Hello strangers, it's me again, with another chapter. Yeah, i know i'm repetitive, but i'd really want to know what your thoughts are about this story! Positive, negative critics, hints, suggestions, i welcome all of them, don't be shy...

As i've already said, i won't bite- Anyway, "bando alle ciance" and read this fifth chapter!

Chapter 5: Time To Say Goodbye

KATERINE's P.O.V.

From her high rock point, she could clearly see what was happening. Thing that had aroused their fear was non other than her son. Her escape plan was irretrevably broken down and vanished, fading into nothingness. But now a new fear assailed her: she was uncertain about fate of her son.

"WITCHCRAFT!" "THIS IS MADNESS!" "DEVILRY!" Voices were thundering from all over the pack, frightened from something so… inusual.

She couldn't stay there, as they were beginning to circle and were beginning to show their teeth to her beloved son, so, moved by her motherly instinct, jumped down the high rock, trying to spend less time possible, every second was precious to determine life or death of the blood of his blood.

She tried to push through the smitten crowd, aiming to reach his son, but somehow she was pushed back by some of them, and she fell backward.
"So, this is your son, isn't he?" Asked a male voice with an inquisitorial tone.
"Of course he is, she's the only one to have given birth not long ago" Said another female voice.
"Then, what's your excuse to have given birth to this…DEMON?" Said another male voice, saying the last word with such acidity, that seemed he was spitting poison.

After that last word, Katherine felt her blood beginning to boil, and she was becoming to feel enraged, but she knew to keep herself calm and think of some trick in order to save her son.

GRIN's P.O.V.

He was suddenly take aback from his friend's mother's fear scream, and he cowered in fear, tears starting to form in his two-coloured eyes. Looking around, he started noticing that every wolf was turning his attention to him, making him even more scared. Mixed expressions of fear, anger, anxiety, terror were painted on their faces. All because of him, it seemed. He noticed that other bigger pups were hiding behind their parents, being scared by him, and what mostly hurt him was that even his new friends seemed to begin to be afraid of him.

But he didn't really know why they were so scared. He hadn't done anything wrong. But he didn't know they thought he was contaminated by evil's seed, and his eyes rapresented his soul, half corrupt and half pure. This was their belief. But how could a newborn pup understand all these things? For him, they would seem incomprehensible concepts, so they thought that fastest way to get rid of him was… killing him.

"DEVIL!" They keep saying, "KILL HIM!" "FREE WORLD FROM HIS PRESENCE!"

These words kept playing in his head, "What's wrong with me" he was thinking "What did I do to deserve this?", then tears started to flow down his little cheeks, tears of sadness, but he still focused on what was happening around him. Wolves were slowly nearing him, baring their teeth out, ready to sentence him to suffer a horrible and premature death, killed by his own pack members.

But instinct was telling him to not surrender to this fate, and to run away, peraphs finding shelter into their hidden den , and so started running, aiming to reach his den safe and sound, hoping they wouldn't chase him.

He started run at his maximum speed, and luckily he reached it without any scratch, but somehow it seemed strange, because no one had actually chased him.

KATHERINE's P.O.V.

Katherine was a very strong and proud Alpha, she was very skilled in evasion maneuvers, and because of her ability, she was able to receive few wounds in battles, or even to get out unharmed. But this was too much even for her. Fighting alone against a whole pack was beyond everyone's possibility, especially when she have to deal not only with Alphas, but also Omegas. They may not be very skilled like Alphas, but, however they were wolves, they had claws and teeth with which they could hurt her.

After she regained her stability, put herself in a defensive stance, ready to swiftly evade any of their attack. She was looking carefully, waiting for a sign of their assault. Two wolves moved concurrently forward, trying to attack her from two different positions: one jumped from her left, and was aiming to sink his fangs into her throat, the another one slided on her right side, trying to hit both her right fore and rear legs to make her lose her balance.

When they moved in that formation, she immediately knew their intentions: she ducked and rolled on her left side, letting his right attacker to miss her, but she used rolling momentum to push harder with her rear legs on his left attacker's open jaw, and sent him flying backward on a hollowed tree trunk, making him hit his head, and knocking him out cold.

Other wolves were approaching her, so she decided to avoid other fights, for now, and used all her dexterity to swiftly dodge her attackers, but dodge thirty wolves attacks was almost impossible, and a moment before she was leaving main ground , she didn't notice a wolf sneaking on her, and clawed her harshly on her left rear leg. She yelped loudly, but adrenaline was pumped in her body and partially masked her pain.

Her main purpose was to ensure her son's safety by any means, even if it would mean sacrificing her own life to protect him.

She kept running, trying to guess where her son would hide to avoid mass's fury, then she reasoned that the only safe place that he knew was their den, and she quickly moved in direction of her den.

When she got there, she could hear him sobbing heavily, curled up in a tiny fur ball, his fur spotted with some wet marks. When he heard some footstep slowly coming close to him, he was clearly frightened, but he managed to scream, while tears continued to pour down from his swollen, reddened eyes :

"Get away from me!"

Katherine's heart was destroyed to see her son's appearance, she was getting barely able to contain her tears . She get closer to him, whispering with a soft, comfortable voice, one that could comfort even angels in Heaven: "Shh, honey, it's me, mommy", then she hugged him, never wanting to let him go again for no reason at all. Then his sobbing quickly stopped and turned into sniffs.

