Hans could smell the king and his forces drawing nearer to the den but there was just enough distance for a solid sneak attack... "we can drive them back, we are wolves! They have a cannon, arrows, and crossbows but don't be afraid, their in 'our' territory, take cover in the trees, make those awful men spring their own traps so they get caught, draw their fire as you sneak closer, and then strike and frighten them away from within the shadows as their reloading!" Hans told the wolves as a general commanded his army.... And the wolves did just that. The attack went smoothly; nearly all of the men that had accompanied the tyrant king had either fled the forest (that was now rapidly catching fire from their torches) or were being held upside down by the snag trappes intended for hunting.

"REPORT!" The King commanded for the third time... but all he could hear was the remaining men begging to be released from the traps. "Idiots!" the king grumbled as he turned back on his horse with Eric silently chained to the saddle, to use his sword to free his remaining men.

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Meanwhile back in the den, Clara had tried her best... but the wound only reopened on her sister's heart after every attempt she made to heal it. "NO! Please sis tell me what to do, I'm not strong enough on my own...!" Clara cried... when suddenly she remembered something Trudy told her about a wolf walker's healing capabilities long ago when she was around eight years old..."

"Regular wolves have healing powers like us Wolfwalkers?" little Clara asked while petting a gray wolf that was part of her main pack.

"Yes," Trudy replied. "You see little Clara, when a wolf walker needs to use their healing powers on a near death wound we can channel that power through our wolves as they howl like us when we are trying to heal that wound, however it's still difficult if it's only one wolf walker doing so...."

Clara frowned in determination at the memory. "The pack... I need the pack...."

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Hans and the wolves watched as the forest was catching more fire by the minute. "We've only stopped them for now, there must be something else we can do..." Hans thought to himself when suddenly...

"OWOOOOOOOOOO!"

The wolves and Hans turned to hear Clara calling for all of them from the den urgingly.

"Let's go!" Hans ordered as he and the pack began to sprint back towards the den, running past the king's horse.

Eric gasped as he held Hans' sleeping human body in a protective manner.... But as he watched the wolves pass him and the king, one familiar wolf stopped to stare at him.... Eric gasped.... When he blinked his eyes closed.... In the place of the wolf he saw his young cousin breathing in the same rhythm as the wolf itself....

"...Hans..." Eric said in wonder glancing from boy's sleeping form in his arms to his wolf form who smiled at him at last... but it didn't last long, the king saw the black wolf and tried to use his crossbow to shot it, but Eric was too quick for him, and pushed the king's weapon off course, making the arrow narrowly miss Hans by a hair.

"HANS GO!" Eric shouted, making Hans run back to the pack as they drew nearer to the den.

"That's it! The Devil's den! Ready the cannon!" the king ordered the men who were now free from the traps.

Hans gasped when he heard this. "Get to Clara, I'll handle this!" he told the pack as he turned back to the king and his forces... just as the king himself lit the cannon pointing to Clara's den....

HANS NOOOO!" Eric yelled at the top of his lungs as he then held Hans sleeping from close and took cover on the other side of the king's horse... but it was too late... Hans wolf form jumped onto the edge of the cannon, making it point downwards, away from Clara's den... just before it exploded....

After the smoke settled Eric then noticed Hans' sleeping human body had bruises on his arms and a small one on his left cheek.

"Oh dear God, no.... Hans wake up!" Eric begged as he hesitatingly looked out from behind the knockover horse to see Hans black wolf form unconscious closer to the den on the other side of the creator that the cannon's blast had created.

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"Everyone over here I need your help!" Clara cried.... When the pack entered the den. "Wait, where's Hans?" she asked the pack as one wolf came forward and whimpered, making Clara's eyes widen. "No.... is he mad he-" Clara started but stopped when a massive explosion was heard from outside making the walls of the cave shake. Clara then held onto her wounded sister who was still unconscious, until the shaking stopped. "Pavlova, Please go find Hans... and pray that he is alright..." Clara trailed off as the kitten gave her a nod and left the cave to find her boy while Clara turned back to her sister to try once more to heal the deathly wound on her chest...

