Big Bad Wolfie

Before I take down any pack though, we have to not die.

Which will probably prove to be quite the challenge.

I already have a really bad feeling about this.

But it's hybrids. The source of all my nightmares. My childhood tormentors. One of the only things in this world I truly fear. What did I expect?

Sunshine and rainbows?

(A/N: And so starts the writer's block that's the reason this chapter is late)

As we continued to walk I tried to get a grip on my heart beat. I know everyone can hear it ready to beat out of my chest.

"How ya doing, Maria?" Cali came up next to me. "Your heart's beating pretty fast."

I'm assuming she's asking to throw it in my face, but I'll give her the benefit of the doubt.

"You're not scared or anything, right?" She laughed a little too hard for it to be real.

Never mind then.

"Haha," I fake laughed along, "I don't get the joke, but I'm fine, thanks for asking," I returned the favor by smiling a little too wide.

She pursed her lips but kept quiet.

I don't remember her being this salty towards everyone. Maybe it's just the stress of being on this mission that's -

"WATCH OUT!"

I froze after my head snapped to the source of the voice - because I have impeccable survival instincts — and watched in horror what happened less than a tenth of a second after.

An arrow, presumably covered in deadly poison, flew in slow motion directly towards Brandon.

Luckily, his reaction to 'WATCH OUT!' was much better than mine, and he jumped at the sound of Happy's voice and out of the way of the arrow.

And now it's hurdling towards me.

Should I catch it or move?

I don't think anyone's behind me. Cali is to my left and Wolfie is behind me but to my right.

Mmm... But it's aimed at the heart so if I don't move fast enough it will graze my arm and that'll hurt like a mother trucker.

What if I did like a matrix move -

"Maria!" Wolfie yelled as he yanked me out of the way of the flying arrow.

Dang it, missed opportunity to do something cool.

Wolfie held me to his chest and frantically checked my face for injuries, "Are you all right?!"

I had to try so hard to keep the corners of my lips from quirking up. He's so cute when he's concerned about me. "Don't worry, the bow doesn't make the arrow fly nearly as fast as they can throw a knife, I was gonna dodge it."

"Well you took too long," he glared at me.

"Could you two get off each other and help us!" Rose hollered. "I know there's all that, like, sexual tension or whatever, but we're literally in the middle of fighting hybrids."

"Gah!" She screamed as she stabbed a hybrid attacking Brandon.

"F**k each other later!" She hissed.

I snorted, "Sorry," and detached myself from Wolfie, purposely not checking to see his reaction to her crude statement.

We moved through the forest quite a bit fighting these two hybrids, and the deeper we got, the more excited the butterflies in my stomach got.

I have a bad feeling about where these hybrids are trying to herd us.

They took longer to kill than the last group, and by the end of the fight there was a top of a building peaking out of the trees.

Holy crap this is happening.

"Look," Stephan pointed at the part of the base we could see. "They were leading us here!"

"Why would they do that?" Brandon frowned.

Closer to backup.

"So that if they couldn't kill us, their little friends could," Rose glared at the building.

Yeah that.

I can practically smell everyone's agitation as we reluctantly inch closer to the base, but I know everyone else's scent couldn't be half as bad as my own. My stomach feels like I just swallowed a hornets' nest.

But that's nothing compared to how I feel when the whole front of the building comes into view from behind the trees.

F*ck.

F*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck.

Why this base?

I start to have the familiar feeling of my throat closing and my heart beat slowing.

No, no, no, don't freak out.

Don't.

Freak.

Out...

F*CK!

I'm freaking out!

Why did it have to be this facility?

Why this one?!

Why me?!

I thought they -

"Maria! Can you hear me?!" Someone screamed in my face.

"No!" I screamed back.

I thought they destroyed this place.

After they rescued me, after they won the battle, the war! I thought they destroyed it.

So why the f*ck am I standing in front of it?!

"I thought they destroyed this place," someone whispered. I think it was Rose.

"Yeah! Me too!" I blew up.

Strong arms wrapped around my waist and it calmed me a fraction.

Too bad that doesn't mean much, since I'm losing my sh*t.

F*ck!

"Maria, please! Calm down. You're gonna hyperventilate." Wolfie tightened his grip on me as he frantically spoke.

Don't you think I've done this enough times to know that?!

I slammed my eyes shut and tried to breathe evenly.

In...out...

In. .out

In, out

Inout

In

In,in,in,in,in.

It's not working!

I smell hybrids. I smell fear. I smell blood!

I flung my eyes back open to glare at the world, but only found the people that I lead here.

I can't just lead them into the pits of h3ll and then throw a b*tch fit and bow out.

InOutInOut.

I looked at Brandon and Rose, those idiots, and Stephan, and Cali, that b*tch, and Happy.

I held my breath when my lungs started burning from breathing so fast and turned myself around in Wolfie's arms.

Without a second thought, I shoved my nose into his chest and took a huge gulp of air.

The first gulp of air that hasn't burned my lungs.

