C-CRACK!

 

Electricity sparked from Shawn's palm, his arm shaking as he used all of his energy to stay on his feet, keep his eyes open, stay conscious.

 

The woods around him seemed to pulse with danger, every crack making his fingers twitch, every breath aside from his own making his heart pound.

 

It was three days. Just three days later. Three days seemed so long ago, especially as carefree as they were.

 

Shawn strained his ears, wishing now more than ever for the super-human senses his friends had. He couldn't detect anything, but it didn't mean that there wasn't anything out there. He kept his hand up, light swirling around like a warning flag to anything that dared come rushing at him.

 

He glanced around, finding Miles a few feet away. He didn't look good. Naomi was nowhere to be found, probably in the same direction as Nikolas.

 

Shawn could still vividly picture the scene. It all just took about two minutes to unfold, but it was devastating. The three of them had gathered at their training area again, laughing, teasing each other about something Shawn couldn't quite remember. It was going fine, Shawn had been able to only hit one tree when he fired, not getting anywhere close to hitting Naomi or Miles. They'd just been getting ready to take their first break when the two wolves froze, both looking deeper into the woods when suddenly they exploded with activity.

 

Trees split in two, limbs splaying and crashing to the ground as a giant, black, familiar wolf bore through, lunging directly to Shawn. He scrambled back, Miles leaping forward, fully shifted, trying to wrestle the Alpha back only to howl in pain as his arm was bitten into, and wrenched to the side, broken and splintered. Miles crumpled to the ground, shifted back to human.

 

Naomi was more successful, her claws digging into his front leg, yanking him back and away. But she was going to get hurt if she kept it up, the wolf snarling and turning toward her. She wasn't in the position to defend herself, still mostly human aside from her claws and eyes.

 

Shawn glanced to Miles, then stood, bracing himself and gathering his magic into his hands, feeling most of his power pooling in his palms, sparking across his skin violently. “Hey! Nikolas!” The wolf threw his head in Shawn's direction, just in time for Shawn to blast nearly all of his magical energy directly into his muzzle.

 

The wolf howled in pain, bowling back from the impact of what was basically a high powered, electrically loaded cannon from three feet away. He took off into the woods he came from, Naomi chasing after him, determined not to let him get away this time.

 

“Miles.” Shawn's voice was wrecked, he felt like he was barely holding himself up. He gently nudged Miles, wincing as the older man yelped, curling in on himself.

 

Crap, even if Miles could heal, that was a lot of blood... Was there any sort of spell he could do to help? He had to have more power than just a human shotgun...

 

He dropped his hands, attempting to draw his power back in. It was being stubborn, he was too panicky to control it.

 

I just need to help Miles...

 

 

Just need to help Mate. Mate is in trouble.

 

Miles barely thought before he was moving, shifting in one smooth move to try to wrestle Nikolas away. Again, he let him down, failing, falling against Nikolas again.

 

The pain from his arm was secondary to the pain of knowing he was a failure, again, even with the training.

 

“Miles.” Shawn's voice was strained, sounding a lot like he'd just spent the last hour screaming. Miles wasn't even sure how much time had passed since he'd fallen, it could've been an hour for all he knew.

 

“Keep still.” Shawn said, then, and Miles froze, cracking his eyes open to look up at Shawn. His eyes were squeezed shut, a hand pressing into Miles' shoulder, fingers tucking under his shredded shirt. Gradually, a gentle warmth started to fill him, and Miles felt the sensation trickle over his throbbing arm, making the limb numb. He glanced down when he heard cracking, his bones rearranging into their proper place, skin sewing back together where Nikolas' teeth had broken it.

 

He didn't know Shawn could do that.

 

“It worked...” Shawn breathed, slumping over Miles with a huff. “I wasn't sure... if it would.”

 

Miles shifted, wincing. His arm was still numb, but feeling was starting to trickle back into it. It just felt heavily bruised now, but the bruised feeling was much better than crushed. “You okay?”

 

Shawn nodded, wiping the sweat from his forehead. “Just tired.” He looked up. “Naomi went after him. We should follow her.”

 

Miles wasn't sure how much they could do. But he couldn't let Naomi go by herself. He slowly got to his feet, with Shawn's help, and the two of them shambled back through the woods.

 

It was slow going, but Miles could smell both of them, hear both heartbeats. They weren't moving. He wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. What was more than likely bad was the third heartbeat he could sense, a semi familiar honeyed mint type scent. Where had he smelled that before?

 

They limped along, eventually finding a clearing where Naomi was holding off a noticeably worn-down Nikolas. He had a massive wound on his muzzle, a few teeth missing and his fur burned away to show blistered skin along his jaw and over his right shoulder. Naomi had done some damage, though most of that seemed superficial, just cuts and scrapes along his body.

 

Not far behind Naomi was a fully shifted wolf, though it seemed to be waiting for something, watching Naomi, poised to strike. Miles wasn't entirely sure Naomi even knew the other wolf was there until he took a step to intervene so she wouldn't be outnumbered.

 

“He's fine. Just stay back, you're both too injured to do much.”

 

Naomi then wrenched Nikolas to the side, apparently giving an opening to the other wolf, who shifted, lunging forward and snapping its massive jaws at Nikolas' jugular.

 

Miles looked away, settling his eyes on Shawn instead. He looked tired, like he was using every ounce of his last bit of energy just to stand. Miles shifted them down to the trees, settling beside Shawn as they sat on the forest floor.

 

“Is he dead...?” Shawn muttered, his eye lids fluttering up to Miles.

 

I don't hear a heartbeat from him... “I think so.” Miles nuzzled up to Shawn, his wolf rumbling in his chest. His mate was safe now.

 

Leaves crunched nearby and Miles lifted his head up to see Naomi, throwing a pack of wet cloths to them and a bag of clothes for Miles. “It's done.” She looked grumpy as she pulled her phone out. “I guess I have to tell the Council I helped take care of their issue.”

 

“I'll tell them.” Miles looked up, then gaped.

 

“Darren?” Shawn asked, sounding just as disbelieving as Miles felt.

 

Darren was padding over, pulling a loose hoodie over his head, a grimace on his face, which was covered with a lot of sticky red that had to be blood. Naomi turned toward him, throwing him a pack of wet wipes and some water. “Thanks.” He nodded over to the two of them, grinning, though it was more menacing than anything with the blood sticking to his teeth. “'Sup, guys.”

 

“What, I mean, how...”

 

Darren shrugged, wiping the red from his face and neck, then taking a swig of water, swishing it about and spitting. “Better.” He sighed, glancing over to Naomi. “I always hated this part of the job... so disgusting.”

 

“Question?” Shawn got out, getting both Naomi and Darren's attention, then he gestured at Darren. “What the hell is this?”

 

Darren looked offended for a second then shook his head. “I'm a werewolf, duh.” He looked over to Naomi. “You didn't tell them?”

 

Naomi shrugged. “I figured it'd be funnier this way.”

 

Shawn sighed, dropping his head over onto Miles' shoulder. Guess he figured he'd had enough for today. Miles tucked Shawn closer with the arm he'd had wrapped around his side and looked up. “Can we go home?”

 

“Yeah.” Naomi leaned down, helping Miles up to his feet. “We'll go home.”