The sound of deep growling pulled me from my slumber. I was so tired. I couldn’t have been asleep more than an hour given how groggy my body felt. I blinked rapidly, popping up onto all four paws and looked around.
Oh no.
Eliza’s hackles were up as she crouched in front of me and faced the oncoming pack of wolven. Four of them.
It must be Ivanna and her new crew. I was suddenly overly alert, blood pumping through my veins as all sleepiness fled from my system. I stepped forward, next to Eliza and peered over at her.
She looked scared and I knew why. Fighting a pack of four wolves when you couldn’t communicate was a death sentence.
If only she were pack.
A wild idea hit me then and before I had time to overthink it, I lunged forward and bit into her hind leg lightly, just enough to draw blood.
She yelped and tried to jerk away from me.
‘I claim you, Eliza Green, for Mud Flat pack,’ I said in my mind and then released her, biting my own leg next. The second our blood mixed in my mouth, I pulled up every ounce of dominant power I possessed. I wasn’t an alpha, but I could be one day if I wanted to. Dorian was training me as such and he’d shown me how to claim a wolf. Normally it was a power only an alpha or second in command possessed but I was hoping that I had enough magic to pull this off and that Dorian wouldn’t mind me doing so.
A blue dusting of light fell over my fur, flickering like fireflies, and then Eliza looked up at me wide-eyed.
‘Did you just claim me?’ she shrieked into my mind.
It worked!
‘Yes. Incoming.’ I barely had time to communicate before the wolves were upon us. They spread out in a circle, surrounding us and now that they were closer, I could smell which one Ivanna was. A medium-sized black and gray wolf.
‘We attack together. Taking each one down separately, that will hopefully frighten the others off,’ I told her.
‘Okay.’ Her voice was shaky, even in my head.
I didn’t want to take Ivanna down first because the other three would jump in to protect her, as she was the most dominant. Instead, I aimed for the smallest one to Eliza’s left.
‘Her.’
I lowered my head and growled low as they circled, trying to intimidate us.
Without another word Eliza lunged forward and yanked the small wolf by the hind leg, dragging her into the circle. The other three wolves lunged for Eliza but I got into the fray first. While Eliza was dragging in the small wolf, who howled in pain and tried to claw at the ground and run out, I went for her jugular.
I bit down on her throat and tore it out in seconds as her body went limp. She didn’t even know what hit her. It was the same tactic that my pack used to take down cougarin.
Suddenly a wolf landed on my back. I shook vigorously to dislodge her before she could bite me and felt her slide off.
‘Help!’ Eliza called and I spun to see Ivana tearing into her flank. Eliza kept her head low to the ground with her throat covered by the dirt as one of the other wolves tugged at her ear, trying to get her to expose her neck.
I leapt into the air and came down on Ivanna’s back hard, knocking her to the side. She rolled three times, out of the way.
‘Attack!’ I told Eliza and without hesitation she stood from where she was protectively cowering and we both went for the wolf who’d been pulling on her ear. This time I pulled her hind leg to pin her down and Eliza tore out her throat. It all happened in a matter of seconds. There was nothing compared to fighting with a packmate. Not only could we verbally communicate but I sensed things. Her flank was hurting and she was hungry but she was also roaring with fighting energy and there was a trust between us.
She would do as I asked, letting me take the lead.
We both turned then, just as Ivanna and her final wolf stepped before us, lips peeled back in a snarl. Ivanna looked at the two dead wolves and then at the both of us.
She knew. She knew we were pack. It was the only way we could pull off such a coordinated attack.
She took two steps back, then three, and was halfway out of the fighting ring before her loner wolf friend realized what was happening.
They were going to retreat.
Part of me wanted to take them both out now. Together, as a pack, we probably could, but Eliza was injured, I could sense it.
‘How badly are you hurt?’ I asked her.
‘Who cares. Let’s finish them.’
I turned and gave her a wolfish grin. I knew I’d originally liked her for a reason. But when I saw the hunk of fur and flesh hanging off her ribcage and the pool of blood beneath her, fear washed over me.
Ivanna and her wolf used my distraction then to tuck tail and run, heading for the open flat landscape around us.
Knowing they were gone and wouldn’t likely come back, I ran to Eliza and used my nose to bring the flap of fur up to her exposed ribcage.
She whimpered.
‘Lie down,’ I commanded.
She plopped down in her own blood and I used my nose to stick the skin back to her flank so that it could heal properly.
She needed food. Raw meat preferably.
I peered at the two dead wolves laying around us and Eliza looked up at me.
‘I’m not that hungry,’ she assured me.
‘I didn’t say anything.’ I tried to act innocent.
‘You were thinking it.’
