giving us the extra boost we need to be able to move as fast as possible. Dodging between the dead trees and hitting the hardened earth with heavy steps, we power forward. I can hear them pursuing us, and it feels like their breath is against the back of my neck, itching for its pound of flesh. We have to leave. We have to get away, regroup and come back with another plan.
We just need to lose them first.
Breathing heavily, I squeeze between a narrow gap in the trees, hearing the whizz of air before an arrow lands into the bark where I just passed. Shit. If I hadn’t moved at that moment, it would have pierced my shoulder. I look to my right at Hudson and Colten, who are keeping a steady pace with me, and then to my left at Josh, Sebastian and Taylor. We’re running like mice all together. There are more of them, all aiming in the same direction, and they will catch us eventually.
“We need to split up,” I pant. “There are six of us and at least eighteen of them, we don’t stand a chance like this.” They could probably take two if not more of us at the same time. Taylor may be able to keep on par with one of them, but it’s not looking good for the rest of us. We’ve fought creatures, not warriors like this. I don’t think our sparing is up to their standards.
Taylor ducks under a branch as we plow forward. “I hate to admit it, but I agree. Splitting up is the best option. The port stone is with our packs we stashed back in their direction. One of us could try to go back and get it.”
“It’s too risky for that,” Hudson breathes, going around a tree and coming back next to me. “They would notice straight away if one of us goes in a different direction.”
The howls of wolves echoes through the air. “Shit,” I hiss, jumping over an exposed root. “Let’s just split up. We’ll meet up at the second location near the end of The Deadlands,” I whisper, not wanting to risk the Elites overhearing about our meet up location.
They nod in agreement and our pace picks up. Colten’s pants snag on a large tree root sticking out of the ground, nearly making him stumble until Hudson grabs him and hauls him along. I notice him glancing down quickly at the blood now staining Colten’s pants, before dragging him in front, pushing him in another direction to the right. Looking back over his shoulder, Hudson takes off in a different direction, narrowly avoiding another arrow that whizzes past us.
“Go,” I urge Josh, his reluctance to leave me evident in his eyes and making me feel on edge. I nod, letting him know it’s okay, and he squeezes my hand briefly before going ahead. Sebastian gives me a concerned look as he leaves with Taylor, who gives me a small nod of his head.
I blow out a breath and take a quick glance over my shoulder. I spot the ones who turned wolf, and I nudge Runa for some added strength. She gives it to me without a second thought, knowing we really fucking need it as the howls of the Elite wolves shake my bones. My legs move faster, and my arms move at my sides as I travel through the trees, listening for anything that may be in front of me while trying to hear the Elites from behind. There are fewer footsteps behind me now, meaning they have also split up to follow the others. It might have been better for my guys to also go wolf, but it’s hard to fit through the narrow gaps between the trees in wolf form.
I just hope they can get away. We know this forest better than the Elites. We have been its neighbor for years now. I know the Elites come here as part of their rite of passage, and we avoid The Deadlands when it happens once a year, but they don’t come in as deep as we do. We have been to many different locations within The Deadlands to bring people back with us to Eridian, so we have a slight advantage.
I keep a steady pace, winding between trees and easing into the darkness. I can still hear the rushed footsteps behind me, but I’m gaining ground slowly, using small gaps to my advantage. No more arrows come my way, thankfully. They probably can’t take a clear shot at me. So, with that thought in mind, I press on, determined to lose them and meet up with the others.
I’ve been running for what feels like hours. My legs tremble, my breaths come out short and quick, and I know exhaustion is setting in. The others are on my mind. Did they get to the location? Are they safe? Did they get caught? My thoughts whirl around inside my head, going back and forth between worry and determination to get to them, but my body is slowing, and my muscles are aching. Runa stopped lending me some of her strength a little while ago, her reserves also running low, and I feel every sore part of my body.
I leap over a rock, landing in boggy water, and I instantly pause to listen. I hear no footsteps or wolves snarling behind me. In fact, I hear nothing at all. I wade through the sludge like water, keeping my senses alert. It’s disgusting, but it will cover my scent. The area of water is long, almost like a river, but with no flow. When something slithers across my lower leg, I move faster, not wanting to know what the fuck it was that touched me. Water splashes up at me with my hurried movements, causing more noise than I should allow.
The further I go into the water, the deeper it gets, coming up to my waist now. Goosebumps travel across my body as the cold seeps into my bones. I keep my arms above the surface, blade in hand as I continue on. I stop every now and then to listen, making sure I’m still alone, not wanting to be caught by surprise. It’s eerie, not a sound can be heard apart from the splashes the water makes as I wade through it.
I heave myself up when I reach the end, gripping a large rock for purchase. I lean on it and catch my breath, teeth chattering, then look down at my boots with a grimace. They’re covered in algae-like strings that are bleeding black fluid. I shake my feet one at a time, trying to get the damn things off of me and failing miserably. Giving up, I inhale quickly before straightening and walk on. I shouldn’t be too far from our backup location now, and the thought gives me a little nudge to speed up my steps. The squelch on my boots is the only sound I hear as they hit the ground, the area having much more space to move with the trees growing more sparingly here. My blade hangs loosely in my hand at my side as my vision wavers a little, trees begin to double, and I shake my head to try and clear it. I need to rest, desperately.
