IM STILL STANDING, AFTER ALL THIS TIME, PICKING UP THE PIECES OF MY LIFE WITHOUT YOU ON MY MIND.

Chapter 26

Forest's POV

Aria had been acting weird all morning. In the end I put it down to worry, whether the pack liked her and if she would be a good luna, I believe in her, so do my parents, but sometimes she doesn't believe in herself. My dad thought it probably had something to do with the years of neglect and her dad telling her she was useless, over time she started to believe him.

I walked into our room after my shower to find Aria deep in thought. She looked, scared. I walked over, clearing my throat, she didn't even notice me, "Aria," I called, she continued staring into space, not noticing me, "Aria, are you ok?"

Suddenly hearing me she turned around. She looked started to see me behind her, "Are you ok, I was calling to you, but you were so space out you didn't even notice me."

She shook her head, as if clearing it, "Sorry, I'm fine, lost in thought." She shook her head again, blinking a few times.

"Care to share?" She shook her head again, still looking slightly lost in thought, before walking down stairs.

I followed her down and into the car, I had already suggested she stayed at home, which she wasn't very happy about.

The whole time we were in the car she was lost in thought, my parents tried to talk to her, with the same results as me.

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Once we got to the training grounds she seemed to get better, she was still twitchy, but she was more 'there', she wasn't lost in thought.

Her eyes shined as she saw the monkey bars, I would have to take her here to train so she could use them.

Just then two of our best warriors came over, Frank and Stella, Skye's parents. They were having some problems with some of the younger wolves not taking things seriously. It was easy to fix, just go over to them, let my wolf flash them his teeth, instant obligation.

Once that was sorted I went back to find Aria. She wasn't there. I went over to my mum, "Have you seen Aria?"

She shook her head, "I thought she was with you," This time I shook my head, "She can't have gone far, I'll ask some warriors to see if they can find her."

I nodded and went back to my dad while my mum linked some of the most trusted warriors, she will turn up soon, no need to worry. My wolf said calmly in my head, if my wolf is calm, I have no need to worry.

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I walked around the training ground, helping some of the younger wolves train, training started for all young wolves when they turned eight, although if they wanted they could take additional classes if they wanted to be a warrior or a tracker, most wolves did three hour training a week, changing into five hours when they turned thirteen.

After helping some nine year olds get their punching technique better, using a punching bag, not each other like they wanted, I got a link from one of the warrior wolves looking for Aria.

"We found her, she's near the pack house, do you want us to bring her back?" The wolf asked.

I thought about it for a minute, "No, just keep an eye on her for me." I walked over to my parents to tell them where Aria was and also what the plan was, when suddenly a horrible smell wafted over to me.

A stench of death, of rotten food and rotten skin. Rogues. They came pouring out of the trees in their hundreds, they weren't skilled fighters, but there were only forty of us training, some being only children. We were outmatched 10 to 1. I shifted and lunged at the nearest rogue, ripping out it's throat.

I knew some of the wolves had gone to get some back up, so while we waited for them to arrive I took out as many rogues as I could.

Run.

Fight.

Rip.

Kill.

Repeat.

It was going fine, we were destroying their ranks and as soon the extra wolves got here we would have a good advantage.

Suddenly a massive group of rogues surrounded some of the young children, they had been hiding but they must have got scared and tried to run.

I changed direction, heading straight for the crowd of rogues, from the corner of my eye I saw my parents running that way as well, not stopping when they reached the wall of rogues, shoving through and killing rogues as they ran.

I ran harder, pushing myself to reach the children before the rogues could touch them. Killing any and every rogue that got in my way.

I reached the children at the same time as my parents, we had managed to get inside the circle with the children, but we were still surrounded by rogues.

I lunged first, going for the rogue in front of me, it seemed to snap everyone out of the little staring contest they were having and suddenly I was being attacked by multiple rogues, which I couldn't get rid of because I had rogues attacking the children to kill first.

I could see, from the corner of my eye, my parents had the same problem, they both were bleeding heavily, and I doubt I was much better, I was getting tired, these rogues were better fighters then the last and we were still outnumbered until the backup arrived.

We had managed to open up a small channel in the rogues ranks, which we were able to get the children through. Now without the children to worry about, the rogues surrounding us were much less of a big deal.

We managed to fully open up the wall of rogues and continued to fight them off separately. I was fighting on the north border, the farthest away from the pack house, whereas my mum was fighting on the clearing of the pack grounds, much closer to the pack house, my dad was fighting in between us.

We were all still standing, but getting weaker, the rogues were still swamping us, although less than before, and I could see the warriors start to tire.

I saw my mum fall, I was too far away, we were too far away. I couldn't get to her. I couldn't save her. I saw a rogue jump at her. I saw my dad try to get to her, he was too far away. I saw the rogue about the land, jaw out stretched to deliver the killer blow.

Until suddenly the rogue was intercepted by a black wolf with a white belly and white socks, only the white was stained red with the blood of the rogue before it hit the ground.

I saw the wolf stand guard over my mum, keeping her safe while fighting off rogues. It's Aria. My wolf yipped, she came to help us, I sniffed the air and my wolf was right, under the almost over bearing stench of death there was the unmistakable scent of my mate.

I continued fighting off the rogues, it was much easier now we had the reinforcements, we now outnumbered the rogues. I was fighting keeping one eye on Aria, she was fighting well, keeping the rogues off my parents and killing them quickly and efficiently.

The rogues were quickly dying, and I could see, miraculously, we hadn't lost ant warriors. I could feel the tiredness creeping up on me.

The last of the rogues retreated and Ash, Skye, Albert and Ali went after them, I saw my Mum and Dad collapse on the floor as the doctors ran over to them. I wanted to go to sleep, the adrenaline was wearing off and I was in so much pain, but I had to see her first.

I kept my eyes open as I waited to see her, I couldn't sleep until I made sure my mate was ok.

It took her a few minutes to find me and I felt myself drifting father and father away as I waited. I saw her coming through the trees, almost completely fine, barely a scratch on her, and that's when I lost the battle with the darkness and fell unconscious, knowing she would be there when I woke up.