Damn, she already knew me too well. I’d never eaten my own kind, couldn’t even fathom it until now.
‘I’ll be fine with some rest and water,’ she said.
I moved to grab one of the water bead strings and then dragged it over to her. She crushed the bulbs in her mouth and then began to pant.
Panting meant pain and I was about to make things worse because my instinct was telling me that lying injured near two fresh kills was a stupid idea. ‘We should move. These bodies are going to attract animals.’
I hated myself for saying it because I knew she would do as I asked. With a wide-eyed look of horror, she nodded once and tried to stand. She fell twice and I felt awful.
‘I can shift and carry you,’ I said.
‘Don’t you dare,’ she snapped. ‘Save your energy, they could come back and we still have to walk out of here.’
On her third attempt, I used my snout to help her stand and she stumbled forward, out of the blood puddle and away from the carnage.
‘Even a quarter of a mile will help us. Anything to put a distance between us and the bodies,’ I told her.
She limped, whimpering with each step as we moved away from where the fight had gone down. When we’d gotten a good enough way away, I called for her to stop. She did, and promptly fell to the ground with a yelp.
I immediately nuzzled her neck, fear gripping me. I felt so conflicted. She was now my packmate, someone I had a connection with. I could feel her pain. I couldn’t just let her die. She was more injured than she’d let on. I saw that now. Blood pooled around her and I knew that without food, her healing magic would be slow. Too slow.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,’ I told her. The fact that we were both in a competition to win the Queen Trials didn’t matter anymore. Only this bond mattered, she was a pack sister now.
Cyrus was going to kill me because I knew in this moment I could never hurt her. If we both made it back to Death Mountain alive and I was put in a fight against her, I couldn’t do it.
What had I done?
She looked up at me. ‘If I’m not better tomorrow morning, leave me.’
I growled, as if that was a crazy thing to say. ‘Packmates stick together,’ I told her.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want Ivanna marrying the king and leading my people. Leave me and win the trials.’
A whimper lodged in my throat then and I fell onto the ground next to her, snuggling up to her good side.
‘Tell me a story,’ she said. ‘Distraction helps with the pain and hunger.’
And so I did. I told her my secret, one very few people knew.
‘I knew King Axil before when he was just a young teenager. I loved him.’
She gasped, a small wolfish sound and I nodded, proceeding to tell her the entire story. Why not? She might bleed out right here in the middle of nowhere and I wanted to share the weight of what I carried with someone else. She listened quietly and then I finished with him walking away with his brother after King Ansel had said all of those horrible things about me.
‘That explains so much,’ she said sleepily when I finished.
I frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
She stared at me, her yellow wolf eyes searing into my soul. ‘My sister works in the palace as Axil’s personal assistant. She once questioned why he never took lovers.’
My heart frantically pounded against the walls of my chest. ‘What did he say?’
‘That he’d already given his heart away when he was fifteen and anything else would pale in comparison,’ Eliza replied blearily.
My muzzle unhinged as her words hit me like tossed stones. He … he said that about me? It didn’t make sense, he was the one who walked away.
When I glanced back down at Eliza, her eyes were closed, and she was asleep.
I didn’t say anything more, my stomach was tied into knots over Eliza’s state of health and I was still processing her words about Axil. She must be mistaken, heard her sister wrong. Axil wouldn’t say that about me … I shook myself, pushing all of that away.
Even though I knew we should be moving and making as much distance between the two dead wolven bodies as possible, I forced myself to keep watch as Eliza slept. She needed the healing rest more than anything.
A few hours ticked by and I constantly had to make myself get up and move in circles to keep awake. I was just making the hundredth circle around Eliza when I smelled it.
I froze, my wolf snout tipping up into the air so that I could take in a deep breath.
No.
Bearin.
It must have found the two dead wolves. We had to get out of here. Eliza was covered in blood and he would find her too and finish us both off. I’d fought bearin plenty of times with my pack, but never alone. Lone wolves got picked off by bearin.
‘’Liza.’ I nudged her with my snout, shortening her name in a rush.
When her head lolled to the side, limp, I whimpered.
No.
Pressing my nose tightly to her neck, I nearly cried in relief when I felt a strong pulse. She was passed out, which wasn’t good, but she also wasn’t dead.
I would have to shift into my human form and carry her, not stopping until we reached Death Mountain. She was family. Pack. As much as Cyrus would have counseled me to leave her behind, I couldn’t now. I’d bonded myself to this woman and I wasn’t going to let her die.
Dammit, Zara.
I was just about to force myself to change when I heard heavy footsteps behind me.
No. No. No.
I was too late.
Spinning around, I came face to face with the black bearin. The only saving grace was that he was smaller, a younger male who was still nearly twice my size but nothing like the adult males who were four times my wolf.
