9

Roman ran full out on his four paws. The mental message he got from Melanie was a plea for help. Something happened in the forest that she and Finn had taken Erin to for a run.

Seth was in the lead of the group of wolves. Triple H had met up with them at the park and had shifted into his wolf form. The wind shifted, swirling as something, more than likely Dean, sailed over head.

They covered miles in what seemed like moments. Roman smelt Erin's scent, the one that called to his wolf as they hit the eastern side of the forest. Over a creek and an out cropping of pine trees, there was a small clearing where a large wolf had his jaws on the back of Erin's neck as a wolf and pinning her down with him over her back. Melanie was leaning over the Demon Prince's prone body, chanting something as she watched Baron Corbin.

Erin fought, her four legs kicking and trying to get the larger wolf off of her.

Roman galloped forward at full speed and knocked Corbin off of Erin. Using his large bulk for leverage, both his and Corbin's body cartwheeled over each other, teeth snapping and growls so loud it sounded like thunder. Roman had managed to get his jaws on the underside of Corbin's throat and had him pinned. At least until he was pulled off by Triple H now in human form.

"No, Roman." His higher up yelled at him as he got between Roman and the Lone Wolf. "Stop. The Para-Council will deal with this."

"Finn," Melanie whispered, shaking the Demon Prince's bare chest. "Come on, wake up."

Erin, tail between her legs, walked up to Finn and nosed the side of his face. Whatever happened, he'd taken the brunt of the attack. Roman stayed in his own wolf form and went up to Erin, hoping that she was okay.

"Finn, he got to her first. Corbin did something, something magical and I don't know what. A spell of some sort hit Finn full on." Melanie said.

Erin looked back at Roman. Seth, in his own wolf form, acted as a barrier between Roman and Corbin. Triple H was keeping himself as a barrier as well.

"Let me see." Dean said as he appeared out of thin air. No really, he did. He could turn ethereal and travel by the air currents.

Roman nudged Erin under his chin with his nose, hoping she'd get the idea. She pulled away and continued to watch Finn. Dean's mouth moved, the air moved with his unspoken words.

"What did you do, Corbin?" Triple H demanded of the man.

Corbin shifted into his human form. "Nothing."

"Sure as hell looks like you did nothing. What did you do?"

"He sent Finn back to his home world." Dean said as he knelt down next to Finn's prone body. "His body is a husk but it's still living. His soul isn't in it."

"No, Finn." Melanie whispered.

Finn was no longer in his demonic appearance, he was just a human. Shirtless and his body laying on the forest floor. He looked lifeless, and Erin's anguish was rolling off of her.

"I have to get him back. I have to." Melanie started to shed her top.

Magic, whatever she was going to do, Erin didn't need to be there to see it. Roman lifted his head and huffed at Dean.

"Yeah, I know. I'll stick around. You guys should get Erin out of here." His friend responded.

"I'll take Corbin with me." Triple H said.

Roman stood tall on his paws and chuffed at Erin. When she looked at him, he pointed with his head towards the path they had taken. Seth yipped as well, getting her attention. But she whined, looking down at her protector. So Roman nipped at the scruff of her neck, and tugged. No matter how much he wanted to lean the rest of himself over her, dominating her in a way, he didn't.

Finally she got the hint. With one more mournful look at Finn, she followed Roman and Seth.

Considering that they had shredded their clothes when they arrived at the forest, they at least had some extra clothes waiting for them at the cars. Seth led the way, but Roman hung back and ran with Erin. Her ears were pressed against the top of her head and he made out a tear rolling down the side of her face, darkening her blonde fur.

By the time they had gotten to the cars, Erin's breathing was heavy. Seth shifted first and rummaged around in the back of the car for some clothes for all of them. Considering that Erin's clothes were more than likely lost or forgotten, Seth found some of Roman's clothes for her as well.

"Come on, shift up. We need to get you safe, Erin." Seth said.

Erin whined as she looked over at Roman. When he shifted, Erin looked away, turning her head away. Pulling on some loose shorts, Roman reached out and ran his hand over Erin's head.

"Finn's going to be alright, Erin. Melanie and Dean will get him back. Come on, shift back."

But he had a feeling she didn't know how to do that.

"Call your human side forward. I had trouble shifting when I learned I was a wolf. You can do it. I know you can." Roman said, running his fingers through her soft fur.

She lowered her head and sighed. Before long, the popping and grind of bones started and longer yet she turned back into a human kneeling at his feet. Seth threw a towel at Roman, who then wrapped it around Erin. As she got her breathing under control, he helped her stand up.

"Roman," her voice wavered and her hand covered her face.

"Shh, Erin. It's okay. Everything is going to be okay." He pulled her into his arms and pressed his face into the top of her head.

He had to smell her, he wanted to taste her but that wouldn't have been the best thing at the moment. Roman had to run his hand over her bare shoulder, hoping to ease her anxiety over what happened.

He felt her lean further into him. She turned her head so that it was pressed into his chest and Roman knew she was smelling him. It didn't make anything easier as she slowly pulled away so that she could get changed.


Erin remained quiet on the ride to wherever Seth and Roman were taking her. After what she saw happen to Finn, after what Corbin tried to do to her, she had shut down. She sat in the backseat of the rental car with her head leaning against the window.

Roman reached over and ran his hand up and down her thigh. "You can trust Dean to know what to do. Melanie is good with magic, from the sounds of it."

"Can werewolves use magic?"

"I wasn't aware we could. What did he do?"

She closed her eyes. "I got to a clearing in the forest, there was Corbin. Soon after I howl screamed Finn showed up. They fought, Demon versus wolf, Finn still looked like himself only blacker with swirls or something...the swirls moved on his skin." She rubbed her hand.