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"Hans get up please you can do it! You came this far, please!" Eric called out to his cousin's wolf from.... That's when he noticed the king seething with rage as he approached Hans.... with his sword at the ready.... "HANS GET UP RUN!" he yelled trying to break free of the shackle on his neck.

"ENOUGH YOU USELESS PAWN, THIS WOLF MUST BE DEALT WITH FOR THWARTING MY PLANS!" the king shouted in sheer rage before turning back to Hans' wolf form.

"By my hands I vanquish thee..." the king whispered to the wolf darkly as he raised his sword above his head preparing to strike the wolf before him to death....

HANS! NO!" Eric growled at the end of his sentence and just as the king was bringing down his sword... he and his weapon were charged into by a large mass of black fur, knocking both away from Hans.

The King then gasped at what he saw; a black wolf larger than Hans was before him with its teeth bared.... Staring at him with familiar determined brown eyes...

"W-what the hell?" the King questioned as he then snapped out of his shock and grabbed his sword, getting ready to fight this new foe of a wolf.

"Uh...." Hans wolf form groaned as he was awakened by Pavlova meowing beside him, urging him to get back up.

"P-Pavlova what-" Hans started but then he gasped when he noticed the king fighting another wolf.... "It can't be...." Hans trailed off as he looked back to see that his suspicions were correct.... Eric was asleep and the cuts he was getting from the king's sword on his wolf form were slowly appearing on his human form.... "Louise bite him back in the village... of course he's a wolfwalkers now!" Hans thought to himself in realization.

Eric's wolf form growled as he lunged at the king and pinned him to the ground.... But as the king himself turned his head away from the growling wolf he saw that Eric (who was asleep against his unconscious horse) had the very same wounds that the wolf before him had!

"Witchcraft!" he whispered to himself as he carefully took a small dagger out of his boot and swiftly tried to stab Eric's wolf form in the heart.... But the weapon was forced out of his hand by an arrow that emerged from behind the wolf. Both the king and Eric's wolf form turned to see who had shot the arrow and both of them gasped in shock.... Hans, who had returned to his human body, held an empty cross bow in his hands while Pavlova was hissing at the scene from the boy's shoulder.

With the wolf before him distracted the king was able to get up and run towards the exit of the den to which Eric's wolf form angrily followed him.

"No...." the king trailed off as he hit a dead end and realized that the rest of his men had fled the den as well. The king then glanced at Hans and his cousin who both stared at him coldly.... And then he began to laugh like a maniac.

"YOU THINK YOU'VE DEFEATED ME?! HA! I WILL NEVER LET ANYONE DO SUCH A THING, SO..." the king trailed off as he picked up his sword once more, making Hans and Eric's eyes widened in shock when he realized what the king was planning to do. "I'LL SEE YOU IN HELL, WITCHES!" the king shouted at the top of his lungs as Hans began to run towards him.

"NO, DON'T!" the boy yelled, but it was too late.... The king had run his sword threw his chest in a matter of seconds before Hans was able to reach him.

Hans stopped dead in his tracks as vulchers cawed while landing before the now dead king...

"He was mad...." the boy trailed off in shock. That's when he and Pavlova heard whimpering from behind them. Hans turned to see Eric's wolf form approaching them with a nervous smile on his face. "Eric...." Hans gasped, but then he smiled as he ran over to his cousin and hugged him. "Oh cousin, you're one of us now!" Hans said happily as Eric's wolf form huzzeld his head, that's when the boy remembered, there was still something that had to be done. "Eric, we have to help Clara," Hans stated looking back towards the den. Eric's wolf form nodded as he let Hans and Pavlova climb onto his back as he ran into the cave.

"Hans!" Clara cried out as she had tears streaming down her face. Hans quickly left Pavlova on Eric's back and rushed over to Clara and Louise.. Whose breathing was dangerously slow and the wound on her heart ever so bloody... "Oh Hans, I tried, I really tried, but I'm just not strong enough! I need her!" Clara cried as she then covered her face with her hands and began to cry harder. Hans looked at Louise and then back at Clara with determination in his eyes,

"I can help.... Clara, there's two of us now..." Hans trailed off, taking Clara's hands in his own and holding them close.

