DA : Chapter 59: Breaking I

She moved with purpose and intent, her nose constantly sifting through any and every scent in her search. Her pack followed close behind, their senses as strained as hers while a slight nervousness took them.

Normally any display of weakness was brutally uprooted. They were the hunters, the strong. Unease and heavens forbid, fear, was to be suppressed at all times. However, even she could not keep the chill from her bones as they traversed the night with the new moon still hidden from all.

She glanced up, her vibrant yellow eyes searching for the familiar celestial body if only to be assured her longtime friend was watching them.

But it didn't seem that the moon goddess was out with her chariot to guide the moon tonight but then again, she wasn't too sure if her friend would have come help them.

The years have been unkind to the goddess and now with the loss of faith in the huntress and subsequent trust in her own pack, their friendly relationship had become strained at best.

Nowadays Artemis was rarely kind to any and seemed to almost blame the very world for what has happened to her. She shook her canine head in disappointment, wondering when it was that her friend became so much like her father. A being so dependent on his pride and ego that he'd attack any who would look down on him in any way.

"Lady Lupa" one of her wolves called, breaking her out of her thoughts. "The scent has become stronger."

She sniffed again and noticed that the beta was right. The scent resembling that of wolf mixed with black orchid led them far north just passed the US-Canada border.

From the last she'd been able to get the smell at the site of the murder of Phoebe, and later a small divine signature left only a week ago with the kidnapping of Lady Hestia, Lupa had managed to pick up a trail near the Rockies and followed it north.

The scent had only reappeared once she entered North Dakota and the divine signature had gotten stronger putting her on edge.

She'd heard from the hunters and gods about this 'Umbra' or whatever it seemed to call itself. She would never admit it even under torture but in her core … she was frightened.

This wolf had not only gotten under the nose of Artemis and disappeared without a trace but then reemerged only to take an Olympian before any could stop it.

From what the hunters had told her, this wolf was actually smaller than her, being more or less the size of a large horse whereas Lupa herself at full size was closer to that of a dump truck. She was a millennia old goddess with combat abilities honed in the flames of war in both her forms … so then why was there a knot of cold fear in her gut?

Something had changed in the air over a week ago and she could feel it all around her. Her own wolves seemed distracted themselves, as if being called to something else even though they had been born into her pack and sworn to her and yet she could feel their loyalty beginning to sway and worst of all she couldn't tell to what.

It had happened before with Lycaon but that wretch of a wolf hadn't been sighted for over a year now. And here they were now getting to the borders of the 'West'. Any farther and she would begin to lose her power until she was little better than a demigod in power.

"Lady Lupa," another, younger wolf called to her. "Something approaches …"

Lupa trained her ears around as her body tensed, soon hearing the sound of something indeed approaching along with the scent and divine power getting closer.

She could hear not only brush but even leaves being disturbed as well as feel a small tremble of the ground that just nearly escaped her noticed.

Her heart quickened as the sound of trees actually groaning as they were pushed aside drew closer marking the approach of something at least as large as her. But what worried her was that she couldn't hear any footfalls which with something near her size should definitely be apparent.

Her pack was poised at her sides, muscles locked and fangs barred even as their own hearts thundered in their chests. The very air seemed to become chilly as their breath became visible and thin sheets of frost formed on the trees in front of them.

Her own ears flattened when she finally saw a figure walking towards them, its shoulders brushing against the top of the trees reaching up to four and five stories each. Then, as if disconnecting from the very shadows of the night, a wolf appeared before her and took her breath away.

The wolf before her had to have the deepest black coat she'd ever seen with some streaks of light blue and underneath she could see the signs of lean and dense muscle.

The massive wolf looked at them calmly with eyes looking like two blue orbs of pure ice also containing intelligence and a sense of power making several of her wolves step back in acknowledgement.

Darkness and frost seemed to swirl around the wolf as well with the forest behind it looking as if it had gone through winter even as the ground underneath the wolf's paws began to ice over. By the proportions and the subtle undertones of a musky scent around the wolf she could also tell this one was very much male at that causing a whole host of problems.

Truly at times she hated and loved her instincts just like her current form. Thanks to fewer than three goddesses knowing she could actually take a human form along with her oath of chastity made it easy to avoid the cesspool of Olympian debauchery.

