Not much longer after Rallan had departed, three wolves came over the low hill, hidden by the shadows of the trees surrounding the area. Down below them was a den, the scent of their target clearly emanating from within. The trio glared at it, silently sneaking down and surrounding the entrance.

“Alright, I’ll go in and get him out… Then you two jump him…” Drake said lowly, moving silently inside the den. Inside he saw not Rallan, but Krystal. He sneered a bit, frustrated that their target wasn’t here, but suddenly got a cruel, malicious idea. Krystal’s nose twitched slightly and her eyes slowly opened.

“Rallan?” she asked softly, staring at the sleep-blurred figure, then gasping when she saw who it was, “Drake! H-how did you get here?!” Drake chuckled darkly.

“Krystal? Well, isn’t this a surprise… I wondered what had happened to you after you ran away… But helping this traitor wasn’t one of my expected actions you’d take…” Drake stated, “But it doesn’t matter… Rayne’s orders were to get Rallan no matter what… And I think I know just how to bring him to us…” Drake chuckled again as he advanced on Krystal…

Rallan sighed heavily as he finally spotted the river. Why did this have to be situated so far north from the den? he thought to himself, walking up to the edge of the water. As he lapped up the cool water, he heard something overhead. Crows. He glanced up at them. They were flying north, away from the den. That’s odd… I passed that flock on the way up here… Why’d they just suddenly move? Rallan thought uneasily. Almost as soon as he’d thought that, a howl of terror and pain echoed across the forest. Rallan’s head shot up immediately as he recognized whose voice that was.

“Krystal!” Rallan shouted, turning right around and bolting as fast as he could through the forest, back south to their den. Something was terribly wrong, he could tell. Again, the same howl came, but this time it sounded weaker than before. Faster… Gotta go faster… Rallan thought over and over, forcing himself to go as fast as his body could possibly manage. While it had taken him ten minutes to walk north, it only took him three to run south.

Rallan darted past a thicket of pine trees and pushed his way out into the clearing where the den was- and froze in his tracks at the sight before him. Pawprints were scuffled out across the snow showing an evident struggle had taken place, the snow was splattered red in some places, and lying several feet from the mouth of the den was Krystal, a pool of deep crimson blood formed beneath her. Rallan’s blood ran cold through his veins, his heart pounding fearfully as he slowly approached the downed form of his mate.

“Krystal?” he called out to her softly, his voice barely audible from the fright, “Krystal? Can you hear me?” He finally made it to her body, able to see the severity of her wounds now. She’d suffered deep bites to her torso and chest, her muzzle was scratched up terribly, and she looked as if she’d lost most of her blood. It looked like she was going to die…

“Krystal, please move… Do something… Just let me know you’re alive…” Rallan begged, tears swiftly forming in the corners of his gold eyes, “Please Krystal… Wake up…”

Just as Rallan had been about to give up all hope, Krystal coughed, barely but she certainly did. Her amber eyes flickered open slowly, though they were glassy and looked distant as she stared up weakly at him. Rallan’s breathing froze for a moment as she stirred.

“R-Rallan? Is… that you?” Krystal asked softly, her voice choked and so soft. Rallan smiled and chuckled weakly.

“Yeah Krystal… it’s me… I’m here…” he replied, nuzzling her gently, “Everything’s going to be alright…” Krystal shivered, coughing once again.

“I-I’m… so… cold…” Krystal struggled to say. Rallan licked her cheek tenderly and sighed heavily, his voice coming out in short, raspy gasps reflected by his tears.

“Krystal… What happened?” Rallan asked quietly. Krystal lay, still, staring up at Rallan apologetically.

“They… came for you…” she explained vaguely, “I wouldn’t… tell them… So they, they… attacked me… I’m sorry, Rallan…” Rallan shushed her and gingerly stroked her cheek repeatedly.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Krystal… You did nothing wrong… You couldn’t let me down…” Rallan whispered, praying that Krystal would survive, not ready to accept the fact that she might die, “You’re the best wolf in the world, Krystal… You saved me… You gave me my life back and made me whole… You could never do anything wrong…” Tears now flowed freely down Rallan’s muzzle, landing in the snow and making holes in the white powder. Krystal smiled weakly, her eyes dimming.