Clara sniffled. "There's two of us now, right" she stated as she wiped away some of the tears on her cheeks.

Hans smiled sadly at her. "I'm not sure what to do so-" Hans started letting go of Clara's hands and staring at his own curiously.

"I'll show you, follow my lead..." Clara stated as she held her hands just over the wound on her sister's chest, to which Hans did the same. "OWOOOOOOOOOOOO" Clara howled as Hans did the same.

"OWOOOOOOOOOO" the boy howled as the pack of regular wolves followed their lead and howled along with them and as they all howled golden light surround the cave and all those who where howling. Eric looked at Hans, whose hands, like Clara's, had a golden light pouring from them onto Louise's chest, in response Hans nodded at his cousin who smiled and like the wolves around him howled at the top of his lungs, adding more of the golden light to the cave...

Meanwhile outside a great rain began to fall from the golden light that was even surrounding the outside of the den, and extinguished the flames on the forest trees and other vegetation. Back in the den itself, when the light was bright enough Hans and Clara raised their hands into the air and directed all of the light itself onto Louise's chest..... The howling of all in the cave then ceased and they waited.... The wound had closed up, now all Louise had to do was awaken. Clara and Hans breathed heavily, this act of using their healing powers to this extent had taken a lot of strength from them, but they didn't care about themselves at the moment, all they could do was stare at Clara's sister as they hoped and prayed that what they had done was enough to save her.

....Then after a moment of silence.... Louise gasped, now fully awake.... And healed....

"Clara!" Lousie said, relieved.

"SIS!" Clara exclaimed happily as she hugged her sister. "Oh sis you're okay, I thought you were gone for good, I've missed you!" Clara wept with tears of joy now streaming down her face. Then she and her sister looked at Hans with gratuite in their eyes. "Thank you Hans, my dear friend, I welcome you to our pack" Clara said as she and her sister hugged Hans who smiled as he too had tears in his eyes as he hugged the two girls back.

"I'm just glad that we're all safe, now we can leave and be free" Hans cried happily as Pavlova climbed between him and Clara and purred happily as the wolves too rushed over to the three wolfwalkers and licked their faces, happily making them laugh.

Eric stared at the scene before him and sighed sadly, realizing how much wrong he had committed to Hans, the sisters and the pack, and with a heavy heart turned to leave the den.

Hans frowned when he noticed his cousin leaving. "Eric? Eric, wait!" the boy called.

Eric turned to Hans.

"Don't go!" Hans stated as he looked to Lousie with a begging expression.

Lousie stared at Hans for a moment but then smiled and turned her head to Eric. "Stay please, you're one of us, we wolfwalkers stick together after all" she told Eric gently, who then smiled as he join the pack in a warm embrace,

"Eric, you're in our pack now" Hans stated hugging his cousin close along with Clara, Lousie, Pavlova, and the rest of the pack, the boy knew that the road ahead would be unlike anything he had ever been through before, but he wasn't afraid, he wasn't afraid of anything anymore as long and his new pack and family were beside him he knew he had nothing to fear....

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"We're almost there!" Clara's wolf form yelled as she and Hans' wolf form ran up ahead of the small wagon being pulled by the horse that the mad king had once owned with Eric and Louise steering the reins.

"Alright you two, wait for us!" Eric shouted with a laugh as he sat next to Louise who was smiling up ahead as the pack of ordinary wolves (their pack) were following the wagon from behind.

After saving Lousie and explaining everything to Eric, the four wolfwalkers decided to head back to the main pack as soon as possible, so after sending a message to the Millers through Pavlova explaining everything, the married couple brought the belongings that Hans and Eric would need to start a new life, along with some food and a wagon, finally after saying goodbye one last time and thanking the Millers for their kindness, the four wolfwalkers and their pack where on their way.

