get through the barrier around Eridian, and how did they just turn up here unnoticed?
“Someone is here, an outsider. Make sure Axel, Finn, and Eliza stay close to the cabins. Those that were in heat came back to the main area this morning. Tell anyone who is able to, to go to the pups’ houses and protect them. Tell Kade to stay at home with Sam and Sybill, but you guys need to come down here.” I order Josh, knowing he’ll do what I say without a second thought. “Notify the Elites.”
I get up slowly from the ground and turn and face the intruder. My insides twisting at someone being here uninvited, it hasn’t happened before. The pack needs to be safe, and I don’t think this person is here to talk. The figure stands in between the trees, shadowed in all black with the hood of his cloak pulled low over their face. I can only make out the bottom of their chin as I face him. I suspect this is the man who tried to grab Sam. What are the chances that person that entered the forest a week ago, and this person inside the barrier are two different people? The chances are slim. The figure doesn’t speak, but I feel eyes boring into me, making my skin crawl. As I twirl the knife in my hand as anger takes over, causing me to growl low and deep from my chest.
“Who are you?” I repeat, walking forward until I’m at the end of the seats, making sure nothing is in my way. Still, they don’t speak, and it unnerves me.
I hear the crunch of twigs behind me, but I don’t look at the guys as they settle in around me. Josh stands to my left side, blade in hand as Hudson and Colten stand at my back. Taylor takes my right with Seb. The air is tense and full of violence directed toward the intruder.
Their gloved hand comes up and we all tense at the movement, but all they do is slip it inside their cloak. They pull out a small, dark crystal, holding it in their palm as they tilt their head to face us. As their body turns, I see Darius and his men entering the gathering, their postures as tense as mine.
Darius’ expression is hard, muscles straining against the fabric of his dark t-shirt, and his black blade rests in his right hand against his thigh. Leo has a bow aimed at the intruder, Zaide has his twin blades out and Damian and Jerrod have their weapons at the ready. I watch as Darius gets closer to the intruder, scanning them from head to toe before stopping a few feet away from them. Darius looks my way briefly, his eyes roaming over me, seemingly to check me over before turning back to the cloaked person. I watch as they silently stare at each other when I see movement to the right, a blur of long, dark hair between the trees surrounding the gathering.
“Who sent you?” Darius’ demands with a growl, and my head whips his way. What does he mean who sent him? Does he know who this is? My hand tightens around my knife at the thought.
The cloaked figure shrugs, before tossing him the dark crystal. Darius catches it with his free hand, never taking his eyes off the hooded figure who nods his head at it. Damian and Zaide walk closer to Darius, keeping his sides protected as Darius looks down at the crystal.
“Where did you find this?” he asks, confusion evident in his tone as he turns the crystal over in his hands. The figure waves his hand around us, indicating it came from Eridian and my brows furrow. Darius looks over at me. Our eyes connect as tension rises between us, a frown on his face. before He runs a hand over the top of the crystal, and small, yellow sparks ignite from it before his eyes turn unfocused.
My eyes widen at the sight, and I take a step closer toward him without thought. I sense magic in the air coming from that crystal, magic. How is that even working inside the barrier? I stop moving again when more small sparks fly out of the object he holds, becoming brighter as Darius just stands there, his men protecting him. My heart thunders in my chest, feeling a sense of wrongness coming off that crystal. Something isn’t right.
We all stand motionless for a time, some staring at the figure, some staring at Darius. My eyes flick to the intruder when the deepest growl I have ever heard suddenly rips from Darius. My heart drops to my stomach, my blood instantly running cold. The crystal stops producing sparks, the glow from them fading, and Darius’ head slowly turns toward me. His eyes are now clear and aimed directly at me filled with pure, uncontained fury. His eyes bleed black at the edges of the whites and I swallow over the lump in my throat. I look around subtly at everyone to see if I’m missing something, but my guys look just as confused as I am at this sudden hostility. The Elites look between the two of us trying to make out what’s going on.
A dark chuckle sounds from Darius, and every single hair on my body stands to attention at the violence in it. At the pure darkness vibrating from it. Runa flattens her ears, teeth bared to the sudden rage pouring off of him. It feels like it’s wrapping itself around me, suffocating me with every breath I take and leaking into every fiber of my being. My heart rate picks up, and my hands tremble.
“Your sins keep coming, little wolf,” he moves toward me, a deadness to his eyes I have never seen before. They’re so different from the lightness I saw in them with the wisps and the wolf pups. So different from when he kissed me under the moonlight. “You are the cause of everything. Yet you stay here, thinking you can live out the rest of your life in peace while the rest of the lands suffers because of you?” he roars, and I recoil from him, my eyes going wide at his words. At his outburst.
