"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it."

~George Orwell
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Dom

Elsa swiped her clawed fingers viciously at Lyanna's throat. The Controller narrowly avoided being decapitated, but she hadn't been quick enough to escape unscathed. Blood bloomed from four deep gouges in Lyanna's neck. She stumbled backward, grasping her throat in disgusted disbelief. Elsa wasted no time going in for a second attack, lunging for Lyanna and shifting midway into a black wolf. Spencer, Anna, and I matched her ferocity, each taking a Controller on our own to distract them from assisting Lyanna.

A whip of fire lashed out at my neck. I ducked and rolled out of its way, shifting in the process because I intended to rip some throats out today. Anna, Spencer, Elsa, and I had multiple plans for the battle, the main one being to kill the Controllers, but we had to be on guard. Justin, Karina, Nina, and Dwight had warned us that their parents' powers were well beyond their own and our comprehension.

"Once you scatter them, keep them apart," Karina had warned. "Don't let them converge again. If they can reach each other, they can amplify their powers, and it'll be devastating for all of you. You'll be sent to another dimension."

I hadn't been able to tell if she'd meant that the pain would be unlike anything I'd ever experienced before or if she literally meant I'd be sent to a different dimension. I didn't want to find out either way.

Anna took it upon herself to push back Gillian; Spencer and I took on Killian and Josiah, respectively. I had a bone to pick with the Lawman patriarch for murdering my packmates in cold blood in front of not only me but his daughter. Scarlett had never fully recovered, and I blamed myself for allowing it to happen despite being fully aware that had I intervened, I would've died myself.

Out of my peripheral, I witnessed Hunter, Caleb, Lilly, and Josilyn leap into the fray. Josie headed for Elsa, Caleb for Anna. Lilly assisted Spencer, and to my surprise, Hunter joined my side.

Need help? He asked, sounding a little too gleeful for a guy who nearly saw his fiancée and sister killed. But when I saw the snarl on his lip, I realized his humor hid his fury, and I thanked God that the Laroche alpha fought beside me instead of against me.

Deciding to go along with his playfulness I joked: What took you so long?

I swear Hunter laughed, and the two of us circled Josiah, searching for our next opportunity for attack. I instructed him that we needed to keep the Controller away from the others. Hunter listened without question, snapping at Josiah's heels in response and drawing a decent amount of blood.

Two howls erupted on either side of me, ones I recognized all too well: war cries from my mom and Arya Laroche. Their packs barked and howled in response, and then suddenly, instead of two-on-one, it became fifteen-on-one, practically ensuring our victory. My dad and Brian pulled up alongside me, and across the way, I saw Ember and Noah join Hunter. I didn't have time to think about who else sided with me. All I cared about was that they were.

Josiah sneered viciously at all of us. "You can't kill us. We made you."

"Maybe they can kill you, maybe they can't," someone said from behind me, "but I sure as hell can."

A leash of fire shot over my hand, wrapping around Josiah's throat and lifting him into the air. His feet dangled and thrashed in the air as he futilely fought against his new attacker. I turned around to see who it was. Dwight stood behind me with his eyes ablaze.

For a second time since we arrived at the battlefield, evident shock etched itself onto Josiah's face and, unless I was mistaken, genuine hurt. There was no time to think on that, however, because Josiah's surprise swiftly switched to rage, and he loosed a blast of power outwards at all of us. Dwight tried to shield us from it, and while he succeeded with me, I saw a few of my former packmates get flung back twenty or thirty feet. Some crashed into trees, effectively knocking them out temporarily. The gap in our ranks, along with our momentary daze, allowed Josiah to slip through the cracks and maneuver himself next to Gillian. His wife happily sent fireballs and fire whips at my allies. My heart nearly pounded through my chest when I saw Anna dodging them all, barely escaping with her life, and getting close enough to Gillian that she could snap onto the Controller's leg. Gillian let out a scream.

Jagged rocks erupted from the ground and surged upward, racing toward my girlfriend and rocking anyone backward that got in its way. I barely had time to warn Anna before the rocks reached her. She leaped back, but one of the rocks caught her shirt and dragged her through the snow and mud. She frantically tried to escape but only succeeded when Nina sent a boulder down into the rock surge, breaking its rampage and shattering it. Anna collapsed to the ground and scrambled up, preparing for another attack.

On the other side of the field, I saw Spencer battling it in close quarters with Killian. My brother- bruised and bloody- was unrelenting in his attacks, but so was his opponent. Killian appeared to enjoy the physical, hand-to-hand combat, only using his powers to keep the other wolves at bay. Mom managed to get past the barrier and went for Killian's throat but missed by an inch when he darted unexpectedly out of the way.

Nearby Killian, and too close for comfort based on the earlier warning we were given, Lyanna battled it out with namely Laroche and Morningstar pack members, but I couldn't see Elsa anywhere. Had she been hurt? Or worse?

No, if she'd been killed, Spencer wouldn't be fighting. He'd be with her. So where was she?

I scanned our surroundings for the black wolf but came up empty. I even searched for different coat colors and sniffed for her scent, but nothing. It's like Elsa had disappeared.

