Chapter 2 – Darren

Disclaimer: Robin belongs to Maple, Zara and Mysty are fighting over Will, Allan is Mira's, Gisbourne is Cee's, Much belongs to Deannie and Archer is mine. Ask the RRA.

Thanks for the reviews everyone!

Here's the next chapter because I'm nice like that.

Okay so it has been ages since I posted the thing, but at least I'm updating! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth!

And Maple, I expect your Knight Rider fic and the transformers one to be updated after I post this! Soon after! Otherwise I'm afraid I will be forced to exact plan B, the implications of which are known only to me. MUAHAHA!

Read and review!

After making sure that their young male friend was well looked after, the wolves stalked off. The gang presumed they'd be hunting.

They were wrong.

When the pack was well away from Robin and his men, they changed shape.

Storm stretched into a pale-skinned, silver-blonde girl wearing a pale blue dress; her piercing blue eyes danced with hundreds of emotions as she fretted about the pack.

Ebony seemed to flow into the form of a dark-brunette, streaks of copper-red accented her hair, contrasting with the deep green dress she wore, and her hazel eyes were filled with sarcasm. Maple's transition was sudden; one minute she was a small, maple-red wolf, the next she was a human girl, wearing a dress of deep scarlet; her hair was a light brown and her eyes, an unnaturally bright, sparkling green, showed confusion.

Midnight merely shook off her sleek fur in favour of slightly tanned human skin and mid-brown hair; her deep blue eyes shone with a kind of understanding as Storm got to her feet and started pacing.

"Well," Ebony commented moodily, "we found Darren."

"Shut up, Blaire," Storm snapped, "just because you wanted to let him run off –"

"Well, you're the one who seems to have a major crush on him!"

"Blaire!" Midnight interrupted, "give Kiera a break, would you?"

"Why should I?" Blaire retorted, "It's her fault he went and got himself caught,"

"Considering, Blaire," Kiera retorted coldly, "that you were the one who called him a freak and suggested that we were better off without a fifth pack member –"

"Which we were,"

"Let me finish!" Kiera suddenly growled, "I'd finally got him to trust us and then you had to ruin it all didn't you, you spiteful little –"

"Don't call me a –"

"Guys!" Maple suddenly yelled, causing the sisters to become silent, "You're always bickering!"

"Maple's right," Midnight agreed, "Blaire, just accept that your little sister's our pack leader. She's earned it."

"Carly –"

"No, Blaire," she shook her head, "Kiera has done a lot to bring all of us together, and we're lucky she found Darren before he went mad and we had to put him out like the other 3 guys. We were really close to getting a boy in the pack and then you go and make some stupid little comment; it's no wonder she's pissed at you."

Blaire grumbled.

"Blaire," Kiera sighed, not bothering to hide how tired she was of fighting with her older sister, "I know it was hard for you to leave home but –"

"Hard?" Blaire suddenly yelled, "I had parents and friends and a fiancé who I was going to marry in spring! You don't have any idea how hard it was for me to lose everything like that!"

Kiera ploughed on, "you have to give Darren a chance – he's new to this, just like we were. It tore him apart in the same way it did us. Try and be a bit less bitter about it?"

Blaire snorted, "Sure," she replied sarcastically, "I'll just pretend everything's sweetness and light and we can all carry on like nothing's going wrong at all."

"Blaire," Maple said, "Couldn't you at least try to be cheerful?"

The four sat in silence for a few minutes.

"How are we going to stop them from finding out what we are?" Carly asked, "It's hard enough with us lot, but Darren can't control his changes yet."

Kiera nodded, "We'll have to take it as we go along," she replied, "try and train him in secret, without Robin and his gang finding out."

"I like Robin," Maple suddenly commented, "Why can't we show him and his friends?"

"Because, like the last twenty-or-so groups or rebels we've met, they'll want to –"

"Blaire," Kiera warned, "No."

"But –"

"No." Kiera stated firmly, "it was just Jackson and his lot anyway, and Mike sorted that before he went insane and started killing the local villagers."