Because of me? What? I shake my head quickly, my voice hesitant when I ask, “Darius, what do you—”
“You think you can get away with what you’ve done?” He cuts me off, and my mouth slams shut as I swallow hard. “You think you will not pay for the deaths you have caused!?” He snarls, teeth bared as he looks over my body in so much disgust that I feel my soul aching from it, hiding from it. “You’re not even worth spreading your legs for the lowest of the low, and you thought you could keep peace by having an Elite in your bed!” The guys start shouting at him, telling him not to speak to me this way while I’m stood frozen. “I will make you wish you never met me by the time I’m done with you. I will carve you up, chew you out and make you suffer in your own filth for the rest of your days,” he spits at me, and I suck in a wheezing breath as tears sting my eyes at the absolute carnage of his words.
Confusion and flight or fight war inside me as I watch him in shock, in disbelief. Darkness starts to seep around the edges of his body, dominance leaking out until it hits me hard and fast, feeling like it’s tearing through my flesh and hitting my lungs. I inhale sharply at the pure power radiating off of him, and everyone around us struggles to stay on their feet as the ground trembles beneath us. Beneath him.
What the fuck is happening?
The cloaked figure lets out a low, menacing laugh. Their voice is mixed, sounding like more than one person is talking as they speak. “It seems we have found the answers we have been looking for, Alpha Darius,” the intruder croons, letting me know that he is in fact a male. I look at him as he steps up beside Darius. He brings his gloved hand up and clicks his fingers once. The snap is so loud in the all but silent air, like a whip cracking against bark. “I’ll let you take care of retrieving the traitor and all who aided her.” With those words, they nod at each other before he vanishes into nothing, making me look around the space for him. He’s nowhere to be seen. Did he port without a stone? Who’s a traitor? Who aided the traitor?
“What the fuck is going on?” Josh growls next to me as we stare at the spot where the male vanished.
A lone, long howl pierces the air, and my whole being locks up, pain radiating through me as I look toward the night sky. The glitter of stars spreads across it before ripples of dark pink and orange appear on Eridian’s now visible barrier. Small at first, until they become bigger and spread across the surface.
My heart stops.
“Josh.” My voice trembles as I speak, at what I’m witnessing happen before my eyes. That lone howl still echoes around us, haunting me until another one is released. “Solvier,” I breathe, my body shaking. “It’s Solvier.” The barrier starts to blink, appearing and disappearing, and I look away from it, locking eyes with Darius who smirks at me. “What have you done?” I whisper, not believing what I’m seeing.
“In a matter of moments, my Elites and the Highers’ guards will be porting just outside the barrier to take you all back to the Fenrikar,” he says coldly. “They will all pay for aiding the traitor of Vrohkaria, especially the pup.”
“Traitor?” I shake my head, waiver on my feet. They will all pay… the pup? What is he talking about? “I don’t understand, what is going on?” My breathing increases, my palms start to sweat. “Who is the traitor, Darius?” I ask, my voice high as panic sets in.
“You are.”
Time stops. The breath leaving my lungs as shouting reaches my ears, screams along with howls soon joining until it slowly fades away. I look at Josh, my movements sluggish and slow. His face is enraged as he points at Darius, his mouth moving, but no sound reaches me. I look to my other side and see Taylor, his blade up as he stands half in front of me, as if he’s trying to shield me. I look toward the Elites, their faces enraged and weapons held tightly. I don’t understand. How am I a traitor to Vrohkaria?
What was that crystal?
What did it tell him?
How do his Elites know the location of Eridian?
Who was that man?
My mind bombards itself with questions as my eyes slowly come back to Darius, his light-green ones locking with my ice-blue ones. Darkness floats around the edges of him, like he has two shadows at his back. The power radiating off of him is just waiting to be released, unleashed. My eyes roam over his face, the tense set of his jaw, the way his hair falls against his forehead, the flatness in his eyes. I realize now more than ever why he is to be feared.
A buzzing reaches me until I hear someone talking. Quiet at first until it finally reaches me. “Rhea! What’s happening? The barrier is coming down.” A panicked voice reaches me in my mind. Who’s talking to me? “Rhea, please! Answer me!” It’s Kade.
Kade. The pup is Kade. Fuck.
“Kade, run! You need to go. Now!” I scream back at him down the link.
“My head hurts, I don’t know what’s wrong with me, what’s going—”
“Kade?” I call. “Kade!” he doesn’t reply, the link shutting down.
“You’re not fucking touching her. Do you hear me!” Josh roars, and the world finally starts moving around me again. Sounds coming from all directions.
My body finally moves and I turn and run, nudging Runa harshly to give me strength as I head toward my cabin. Toward Kade. Shouts sound behind me. They’re shouting at me, but I ignore it, just like I ignore the dark, low laugh Darius lets out that sends my body trembling with the danger in it. I bite into my left arm, blood flowing into my mouth with the deep wound, and I bring my opposite hand up, gathering the blood there on the palm of my hand. I press it to any trees I pass, gathering more blood from my wound as I go and repeating the process.
When no trees are left for me to place my hand on, I gather the last of the blood welling on my arm and paint my right hand with it. With enough blood there, I quickly press it to the ground, whispering under my breath as I continue to run home. “Zahariss, hear me. Grant me protection against those who have ill intentions. Against those that bring injustice upon us. Va ka reidu, lec fa dienn,” I plead. I beg and I pray and scream and shout inside of me that I can reach Kade before it’s too late.
