Chapter 5

Night had fallen while we were in the hut. The waxing moon hung ominously against the tree tops while the Alten howled in warning.

“Roux, get back inside where it’s safe.”

Mina pushed through the doorway, already sliding toward the ground. Bones groaned and snapped until a golden wolf shook out her fur in front of me.

The stampede of pounding paws came from the far end of the space. I cringed from where I hid, seeing the surprise on Mina’s face. The Alten were running at us full speed, their teeth bared to attack. There was blood smeared over their beloved faces but their eyes, their normally soulful, intelligent eyes were wild and flat. Even from the distance, I could tell something was wrong. They weren’t connected. Wolves as a rule don’t hunt as individuals. Instead, they follow the commands of the leader, ensuring no one is hurt in the attacks. On this night, they didn’t do that.

All twelve of the Alten split into different directions without waiting for cues. They fell on the three guards, who with low cries of displeasure, kept them back while trying to keep from doing them any real harm. None of them shifted as Mina had, but they used their clubs and body weight to shove at the muscular bodies that dashed at them with frightening speed. Mina whined low in her throat when one of the guards went down, and covered the back of his head with his hands rather than lash out at the powerful creatures.

“They’re bespelled,” a second guard snapped, holding his hands out to three of the wolves on the ground. “Nothing I say reaches them.”

The third guard barely had time to tackle the other before the wolves jumped to attack. He used his massive shoulders to barrel through teeth and claws but there was no way they would survive the fight if they continued to refuse to shift. Mina must have realized it too, because she was leaping into action before the next blows fell. Her sleek, yellow body was bigger and faster than the Alten, but even I knew the odds were bad. She could have taken four or five of them, but twelve? Not by herself. I frowned, reminding myself again that wolves didn’t train for such situations.

Mina let out a yelp when one of the smaller wolves managed to sink his canines into her hind leg. The muscles tore and blood flowed, splattering the ground. I echoed her cry, searching the hut for something that would work as a weapon. All I found were the meager furnishings, all of which were chained to the floor. There was nothing I could arm myself with, but I had to help Mina.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, little human.” The boy behind me spoke and I jumped, having forgotten all about him.

“I have to try.”

He shook his head, despite the weight of the clamp around his neck. “You’ll only get in the way. Humans do not have the strengths and abilities as we animals. The only way you have been able to survive is through your mental abilities.”

Another yelp cut through the air and I cheered in my head when I saw it wasn’t Mina who took the hit this time. “Your name is Deryk, right? How about you get to the point? What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying every being in the animal kingdom has had to adapt to survive. We’ve grown taller, stronger, and able to jump higher. What have you humans done?”

I shifted impatiently, trying to figure out whether or not what he was saying was going to help me or hinder me. Either way, I didn’t have time to sit around and chat. Not when I needed to help my friend. “I don’t know, we’ve developed weapons. Swords and magic.”

The boy smiled a slow teasing expression. It was the first time I recognized how handsome he was. In a couple of years, he would be knocking them out of the park. “Yes. You, though, haven’t trained in any kind of physical weapon. It would take years for your body to be conditioned to wield a sword with any kind of skill. That leaves you with magic.”

“I don’t know any magic either.” I turned and put my hand on the door, prepared to jump into the fray.

His smile grew. “Are you sure?”

Suddenly I was encased in the foggy feeling of sleepiness again. From a distance, I knew he was doing something to me. Keeping me from going out to fight. I should have been angry, but instead I turned to face him, waiting for … I don’t know. I blinked blankly at him, almost forgetting he was a prisoner. Something shimmered on the edge of my mind, a whisper of glittering yellow light that I vaguely remembered using before.

“Touch me.” The light whispered. “I can give you strength.”

I shook my head, spinning around in a circle. The last time I used the light, it was because Aldrich was close. I heard cries and howls off in the distance and knew he wasn’t in my immediate vicinity. I couldn’t have been touching on his power.

The boy was speaking. His voice was a low chant that almost reminded me of the Ceremony. Only the words he spoke were almost … I could take them apart if I wanted to. I could organize them in my mind, just enough to make sense of every other word. Words like “separate” and “potential” flowed through the room on ribbons of silky power. I could almost see them dancing in my vision, but couldn’t quite touch them.