“I… love… you… Rallan…” Krystal whispered, then lay still. Her chest failed to rise again and she didn’t blink or say another word or make another motion. Rallan felt his heart wrench and fall straight down into his stomach.

“Krystal? No Krystal, don’t go…” he begged softly, his voice shaky as he nudged Krystal’s body gently, “Don’t die, Krystal… You can’t die… You can’t…”

And Rallan broke down. He collapsed beside Krystal, burying his face in her soft pelt and sobbing uncontrollably. Tears of the strongest sorrow cascaded from his golden lupine eyes and his body trembled lightly as he wept. Once more, Rallan felt as if his life had been torn down to the ground, but this time he couldn’t take it anymore. He had everything he could ever want and now it was gone… Gone… From behind Rallan, someone approached him, chuckling evilly.

“I was wondering when you’d finally show up…” the wolf said, the voice Rallan recognized as Drake’s, “You know, it took long enough before she finally gave in, but she still refused to tell us where you were… She must’ve really loved you…” Rallan felt his tears cease to fall and slowly lifted his head up, not bothering to turn to face Drake as he listened to him.

“She was some fighter… She kept going at us, even when she’d easily lost the fight… And then she went down and stayed down, right there, just like that…” Drake continued, relaying the fight to Rallan just to break him down even more, “I thought it would be easy to break her, but it wasn’t… But every wolf has his or her limit… and Krystal finally reached hers…”

“You… did this to her?” Rallan asked emotionlessly, feeling completely blank inside, “You attacked her? You… killed her?”

“Surprised? You really shouldn’t, Rallan…” Drake said snidely, “Well, she’s dead and there’s nothing you can do about it… Rayne actually gave us the green light to kill her, more or less… just like she gave us the green light to kill you… And that’s just what we’re gonna do…” At those words, Hunter and Valley came out into the open to join Drake behind Rallan.

“Rayne… let you do this…” Rallan repeated, letting the information sink into his mind, “You… Hunter… Valley… killed Krystal…”

“Oh, but before we kill you, I want to let you know one thing…” Drake said, bending down and whispering in Rallan’s ear, “Krystal was some fun to watch as she died…”

That was the final push Rallan needed. His eyes shot open and narrowed viciously, so many emotions running through him at once: fury, bloodlust, sorrow, vengeful desires consuming his will. With a roar of rage, Rallan spun around and pounded his claws into Drake’s muzzle. The sheer force of the blow sent Drake sprawling sideways, four deep cuts making up the length from his left ear down to his nose. He yelped as the stinging pain burned through his face and head, a sudden dizziness setting in, but it quickly cleared. Rallan slowly rose to his paws, breathing heavily as he fumed out his anger and turned to face his opponents, eyes burning with a revenge-fueled fire.

“Kill him!” Drake shouted as he got back up.

Hunter rushed him, leaping to tackle him, but Rallan sidestepped him easily and Hunter fell flat on his face. The next to try for him was Valley, a lot more agile than Hunter had been. He managed to get a bite in on Rallan’s shoulder, but being weaker than Hunter it barely did anything to faze Rallan. The gray wolf growled and grabbed Valley by his scruff, tossing him sideways and into Hunter as he was rising up again, both wolves now sprawled out on the ground. The only unfazed one left now was Drake, the most balanced of the trio.

Rallan now faced off against Drake, growled lowly at his former friend. The two wolves circled one another for a short period before Drake lunged for Rallan’s leg. However his opponent was smarter and lifted his paw in time, bringing it down square on the top of the light-brown wolf’s head and slamming him hard into the snowy ground. Rallan was then knocked aside as a heavy force rammed his side, sending him rolling twice in the snow before landing on his