two months, I can safely say this… I love you…”

Serenity then leaned toward Rallan and kissed him gently. After a moment, she pulled back, chuckling softly at Rallan’s utterly surprised look on his face. After a moment, his mind was able to grasp what had just happened and a grin slowly spread across his face. The two leaned forward once more and kissed once again. They stayed this way for close to three minutes before breaking the kiss.

“I think… I love you too, Serenity…” Rallan replied in a soft whisper, nuzzling her softly. Serenity smiled widely.

“Rallan, don’t say another word… Just live for the moment…” Serenity stated softly, kissing him once more.

Their passionate moment lasted for long past midnight. After hours, Rallan was finally fast asleep, his paws wrapped around Serenity. She waited until she was certain he was fast asleep before silently slipping away from him and walking toward the den NightPelt and SwiftDeath were in. Once she arrived, she saw the two were still up, both giving her judgmental glares as she walked in.

“Hello there boys…” she greeted, freezing when she saw their looks, “What? What is it? What happened?” SwiftDeath scoffed slightly and shook his head before looking back to her.

“We would think you’d know best out of the three of us…” he stated coldly, “So, did you wear Rallan out and are you probably pregnant now?” Serenity gave him a confused look.

“Wear Rallan out? And am I preg- Oh, you bastard!” she shouted and lunged at him, but NightPelt held her back, “I swear SwiftDeath, I did nothing like that with Rallan! I seduced him, yes, but I would never get that close to a mark!”

“Well you had me confused…” SwiftDeath snapped back patronizingly, “Especially after all that ‘Oh, I love you Rallan’ mushy, kissing stuff!”

“I swear I’ll get you if you say another word, SwiftDeath!” Serenity shouted, still fighting against NightPelt.

“ENOUGH!!!” NightPelt yelled, glaring at both of them before looking to Serenity, “Serenity, on your life, you swear you didn’t do anything like that with Rallan?”

“No… I just made out with him a bit… Nothing more, nothing less…” Serenity said, telling the complete truth.

“Alright… We’ll have to take your word for that… But if you’re lying to us Serenity, you will be punished…” NightPelt said threateningly, “Now then, what do you have to report that’s so damn important at early morning?” Serenity smirked wickedly and chuckled softly.

“I found out Rallan’s greatest weakness… The one thing that’ll most-likely drop his defenses to nothing…” Serenity explained, enjoying the impressed look on NightPelt’s face, “He killed his father after his father killed his brother… He told me it haunts him and hurts him more than anything, which is why he doesn’t tell anyone!”

“Excellent work Serenity! We now have enough information to kill Rallan!” NightPelt announced with sickening glee in his voice, “Just lure him down to the river tomorrow at noon and SwiftDeath and I’ll take care of him… Now, go back and get some rest… We’ll see you tomorrow…”

Serenity grinned and nodded. She then turned around and dashed out of the den, destined back to the clearing where Rallan lay sleeping. SwiftDeath exchanged looks of dark anticipation, evil gleams in their eyes. NightPelt began to chuckle cruelly, but son it was transformed into an entire evil laugh as he planned for the upcoming day.

            Rallan awoke the next morning, bright light surrounding him and giving him the first clue as to where he was right now. The warm breeze also gave it away: he was outside in a clearing. He felt something moving against his chest and glanced down, smiling as he saw Serenity in his paws. He licked her cheek gently and her eyes slowly fluttered open. As she got her bearings too, she smiled and kissed Rallan gently.

“Good morning Rallan…” Serenity said softly, still smiling warmly.

“Good morning Serenity…” Rallan replied in the same soft tone as her, “Thank you for last night… I feel so much better now that I know I can truly trust someone…”

“Mmm…” she murred softly and yawned sleepily, looking around, “You’re welcome Rallan… Say, what time is it?” Rallan looked up at the sky, judging the approximate time.

“Oh, I’d say about half an hour, maybe fifteen minutes to midday…” Rallan answered, looking back to Serenity, “I guess staying up that late last night took its toll on us, huh? Heh… Why’d you need to know the time?”

Serenity gasped sharply at Rallan’s response. Fifteen minutes to midday?! Oh damn, can’t be late! she thought to herself. Rallan noticed the strange look she had on her face and tilted his head slightly.

“Serenity?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah… What did you ask me?”

