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Chapter 5
Meira
Achill hums in the air tonight, pressing in around me, the leaves rustling wildly. I tip my chin up as I get to my feet and wipe my eyes. Mama would always say,“Fate will happen whether you fight against it or not.”
If my wolf plans to burst out of me tomorrow and kill me, then it will happen regardless, and I can’t live worrying. So I exhale, letting out the stress and energy bubbling in me, and collect my plums off the ground. With them in hand, I hurry through the forest. The light is fading fast, and I scan every tree I pass for a possible place to sleep.
Pain shoots through my gut and my back seizes, hitting me so fast, I stumble on my feet. Everything freaking aches, but I always feel better after sleep. I reach a great oak with dozens of thick branches spiking outward, two of them crossing over near the trunk. It’s perfect. The only thing that would make it better is if I had a blanket, but I’ve slept in worse conditions.
But when a shattering scream cuts through the silence, I flinch and drop a plum from my grip. My heart starts pounding as I turn and scan the forest. When the sound returns, I can tell it’s definitely female and is coming from deeper in the woods behind me. My thoughts fling to the young girl from last night, and bile rises to my throat.
Is it her?
A third shriek comes, and I drop all my fruit to the ground before seizing the sharpened bone in my waistband.
“Hell,” I murmur under my breath, because despite what I did for the girl last night, I’m not a hero. I hide and survive. That’s what I’ve done all my life.
I’ve run away. I’ve stayed away, but I can’t do that any longer. Something in me has changed, and I’m already running through the woods in the direction of the screams. Fading streams of light guide my path. I cut around trees and leap over shrubs, unsure what to expect, but there’s only one way to find out.
Another cry echoes around me, louder this time, so I’m getting closer. Trees crowd around me, and my only saving grace is the rustling leaves, covering my thumping footsteps on dried foliage.
I’m running, but the screams don’t come again, and a shiver zips up my spine at the thought that I’m too late. That I should have run faster, or maybe I’ve gone in the wrong direction. I sniff the air, but all I inhale are the smells of timber and soil. My senses have never been as strong as the wolves’.
I want to call out to her, but that’s just foolish.
In an instant, someone slams into my back with such speed, and I’m tossed off my feet.
It’s me who screams this time, out of pure shock. Sharp rocks scrape my hands and knees, then collapse flat on my face into the dirt. I push myself up, gritting soil between my teeth and spitting it out.
A dark shadow looms over me, the sudden movement smothering my earlier bravery. I scramble to get up, but I only get as far as to my knees before the wolf prowls closer, moving silently and with deadly intent.
Pale eyes lock on me, wisps of hot breath curling up from lips peeled back over razor-sharp teeth.
Black as the night, this wolf is enormous, fur shaggy and knotted. Half his ear was torn off long ago and has healed to sit upright, not flat against his head like the other. The Carpathian Mountains fall under Dušan’s jurisdiction, and for any other wolves to move in, they’d need to challenge him first. So this can only be a rogue shifter.
“Get the fuck away from me,” I snarl with a powerful voice. Facing a wolf with fear only gets you killed faster. But what I really need is a distraction, because monsters like him don’t walk away from a free meal or a female to rut just because of a strong demeanor. My fingers remain tight around the weapon I grip by my side, a shiver trailing up my legs.
A whimper comes from farther to my right.
The beast turns his head in that direction for a split second. That’s all I need… a sliver of time.
I scramble to my feet, energy bleeding through me, and I lunge at the creature.
I slam into his side just as he snaps his head around, and I plunge my sharpened blade into his back, tearing flesh, blood bubbling. Quickly, I wrench it out to strike again, adrenaline propelling me to keep going. To fight and never give up.
But it all happens too fast. His thundering snarls fill the night as he swings around before I can stab him again. Huge jaws snap at my side. I flinch out of the way, then throw myself over his body and into a forward roll before leaping to my feet and running.
I’m trembling, running on adrenaline and terror, the bone slick with blood in my hand. I turn my head quickly to look back. The wolf chases after me, his eyes narrowing with hatred.
I don’t stop sprinting. My skin crawls, and I’ve never moved so fast.
His paws hit the earth, and he growls at my back. This time, I scream. Stuffing the weapon into the back of my pants, I frantically leap up into the closest tree, my hands grasping the lowest branch. I swing my legs up as the air swooshes under me with the ferocity of the beast’s attack, but he misses.
I scramble up like a mad squirrel, my hands scraping raw against the bark, branches cutting into my knees, but I can’t stop or I’ll die.
Suddenly, flesh and fabric tear across the back of one calf. I bellow and lose my grip on the tree, arms and legs whipping about as my heart lunges to the back of my throat. All I can picture is the wolf destroying me the moment I land, and I’m shuddering all the way down to my bones.
Thump.
