AURORA
The sky above faded from a foggy white to black. I didn’t know if this wolf had just been dragging me for so long that it was already nighttime, if I had lost too much blood and was hallucinating, or if I had been drifting in and out of consciousness.
Twigs dug into my backside, cutting right through my clothing. My leg had gone numb some time ago. My bloodied fingers lay lifelessly at my sides. Yet all I could think about was seeing Ares again.
Please, Moon Goddess, give me something. A memory. A flashback. A fucking hallucination for all I care.
I wanted to see his smile in the stars and his twinkling brown eyes. I wanted to run my hands through his hair and tell him I loved him over and over and over, like I had last night. I wanted to mark him … something that I would never get a chance to do.
Because if I didn’t die with this hound, Ares would in that attack.
The hound dragged me up a steep hill, and I gazed down at the trees below, able to see the Pink Moon Tavern sign glowing between them. The forest seemed eerily familiar, yet my mind was so fuzzy that I wasn’t sure if those pink neon letters were actually real or if they were just a figment of my imagination.
When the wolf reached the top of the hill, he pulled me inside a cave. I blinked the blurriness away and opened my eyes wider. This cave was the same one Jeremy and I used to go to, the one where Jeremy had told Elijah he loved him, the one Elijah had said had been taken over by hounds.
Was this all some sick joke? Maybe Tony had told him to take me here to torture me with good memories.
After he leaned me against a rock in the back, I stared around the hideout to see how different it was now that hounds had taken it over. To my right, there was a pile of dirt for wolves to sleep on and a rotting carcass to eat, and to my left, there was a heap of shit and piss that made me gag.
The tears had stopped long ago, and I could finally see who had taken me. A wolf with matted and ratty fur, dead eyes, and dulled canines. Though he had scars lining his brown-furred torso, some of his body parts weren’t brown at all and didn’t seem as if they belonged. He had a white hind leg that looked to be sewn onto him, a black tail, and an ear that was half-bitten off and sewn back together with a fox hide.
A monster made of innocent animals.
He gazed at the puncture wounds in my wrist and then at my leg, inching closer to me.
I pulled my knees to my chest, my eyes widening in realization. He was the same wolf that had saved me the other day from Jeremy’s killer.
What was going on? Was he saving me?
After whimpering softly, he nudged my leg. I swallowed hard, having just an ounce of trust in him, and slowly let my leg down to the ground. Blood gushed out of the wound, all the raw muscle exposed. The wolf dipped his head and licked my wound.
Almost instinctively, I jerked my leg back into the air, and a stinging sensation shot through my entire body. He growled at me, and I hesitantly placed my leg back onto the ground, watching a thin layer of skin heal over my gash. My eyes widened in amazement, and I held out my wrist for him to do the same.
“Why are you helping me?” I asked, rubbing my healing wrist. I didn’t know if he could understand me.
He lowered his head, almost in submission, and that was when I saw it. Under his fur, just where his C7 and T1 vertebrae met, something glowed the faintest color white. My eyes widened, and I drew my fingers across the back of my neck, feeling the stone underneath my fingers.
“You … you have the stone …” I breathed. “That’s why you’re helping me?” I drew my brows together. “Wh-what are … who are you?”
Without giving me an answer, he walked to the front of the cave, gazed down the hill, and waited. I pushed myself to a seated position and swallowed hard. If he had the stone … that meant we didn’t need Tony anymore.
But who the hell was this guy? Did the stone connect us somehow? Could I trust him not to hurt me more?
“What do you use it for?” I asked, hoping that he’d give me some indication that he could understand me, but instead, he continued to ignore me. I sighed through my nose and rested my head against the cave wall.
Cries from my old and new pack echoed through the forest. Everyone I loved was being slaughtered by his kind. I had to do something about it. I couldn’t just wait here until the end of my days.
After grasping on to any part of the rock wall that I could, I stood and hobbled toward the exit. The wolf turned around, baring his teeth at me, foam dripping from his mouth. I swallowed hard but continued forward, needing to help my mate and my pack.
The hound growled again and stood in front of the cave in a menacing manner. While he didn’t make eye contact with me, he lowered his head and stared right at my hips, watching my every move.
“I need to go help my friends,” I said, stepping forward. My mind became fuzzy, little stars appearing in my vision. I must’ve lost too much blood.
He stepped toward me, and I stumbled back and fell right onto my ass. I hit the ground with a thud and grasped my wounds, a searing pain shooting up my limbs. I felt helpless. Absolutely helpless … just like Mom had thought I’d be. I couldn’t even make it past a stupid hound, who was locking me in this damn cave. How could I ever lead? Who would even follow me?