Every instinct inside of me urged me to run but then I remembered the way Eliza had stood over me when I was waking up from whatever they’d drugged us with. She’d protected me when Ivanna tried to take me out. She was loyal and I wasn’t going to lose my honor by leaving a packmate behind. I’d rather die here protecting her body than run back to Death Mountain a coward and a pack traitor.
When the bearin reared up on his hind legs and snarled, I lowered into an attack stance and let out a deep growl. I could see blood stains on his mouth where he’d already dug into our earlier kills but clearly he wasn’t satiated. I needed to let him know that if he messed with me, it meant he would be injured. Then maybe I could get him to run off.
He charged then, and instead of thinking up some cool plan, I was thrown into the fight of my life running on instinct.
He was larger and slower. When he lunged for me, I leapt up into the air, planning to come down on top of him.
He was smarter than that unfortunately. Reaching up with his giant paw, he batted me out of the sky like a ball.
My ribs snapped on impact with his paw and then I went flying. I braced myself for the hit and when my body crashed into the hard ground I wailed in pain. My already broken ribs flared to life with agony upon impact. A fresh wave of anguish took my breath away but I got up quickly. I expected the beast to come for me again but to my horror, he was going for bloody and unconscious Eliza.
I might be able to use this to my benefit. Sprinting from where I had fallen, I took off after the animal before he could get to Eliza, who was just lying there, limp and helpless. I leapt on the bearin’s back, tearing into the side of his neck. The second I got a good bite in, he stood erect, shaking me off. I fell, landing on those cracked ribs again and nearly passed out from the searing hot wave of agony. I had to remind myself that pain was temporary and to just push past it. Nothing mattered more than staying alive right now. The bearin had realized that I was the biggest threat in the area and officially charged me head-on. This little bastard had pissed me off and I went absolutely berserk on him. I always knew I would die in battle. Or hoped I would. It was the ultimate honor. And dying while tearing into this pain in my ass, protecting a new friend and packmate, was a fine way to go for me.
I snapped at him like a rabid animal, tearing into flesh and ripping away hunks of his fur as his jaws came around my leg and chomped.
A howl of misery ripped from my throat but I didn’t let up, making sure that this coward would be scarred for life before I died. When I clamped down on his back leg and heard the rewarding crunch of bone, he released me all at once and stumbled backwards with a limp.
I held my injured back leg up in the air so as not to put any pressure on it and stared him down. He was doing the same, favoring his other paws while curling the one I’d maimed up to his belly.
We were in an epic stare-down.
I can do this all day. I will fight you to the death, you piece of crap, and take your eyeball on my way to Hades.
On instinct I snarled and lunged for him, hopping on my good back leg and he turned and ran off.
Relief rushed through me as I watched him go, but I held firm, staying standing as I watched him become a small dot on the horizon. The sun was up now and we needed to get out of here before more predators came.
A moan came from behind me and I hopped over to Eliza. She was conscious but when I placed my muzzle against hers, I felt the fever through her fur.
Infection.
The bleeding had stopped thanks to her healing abilities but she needed food and rest to fight the infection.
I knew what I had to do.
Forcing a shift with broken bones was liable to give you a permanent injury. You should always wait until the bones had set but I didn’t have time for that. Eliza would die without getting back to Death Mountain and so would I. It was the worst pain in my life.
I wished I’d had the energy to kill the bearin because it would have given us sustenance but I was grateful to have scared it off. Whimpering and howling through the searing pain of my shift, I finally stood on one leg, naked as the day I was born. I was too terrified to put pressure on my other foot just yet. I’d long forgotten about our clothing back at the site of the fight and was going to have to get over the fact that I was gonna walk over twelve hours back into Death Mountain nude. Nudity wasn’t a big deal among our people, a breast here, a flash of backside there. We all shifted back and forth between our forms regularly but to walk into a crowd of clothed humans while fully naked …
I shook my head, not caring about something so trivial. Reaching down to hook the water bulb vines around my neck, I hopped over to Eliza and hefted her over my shoulders like I would a kill, still not putting pressure on my broken foot.
‘No,’ she said weakly into my mind. ‘Leave me and save yourself.’
‘Not a chance in Hades,’ I told her and winced at the discomfort her weight put on my healing broken ribs.
She didn’t argue, I believed she was too weak and now that she was draped over my shoulders like a furry scarf, I could feel that she was burning up. Way too hot.
I had yet to take the first step. I was scared of what it would feel like to carry my own weight, plus Eliza’s, on a broken ankle that wasn’t fully set but I knew I had to move or die.
