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The pain from my back exploded over my body, but as I let out a wailing scream, my voice shifted. My mouth became a long white muzzle. My teeth elongated, and my body broke. My bones shattered and condensed as my fur ripped through my skin, and I hit the ground, shaking through the last of the change as I became a great white wolf. Slight, but fast and strong.
Maria followed in her soft grey coat a half second later. Her familiar scent hit my nose and my tongue lulled out of my jaw. My friend was close. I was happy. My wolf was happy.
Noticing my joy, she sniffed jumping back and forth a bit and then took off into the trees, challenging me to chase her as she went. My wolf loved the chase. Darting after her, my paws moved fast, barely scratching at the ground as they went. I vaulted off toppled debris and broke through bush after bush, letting their branches scratch at my sides. I hadn’t felt this alive in ages.
So of course, that was when everything went wrong. I’d nearly caught up to Maria when another scent crossed my path, and a pair of russet-colored wolves broke through the shadows and plowed into me.
Rolling with the blow, I flipped over, flailing wildly to get my feet under me again. The wolves leapt away from me as I snarled, and when I popped back up, they were flanking me. Their lips curling back from their teeth.
My instincts screamed trouble, and I growled at them, noticing a third in the distance corralling Maria out of the way. A targeted attack.
Snapping at the one closest to me, I tried to angle myself to keep them at a distance, but they feinted to the left and right. Toying with me.
My tail brushed a tree behind me, and a small ounce of feral panic registered in the back of my mind. They had me cornered.
The red wolf to my right lunged. His jaws snapped closed to my ear, and I felt sharp claws rake over my side. Not hard enough to cut my skin, but I’d have a bruise by morning. Leaping away, I yelped, and scrambled up onto a fallen tree, but the other wolf was there. He leapt, throwing his weight on top of me and we hit the ground again hard. Pain reverberated through my spine, and when I rolled back over, I couldn’t put weight on my left back paw. My hip throbbed, and I whimpered, dropping to the ground.
The wolves scratched at the dirt, and huffed with pleasure, circling around me. They brushed past each other, and I could feel their joy ripping through the bond that connected the pack.
They were going to kill me, and they were positive no one else in the pack would care. How they’d keep Maria quiet I couldn’t be sure, but their confidence was staggering.
The first wolf who’d scratched my side, started inching closer to me, and I scrambled back. The magic in my blood was already starting to heal my wounds, but I needed more time to recover, more time to—
A black blur leapt over my head and collided with the russet wolf, snarling louder than any other wolf I’d encountered. Their angry forms rolled and writhed together on the ground until the russet wolf let out a loud yelp, and the black leapt away circling around to attack the second one.
In shock, I couldn’t move. The black wolf was fierce. A walking patch of violent midnight. His white teeth flashed lightning fast. He bit fur, and blood splattered across the clearing. The second wolf yelped and backed off, hobbling away. The black wolf inched towards me, keeping the others in his sight. He snarled a warning, snapping twice, and they darted off into the trees, including the one who’d been corralling Maria away in the distance.
I tested my weight on my foot and got upright again. My paw still throbbed, but my hip was back in its place. I was nearly healed.
Maria approached slowly, giving the black wolf a wide berth. From the way she bowed low, cowering at the sight of him, I could tell she recognized exactly who he was, but I couldn’t. His scent was familiar, but I just couldn’t place it. My thoughts were too scattered.
She sniffed at my neck, a gesture to ask if I was okay, but I couldn’t take my eyes from the black wolf. He’d saved my life whoever he was.
Noticing my attention, Maria scratched at the ground and my defender turned around. His golden eyes met mine and a shiver ran through my body from the tip of my nose to my tail. He padded across the clearing to my side and ran his muzzle over my flank searching for signs of a wound.
Once he was satisfied, I wasn’t about to die, he took a step back and jerked his head to the side, motioning in the direction of the altar where we were all supposed to meet.
Through the pack bond, I felt him urging us to follow him. He wasn’t angry, or insistent, but my gut screamed that I should listen.
A series of crashes broke through the bushes in the distance, in the direction maria and I had been aiming, but when the wolf took off, he went wide to the left.
Maria whimpered, but for once I didn’t hesitate. I shot forward after the black wolf, and we started climbing the hill to the cliffside along the northern edge of the town lines. I lost him a few times, but my gut told me where to go.
By the time the trees opened again, he stood waiting for us atop a large fissure in the cliffside. He hesitated to be sure we saw him, and then jumped down out of sight. My stomach clenched, but as I inched to the edge, I watched as he hopped down a series of sheer blocks until he landed inside the altar.
My heart throbbed, and I glanced at Maria. She waited a few feet back, but she wasn’t scared anymore, just hesitant. I rolled my head indicating she should follow, and then repeated the process the black wolf had taken to get down the cliffside.
The moment my paws hit the stones of the altar, a foreign, but familiar energy spread over me, and I shivered as the pack bond between us strengthened.
I heard a deep chuckle from the male wolf inside my mind, and then Maria as she came gasping down the cliff behind me.
Evie, are you okay? Are you hurt?She asked, her voice coming through clear as a bell.
I’m fine,I told her.Already healing.
Howl,came the male voice, pulling my attention back to the present.
I glanced at him, and then around at the altar. We were the first to arrive. Tradition stated that the first was the one who won the right to sing the dead to their final place in the light of the moon.
Howl,the black wolf repeated.Say your goodbyes before he can steal it from you.
I knew that voice, but I couldn’t put my finger on who it was. My gut screamed that I should trust him. But…
Do it,Maria urged.Claim your right as her granddaughter.
I nodded to them both in turn and started making my way through the old Corinthian columns scattered across the broken floor. The main part of the altar sat at the middle. A basin of perpetual burning fire, but I passed it in favor of the ramp that jutted off the cliff’s edge. Padding up it, I glanced back at the two wolves standing behind me, and then turned my face into the wind.
Below me the ocean roiled, slamming hard against the rocks. The scent of the water burned away the aroma of the woods, but as I stepped into the path of the moonlight at the edge of the ramp everything disappeared. My eyes were full of the pale orb floating in the sky. Instincts took over and I threw my head back, howling at the top of my lungs. A single word ringing through my mind, and the mind of every wolf in the pack.
Annie.