"Anything else?"

"At one point Finn had knocked Baron back into some brush and when he came out I think something was shot at Finn over Corbin's shoulder."

"Then he must not have been there alone." Seth said.

She stared out the window, trying to ignore what Roman's touch was doing to her body.

"Before all of this, the idea of myths never really mattered, even when I grew up in a predominantly Native area. Dad always heard about, you know Bigfoot or Sasquatch because he was a Park Ranger. But I never had any belief in that stuff." Erin said, her brain muddled with facts she was forced to face and facts that she had been told in the past.

"He's real, you know. They are real." Seth said, glancing back at them in the rearview mirror.

"Who?'' Erin asked.

"Sasquatch, Bigfoot. They can't easily hide amongst the humans so they have to be solitary in small tribes. There is a small family group in my home state of Iowa."

Having enough of the touching, Erin turned and leaned her head on Roman's shoulder. It was the best that she could do, it meant that she was watching where they were going through the front window. The sky had darkened for some reason, not from where it was nice and sunny before she had gone into the forest.

"What's going on out there?"

"Maybe it's one of Dean's spells." Seth pulled the car over and stuck his head out the side window. "Something isn't right."

"Only a force stronger than both a necromancer witch and a seelie fey could be doing this." Roman said.

They hadn't gone very far from the park before they were turning around again. Erin looked at the sky, it had gone from blue to black in a moment's notice. She and Roman were both sitting forward as a plume of smoke rose out of the forest, about the area where they had left Dean and Melanie to tend to Finn.

"Do you think it's true, if what Finn has said?" Seth asked.

"What? That curse thing?" Roman asked.

"Yeah, about him and his old man."

"Well, it would be nice if you filled me in. What are you talking about?" Erin said.

"As you know, Finn is some sort of demonic or pseudo-demonic entity, though by no means evil. His old man is the King of the Irish demons, a Fomorian King called Balor. Finn left behind his heritage, but in doing so, he left with a curse on his back." Seth said as he turned back into the parking lot.

"If he were to ever return to Balor's kingdom, Finn's former home, the King of the Demons will raise up. Whatever happened to Finn, his soul isn't in his body, which is a prime place for Balor to take up residency." Roman explained as they came to a stop.

"Don't shift, not yet." Seth said as they got out of the car. "We'll shift if there is something going on that needs it."

Erin didn't feel like changing her shape again, but because this was Finn, someone she trusted her life with, she would do it if she had to. In the end, she tried to keep up with Seth and Roman as they made their way back to the scene they all left earlier. Although she did feel a little bit better, her stamina didn't give out like she had thought as she trailed behind Roman's large frame. As long as she kept his full head of hair in view, she wasn't lagging behind.

The wind itself was colder than before, the wind whipped up and tossed Erin's hair as she jogged further into the forest of swaying trees.

They got to the clearing and there was Dean with Melanie standing back from Finn, who was standing with his arms at his sides. But as the wind whipped the forest debris around him in a sort of tornado, Finn was not actually standing, but floating off the ground.

Dean had an arm in front of Melanie as she attempted to get to Finn. His eyes were black, there was no way of telling what his eyes were, black magic or something entirely different. His body shimmered, then expanded, a silhouette of something, something much bigger and terrifying had manifested outside of Finn's body, something that Erin had never seen before. It was like a holographic projection that surrounded Finn's body, but she could still see Finn.

Then Finn opened his mouth, and what came out had Erin pressing her face into the back of Roman's back.

"I am free." The booming, deep and dark voice said.

A crack of thunder, a bolt of lightning and everything stopped as that thing flew up into the sky. The wind didn't move the trees, the undergrowth wasn't affected by the rapid weather change. All that stayed still was Finn's body in the middle of the clearing.

"Finn!" Melanie yelled as she ran up to him, rolling him over on his back and pressing her hand to the side of his face. "He's alive, still."

Leaving the safety of her wolf, Erin ran up, kneeling next to her protector. "Was that him? Balor, his dad or whatever?"

"Yeah. I've...Finn!"

Finn's blue eyes were open. They weren't black like they had been. His breathing was easy again.

"Don't tell me my old man is out?" Those were the first words out of Finn's mouth.

"Don't worry about that. Are you okay to sit up?" Melanie asked, plucking a few sticks, twigs and leaves from Finn's hair.

He sat up, resting his arm on his knee and lowered his head. Erin could hear him mumbling something but that was about it.

"I didn't think a wolf could summon up black magic like that." Finn said. "You're a witness to what happened to me, take it to the council. Strap some more charges to Baron's hide for all I care." Finn got to his feet.

Melanie grabbed his arm, forcing him to look at her. "Tell me what you saw."

"Just about the same as you did when you came through." He responded.

Erin opted to keep her mouth shut with that little detail. Instead she focused on Finn. "Are you okay now? What was that thing? Was it your father?"

"Yeah, it was. He's out now, no telling what he wants to get up to." Finn sighed. "I need to get my energy back. Promise to behave yourself until tomorrow, Erin?"

"Why?"

"You're staying with Roman and Seth. Put a damper on things between them, will you?" Finn looked at the wolf in question.

"Sure, plan on it."

"Yeah, well, since everything seems hunky dory right now, I'm just going to fly off and be with my wife. Catch you guys later." Dean said with a salute and then evaporated out of existence.

Erin looked back at her wolf, at Roman. His stoic stance with a straight back and his loose hair waving around, it called to her inner wolf more.


Hopefully the next chapter will be the last chapter so I can set up a possible sequel I had never planned on. Hope you guys liked this. I'll be back in a little bit to hopefully finish this off.