If only I could reach up … pull them down…

The brilliant blue of that strange fruit hovered in front of me again and I flinched. “Take it. Eat it. You have the capacity for–”

Something slammed against the door behind me, rattling my bones. I stumbled a step forward and the illusion was broken. Shattered. I shook my head forcefully, trying to clear the remnants of whatever just happened. It wasn’t until I brought my hands to my face that I realized I was bathed in sweat. A full out battle was waging behind me and I was shaking with my back to the window, my body bathed in perspiration.

Adawolfa’s face flashed before my eyes, pinched with disgust. Without turning I knew she and Aldrich were out there, subduing their beloved family members.

I took a menacing step toward the boy, mortification and rage hammering nails into my burning lungs. “What did you do to me?”

“I didn’t do anything to you. You’re a friend of Mina. I couldn’t hurt you if I wanted to.”

Not too long ago I would have considered myself a level-headed person. I blame the bizarre circumstances I’m constantly forced into for my response. I jumped forward, baring my disappointingly human teeth at the bear. “What. Did. You. Do?”

Those dark eyes drank me in and he finally nodded. “I didn’t want you to get hurt. My uncle is on his way and though he won’t hurt anyone on purpose we’re a … strong people.”

If the baring of my teeth was something I picked up from watching Aldrich dominate the other members of the Pack, then the twitching of my ears was an act that sank into my body from watching it happen around him so often. Just off in the distance something caught my sense and held on, despite the fact that I couldn’t make it out on a physical level.

I turned my back on him and walked back to the window set in the door. As if they were calling just to me, I heard the soft sound of chimes brushing against one another. It took me a moment to single out the sound over the noise of battle and the distracting vision of my mate pushing Alten to their knees. The warning howl that had originally told Mina and me danger was coming still sounded. It emanated from the direction the wolves had come. Even now, my mate fought pressed against that side of the clearing.

This sound came from the opposite side of the judgment zone and sounded somehow … wrong.

“Get out of the way, liebling!”

I didn’t realize I had moved forward until Aldrich’s voice cut through the air with a warning. I turned my head from where I was standing on the edge of the rocks that surrounded the packed dirt. Horror mixed with the blood on Aldrich’s half-wolf, half-man face. Trees crashed to the side of me, kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured my vision for precious seconds.

A huge arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me against a proportional chest. I was hauled up from the ground, my feet dangling uselessly as shock flooded my body with adrenaline which had nowhere to go.

The rumble of voice started at my back and traveled up my spine. “You shunna be on the battlefield, little human. What doo’ya think you’re doing here?”

I squeaked an answer that probably could have only been heard by the wolves in dog form.

The hulking bear behind me didn’t seem to have any trouble with that. He pulled me up tighter against him in what I hope was not meant to be as intimidating as it was. As it stood, he was lucky I was talking at all, what with my tongue being in my stomach.

It was only a couple of seconds but it felt like an hour by the time the dust settled. Mina’s gasp sliced through the air moments before Aldrich appeared out of the cloud like a wraith, his eyes blacker than sin and his body coiled like a snake. I sucked in a startled breath at the picture he painted, dark and dangerous.

“Let her go, bear. Do it now and I will only remove the hands you are touching her with before I end you.” His voice was low and matter-of-fact.

The bear didn’t flinch. “I willna hurt your pet. I dinna even know she was here. All I want is the boy.”

Off to the side I saw Adawolfa sliding herself into an attack position. She moved slowly, keeping herself in the shadows the moonlight cast. The bear never took his eyes off Aldrich. His free hand balled into a fist and slammed against a nearby rock without so much of a blink. His muscles absorbed the blow effortlessly even while pebbles and powder rained in her direction. He took the impact of the blow without a sound but I was beginning to lose track of all my organs being moved around. There was no longer room in my stomach for my tongue.

“If you do that again I’m going to throw up all over you.”

The bear dropped me like a sack of hot stones. I landed with an unceremonial oomph while he raised his hands. “All I want is the boy.”

“Roux, come to me.” The bear made no move to stop me and Aldrich snatched me away from him as soon as I was close enough. He snarled, running a careful hand over my figure to make sure I hadn’t been injured.

“I dinna know she was your mate.”

The clearing may as well have been emptied of anyone but them. “Ignorance will not save you from my retribution.”

“Give me the child and I will allow you to punish me any way you see fit.”