"He was already insane," Blair commented, ignoring Kiera's eye-roll in her direction.

"Well," Kiera suddenly became very bright and cheerful, "if we want to avoid eating squirrels again we should start hunting."

The girls transformed into their wolf forms, their clothes melting into their fur and vanishing, before springing away, Storm in the lead.

The gang were delighted when the pack trotted in the next morning with their kill and a rather pleased look on their faces. Allan and Much hauled the large doe away to be prepared while Tuck tried to get the boy to speak.

Although he had managed to last through the night and was healing remarkably fast, he had refused to tell the gang anything about who he was, although he did seem to recognise the pack, and greeted them enthusiastically when they arrived.

As soon as Much started cooking, Maple wandered off to sit next to Robin, demanding attention by rubbing her head against his arm.

Naturally, the gang found this very amusing.

The rest of the pack went their separate ways to find members of Robin's gang to attach to; Ebony sat by Will, who was playing a wooden flute, Midnight decided to sit by Darren with her head between her paws and Storm, who spent a few minutes pacing before she made her decision, pounced on Allan and frightened the life out of him, purely for the fun of it.

Much had deliberately left part of the kill raw for the wolves, whose response was to tuck in happily before curling up and waiting for the gang to finish their breakfast.

A few moments later the gang were prepared to attack a convoy and were going over the plan for Darren, who had decided he had recovered sufficiently enough to take part in the raid. The wolf pack was following behind, keeping low to ensure that they weren't seen by the guards of the convoy.

Archer was beginning to wonder if Robin and his men would turn up; it had been his idea to organise this elaborate method of luring the unsuspecting gang into the trap and he wanted everything to run as smoothly as possible. If he were to fail, he would lose his head.

He was relieved to see Robin appear in front of the convoy a few moments later.

"Tell us what's in the cart," the outlaw ordered. Archer threw back his velvet hood.

"I'll show you shall I?" he pulled two swords from his belt and lunged at Robin, who barely managed to deflect the strike as his half-brother pressed his advantage.

There was a blue-silver blur and suddenly Archer was disarmed and pinned to the ground by an animal that was twice the size of a normal dog, its sharp teeth dangerously close to his neck as it growled.

"Storm," Robin ordered, "Heel."

The dog backed off before trotting obediently to Robin's side.

"You've got it well trained," Archer commented casually.

"She is still wild," Robin replied, "her pack just like us for some reason.

"Can't imagine why."

The dog bounded off towards a new member of Robin's gang, who seemed to be finding the fighting a little too much for him.

"Darren!" Tuck called, "go back into the woods!"

Darren was frozen, his clothes were drenched in sweat and he was twitching uncontrollably.

"Darren!" Robin yelled; Darren's eyes grew wild and a terrible howl erupted from his throat, chilling the blood of all who heard it. He wasn't Darren in the next moment; he leapt at one of John's many assailants, but instead of a human boy there was a midnight blue wolf with eyes black as coals. Storm followed, seeming not to be perturbed by the strange transformation.

The guards were frozen in shock for a few moments after the new wolf had dispatched two of their colleagues, but eventually one found his voice.

"Witchcraft!" he yelled, fleeing the carnage with most of the convoy guards.

Maple trotted over from where she had been aiding Midnight and Allan and started to approach Robin, evidently thinking that he might need help with Archer.

Unfortunately, Archer had found a crossbow and, from his vantage point on the floor, he fired the last arrow that remained. It struck Maple's flank and she yelped before sinking to the ground.

"No!"

A girl with silver-blonde hair wearing a pale blue dress and the same piercing blue eyes as Storm rushed over and quickly ripped the arrow from Maple, who seemed to grow into the form of a young girl, whose hair was light brown and her dress scarlet, although it was difficult to tell whether that was from blood or the natural colour of the material. Midnight and Ebony also changed; Midnight became a slightly tanned girl with the same blue eyes as her wolf form, but this time elegantly framed by glasses. She was the only one of the girls not wearing a dress; her breeches, boots and shirt were black. Ebony's hair was the same colour as her wolf-coat, her eyes the same shade of hazel as they were before; she wore a dress of emerald green.