She was thinking about the rest of the pack, they were probably organizing themselves to unleash a final attack, that would lead to their complete elimination. She couldn't let this happen, so she made her final decision.

"Grin, why don't we play a game togheter?" She said with her sweet motherly caring tone, but with tears slowly coming down from her eyes.

His son's head tilted side to side,smiling, and his tail began to wag furiosly.

"I want you to play this game for me. When i tell you, you have to run over that narrow pitch that only you , with your small paws, could cross. And swear to me that, whatever happens, you will never come back. This is your chance to see a whole new world…" She said, smiling knowing that his son will continue to live, but at the same time sad, with tears kept falling from her eyes, knowing she will never be able to see him again.

suddenly Grin's smile turned into a sad frown, and said, almost on the verge of tears : "Mom, but what about you... aren't you coming with me?"

Then his mother dried her tears and said: "Don't worry about me, son... i have something important to fulfill here... But remember, i had always loved you, and i will, forever...No matter what is the distance could between us, i'll always be with you".

Then she added:

"Son, promise me one more thing..."

"W-what, m-mom?"

"Never leave that beautiful smile of yours, in any circumstance life throw you in, because i'm sure you'll find someone who'll love it at least as much as i do, if not even more. Would you like to smile for me a last time before you go?"

Then, he smiled with a wide grin, one that filled up completely his mother of joy.

But time available was over.

Numerous wolves's irritated voices flew into air, getting, seconds after seconds, louder and louder.

Time to split has come.

"No mother, please…don't leave me" Tears slowly leaving his eyes

"I told you already, son, i'll always be with you"

She said, walking for den's entrance, never looking back. She found herself cornered by an angered avalanche of wolves. She prepared herself to battle, fight for the salvation of a creature which deserved one more possibility to live in this world, in its good and bad times.

She took her defensive stance one more time, determined to not let pass even a single wolf.

She shouted: "NOW!" and then a little furry shape dashed out of the den, approaching the narrow passage above the nearby cliff.

"He's trying to escape!" a closer wolf said, trying to reach him, but was quickly stopped by his enraged mother, which put herself in between his escaping son and attacking wolf.

"Don't you DARE to put your filthy hands on MY SON, or i'm gonna kick your ass so strongly that you're gonna beg me to kill you to end your painful misery!" She said, looking at him with a glance that sent chill all over his body.

She saw his boy passing safely to the other end of the passage, but she saw with the corner of her eyes that wolves away from her were trying to bypass the cliff, using a longer road, but threatening to reach him after few minutes, due to his littleness.

Aware of that, she dodged various attacks, some of them unfortunately hitting the target, but she managed to reach long road's passage's end to block them.

"You have to go over my dead body!" She spitted on them in a tone full of anger and twinge. She was almost comlpetely exhausted, due to her enormous efforts to keep her son safe from them, and due to her recent injuries: she had a deep cut into her left rear leg, three claw marks into her right side that were badly bleeding, and an almost tattered right ear.

She knew she was almost at the end of her life's journey. But she had to keep fighting, at least to give his son a chance to run away and find a place where to hide.

She tried to gather every ounce of strenght left to stand in her last effort.

Wolves rained on her from every direction, trying to pile over her and immobilize her… two, three wolves got over her, but she managed to throw them away from her, and toss them over the edge, sending them straight to an instant death.

But she quickly reached her limit, and although she managed to kill four more wolves, she was overwhelmed by the next wave of attacking horde.

Wolves kept saying word of disdain to her while hitting her with all they've got: "Witch, die!" "This is the price to pay for having given life to a demon!" "You will suffer in hell for the eternity!"

They want to make her die from a slow and painful death for her betrayal.

Claw after claw penetrated deeply trough her fur, tearing every single shred of her skin.

The pain was lacerating, but she didn't scream because she didn't want to give them any kind of satisfaction. She could feel, hit after hit, her life leaving her body.

But, somehow, she was happy. Happy that every wolf was focused on her and not on her child.

After what seemed an eternity of increasing pain, one wolf, who seemed to head the mass, decided that it was enough and asked her: "Any last wish before leave this world?"

With a suffering voice, she said: "I-i… I hope that one day justice will prevail on ignorance of this wretched place… And i just wanna be there watching when this will happen!"

She laid there, motionless, covered in deep scratches and lying in a pool of her own blood, the only thing that make her alive was that sparkle in her eyes. That fire was far from being tamed.

Shocked by her spirit strenght, even before death, the wolf spoke to her one last time:
"Such strong words coming from a soon-to-be-death…witch. Well, may these words accompany you on your journey to the next world, then!"

After these words, he clamped his teeth into Katherine's throat deeply, and with a snap, exposed her pulsing and bare neck.

"Grin…" she thought in her last moment, choking with the lack of air, blood flooding rapidly out of her throat, "…I love you."

In a few instants, soul completely left her body. What remained of her was her empty, battered shell.

She sacrificed completely for her son. Motherly love's really unconditional, don't you think? What's gonna happen to Grin?

Maybe you're gonna find out in next chapters. Over and out, ladies and gentlemen.