“You okay? I haven’t heard from you in a while,” I call out to Josh through the link, and get nothing in return. Again. I pause and check the link, feeling it’s still open, so why isn’t he responding to me?
I continue moving, the glow of luicium sap helping light the way as I pass a large, dead tree with a hollowed space underneath, like its own little hidden cave. I immediately know where I am. This is the last landmark before I reach the location, it shouldn’t be long now. I breathe a sigh of relief, my shoulders slumping with the thought of being able to rest, even just for a little while. I round the large tree, eager to get to the safe place when a voice stops me in my tracks. It’s deep, clear, and speaks from behind me.
“Found you, little wolf.” My eyes go wide, the blade in my hand shaky as I whirl around and see the tall male standing about ten steps away from me. Runa raises her head at the sound of the voice, rising on exhausted legs.
I blink rapidly as my shoulders tighten, staring at the Elite with my heart now in my throat. His head tilts just slightly as he looks at me, his dark hair resting on his eyebrows. His lime-green eyes bore into my ice blue ones with furious intent. When he takes a step forward, I take one back. Something I haven’t done in a long time. I lift my hand with the blade, holding it tightly and pointing it in his direction. He keeps stalking forward, and I keep backing up. He’s taller than me, broader, and I know he can easily overpower me, especially in my exhausted state. My eyes roam over his form, to his bare hands that twitch at his side as he pays no attention to the weapon in my own hand. His gaze never strays from mine when I look back up at him, and their intensity makes me swallow roughly. How am I going to get out of this?
A few steps away, he darts forward suddenly, and I drop to the ground in a crouch on instinct, slashing my blade through the air and aiming for his thigh. He shifts to avoid the strike, and I roll to the side and stand as quick as I can. Knees bent slightly, right foot back, I’m ready for him to come at me again. I blow pieces of hair that have fallen on my face as we face each other, and he tracks the strands, watching until it relaxes back onto my skin. Then he assesses me, sliding his hard eyes to the blade in my hand and lifting an eyebrow at me. It’s like he didn’t expect the move I just made, but also finds it amusing. I glower.
He comes at me once more, strong, bare hands attempting to grab at me while I slice at him and he dodges my every move. Sweat gathers on my forehead, and my limbs weaken and shake the longer we go on. We go back and forth, but I know he’s holding back, playing with me, taunting me. I saw what he’s capable of when he was cutting up the bora, this is child’s play to him, and the thought pisses me off. I let out a growl in anger, renewing my efforts to either kill him, or survive long enough to escape him.
He pauses for just a second at my growl, and I manage to cut him on the side of his bare forearm, blood instantly coming to the surface. I back off as he tries to counter, aiming a kick at my midsection that I avoid before he suddenly stills. He looks down at the wound I created on his arm with furrowed brows, as if he either didn’t realize I cut him, or he can’t believe I did. When he’s finished examining the split flesh, he glares up at me slowly, and lets out a snarl that rattles my bones. Even Runa backs up within me at the sound, and even more so when he takes out his wicked, curved, black blade from the sheath at his waist. Twisting it around his hand with ease, he once again starts to stalk toward me.
I think playtime is over, and I know I won’t survive it.
I can’t fight him and win this. I fight creatures, not people with brains and muscles. Never mind a Gods damn Elite! I feel my chest start to cave in, throat tightening at the thought that this is it. He’s going to kill me, find Eridian and everyone hiding inside it. He’s going to take them all back to the Highers and take the pups away from their mothers. Then he’s going to take Kade, and the Highers will force him to go to our old pack.
My vision blurs again, my breaths coming in ragged puffs of air as my hands shake. I feel as though I’m watching him in slow motion as my death awaits me. He’s getting nearer and nearer, but I can’t move, I can’t get enough air into my lungs as he brings his blade up with a wicked smile on his face. I feel numb, I can’t feel my body. Not my legs, not my arms, not even the beating of my own heart. He says something with a sneer on his face, but I can’t hear it. I can’t hear anything anymore.
My face begins to tingle, and it causes a jolt to move through my body. The touch is cold, but I feel it. I feel something other than terror, other than numbness and panic and the fist wrapping around my heart. A trail of coldness travels to my temples, remaining there for a second as I watch the male bring his blade up to my throat. I jostle, and the end nicks my skin, making me hiss as I feel the warmth of my blood against my neck as it flows down. Down, down, down, until it stops at the beginning of my t-shirt, soaking into the material. The male watches as it flows with disinterest before grabbing the collar and hauling me up off my feet. The cold touch moves and prods my cheek, hard, and that’s when I finally move, bringing my own blade up to defend myself, but he suddenly throws me to the side.
My body flies through the air before I hit the ground, a sound of pain leaving me as I roll. Tiny stones and twigs scrape my exposed skin until I eventually crash against a tree. My body thrums in pain as it fully wakes from its numb state, and I gather myself onto my knees, groaning at the movement. I lift my blurry vision toward the male, wondering if he’s coming straight for me or if I have time to grab the blade I dropped. But instead, I have to blink a few times to register what I see.