I kept greedily sucking in all the air my panic attack had been denying me with erratic breaths.

I felt Wolfie's hand move to rub circles around my back and they quickly evened out.

I hate myself for needing him to calm me down.

But desperate times call for desperate measures.

There was silence around the group once again by the time I came back to the present.

"You good?" Happy questioned hesitantly.

"Yeah," I squeaked.

"Not gonna lie, that was a little concerning," Stephan looked at me with slightly wide eyes.

I swallowed to clear the lump in my throat and slowly turned back around. "What do you mean?"

"Well Maria, you're one of the baddest b*tches I've ever met, and you just had a whole panic attack over seeing a building," he frowned.

Cali mumbled under her breath, "It's not even the first time this week."

Everyone ignored her.

I cleared my throat to try and get the pesky lump away again, "Oh, yeah, that you should probably be concerned about."

(A/N: 1156 words and now I have to decide weather this is going to be a long, action packed chapter or a short one and save the action for next chapter)

"Maybe this wasn't a good idea and we should head back," Rose spoke up, looking at me with worry.

Everyone started discussing this new option, but I stayed out of the conversation, collecting myself.

I closed my eyes.

In.

I still smell hybrids.

Out.

In.

But I also smell Wolfie, still standing close to me.

Out.

In.

And Brandon and Rose by my side, as always.

Out.

The scents of some of the only people that have my back in this world - and Wolfie- are enough to bring me back to my senses enough to make me think clearly.

"There's no going back," I cut in.

The conversation around me stopped.

"If they don't already know we're here, they'll know someone was when they find two of their boarder patrol dead near by," I told them. "Then, Y'know what they're gonna do? Kill whoever was responsible. And Y'know who that is? Us. But Y'know what sucks the most about that?" Y'know I probably just said Y'know about 10 times. "Our territories will be included in that revenge, so whatever waiting, whatever games they've been playing, will stop, and it'll be the Blood War all over again. And we all know that can't happen."

"So Y'know what I think we need to do." Back at it again.

"Who put you in charge?"

"Shut the f*ck up, Cali. I think we need to take down this base, and cripple a portion of their forces while they may not know we're coming and before they are ready to strike," I announced with determination. "That's crazy talk," Stephan gave me a dumb look.

No offense to him, though.

"This is what they mean when you hear I'm crazy, not that I have PTSD or some s*it," I waved off.

"How in the h3ll wold we even do that?! We have nothing, literally nothing, other than a few guns, nothing capable of taking down this place," he continued while everyone else gave me similar baffled and dumbstruck looks.

I really can't blame them. I think I'm just used to coming up with crazy and unreasonable ideas, then just seeing them through, so I'm desensitized... But I'm still here aren't I?

With PTSD.

Shut up inner voice.

"We've done way more with way less," Rose shrugged hesitantly, also pretty desensitized.

I nodded, quick to agree. "And you're thinking all wrong. By take this place down, I don't mean kill everyone inside, I mean bring this place down." I clarified, slamming my fist down on my palm. "That first part

will just follow."

"What? You wanna blow it up?"

"Isn't that the obvious course of action?" I nodded.

"And how, pray tell, would you do that," Cali crossed her arms.

"Well, to make poison - something hybrids happen to be rather fond of you have to have a lab. A lab full of all kinds of fun and flammable chemicals. Don't you remember taking chemistry in high school and the teacher telling you not to mix the wrong things, or you'll blow the place up?"

"Aren't you supposed to be in high school right now?" Stephan frowned.

"If you mix the right chemicals, you can make the place go boom, is essentially what I'm proposing," I grinned to try and shove the terror down even further.

"A big enough boom to bring down the whole place?" Happy spoke for the first time.

"Maybe not, but if we spread it throughout the whole building, it's possible."

"Haha, the only thing you're forgetting though, is that it's not possible! You think a group of 7 is going to pull this off?!" Cali raised her voice louder as she spoke.

Good move on a hybrid base. Let's pray to the goddess everyone was covering their ears or some crap so no one heard her.

"You're right, that might be too many," I put my finger to my chin in thought.

Would that not be discrete enough?

"Dude!"

"You have to admit, if we did pull it off, it would work and it would be epic and life saving," I pointed out.

(A/N: I really hope y'all like dialogue bc if not, this chapter is probably boring as heck)

"If we pull it off, is the key frase" Happy frowned.

That made me think. Hm, Wolfie hasn't spoken much, has he?

"When did you even come up with this crazy @ss plan?" Stephan shook his head, changing the subject.

"Literally as we've been discussing it."

"Oh my goddess," Cali face palmed herself.

"So what do y'all think?" I put my arms out in a welcoming way.

I turned to Wolfie and gave him the best puppy dog eyes I could muster.

I need his approval to distract me from what feels like our impending doom.

"That is crazy," he breathed.

"Insane." Rose nodded.

"We'd probably all die..." Brandon pitched in for the first time, as well.

"Let's do it."

"I'm in."

"Sure."

"You've got to be sh*tting me!" Cali screamed.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