12. Familiar

Esme stopped walking as everything that she saw in her dream started playing before her eyes. The screams of the people inside the packhouse and the unfamiliar growls of creatures she had never seen before erupted.

Following it was the voice Dawson's roar filled with anger as he called out to the packager as warriors. “Stop running and fight.” thr alpha Dane's roar.

Esme swallowed. She knew this would happen but seeing it play before her eyes like this now was an entirely different experience.

Someone ran past her nearly knocking her to the ground had Alicia not been fast enough to pull her aside. “My lady,” Alicia shook her but Esme was rigid.

Her mind reeling back to what she saw. If she wasn't wrong then the beast whose ferocious growl she had heard but never saw would be here soon and she…

Before she could finish her thoughts, something leaped out of the burning packhouse, a creature unlike anything she had ever seen. It was man-sized with red eyes as if they were made of blood. It's skin dark and eerie. It's claws and fangs that protruded throuhh its mouth were abnormally large and long. It's eyws locked on her and her already frozen body felt weightless even to herself.

Her knees buckled but she held herself. She wasn't alone and she knew this would happen. So why was she still so terrified?

“We need to run my lady,” Alicia said. Even as she said that, her legs felt heavy to move. Her grip on Esmes arm tightened and if she wasn't careful, she would have broken her arm.

Esme only came to her senes when the creature lounged at them. Pulling Alicia along with her, she jumped in the side and the creature missed only by a few inches. It growled dangerously as it spun around and started stalking them while they keep on taking backward steps.

“We have to run,” Esme said under her breath but Alicia could hear here just fine. Nodding her head, she briefly glanced at Esme before returning her eyes to the creature. “If it's lunges at us again, we split and go in opposite direction but we run forward. Understood?”

“Understood,” Alicia replied.

The two continued watching the creature while taking note of what was going on behind them. Most of the cries from inside had ceased and only a few growls could be heard. Alpha Dane's aura feeled the premises along with that of Dawson. Esme couldn't feel Ophelia's aura. She was either dead or had been taken to the safe house.

But none of that mattered now. She had to figure out how she would survive this creature before them and worry about how to fend for herself if she was to walk out of here alive.

“It's coming my lady,” Alicia's voice help pull her focus back to the most crucial matter.

Alicia was an omega, she had no power to stop it and Esme had no wolf at all. So facing it head on was nothing short of suicide. So, running and evading was their only hope and they were determined to pull through and survive.

When the creature leaped into the air once again, they did as planned, Esme ran left while Alicia ran right but then turned to run ahead. And once again, the creature had missed.

It let out a loud cry, a shriek to be precise and startling the two girls and they stumbled on the footing.

Right after the outcry, the creature didn't move again but waited and in no time, it had company. Others like it starting streaming out of the packhouse, their gaze locked on Esme and Alicia.

“We are done for,” Alicia said. Had she known, she would not have hesitated when Esme had asked her to leave. Had they left at that moment, perhaps they could have avoided this.

While Alicia was already breaking inwardly, Esme was wondering why she never saw this in her vision. Yes, a creature was staring at her but not this many and where was that beast?

As soon as her mind thought of him, she heard the growl tbat had her heart stopping and almost leaping to her throat.

“Don't move a muscle, Alicia,” Esme whispered. She was too terrified to look. Behind her and see if that was a friend or a foe. That growl was familiar but that was because she had heard while in the dream but it was unknown own to her what it's purpose here was.

As she held Alicia's hand, she could feel her trembling. Whoever was behind was obvious an alpha. She couldn't feel his aura in the dream but here and now, she could. He was strong. Stronger anyone she had ever met and his aura was what terrified Alicia to the point of shaking like a leaf under the wind. She was even more frightened of the beast behind them than the creatures of unknown origins.

Even the creatures themselves seem terrified by its presence too as they stopped advancing forward and cowered. But There was one that showed defiance and Esme was able to recognize it as the one originally after them. How she could tell them apart, she didn't know but she was certain of it.

As it lunged at them once again, the beast behind them also leaped forward, even jumping over the girls. It's large canines sinking into the creature's neck and mercilessly ripped its head from the rest of its body.

Black blood pooled under its feet. Some of it smeared on the beast’s white fur. But it's didn't mind. It slowly rose to its feet and launches at the other reatures, ripping them apart like they were nothing.

As they watched this massacre going on, Alicia's legs gave in and she fell on her knees but Esme just couldn't take her eyes off the beats laying waste to creatures that they never stood a chance against.

He was big, bigger than any beast that she had even seen but somehow, he felt familiar. Theresl was this sense of familiarity that even confused her and the way he moved and tore apart this creatures, Esme thought he was angry. Furious even.

Then it stopped it's unslaught right after the last of those after them was dead. Lying almost irecognizable on the ground. He turned and his eyes locked on Esme and she instinctively took a step back.