As the other werewolf steadily threaded his way across the small clearing, their nose to the ground, Joshua hesitated on the edge of the trees, ears perked. He briefly considered circling around to the other side of the tree in order to come at the hunter from both sides, but quickly discarded the thought as his wound throbbed. Werewolves healed fast, true, but the process was considerably sped up or slow down by the dominance of the wolf in question. He certainly wasn’t very dominant, and thus expected his injury to last a couple of hours at least. Inwardly grumbling as he resigned himself to wait and help as needed, he watched as the wolf with mottled brown and black fur paused near the roots of a tree, muscles tensing for an attack.

The action happened fast, the hunter popping up over the edge of the root with a bolt in one hand, aiming for the werewolf’s head. She missed and the canid creature bit down on her arm, tossing his head and throwing her out into the clearing. Joshua prepared to run out in that moment, but was blocked by the other wolf leaping forward into his path, his jaws clamping down onto the human‘s leg. The woman screamed, but managed to shove what looked like another crossbow bolt into The werewolf‘s snout.

The werewolf thrashed at first, but gradually grew still. Joshua‘s ears flicked with surprise. Usually, a wound to the nose wasn’t fatal. Either the woman had coded her ammunition with poison... or the wolf really wasn’t dead. Holding his breath as the hunter scooted back from the body, he finally caught a full glimpse of her face. Almost immediately, the rage and bloodlust that had been building up inside him at the possible death of one of his pack flickered and was snuffed out.

[I]...Why is her face so familiar?[/I] Memories flickered like smoke on the edges of his mind, but like smoke, they quickly dissipated and thinned, drifting away from him. He didn’t know where he had met this woman before, or even win, and he certainly didn’t understand why her face suddenly made his anger slip away. But somehow, it did.

As the woman stumbled back into the trees, Joshua stood rooted to the spot, indecision and confusion flickering through him. Then, He heard something that made his ears twitch. A heartbeat. Not his own, not the hunter’s, but a third heartbeat. The wolf she had attacked wasn’t dead after all. As the wounded creature lunged drunkenly to his feet, bloodied jaws parting as he staggered forward towards the woman‘s new hiding spot, Joshua felt himself react instinctively. He didn’t understand why, but he suddenly wanted to protect the hunter. Disregarding the burn of the arrow wound in his thigh, The red werewolf shot out of the cover of the trees, darting in and clamping his jaws on the back of the other wolf‘s neck. Growling deep in his throat, he shook his head back-and-forth violently, both feeling and hearing a snap as the black and brown wolf‘s neck broke beneath his fangs. Breathing heavily, heart pounding hard against his ribs, Joshua waited for several moments before he released his hold, the body of the dead werewolf thumping to the ground. He stared at the dead wolf, shocked.

[I]What have I done?[/I]