I took one step and then stumbled forward with a cry. It was so much worse than I thought; hot pain like fire licked up my ankle and caused sweat to bead my brow.
‘Pain is temporary. Work around it.’ Cyrus’ voice came to me then. It was as if he could feel my distress all the way from his place on Death Mountain and was trying to counsel me.
I looked around frantically and nearly wept with relief when I saw a long sturdy branch that I could use as a walking stick. Hoping over to it, while keeping Eliza on my shoulders, took talent but when I got there, I bent down to pick it up. It was thick, not completely straight but straight enough. Ripping the extra branches from it, I fisted the tip of it and stuck the blunt end into the ground, walking forward cautiously.
It still hurt, but it took enough weight off my ankle that the pain was bearable. Though I had to keep Eliza balanced on my shoulders with just one hand, I was managing. The flat landscape was forgiving. I was thankful I didn’t have to jump over any fallen logs or giant rocks but after the second hour I started to go slightly insane.
Eliza was hot and heavy, my ribs seemed to be healing but now my stomach was eating itself inside out, begging for food. As a shifter I burned more calories than a human on a normal day, but an injured shifter could eat enough food for twenty humans.
My foot was a constant throb and sometimes a sharp stab if I moved too quickly.
By the fourth hour I wanted to die. Eliza had passed out again, her head flopping against my neck. I reached a few dark minutes where I considered leaving her. It would be much easier to walk without the giant wolf around my shoulders.
Pain is temporary, I told myself.
Except when it’s not. When it’s going on for several hours of pain and hunger, it felt very permanent.
I started to sing then. Lightly, so I wouldn’t waste energy but I had to do something or I would go completely mad.
“When the little baby wolf went over the ridge, over the ridge …” I smiled as I was reminded of my baby brother Oslo and the songs I would sing him to sleep with, “… he found his mama wolf in the meadow.” I finished and was shocked when a tear slipped down my cheek and into Eliza’s fur.
I had officially cracked.
I never cried. Tears were for weak submissives who needed protection. Not me. Not Zara Swiftwater, daughter of an alpha.
Reaching up, I smacked myself across the cheek and shook my head.
Get it together, Zara.
Only by pulling on every ounce of my strength was I going to survive this. Now was not the time to go soft.
Somehow, I walked for another six hours, taking as few breaks as possible, until I felt dead inside and out.
I stared up at the sun, making sure for the hundredth time I was going south and then looked out on the horizon.
A sob left my throat when I saw the back side of Death Mountain come into view. It was far off in the distance, but it was there.
We made it.
“Almost there. Hang on, ’Liza,” I told her and pushed forward with a renewed strength.
By my estimate it took another two hours to finally reach the base of the mountain. I’d been walking for over twelve hours, the sun was setting in the sky and I was dead on my feet but somehow I kept going. The broken barren land turned to lush forest abruptly and pretty soon I was having to amble over fallen trees and sharp inclines.
Everything hurt. It burned, it throbbed, it pounded like a heartbeat in my foot but not more than my desire to get us both to safety, to food and rest.
Climbing up the back of that mountain tested my soul to its very limits. I fell twice. Dropped Eliza once. I cried, I screamed, I howled and finally when I came up over the ridge … I’d made it. I was covered in blood and dirt and my foot was black and purple and bent at an odd angle. Eliza looked half-dead, she smelled rotten, and she was center of the sun hot, but I could still hear her heartbeat.
The noises of the people of Death Mountain pulled at my ears and I followed the sound, all but dragging myself through the thick woods and into the open grassy knoll at the base of the castle.
People stared as I limped forward, naked and barely alive, towards the blue champion tent and then all at once there was shouting.
“Champions are back!”
“Get her water!”
“Medical!” one lady screamed as she frantically took in my distressed state and started to rush forward.
I couldn’t hold on any longer; at the sight of safety my strength had fled. The crowd parted and then Axil jogged forward with wide panicked eyes, taking me in from head to toe. I stumbled, swaying on my feet.
The woman who had called for help took Eliza off my shoulders and I tried to stay upright but my legs suddenly felt like they were made of liquid with no substance to keep them standing.
One second I was looking at Axil’s terrified gaze and the next I was falling. His arms crashed around me and then I was enveloped with his scent.
Maker, I missed that smell. I missed the way I felt tucked against his muscular chest.
“She brought in another wolf!” someone commented.
“Why would she do that? She could have left her?” another said as they attended to Eliza and my vision started to blur.
Axil reached out and traced my jaw like he had a hundred times, all while holding my gaze. “Because that’s Zara. She’s loyal.”
He said it like he knew my soul inside and out and to be seen like that, it made a part of me come alive again. A part I thought had died.
And that’s when everything went black and I lost my battle with staying conscious.