The cruel, twisted sound that left my mate’s mouth couldn’t have been a laugh. Only, I was sure it was. “You will do that anyway. Now. Or I will simply have him killed. Slowly and painfully.”

True confusion flashed across the bears face, I’m sure of it. “The punishment does not fit the crime. I have broken into your home, for certain. And the boy should not have been trespassing, but there is no call for–”

“Trespassing? Is that what you’d decided to call his attack and now yours? The bears are well known for their use of hypnotism.”

“Whatever it is you think we’ve done…”

“You could have killed her.” He whispered the sharp, angry words.

Behind me a twig snapped. Adawolfa was there in an instant, her blades flashing. Chaos erupted in that split second. Mina’s voice rang out even as the bear roared. Deryk slumped to the ground, his blood mixing with the pools already gathered there.

The guards rushed the newcomer while Aldrich pulled Adawolfa away from his rage. Mina fell beside the boy, her small hands working frantically to staunch the bleeding. My mind stuttered violently, flinging me back to another time where I’d seen so much blood.

This time I wasn’t going to balk. I pushed myself forward, ignoring the rusty lever on my flight-or-fight response. It groaned with every step forward I took but I moved closer to my screaming friend instead of away.

“He can’t die. We can’t let him die. We have to fix this or there will be a war.”

I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see the bear literally toss one of the guards to the side. Aldrich moved too quickly for him to catch but it would only be a matter of time before it was only my mate and the bear left standing. I wasn’t sure he could take down a beast like that.

Mina made a distressed sound and I cleared my head. Aldrich could take care of himself and the boy needed help now. He wasn’t doing well. I didn’t need to be a Healer to know he was losing too much blood, too quickly. Mina was holding the gashes at his neck closed but too much was seeping through her clenched fingers.

Hysteria tinged every look she tossed me and I felt my own panic rising. I couldn’t let this boy die but there was nothing I can do.

“Helpless.”

“Hopeless.”

“Unworthy.”

My head snapped up when those voices began to echo in my head once again. I felt the weight, the pressure of their accusations building in my body like lead. At my back, Aldrich was fighting a losing battle. Before me, the lifeblood of someone who was more child than man stained the earth.

“It’s now or never.” Another voice whispered into my mind and I snarled at it, picking it up and slamming it out of my head. I wouldn’t cower. Not this time.

The light, the beckoning promise in my body exploded forth, slamming through my veins. I gasped, sure that it spilled out of my eyes and ears as it took me over. It burned and tingled, cooled and set me on fire. For a split second, I didn’t know what was up or what was down. All I knew was the light and the way it scalded me, threatening to shatter the confines of my skin.

Just as I thought the pressure was too much, I felt Aldrich in my mind. He slid in like a caress, a breeze clearing out the last whispers of smoke from a fire. His presence in my mind tamed the blazing power, tamping it down until it was little more than a slow and manageable smolder. I pulled it into my mouth, focusing it there until I could make it my own.

In the cave, Aldrich had begun to teach me to wind-weave. He used it for clothing, I knew, but why not … why not skin? I focused my breaths, knowing I would only get one chance at this. My heartbeat throbbed in my ears, forcing my body to jerk angrily. The heat from my skin chased away the chill of the fleeing winter. Everything went still around me. The battles stopped waging, Mina’s cries faded into nothingness.

Flashpoint. The breath I held in my lungs exploded forth and wrapped around Deryk. Mina scrambled backwards as I channeled the energy, telling it what I wanted from it. My lungs burned and my entire body tingled but I didn’t stop until the blood slowed and the wound closed.

“Powerful. Strong”. The voice, the slick whispering one that offered me the light chanted happily, while I trembled under the weight of it. It continued to pour out, stealing not only my breath but also what felt like my life as it went.

“Liebling.” I heard Aldrich’s voice as if from a distance. He pressed his furry face to mine, the soft hairs stroking like a warm blanket. “I told you to be careful.”

There was a snap, like a rubber band coming back on a careless hand. The soft, calming presence that was Aldrich flowed into me and wrapped around the light. He held my skin together when it was threatening to come apart and pressed hard until the power was nothing more than a little powerball in my chest. Then he locked it back behind the door I had only just discovered.

Without moving, I searched for an anchor. “Aldrich? Mina?”

“Do not concern yourself with Wilhelmina. She volunteered to take the bears and the Alten to a different location.”