A flash of white, barely visible against the snow, darted toward Lyanna's back. Killian barely had time to warn his wife before Elsa launched into the air and clamped down maliciously on Lyanna's shoulder. The Controller let out an ear-piercing scream as my sister-in-law brutally shook the woman's shoulder. It dawned on me that Elsa didn't want to just kill Lyanna. She wanted to make her suffer.

Controllers, Laroches, Starks, and Morningstars converged, each fighting over one another to reach their respective ally to help. I fought my way to Anna's side, taking a blow to the head on the way from a hefty rock sent my way by Josiah. I staggered to my girlfriend, who caught me before I went down, fighting to keep conscious.

"Keep them apart!" Spencer roared, his voice echoing loudly in my head.

My parents took it upon themselves to support Spencer in his fight against Killian while the Laroches went for Gillian. Hunter, Noah, Brian, and Callie took on Josiah, and the rest of the pack members attempted to keep a line between the Controllers to prevent them from reaching each other.

For a brief moment, I thought we had the victory. For a brief moment, I thought I might live to see my pack and family free from the Controllers. But when a blast of arctic wind and shards of ice sliced through our ranks, blowing half of us back and injuring the other half, I realized the battle had been futile. The Controllers were too powerful for us, even with their kids on our side. Until their parents died, the Controller Kids were too weak to win.

As if in slow motion, I watched as Gillian and Josiah linked hands. I watched Killian lift a half-conscious Elsa into the air and toss her like a ragdoll. Spencer raced to his wife, sliding underneath her and catching her before her head could hit the ground. I watched Killian assist Lyanna up. She staggered, her face wan and murderous, her arm dangling from her shoulder, half detached. The four Controllers linked hands, and that was the end. I could sense it.

An odd, ominous light emanated around them, pulsating menacingly. Their eyes glowed white with malice and intent, and the sight made me reach for Anna. If I was going to die, I would do it with the love of my life in my arms.

The Controllers began chanting in an odd, foreign language. Still, even without knowing what it was, I could feel its ancient power. The end would be coming shortly.

"I love you," I whispered into Anna's ear as I shut my eyes. I heard her tearfully say that she loved me, too, before the wave of heat washed over us.

And then I was falling.

An unseen force ripped Anna from my arms despite the death grip I had on her. I shouted for her, but no sound came out. My stomach felt like it was on a never-ending rollercoaster that continuously plummeted down, down, down into the depths of Hell. Was this death?

I closed my eyes, wondering how long this would last, where my family was, if they were suffering the same fate, a better one or, God forbid, a worse one. I thought back to everything we'd been through: Spencer falling for Elsa and forcing me to be in close proximity to Anna; Anna weaseling her way into my frigid heart; Elsa and Spencer running off together and setting off the chain of events that had led us all here. I could be furious at them, and for a while, I had been. At least, early on, I had been. But when I met Anna, when I fell in love with her, when I realized I would kill anyone who dared to hurt her, I suddenly understood why Spencer had been unable to resist Elsa. Mates were rare, but I swear I found mine in Anna. I would do anything if I could see her one last time. Hold her one last time. Love her one last time.

My back slammed into the hard ground, sending dust flying everywhere and knocking the wind out of me. I coughed violently, wheezing when it finally abated, and my breath returned. I stared up at the periwinkle sky, trying to get my bearings, when a faint rustling sounded from my right. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my body, I flipped over and into a defensive position while scanning my surroundings.

Spencer emerged partially from the shadow of a rock pile. "Dom? For the love of God, tell me that's you."

"Spencer!" I rushed to my brother, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. "Are you hurt?"

"Just an aching back. Landed on it pretty hard. You?"

"Same. Where are the others? Do you-"

"I don't know. I heard you coughing and came to investigate. I have a bad feeling about this, Dom. I don't know where we're at, but it doesn't feel... it doesn't feel natural."

"That's because it's not," someone said from behind me. I whirled around to find Dwight approaching, waving the dust out of his face.

"Where are the others?" Spencer demanded, his calm voice a façade for the worry and anger flashing in his eyes. "Where are we?"

"Where the adults and the girls are at, I'm not sure, but the rest of the boys should be around here somewhere. As for where here is, your guess is as good as mine. I don't know where my parents sent us, but I can tell you one thing: it's not Earth."

I blinked, processing his words. "What do you mean it's not Earth?"

"It's not our Earth. When Karina warned you that you'd be sent to a different dimension if you let our parents get near each other, she wasn't joking. She was being literal. Our parents are millennia old. We have watched them experiment with your kind, seeing what succeeds and what doesn't. Your family lasted longer than most."

"So, this is where we die?" Spencer asked. "We- we have no hope of ever seeing the rest of our packs?"

Dwight shook his head. "Not necessarily. My sibling and the Kellerman kids traveled with our parents during these experiments, so if I can figure out which universe this is that my parents created, I can work on getting us out of here or at least reunited with one of the other groups."

"So, what do we do now?" I inquired, shifting uneasily on my feet. Wherever and whatever this universe was, it hardly felt friendly. It reminded me of an apocalyptic wasteland, actually.

"Now-" Dwight began, rubbing his hands together- "we search for your pack members. Then we figure out how to get out of here."