I watch as a head rolls off a water hag’s body, landing half in and half out of the boggy water I just went through. I didn’t even know the water hag was there. The male looks at the head with distaste before kicking it, sending it through the air like he just did to me. I hear a splash as it lands in the water further in the distance. No essence comes out of her dead body at his feet, she wasn’t worthy enough to dance with the land. No, she will rot with the below instead.
I stumble my way to my feet, my hand touching my boot for a split second before I rise. My body begins to shake as it finally reaches its limit. The male looks over the boggy water one last time before bringing his piercing gaze back to mine and prowls toward me. I let out a warning growl to stay back, but he doesn’t falter. I raise my arm when he’s close enough and I let him latch his hand around my throat. He kicks my legs out from under me, and we both go tumbling to the ground. He straddles my thighs, his full weight pressing down on me as his face hovers an inch above mine. I grunt, gritting my teeth as I let loose a hiss of pain as I glare at the asshole pinning me to the floor.
My pulse speeds up, and his fingers around my throat twitch in response, feeling the thumping of my heart for himself. He’s unconcerned about the blade I have at his neck, the one I took from my boot just before he grabbed me. I placed it at his throat as we hit the ground. I press it into his skin, ready to end his life, but his free hand curls around my wrist, trapping it in his grip to stop the blade from going any further. I bring my other hand up, digging my short nails into his arm, trying to push forward with no success.
We once again stare at each other, and I breathe heavily while he examines my face, my eyes, my nose and cheekbones, before trailing his gaze down to my throat in his grasp. He pauses for a moment. His green eyes flare, probably at the sight of my blood on his palm, before meeting my eyes once more. I breathe in the heavy scent of him, cedarwood, damp earth, and a power that I want more of. I can’t look away from the brightness of his eye, or from the way they are so focused, so intently locked on mine. It’s like he can’t look away either.
I lift my hips, lightly growling at the effort to dislodge him, but he’s like a boulder. Completely unmovable. His hand tightens on my throat, a warning not to move as his jaw ticks, and his eyes narrow on mine.
“You broke the laws of the land, little wolf.” His murmur is low and deadly, full predator as I squirm beneath him.
I speak for the first time, croaking out my reply, but still strong. “That’s not my name.”
He squeezes my wrist. “It is now.”
I glare. “And I broke no laws.”
His eyes darken. “You sent creatures to murder my Elites. You are as guilty as them. Murder is against the law.”
“The Deadlands are not under Vrohkaria law.” I take small, steady breaths through the tightening grip on my throat before continuing. “There are no laws here, but you are trespassing.”
“Trespassing? The Deadlands are unclaimed but still under Vrohkaria’s rule. It does not belong to you,” he growls, eyes still hard and the brightest green I have ever seen. The light of the luicium sap makes them glow, captivating me in their depths. They remind me of fresh grass peeking through the snow’s surface after a long winter. They’re mesmerizing, and I couldn’t deny the asshole had been graced with a beautiful image, in a rugged kind of way.
He’s pure alpha.
His dark, messy hair hangs loosely, the front locks ending just above his eyes. A thin, white scar runs across the middle of his nose, slightly longer on the right side than the left. A steel sharp jawline with a little scruff on it brings my attention to his lips, which are currently set into a hard line. Add this to all his hard muscles and power in a body that moves like he weighs nothing… He is dangerous in a wholly different way than just his skills as an Elite.
“How do you know this land doesn’t belong to me and is not claimed?” I question as he twists my wrist and slams it into the ground next to my head, forcing a whimper from me as I clutch the blade tighter, refusing to let go.
“You are nothing, little wolf, that’s why The Deadlands don’t belong to you,” he hisses at me, watching me closely. “Your dominance is as low as an omega’s. You might move like some amateur warrior, but the fact that you’re as fragile as a newborn pup still remains. It will be easy to break you for murdering my Elites. It will be slow. I’ll take my time until you’re a mess of tears, blood and piss, begging to be put out of your pathetic, little life,” he says vehemently, a shine to his eyes at the thought. I force my face to go blank, to ignore the words he just said and the vision he just put inside my head. “Your crimes will be paid for in your blood after I’ve taken you to the Highers, but before that, you’re going to tell me what the fuck you are doing in The Deadlands, and you are going to–”
He’s thrown off of me, a blur of dark, gray fur colliding with him from the side. I blink rapidly before turning my head to follow him, choking on my first full breath of air now that his hand around my throat is gone. A wolf growls menacingly, and my head snaps up, my heart thrashing wildly within me. I stare at the wolf, shaking my head to clear it, because what I see cannot be possible.
Blood flows down from the side of its neck, landing on the darkened earth and a shocked breath escapes me. My widening eyes move to where the asshole male stands, a cruel smirk on his face as he looks at the wolf with deadly intent. I watch on, my body shaking as he holds up his black blade, watching as the blood drips down the metal and over the hilt.
Blood that came from the wolf.
Blood that came from Kade.
