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Before us is a creature so malformed it shouldn’t even be alive. One paw dangles as a human leg stands on the ground. The woman, if that’s what you could call her, leans against the tree and pants miserably. A human arm holds her balance, while a mangled broken wolf's leg is held shriveled next to her side. Half of her face is Catherine as I knew her, but the other half is ripped and torn as if she’s mid transformation and stuck. Tears are pouring out of her eyes as she stands there, and it’s clear she’s in agonizing pain.
“This is what you all deserve…” She chokes on the words, blood bubbling up past fangs and a human tongue. “You children ruined everything…your generation is a curse. Evelyn is a blight on these packs… She needs to suffer.”
“Looks like you’re the one suffering, Catherine…” I say gently, stepping towards her with my hands extended to catch her should she fall.
“He said I would never have to change again, he promised…” she sobs, her chest cavity sucking in on itself. “He made me do it, despite his promises, despite his declaration of love. He said I have to get Cricket, she’s important. She’s the key. After losing Gretchen…he didn’t have to kill her!”
“Who said all this?” Rowan demands, crouching, preparing to kill her, but I wave him down.
“You’ll find out… He’s going to succeed. Even if I die here and now, I die for a cause. I die for the greater good!”
Catherine lunges, her hand like a claw, and falls into me with a gurgling croak. I catch her, and she claws at my face, biting ineffectually at my arms and chest.
“Die!” she screams, desperately trying to kill me, but barely scratching the surface. Finally, her strength is depleted and she sags in my arms. “I knew the shift would kill me… I was the first to live this long… It’s unstable, I’m—”
I hadn’t noticed Rowan shift, but he darts from behind me and bites her neck without a sound. He jerks and swings his head from side to side, splitting her flesh, and her eyes go wide with shock the moment before he rips her head from her shoulders.
I’m left holding nothing but her body.
I drop it in shock, recoiling, and retching everything I’ve eaten in the past few days as her body deflates but doesn’t revert back to its human form. She’s cursed, even in death, to be the monster she was made to be.
“She could have told us who ‘he’ was!” I scream at Rowan, jumping to my feet and shifting in his face.
I want to fight him, I want to hurt him for killing her. Even if she’s done something heinous, she was always good to me…
“She would never have said a damn thing! Loyalty like that? Did you see her? She was dying and she was grateful to do so!”Rowan’s snarling, her rancid blood still dripping from his mouth, when the first scream echoes over the mountains.
Turning my blood to ice.
“What did I tell you? The tracks were leading us away, she was a distraction!”
The scream comes again and I don't have time to argue. Together, Rowan and I run back towards the camp at a breakneck pace. It’s Cricket screaming, we both know it, we both know what’s happening.
The only thing we don’t know is if we can get there in time.
The land around me blurs to nothing but shades of green and brown, and it’s quickly fading to gray. My whole life will be nothing but shades of shadow if she dies. Why is everyone and everything doing their level best to destroy my ‘happily ever after’?
The screaming intensifies, and warps into a wounded howl as Cricket must be shifting. My paws simply won’t move fast enough. My heart is climbing out of my chest, trying to get to her.
Finally, we reach camp. All the traps have been triggered, every trip wire pulled, and splashes of blood and gore are strewn everywhere. Cricket is running, we can tell by the torn-up path she’s left, and Corey is following along.
He’s tormenting her, hunting her slowly.
“Little bug…” I hear Corey calling. “Come out so I can squash you!”
His voice, garbled and distorted in the mouth of a monster, makes me physically sick. Rowan and I skid to a stop at the cliff's edge, eyes flying this way and that as we try to locate my mate.
Rowan whimpers, cowers, and looks up. Dread blooming in my gut, my gaze follows his line of sight.
High above the tumultuous waters on the broken and disused bridge, Corey’s chasing Cricket. I can feel her panic from here, her raw fear, and I can feel the excitement in Corey as he gets closer and closer. I’m stuck here, watching in sheer terror and knowing I’ll never get to her in time when Corey tackles her and they fall.
It’s as if everything is happening in slow motion; the tackle, falling off the bridge, the yelps and snarls as monster attacks wolf, and the heart shattering crack as they hit the surface of the water fifty feet below the bridge.
I jump without thinking, flying off the cliff and into the water below. I have to get to her. I have to save her. If the fall didn’t kill her or knock her out, she’ll still never be strong enough to swim against that current.
For as hot as the days have been, the churning water is as cold as ice, and when I submerge into it, the breath is pushed from my lungs instantly.
Struggling against the current myself, I hear Cricket gasp for breath and scream.
