Chapter 142
The light of the sun was barely starting to color the sky when Nat ran about shaking everyone in the camp. The coyotes were surprised by her sudden action, but proceeded to join her in getting everyone awake as fast as possible. After being together for over a month, there was more than enough reason to believe that it was something urgent. Natalie never did anything without a reason.
Shannon on the other hand, was not particularly enthused about the whole thing. "Why the fuck are you waking me up? It isn't even light out, and we're not getting attacked." She was barely awake, but her voice was full of scorn, her eyes squinted.
"I had another one of those dreams. It was about the kid, and he is trapped behind a door by a bunch of monsters. We have to go and help them!" Nat screamed at her, visibly scared and frustrated. At this point, since everyone was in the process of waking up, Nat started getting changed as fast as she could.
"We have time. After all, the situations are not always an immediate thing to worry about." Shannon replied, before laying back down. She was not a morning person, and she very much wanted to do nothing more than go back to sleep.
As Shannon started to pull some blankets over her body, Nat continued on, "And usually I would agree with you, but this one kicked me awake instead of letting me finish sleeping."
Shannon froze, then proceeded to sit back up and look Nat in the eyes. "The dream woke you up? But they have never done that..."
"That is why I believe this time to be urgent! Let's get a move on!" Immediately there was a response. Shannon was on her feet and getting changed as fast as she could. When the rest of the canines saw how fast and worried their Alpha and her mate were, they got in gear as well. The camp was taken down in less than a minute, with gorillas and canines working together to get things squared away as fast as possible. Nat wanted to stop the gorillas from exerting themselves too much, but this was too pressing of a concern. Once everything was packed away, everyone went into the Soulscape. After all, they were still a long way from the edge of Red Deer, and they needed to go into it to reach the gas station. Therefore, it was time for two of the wargs to carry the pack ahead as fast as possible.
Luna and Sierra volunteered for the job. Luna had just finished nursing and weaning her pups, meaning that she was the least adept in her shifted form compared to most of the others, and Sierra was not the first one to step forward and fight. They figured they would run there as fast as they could, and then recover from the exertion as everyone else fought. Sierra dipped inside the Soulscape, but only to get one of the saddles. Luna had helped her get it on while everyone was cleaning, as she had getting hers on hammered down, making it muscle memory at this point. Together, Nat and Shannon each got up on one of the wargs before riding north along the QE2 Highway.
Sadly, the wargs could not get up to the same speed as cars. What would have taken five minutes by car ended up taking them just over fifteen. The gas station they were going for was halfway up the section of road name Gasoline Alley. Numerous restaurants, stores, and especially gas stations dotted either side of the major highway. It was all commercial buildings here, with the residential sections of the city being tucked away from the highway. This made Nat happy she had the dream and could remember it as vividly as she did. Because of that, she knew exactly where to go.
Luna and Sierra finally ran out of steam as they came up to the drive-in. Shannon and Nat dismounted, while the two tired wargs switched out with their assault team. Bryden, Kali, Maia, Sol, and Shadow came out, fully shifted and ready to go. Nat did not even have any weapons brought out, whereas Shannon still had the trusty fire axe. Moving quickly, the seven of them approached the gas station and moved around the eastern side to get to the front. And what a visage the front entrance gave off.
The double doors were smashed inwards, safety glass popped out of the mangled frames and laying on the floor. The shelving inside was either knocked over, thrown against the wall, or just straight out crushed. And in the back corner, under the washroom sign, was a group of monsters. A dozen goblins, five hobs, and two orcs were standing about eager as a third orc used a piece of shelving as a battering ram. Not seeing any real way to get the drop on them, the seven wannabe rescuers just rushed straight in.
The first step in heralded their approach with a large crunch as Natalie's boot impacted heavily on the glass. By the time that the back row of monsters turned around, they were already getting torn into. Nat had shifted her arms and started ripping the heads off the tiny goblins. It was still an intensive draw, but with the training they had been doing, she could probably maintain this for about half a minute before she had to recover her energy. Meanwhile, Shannon was whipping the axe around, braining goblins left and right. The four wolves were moving straight through the group towards the hobgoblins, dispatching goblins as easily as Nat was. Sol ran straight through the group of monsters and tackled one of the orcs through a display door and into the freezer behind. However, things were not as easy as before. One of the hobgoblins was sporting the same tattoos as the goblin shaman from before, and he was conjuring up shields made of black mist to support what allies he had left. The wolves had problems getting close enough to deliver a lethal blow to the remaining monsters without opening themselves up to heavy risks. It was making it hard for the group to respond, and they were slowly getting pushed back by the hobgoblins and the remaining two orcs.
Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Selvaria, Viktor, Saganatsu, Eeleater, John, Jacob, Onean, Neal, Sebastian, Ethan, Sir Hellington, Adam, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times. Our next goal on Patreon will be getting up to 50 patrons, which I will then spend more time each month writing some side stories and shorts that show other perspectives throughout my stories!
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