Her wolf side also made it easy to ignore the few admittedly attractive males, godly and demigod alike, simply because they weren't like her. She was both a wolf and a goddess and as such would not take anything less.

Even the male shifters in her pack were seen more as adopted sons or nephews that always fell short of being strong enough to make her even considering them as more than just members of her pack.

But right at this moment her wolf side was practically clawing at her mind to submit but she stomped it down mercilessly with her goddess side.

This wolf may be a specimen above any she'd ever seen but if it was only a wolf and quite possibly the Umbra that she was hunting then there was no point in considering him anything other than an enemy.

So with that thought she let loose a snarl capable of making gods wet themselves but the wolf didn't even look phased.

If anything he looked amused as he scanned them each with a scrutinizing gaze before locking with hers. As their eyes remained on each other the wolf took one step forward, this time doing nothing to repress the sound and pressure of the footfall causing some of the wolves around her to jump back.

Another step was taken and now she had to tilt her head back to look up at the wolf. Their stare off lasted for several minutes before the larger wolf snorted and then surprised her by speaking in a deep voice with a growl undertone making her fur stand on end.

"So … Lady Lupa has graced me with her presence," he said as he stepped back slightly but was still no less imposing as he looked down at her.

It took Lupa a moment to find her voice as she watched the wolf slowly turn to expose its side before he began to circle them making her pack draw in closer to her.

"Who are you?" she asked in a stern tone.

"You know who I am …" he replied in a coy tone making her growl in warning. "Feisty …"

"I'm warning you," she said with narrowed eyes as she turned her body to make sure she was always facing the massive wolf as the forest around them shook with his every step. "Don't play games with me."

"And yet I've been playing this game with you for years," the wolf replied with a chuckle. "And the little huntress has never even come close with the little trails I left her for the fun of it."

"Umbra," Lupa growled as she bared her fangs yet again. "The demon that murdered one of her hunters and took Lady Hestia …"

She was going to say more but that was all silence as the wolf released a growl that froze her in place.

Her very bones and the forest alike shook at the strength and ferocity of it, her eyes glued to the gleaming white fangs just barely exposed to her as several of the wolves in her pack whimpered while lowering their heads.

Her every instinct was screaming to her, wolf and goddess side alike, saying the same thing. Fight and die or run and live … if she had any hope of escaping that was. She tore her gaze away from the wolf that let go of the partial snarl and took in the sight around her as her body seemed to suddenly shiver from an unknown cold.

As the wolf had walked around them, his every step had left behind some sort of black ice she'd never seen before and that ice was now formed into hundreds of spikes too tall for her pack to jump.

Her pack was corralled in now and she doubted she could get a window to try and jump the icy barrier while Umbra was a mere 10 or so meters away and capable of crossing that distance in just a few casual steps.

"What do you want?" she asked after having given up on the thought of escape without a fight.

"Hmm …" Umbra paused in his pacing around them while looking up at the night sky as if looking for an answer. "… That depends," he finally answered as he looked at her again with those icy eyes.

"… I want many things, some simple, others not so much. A peaceful future where I could raise a family safely is one but that path crosses past rivers of blood and war. These rivers, if I have my way, will flow with ichor as I rip the Olympians apart."

"Is that why you've taken Hestia!?" she snapped while in her heart she began to worry for Hestia even more.

"Yes," he replied simply before she suddenly snapped and attacked.

Like a runaway train she barreled at the larger wolf, her fangs gleaming as her claws came forward as well … only for her barely register some movement to then suddenly meet the ground in a resounding crash.

She felt the pain only a second later on her side as she starred at the broken ground and ice in disbelief.

She glanced at the wolf that was now facing her with one paw casually extended, gleaming black claws proudly displayed. It all happened in a split second and only now was it truly sinking in just how outmatched she was. Umbra had turned and swatted her back like a fly and to add insult to injury, he had made sure to hit her with the pads of his paw rather than claws to not kill her outright.

"Quite the temper," Umbra said in a chiding tone a he rested his paw. "But you did not let me finish," he said as he stepped closer as she struggled to her feet while keeping the pressure off her right foreleg.

"I took Hestia … but not against her will."

"What?" she asked shakily as she tensed with the wolf's approach, her fear finally starting to show through.

"As I said, Hestia didn't want to be on Olympus any more than you would."

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Don't forget to throw some power Stones, to keep the story going.

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