I opened my eyes painfully. The lids grated as if they were laced with sand and I couldn’t bite back the groan this time. Even as they opened, nothing but darkness met my eyes for several seconds.

“Where does it hurt?”

The blurry figures dancing in front of my eyes cleared and my jaw dropped. “What the hell happened to your face?”

Aldrich grinned, though the movement had to hurt. He didn’t even complain when my high pitched squeal must have caused further damage to his already assaulted eardrums. Burns marred every inch of skin I could see. Bruises and a number of claw marks painted his body but even as I watched, they healed. The burns did not.

“I will be fine, I assure you. Answer my question, please. Where do you hurt?”

I shook my head, trying to clear the panic that flooded me once again. The new and violent emotion was getting on my nerves. Offhandedly I considered whether I should start charging it an hourly rate for renting my entire being. “I’m not hurt. Not really. We need to see what we can do about you.”

He nodded, a heavy sigh of relief leaving his lungs. My petite body couldn’t hold him up when he crumbled to the ground but I tried. Even as I moved to catch him, I was yanked out of the way. Another pair of arms wrapped around Aldrich’s waist, pulling him back against a sturdy and generous chest.

“Don’t bother, Roux. You can’t help him any more than you can help yourself.” My body jerked when I realized Ulric was the one holding me. His strong hands bit cruelly into my shoulders.

“W-what are you doing? Rick, he needs me.”

Ulric, someone I had known almost all of my lonely life, someone who had been a rock when I was drifting. He turned me around until I was facing him and sneered with barely contained disgust. “He needs a wolf. Someone who won’t do him any more harm.”

With that, he flung me to the ground, away from where Adawolfa was cradling my mate to her impressive bosom. I scrambled up, a dark ache blossoming in my chest. I shuddered with the pain of it, hearing my fears voiced in a beloved tone.

“I hurt him? No,” I whispered. “It’s not true.”

“Human. Weak. Unworthy.” The whispers sighed.

“It’s not true. I love him.” I clapped trembling hands to my ears, trying to block out the words. The throbbing light within me tried to push up, to protect me, and I let it.

“Stop!” Adawolfa shot out from the haze shrouding my vision. She tackled me, knocking the light out of my reach. She straddled my waist and slammed her palms against my shoulders until I was flat and more bruised than before. “Little idiot, are you trying to kill him?”

The light sputtered and she slammed the heel of her palm into my jaw. My teeth clanged together and birds the size of seagulls danced before my eyes. Even so, I tried to twist and return her attacks. She absorbed my weak punches but continued to rain blows down on my face and shoulders.

“The mates of Elders have to be just as strong as their counterparts.” She ground out between blows. “This is what I have told you from the day we met. You have failed to protect him and now you are a threat. I won’t let you hurt him.”

Intense emotion battered my psyche, all streaming from her. She trembled with each blow, raging dark words with each strike. “You are a false mate, too weak to stand by his side. I should–”

A massive blur slammed into her, knocking her off and sending me rolling. When Ulric thought to get in on the action, he was hit just as hard after the huge black wolf turned on his hind legs. The trail of blood Aldrich left behind wasn’t easy to miss.

“Don’t fucking touch her! She is ours!” Aldrich snarled in a strangely two-tone voice.

I’d never seen Aldrich shift completely into the Wolf. He was always careful only to use his humanoid forms. Now I saw why. The creature before me was huge, taller and more heavily muscled than anything I’d seen before. Wickedly sharp fangs hung from his mouth, weapons he was more than willing to use.

Adawolfa dragged herself up, clutching her middle. “I was only trying to protect you. Her magic was going to burn you into ash!”

My stomach bottomed out and I couldn’t get enough air in my lungs. I was the one who put those burns on his face?

“That is not … your—,” his violent shout cut short, and the Wolf fell to his side, a crashing of fur and bone. This time when Adawolfa moved closer to check on him, I didn’t even protest. With the ache growing in my chest, I turned away as she hefted my unconscious mate into her arms with little effort. Gliding on autopilot, I made it the trek back to the stronghold. Despair marked my every step, and I’m sure that is why no one made to stop me. I called for my attendants and arranged for them to wake me at dawn without feeling a thing or really hearing my own voice.

I managed to make it to our rooms before I did something I hadn’t done since I was nine years old, realizing my father had no intention of celebrating my birthday. I curled up into a ball on the floor and wept.