“I asked why you wanted to know the time…”

“Oh, you know, just curious as to the time…” Serenity answered, blatantly lying once again, “Besides, I wanted to show you something… It’s down by the river! Come on!”

Serenity quickly got to her feet and motioned to Rallan to follow her. Rallan got up as well, stretched out his body, and followed her through the forest. Serenity swallowed slightly as she led the male through the woods to the waiting river, knowing what was soon to follow. However, Rallan seemed innocently ignorant to what was to happen, but then again, he didn’t know what was coming up.

It took the two of them all of ten minutes to reach the river. But when they arrived at the spot NightPelt specifically designated to Serenity, no one was to be found. The two walked up to the water’s edge, Serenity frantically looking around for her partners. Rallan tilted his head slightly and gave Serenity a confused look.

“Um, not to question your sense of direction Serenity, but are you sure this is the right place?” Rallan asked in a confused tone of voice, “I don’t see anything here… Did we get turned around somewhere?”

“No, this is where it was supposed to be!” Serenity exclaimed, turning back to face him, “They were supposed to be here!” Rallan was even more confused now than he was before.

“They? Who’s they?” he asked again, “Serenity, what are you talking about? Who’s they?”

“We’re ‘they’…” came a deep, cold voice from behind Rallan. He turned around and saw two males, including the one from that night two months ago, approaching them. Serenity sighed with relief at the sight of NightPelt and SwiftDeath.

“Who are you two?” Rallan asked suspiciously, getting a bad feeling from the aura of these two newcomers, “What do you want with us?”

“My name’s NightPelt and this is my partner SwiftDeath… and you know our other partner, Serenity…” NightPelt introduced, he and SwiftDeath beginning to circle him, “And we’ve waited two long months for this moment… You’re an impressive wolf… Which is why it’ll be all the more fun and challenging to kill you…”

“Kill me? Why would you want to kill me?” Rallan asked, keeping his brown and gold eyes locked on NightPelt and SwiftDeath, “What did I ever do to you three?”

“You didn’t do anything to us, Rallan…” SwiftDeath answered, “We just enjoy killing… Call it a hobby of ours… Especially mine…” Rallan glared at the two circling him, senses now on high-alert.

“SwiftDeath, now!” NightPelt shouted and lunged for Rallan. The wolf bit for his front leg, but Rallan pulled back, but was unable to avoid a tackle from SwiftDeath.

Rallan tumbled over in the dirt before getting back to his feet, staring down his attackers. The two wolves advanced on him, NightPelt strafing left while SwiftDeath took the right side. SwiftDeath was the first to attempt an attack, going for Rallan’s neck. Rallan moved to the side and avoided the attack, swiping at his enemy’s muzzle and leaving four long scratches on it as well as sending SwiftDeath flying backward.

Damn… He’s stronger than he looks… SwiftDeath thought as he got to his feet, shaking the slight daze from his head. NightPelt watched Rallan attack and went for him as well. He managed to get a slash across Rallan’s right shoulder, but the highly-trained wolf recovered quickly and returned the strike tenfold to his enemy’s chest. NightPelt cried out as a sharp pain filled his body and fell backward to the ground.

Rallan turned to face SwiftDeath and only saw a large black paw smack him forcefully in the side of his muzzle. The next thing Rallan knew, he was on his back, a ringing in his head. As he looked up, he saw SwiftDeath leaping at him. Once in range, Rallan kicked the black wolf back with his hind legs, watching him crash into a tree and fall to the ground. But before he could even get up, he felt sharp fangs pierce the flesh on his back legs. He cried out in agony and the felt someone toss him backward and into a boulder.

After Rallan’s collision, he looked to see NightPelt advancing on him, grinning evilly. Rallan shook his head to focus again and slowly got to his feet. His back leg hadn’t been broken and he could fortunately still use it well enough to fight. Once NightPelt was a few feet away, Rallan tackled him and ran right for SwiftDeath just as he was getting up and slammed him back into the tree once more.

“Why the Hell are you two doing this?!” Rallan asked in a shout, slicing down SwiftDeath’s back, “I didn’t even want to fight you! What is wrong with you two?!”

“We just do what we enjoy…” NightPelt stated coolly, getting up and advancing slowly on Rallan, “And if it means killing you, then we’ll do whatever we desire to do…”

NightPelt finished his sentence with a strike, grabbing the scruff of Rallan’s neck in his jaws and tossing him away from SwiftDeath and into a tree. Rallan grunted loudly as he hit the