Chapter 19- Anrytor

I completely forgot about this so I apologize. Also, I'm seeing the Great Gatsby in 45 minutes so I'm excited and I need to finish this quickly so I can see the movie and finish this before I don't feel like doing anything for the rest of the weekend. I also spent the past hour and a half planning the rest of the story so there's probably going to be about 11 or 12 more chapters and a sequel because I'm just that dedicated.

Enjoy.

Max

The last tunnel doesn't look much different from all the other tunnels of the cave but it almost feels different. It almost hums with something. I look up and notice the red dots on the ceiling. There's more here and they almost form constellations on the ceiling.

"Max," Dylan comes up from behind me to walk beside me. He smiles sheepishly as he almost trips over a rock.

"What is it?" I ask, still a little bit tired. Fang was avoiding me and it was annoying me.

"I need to talk to you about something," he says a little hesitantly.

"Spit it out," I say a lot harsher than I meant to. I was irritated from lack of sleep and everything going on. Of course I'm going to be irritated.

"Well… I was wondering, why are they here?" he gestures to Fang and Iggy with a look of annoyance on his face. Fang scowls right back and Iggy says something to him that calms him. "Why are the humans with us? We could've just thrown them back in the cells at my village."

"You really are slow aren't you?" I snort and look at him exasperatedly, "They aren't really my prisoners."

"Then why are they here?" he asks louder and mom, Gazzy and Angel turn back to look at us. I wave at them to tell them to go on.

"They're here because they want to," I reply simply.

"But they're human," he protests.

"So what?" I ask, getting really frustrated now, "So what if they're human? They haven't done anything to us. If you have a problem with them, just leave! Why are you with us anyways?"

"Because, Max, even if you can't see it, I care about you!" Dylan matches my tone but a certain amount of hurt shines in his eyes.

"I don't care! If you can't accept my choice of companions just go back to the village," I shake my head in aggravation, "You know what? It doesn't matter. Go back to your village and don't follow us!"

He's silent and stops walking. "Max," he whispers sadly.

"Just go," I say low and dangerously.

He turns and leaps into the air, turning in midair.

I huff out a breath and Kate comes up to me, smiling. "You finally got rid of bat boy," she congratulates me.

"Yeah, finally," I glare at the opening in front of us.

"You know, Fang is happy about that," she comments.

I turn to her, "What about Fang? Why would he care?"

She looks surprised, "You really can't see it, can you?"

"See, what?"

Kate opens her mouth to answer but is cut off by Gazzy shouting back at us, "Hey, Max! We're about a mile away from the end of the tunnel."

"Gre-!" I start to say but a terrible, cacophonous shrieking sound erupted from all around. All of us shifters cover our ears but Iggy and Fang doesn't seem to hear it. It shakes the walls of the cave. It's persistent noise. We crumple to the ground but then they're okay and stand up. I can still here it somehow.

"Max! Max!" They say muffily and then the world spins and fades away from my sight.

Fang

I ran up to catch Max in her fall.

"Wait, you guys, can you hear that?" Iggy asks and we look around. There were barks echoing off the walls.

"Wolves," Star says, her animal instinct taking over and I saw her legs shuddering, preparing to run.

Paws pound at the ground and makes the ground shake.

"Run!" I scream, carrying Max in my arms.

"Gazzy! Iggy! Collapse the walls!" I shout to them.

"How?" Iggy shouts back.

"Just think of something! Just get everybody to safety and make a wall from us and the wolves. Do it now!"

Valencia, Angel and Holden were flying ahead of us quickly, Star turns quickly and Holden in his shifter from holds tightly to her neck, she scoops me and Max up as Kate picked up Iggy and Gazzy. Iggy looked overjoyed to be riding a tiger.

The wolves sounded like they were getting closer. I could physically see them now if I looked back. I held onto Max tightly. Her eyes were closed and peaceful, unaware of everything going on around her.

Iggy holds out a small black object in his hand and Gazzy lit a match. Iggy throws the object into the ceiling.

"Everybody cover your ears!" he shouts.

There's a slight pause, almost like the calm before a storm and then the object explodes, the walls tumbling around it. The wolves skid to a stop but I hear the yelp of one as it was buried in the debris. Star slows and drops me. I stop to catch my breath, holding up a hand to Iggy as he high-fives it. "Good job," I pat him on the back.

The wolves linger at the wall a little bit and I can hear their muffled cries. There's a shuffling and then they turn back.

Max stirs slightly, her head moves and her eyelids flutter.

Her eyes are unfocused as she says, "She knows we're here and she's threatened."