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What the hell is happening to her?
6
Kade
The fact Elara’s window is so easy to open is both a relief and an irritation. Kade had been watching her from the large oak tree outside her window, but as night descended she was encased in shadow and he didn’t feel comfortable being this far away. Why didn’t she just go home? Kade can see her a lot easier from his dorm room, but no. She stayed with her mom and dad. Just another thing to be irritated about.
His first step into her room is like stepping back in time; band posters from her teenage years cover the wall. Stuffed animals that look so old and well used that she must have had them as a child linger on her dresser. Kade smiles slightly to himself, picking up a threadbare bunny and stroking its face with his thumb. Her innocence is all over this room, permeating the walls, but the woman who’s in the little twin bed in the center of the room is no longer the little girl who grew up here.
Setting the bunny exactly where it was on her dresser, Kade moves to her bed and places both hands on either end of her bed posts. He leans over, watching Elara’s shoulder rise and fall asshe sleeps on her side. She’s content, peaceful. Kade envies her. He envies that she doesn’t know what’s ahead, that she doesn’t realize what's waiting for her on the next full moon. He also pities her, heart and soul, for what's been done.
Elara shifts, making him hold his breath, and rolls over on her back. She stretches, her pretty mouth hinting at a smile, and then rolls over on her other side. Kade’s reaching out before he can help himself, wanting to lay his hand on her ankle and squeeze reassuringly, but he knows he shouldn't. She tries to curl her arms up under her chin and winces, a slight whimper escaping her lips, and guilt nearly tears him in two.
Kade knows he shouldn’t be in here. He shouldn’t be this close to her, but he can’t seem to stay away. He has to do this, to watch her, to keep her safe. Or else. The prophecy says that they need her, that they have to have her, so he must keep her safe. When the time comes, everything will rest on her unsuspecting shoulders.
Kade swallows a sigh of grief and lowers himself to the foot of her bed, pulling his knees up and resting his clenched fists on them while he stares daggers into her wall. This isn’t right, this isn’t who he is. With how he feels about her, he should be wooing her. Not stalking her like a creep in the night. Why did it have to be her, why did it have to be Elara?
Kade sets his head back on the bed frame and closes his eyes, breathing in the scent that's become more than familiar these past few months. Sometimes he feels like if he can’t be close enough to smell her every day that he may fall apart and actually grab her in public. He knows he can’t, but god, does he want to.
Kade wants to grab her, pin her to a wall, and show her exactly how he feels about her.
But she’s the chosen one.
She’s the linchpin to everything.
Without her, none of this will come to pass.
Guy would never forgive him.
Letting Guy down is not an option…not after everything…
Kade’s eyes drift closed, his mind sinking into sleep, lulled by the sound of Elara’s even breathing beside him. He knows he shouldn’t, that he could be caught, but the thought of being with her while he sleeps is too tempting. Too utterly delicious.
A huff of breath,hot condensation blowing on his face.
Kade opens his eyes and freezes. There on the dirt are a pair of large cloven hooves. Slowly, he rolls over on his back and his breath escapes his lungs in a painful whoosh of air. An elk stands above him, its antlers large and encompassing as it lowers its head and sniffs again. Kade tries to shrink into his sleeping bag, to seem like he means no threat, when he sees it.
A glint of knowledge in its black eyes, a knowing that no animal should have.
Then, it attacks.
It takes one step back and lunges, spearing its antlers into Kade’s sleeping bag and ripping him off the ground as if he weighs nothing. He tries to scream as he flies through the air, but the sound of his pack brother screaming drowns it out.
Kade hits the ground and rolls into a rock, his head bouncing off the hard surface like a rubber ball. In a heap on the ground, he watches with blurred vision as he realizes what’s happened. All around him, the pack is being attacked. The elk is there, standing tall with blood dripping down its antlers, but all around him are animals of every species. And all of them are attacking Kade’s pack.
“Shifters!” someone screams, right before their voice is cut off with a gurgle as a jaguar rips their throat out.
Kade’s trapped in his sleeping bag, his vision blurring more and more as blood drips from his temple and into his eyes. His whole pack, men, women, even the children, are being slaughtered.
He thought they outran them, the shifters. He thought they got away, but here they are. They found them anyway.
Feebly, Kade struggles against the confines of his sleeping bag, trying not to see the gruesome sights all around him illuminated by the roaring fire.
“Why?” Kade screams at the elk as it starts towards him again. He must be their leader, he must be in charge. He seems completely focused on Kade, on killing him and him alone.
The elk shakes his head and huffs in irritation. He paws the ground and lowers his horns again, ready to ram him into this rock.
Ready to kill him.
