Well it would be more perfect if my men were here, grilling something or playing soccer. I’d have it all soon, I thought.
I looked out into the field and wondered if we’d all stay here, raise our pups here. Surely the house was too small, I realized. We hadn’t been here together a whole lot but the house had such perfect memories for me already and I didn’t want to give it up.
“It’s going to be dark in a few minutes, we should head back,” Chance said.
He looked ridiculous, I had put a couple flowers behind his ears and he was holding several others. I didn’t know much about him still but if you didn’t know he was a nice guy he’d be quite intimidating. He was just as tall as my triplets, very muscular and bald, with almost purple eyes. He seemed majestic in a way, a majestic warrior, I decided.
Grammy and I were skipping, holding hands and singing an old nursery rhyme she used to sing to me, as we made our way back to the house. The sun was just setting and the sky was a beautiful hue of colors.
Max suddenly appeared about fifty feet in front of us, seemingly out of nowhere.
“Isn’t that just fancy,” Grammy said. She was still trying to get used to being around magic, I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get used to it.
Max yelled something I couldn’t quite make out but Chance understood and everything moved so fast I could barely grasp what was happening. A bright light shone from the sky just feet from where Max stood and there was a bright flash, almost blinding!
Suddenly there were a dozen gray and black wolves in the yard surrounding Max. Chance began growling and his long arm shoved me behind him.
What the hell was going on, who were these wolves?! My heart raced with panic, Violet began growling and wanting to shift.
I blinked and suddenly a ten foot long, five hundred pound Bengal tiger stood in front of me. He was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. Instinctively, I reached out to touch him to make sure he was real and not just an illusion.
“Holy shit,” Grammy yelled. She looked at the tiger curiously and then back to the wolves. She then immediately shifted.
Another flash hit with an equally blinding light and the amount of wolves doubled, along with a man holding a giant … beach ball? Oh no … oh no!
My mind couldn’t be allowed to see what it was seeing, it wasn’t possible. My mom, Daisy and Sunny all ran out of the house and shifted without a moment’s hesitation.
I looked back to the man and realized it was Alpha Gunner, and he was now holding Max by the throat. Max was practically purple and I assumed his lack of oxygen meant he didn’t have the strength to use his magic.
“Let him go, it’s me you want,” I said, trying to move forward but Chance wasn’t having it.
Chance stepped even more in front of me and his butt nudged me back.
After all that we’d been through, all that the entirety of the Shadows had done to get Gunner, and here he was, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Like he wasn’t being hunted. Well it seemed at the moment, I was the one being hunted.
“Yes it is you I want, my Luna. Now be a good girl and come along,” he said.
Another wolf shifted back to human form, and in two steps and one swift movement was behind Max. He grabbed his head and twisted Max’s neck.
“No!!! No, you piece of shit,” I yelled and lunged forward … just to have the wall that was Chance block me.
“Oh now, that’s not appropriate language for a Luna,” he said.
Chance dropped down, rolled to his side and I climbed onto him, and held on for all I had.
“We can’t leave them, we have to go back and fight,” I whined, knowing it was pointless.
Chance ran like the wind and quickly had us at a river. He shifted back.
“We have to jump in the water, it’ll help mask our scent, just get on my back and I’ll pull you,” he said.
“We have to go back!! They’re just she-wolves,” I protested.
“I can’t save them, I’m sworn to protect you, by Isaac’s orders now don’t question me,” he said, grabbing my wrist.
We’d been moving downstream for probably an hour, hearing wolves howling now and then. My main concern was for Sunny, she was an unmated she-wolf and they would all know that. What if they took her? What if they raped her? I couldn’t live with myself.
“What if they attack Sunny, she’s un-mated,” I whined into Chance’s ear after really not having any conversation for the entire hour.
“I can’t help her Lilly, I’m sorry,” he said.
“Can’t you mind-link the guys,” I said.
“No they’re too far out, we have to at least be in the same range, they must be on another continent or in another realm,” he said, as if I should know.
“So we’re on our own,” I whispered.
“They won’t get you without going through me,” he said, confidently.
“I’ve had Godfrey’s blood, he can track me,” I said, hopeful.
“That’s good to know but he has to know to look for you first, they likely don’t know we were attacked, we all thought Gunner just had the fixed portal, I doubt they know he had a mobile one,” he said.
He finally stopped and lifted me to the side of the river bank.
“We should shift and catch a few fish since we missed dinner, then I’ll look for a cave or somewhere we can hold up for a bit, I need to rest,” he said, matter of fact.
I sighed, I was exhausted too and I hadn’t even been the one doing all the work. He turned away and shifted, right in the water … one second I was looking at a broad, muscular back and shoulders … and the next it was a tiger’s butt, complete with a tail disappearing into the water as he dove. It was one of the coolest damn things I’d ever seen. It took literally every single ounce of restraint not to giggle and clap my hands.
When we both had enough to eat, I shifted back but Chance made me stay in the water while he looked for shelter. He handed me my wet dress that was laying on a rock.
It felt like he was gone so long, and there were so many sounds. The only light was the half moon, but it looked absolutely radiant. I took this precious moment to pray to the Goddess and ask for help, again. I figured at this point I may have used up all my prayers to her, she’d helped me so much. I prayed for my mom, for Grammy, for Sunny and Daisy. Without realizing it, the tears came, and I was soon silently sobbing. I had no idea if they were all alive or dead.
I welcomed the sounds of the frogs, the crickets and the other creatures of the night, it meant there were no bigger animals around intimidating or scaring them. If they went silent, you knew there was trouble.
“Give me your hand Lilly,” I heard from the darkness. I reached up and soon found myself in Chance’s arms.
“I found a little cave but I had to chase a couple foxes out of it. They shouldn’t give us any trouble,” he said, with a little chuckle.
We got back to the cave and I sat down on the ground, my soaking wet sundress not being very comfortable but I didn’t think I should be naked in front of Chance. I mean, he was naked…
I snapped myself out of staring at him as he moved into the cave, and I was glad I couldn’t see him too well anymore since there was really no light.
“At first light we’ll take off,” he said, moving closer to me.
“You think that’s best, why not hunker down and wait for Godfrey to find us,” I said, really not thinking it was smart to put my scent all over.
“The best option is to always keep moving,” he said.
“Gunner is a great tracker though, and extremely familiar with my scent,” I said, remembering the sheer panic and terror I felt all those months ago when I first escaped Blood Claw.
“No one, no one is a better tracker than me, but listen to me when I say, we keep moving, that is the best option,” Chance said.
I was lying between his legs and he was leaning against a wall. I laid back into him, and he wrapped his arms around me. He was SO warm.
“The first day I met you, Hunter said if there was ever a time they couldn’t be there, that I should trust you as I trust them, and whatever you say goes, so I won’t give you a hard time,” I said.
“Good, we have enough to deal with, try and get some sleep,” he said.
I felt him settle in and we were both soon fast asleep.