Chapter 4: Loves Lost, But New Ones Found

It was like any other evening for Tess. Her mate, Deon, had gone out hunting and left her with their three cubs, two males, Keon and Simon, and a female, Mae. "Catch me if you can!" Yelled Keon as he ran around the den with Simon at his heals. "Hey mom?" asked Mae from her spot cuddling beside her mother, "do you think dad will be home soon, he's been gone for a while?" The cub's green eyes, a mirror of her father's, looked at her curiously "Of course he will be home soon!" Exclaimed Tess smiling warmly at her cub.

"Hey that was so unfair!" Keon exclaimed "You got me when I was down, that's against the rules!" "I thought you said there were no rules?" Simon said sarcastically, a smile forming on his lips. Keon glared at his brother, "Well let's see if you can handle this!" said Keon as he looked suggestively at the ground outside the den. "Keon, we can't, mom said that we aren't allowed outside the den!" Explained Simon trying to knock some sense into his brother. "Well then you're just a scardy cat!" Keon said as he ran outside the den. "No Keon!" yelled Simon.

Tess looked over as she heard Simon's words to see her cub running around outside the den. She jumped up and ran over to him as her stomach started to go cold when she heard a rustling in the nearby grass and a spot of golden fur.

"Who's there?" Tess asked, shielding Keon from the invader. "Who me?" said a deep voice "I'm Keith. nice to meet you little kitty." said a male as he came up out of the bushes. The male had dark grey eyes, like storm clouds, that seemed to look right into Tess' soul, Tess shivered but didn't budge. "And what's a little kitten like you doin' all alone, you never know what can happen." The male said suggestively grinning at Tess as he took a step towards her. "Don't you daretouch me!" Exclaimed Tess trying to threaten the male into leaving. "But if these cubs weren't here, maybe that would be a different story."Keith said as he crouched down to see Keon behind his mother's leg, and grinned. "And don't you dare touch my cubs!" Tess growled, blocking Keith's view of her cub. As the male looked at Tess again, all the humor was gone from his eyes and instead had been replaced with seriousness. "And what you going to do about it, kitty!"

The male said as he tried to lunge for Keon. Tess had been expecting that move though, and quickly slashed her claws across his face leaving three deep bloody gashes in their wake. Keith hadn't liked that, not one bit and Tess saw malice in his eyes as he lunged for her. The female was kicking and clawing, doing whatever it took to keep the male away from her cubs, she would die for them if she had to. But that one moment, that one second after Keon called her name, was just the distraction the male needed, as he dug his claws into her shoulders, making Tess scream out in pain. The male then threw her at a tree where she hit her head and darkness over came her.

She could faintly hear the screams of her cubs and the sounds of flesh tearing, but Tess was trapped, trapped in a bad dream that she may never awaken from. The female heard a familiar voice, and noticed it was her mate, Deon, he was back from his hunt. Hearing her mate Tess found the strength to arise from the darkness, but wanted to go back into that now comforting darkness as she beheld the sight in front of her. Her two cubs, Simon and Keon, had growing puddles of blood surrounding them, from gash wounds in their sides, they were dead. Her daughter, Mae, was hiding behind her father's golden coat, looking terrified.

Keith lunged at Deon pinning him to the ground, as he tried to bite at his neck. Deon flailed and kicked at his attacker, but to no avail. It was soon over, as Keith plunged his fangs into Deon's neck, and he went limb.

Keith then looked up from his kill, with eyes that were filled with blood lust, and scarlet blood running down his chin. "Run!" Tess said to Mae but never leaving Keith's gaze. When the female didn't hear anything from her daughter she yelled to her "Mae, Run!" Only when Tess heard the footfalls of her daughter receding did she run after her cub, with Keith hot on her tail.

It didn't take long for the male to come up beside her, but Tess had a plan. She ran diagonally at Keith smacking him with her side, she wanted him to trip, lose his footing, anything that would give her daughter a little more time to get away. But the plan failed, and instead Keith did the same to Tess, causing her to slip and fall backwards as a searing pain went up her back leg. As the female looked back up she saw Keith gaining on her daughter, picking her up and...

"NOOOOOO!" Screamed Tess as she jolted awake, scaring Diego who was laying beside her. When Tess locked eyes with Diego all she saw was Keith, the man who had killed her cubs, her mate. She growled "Stay away from me" Tess warned backing away slightly. This caused Diego to become confused "Tess Wait-" "You killed my cubs , my mate, everyone I loved!" Tess yelled cutting Diego off. The males eyes widened in realization, she thought he was someone else! "Tess it's me Diego" he said soothingly, like you would talk to a cub. She didn't hear him, her anger and hate was clouding her judgement, and she got ready to pounce. Diego was left with one choice, so he ran at her and pinned her to the ground, this stunned the female but she quickly regained her composure. "Let me go!" Tess screamed trying to get Diego off of her. "Tess" the male said trying to snap some sense into her, "Don't you dare-" , "TESS!"he screamed finally gaining her attention and the hate was slowly replaced by confusion.

The female looked at Diego in horror, as this morning's events played over in her head. "I'm so sorry" Tess exclaimed "I-" "It's ok" explained Diego, getting off of her, "no one's hurt and we should get moving, the snow stopped." The female looked outside and saw that the snow had stopped, but shivered at the thought of having to go back out there again, yesterday was not her best experience.

The two sabers ate the rest of last night's kill and left the den. As they trudged through the snow Diego was thinking about the morning events, he was wondering if he should ask Tess about her dream. Well she did owe him an explanation for almost ripping out his throat" he thought to himself.

"So" Diego asked "What was that dream about anyway?" Tess looked over at the male and sighed. "Well, it was about my family, my mate Deon and our three cubs, you see they were-" but Tess was cut off by the sound of howling and rustling in the bushes.

Three brown wolves came out of the shrubbery, staring daggers at Diego and Tess. "What do you two cats think you are doing on our territory!" The head wolf said, growling at the tow sabers. "We just need to pass to get to frost tip cave, it's the only route available." Diego stated calmly. "Well ain't that a pity, I guess you ain't getting to that cave of yours, not as long as we're still standing." Diego growled at the wolves' snarky comment and charged.

The head wolf and Diego met half way slamming into each other in a mix of teeth and claws. Tess tried to run to Diego but skidded to a stop when the other wolves blocked her view. "Let me pass!" The female saber said trying to be as confident as she could. "Oh, but we just want to play with the pretty kitty" said one of the wolves as he lunged at her , but Tess quickly found an opening and embedded her sabers into the wolves neck, silencing him. She then threw the dead weight away and glared at the other wolf, but was distracted when she heard a blood-curdling scream.
The female looked over to see the wolf pinning Diego down and sinking his teeth into the sabers front leg.

Before Tess even noticed she was pinned to the ground by the wolf that she had forgotten, and he tried to plunge his fangs in her neck. Tess used all her strength to push the wolf off of her with her back leg, sending the wolf skidding on the snow.

The female then ran over to the head wolf and sunk her claws in his shoulders, as they rolled together, ending with Tess on top of the wolf. "Well I guess you're not standing anymore are you?" Tess said whispering in the dogs ear, as his eyes went wide with fear. The cat quickly sunk her teeth into his throat ending his life, as he went limp.

"Diego!" Tess screamed as she ran over to him "Can you hear me? Everything is going to be all right"

Diego couldn't hear Tess all he could feel was pain, tremendous pain, but it slowly started to ebb away, as Tess' form got blurry and darkness overcame him.