Darren had transformed back into the boy he had been. There was no trace of a single wolf.

"She'll be alright, won't she?" he asked.

"If we act quickly," the girl who was once Storm replied, "John, take her back to the camp, carefully. Brother Tuck, can you stop the bleeding? Good." She took charge of the situation as if this sort of thing happened regularly, "Darren, Blaire, Carly, I'll need you to get whatever herbs Tuck needs."

"Why us?" the human Ebony asked.

"Do you want us to lose another member of the pack, Blaire?" Storm challenged, "We need to get those herbs to keep her alive."

"What'll you do?" Darren asked.

"I'm going to have a little word with that thing that's trying to crawl his way out of here." Storm whirled round and grabbed Archer by the scruff of his shirt and slammed his head against a nearby tree as everyone left to do their set tasks.

"Surprisingly strong for a woman," Archer jeered, rewarding himself with another visit to the tree.

"If you ever go anywhere near my pack or Robin's gang," Storm snarled, showing traces of the wolf, "I'll hunt you down and tear you into tiny pieces. Do we understand each other?"

"If you ever try to hunt me down," Archer replied, his head spinning, "you'll be dead long before I am,"

"Considering," Storm replied in a deadly calm voice, "that I managed to get passed the deadliest traps and most efficient guards of the Sheriffs of Durham, Chester and Cambridgeshire, I'm sure you'll understand if I don't think too highly of your little prediction." She threw him to the ground and stalked off; Robin followed shortly after.

"So you're human." He began.

"Yep,"

"And you didn't tell us because…?"

Storm turned to face him.

"Because everyone we do tell tries to use our gifts for their own ends," she replied, "Humans are two-faced, selfish creatures. Wolves are better company."

"So what are your real names?"

"I'm Kiera," came the response, "Maple's real name is Maple, Ebony's is Blaire and Midnight's Carly. You've already met Darren and I'm pretty sure that he and Blaire will be arguing over the little problem with his changes. He's the newbie," they approached the camp and Kiera immediately went to see Maple, "How's she doing?"

"She'll live," Tuck replied, "But she won't be able to do anything strenuous for at least a month."

"She'll hate that," Kiera sounded slightly amused, "Where're Blaire and Darren?"

"Bickering like little kids in the corner," Allan was grinning, "Will's trying to break it up."

Kiera rolled her eyes and approached the argument.

"- we wouldn't have to be human!"

"It's not my fault that I'm not as well trained as you are!"

"Alright!" Kiera's voice somehow silenced the pair, "Blaire, go and help Will with carving or something – anything you want I don't really care! Darren, go ask Carly for a hunting lesson. Split!"

"Well done," Robin was impressed.

"Robin," Kiera turned to face him, "I need to ask you a really big favour."

"Anything." Robin replied, "You saved my life."

"Could you look after Maple until she's well enough to do more strenuous stuff?" Kiera pleaded, "She'll go mad if she's left on her own and she likes you."

"Can't the pack help?" Robin was unwilling to leave his team without a leader.

"As long as we can hunt and help you on raids we will, but we can't do that and take care of Maple at the same time," Kiera explained, "I have to say you and your gang are taking the fact that we're wolves pretty well."

"I guess it hasn't really hit home yet." Robin replied, "Fine, I'll do it, but that means that Tuck has to be in charge until Maple's better."

"I'll keep an eye on him for you," Kiera promised, "Anything else I should know?"

"Kate might be jealous,"

Blaire was grinning and gesturing towards the rather angry-looking Kate.

"I'll keep an eye on her too," Kiera smirked as she shook hands with Robin, "If anything happens to Maple I'm holding you responsible."

Robin grinned; "I'd better be on my guard then,"

TA-DA!!!!!! *Dodges pitchforks* I'M SORRY!!!!!

But at least Maple has to update her stories now!

Feel free to review! And sorry about the stupidly long wait!