"We're here!" Clara shouted joyfully as she and Hans ran a little farther ahead of the wagon on top of a hill into the fresh morning sunlight.

Hans was breathless, the land surrounding him was covered in wildflowers, trees of the nearby forest, and towering over him, Clara, and the hill was a very large mountain.

"This is your home...?" he asked Clara in astonishing disbelief.

"Yes, this is the home of the last wolfwalker pack in the world" Clara stated, taking a deep breath through her canine nose, then suddenly she gasped.

"What is it?" Hans asked, turning to look at the female wolf beside him.

"It's Marie and Gaston!" Clara exclaimed excitedly as she ran towards the mountain at full speed.

"Clara, wait for me!" Hans laughed as he ran after his friend. It was when he caught sight of Clara once more that Hans saw two other wolfwalkers in their wolf forms; a young girl about Clara's age who was a dark brown wolf with dark blue eyes and a boy his age that was an onyx black wolf with coal colored eyes.

"Clara you're back!" The other female wolf shouted happily as she and Clara's wolf tails wagged with great excitement once she and the other wolf walker were in front of Clara.

"It's good to see you old friend!" the boy wolf stated in a french accent with his tail wagging as well.

It wasn't until Hans was tackled by another wolf who had light brown fur like Clara and Louise's wolf forms but had brown eyes instead of blue, that he called out to his friend in shock. But to his surprise Clara turned to him and laughed.

"Oh, Fritz, leave my friend Hans alone, that's no way to introduce yourself!" Clara scolded.

Fritz then stopped growling at Hans and then looked between him and his sister. "He's with you? Sorry'' Fritz said bashfully as he then stepped off of Hans. "Sorry for the bad first impression" he then said to Hans, who only smiled at the younger wolf walker before him.

"It's alright you seem to know how to protect the pack" Hans complemented.

"Clara, would you care to introduce us to this new wolfwalker friend of yours?" Marie asked, walking closer to Hans to sniff him.

Clara smiled. "I'd love to," she stated.

"I would hope so young lady!"

Clara then gasped nervously when she turned to see the two alphas of the pack Trudy and Pantaloon in their old gray wolf forms.

"Oh, Trudy and Pantaloon, we can explain please don't be angry, these two fromer human boys saved us!" Lousie exclaimed once the wagon had caught up to everyone.

"Then explain now Miss Louise, it's a wolf walker pack law to not bite humans-" Pantaloon started but Eric cut him off.

"Please don't be angry with Louise and Clara, if you're going to be angry at someone be angry with me...." he trailed off explaining what had happened during their time in their former home and of his foolishness. After Eric finished explaining Clara stepped back into the wagon and returned to her human body and then approached Pantaloon and Trudy.

"What Eric left out in that story of his is that he saved his cousin Hans and us from a terribly mad king who tried to kill us all, he redeemed himself and Hans here showed more courage than I have ever seen before, they saved us and have both proven to be loyal to this pack, they may have become wolfwalkers by accident but I believe this is fate, they are meant to be with us in our pack" Clara stated seriously.

Pantaloon and Trudy were stunned they had ever seen Clara look or speak so serious before and the way she looked at Hans was not only showing that she was standing up for her friends.... But for the boy she loved..... "

The alphas looked at each other and nodded. "After hearing you and your cousin's tale of becoming one of us, we grant you both permission to become part of our pack, but only if you promise to obey our rules of staying away from humans and trying not to bite them" Pantaloon stated.

"Another thing we must tell you is that the humans nearby while you were all gone, left this area, so now there's no reason to leave our home here" Trudy stated in a relieved voice

Hans smiled as he, like Clara, returned to his human form and stood before the alphas beside Clara as he held her hand. "I will be one of the best wolfwalkers in this pack, that I can promise you both me and my cousin will ot disappoint you"

Eric and Louise smiled at Hans and Clara, they both proved to be great and loyal wolfwalkers to their pack.

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After everyone in the pack was reunited both regular wolves and Wolf walkers had a celebration to welcome their new pack members and to celebrate the return of Clara and her older sister.