Fight By My Side

When I woke up the next morning, Austin was leaning over me with a smile on his face. Everyone else seemed to be up and moving about but nobody bothered to wake me!

“Good morning, beautiful.” He kissed my forehead as I teased his hair. He helped me up from the couch as I went over to get breakfast with the four others. Mike looked to be on guard duty right now.

“Sorry I kicked you off the bed.” Alan blushed as he apologized. Austin raised an eyebrow as his friend rushed to explain the situation.

“No, it’s not what I meant!” Alan held up his hands in surrender. Austin reach across the counter and smacked him upside the head with a grin.

“I trust you wouldn’t do that.” Aus chuckled as the ginger princess rubbed his head gently. Vic served the four of us down here breakfast that was composed of pancakes and eggs. Alex came and sat next to me as I took my plate to the table behind the couch. It was our little “dining room”.

“I enjoyed last night.” Alex murmured to me from by my side. I resisted not strangling him. Just because we traded stories doesn’t mean we were the best of friends. Austin’s eyes went wide.

“First Alan, now him?!” Aus responded with fake shock. I shook my head.

“No, no, not like that!” I told him. Jack glared at me. I put on a stoic face and shook my head, warning him to try me. At that moment, we were all a little distracted by quick feet hurrying down the stairs. Mike opened the door quickly.

“We have a pit bull Shifter on Reddik Court. She Shifted in front of some children. Guardians should be there in five minutes.” Mike explained. Vic and I hopped out of our chairs.

“Ronnie out there?” Vic questioned as he slipped on his jacket. I took my usual athletic top and put it on over my bandages. Mike nodded. Ronnie would be our eyes in the sky.

“You have five minutes.” Mike reminded as we sprinted out the door. We were out of the house and down the road, running as fast as we could to try to save the Shifter. She had to get out of there. If she wasn’t already trapped, she could be hard to track.

Reddik Court wasn’t so far from the edge of the Range. This made it easy to get access. Mike followed us overhead of me. Missions like these usually consisted of me going and getting the Shifter out of there while meeting Vic at a certain point. The Shifter would go with Vic to the Sanctuary while I made sure no Guardians were following. Mike would usually fly overhead of me and if I needed back up, he would fly to the Sanctuary to get it.

“Two minutes.” Vic warned as he crouched in his spot. I nodded and sprinted to where Mike led me. Where I stopped, there was a pit bull crouching in the corner of a fence. No one was outside to see me as I slipped between trees and bushes, coming to the scared Shifter. She was trying to hide, but looked injured. Her paw was bleeding and her eyes were wide in fear. She had a black coat with a white spot on her face and left side.

I crouched behind my own bush, whistling lightly. The dog looked at me and whined.

“Come here, don’t worry because I won’t hurt you.” I cooed to the dog. Mike called softly in the tree, giving me a time warning. The dog backed up, tail tucked between her legs.

“I’m a Shifter as well.” I called to her. She pricked her ears up, but didn’t react otherwise. With a quick look over my shoulder, I knew I had to convince her quick. Okay, I was seriously torn up, but I needed to Shift! As I changed forms into a wolf, the dog came towards me. I yipped for her to follow me. The dog cowered and rolled her eyes. I saw the shadow before they could strike.

Two Guardians came up behind me and shot, but I dodged out of the way. Mike screamed out a call and flew off for back up. Would I be able to hold them off in time?

Lunging at one of the boys, I snapped at their leg and caught it between my jaws. The bone snapped in half. My sides hurt in a deep burn, but I had to focus on protecting the Shifter girl.

A bullet caught my left leg as I released. Blood leaked down the leg of the older man. A teen only a little older than I was trained on the Pit Bull. Although my leg hurt badly, I couldn’t show weakness!

I yipped to the Pit Bull to stay behind me. Maybe she heard, maybe she didn’t, but she did manage to be behind me. A hawk dove out of nowhere, scratching long talon marks on the man’s face. He shot randomly. One caught me in the side as I fell over.

How much worse could this week get?!

The hawk circled above as a raven disappeared over the horizon. Hopefully back up would come soon. As soon as we got the girl out of here, I could sprint me way out of danger.

I growled and snarled at the woman. She prepared to kill the pit bull, but I barreled into her. Mike was still attached to the male Guardian, but I was focused on the woman. The girl shook me off and I tumbled to the ground with a bark. Even with the bullets in my leg and hip, I could move around.

I jumped at the pit bull, knocking her to the side as a mountain lion took out of the shadows, snatched the dog up in its jaws, and carried her away. It happened in the blink of an eye. Mike took off as well. They knew I could take care of myself.

But as I had knocked the pit bull away, three bullets came at me from the man and woman. One hit in the ribs, another the shoulder, and the third in the chest.

Okay, now I wasn’t doing so well.

It seemed like I went from being injured one week, healed a day, and then injured right after that. I guess it was a side effect of the work I was in! The metal ammo knocked me down, sending a pounding headache of pain through my skull. A raven dropped from the trees above and tore at the man’s throat, sending him into retreat. The woman took one last aim, clear of any distraction.

“Die, filthy mutt.” She laughed. I closed my eyes and awaited my fate. Just another side effect of my work.

“Stop!” A familiar voice called out. The woman released her aim as she turned to look at Austin. He knocked her off his feet as his leap hit her full on. I staggered to my feet but fell. This wasn’t like a normal bullet. What had made these so different? I felt paralyzed to the ground, unable to move.

“Don’t interrupt official business!” The woman raged and aimed again. But what I saw shocked the both of us.

Right as I watched, a wolf took Austin’s form as he pounced right on top of her. His lips curled into a snarl as a vicious russet brown wolf sprang on top of the woman. I watched as he bit at her arm, tearing off chunks of flesh and rendering her helpless.

I started to fade, overcome with whatever was in the silver ammo, the russet wolf came to my side. I Shifted back as a human and the wolf nosed me, whining softly. I could barely move. As I closed my eyes, I felt long arms move around me, picking me up and carrying me out of there.

Notes

O.O Shippers beware! This chapter might change your mind! XD