Blood Bound [Book Two, Lady and the Wolf] (EDITING)

Chapter Thirteen: Who Are You?

Voices echoed all around her, some strange and some familiar, speaking in what felt like a never-ending loop. Aira felt her mind start to spin, as she tried desperately to process the information that she had just heard.

Shutting her eyes, she lay there, begging for the bad dream to end. It wasn't supposed to be this real, this intense...This damaging.

A sharp howl in the distance made her eyes snap open, as a cold sweat began to trickle down her body.

At the sound, she thought back to her childhood, to the moment when Avery had been helping her get ready for bed, and even the trivial memory of her displeasure at the pyjama she had been wearing.

Why was it that she could remember her dislike for those pyjamas, but not her mother's voice?

Here's a potential way to enhance the passage with a more dynamic description:

Aira let out a soft, trembling cry, carefully lifting herself from the ground and struggling to find her footing. Despite her disorientation, she found herself quickly gaining balance as she heard a male voice in close proximity, soothingly saying, "It's okay, they're wild animals, but they won't come near our site... Don't worry, hon."

That voice. She knew that voice.

Before she knew what was happening, her feet were making their way towards where the voices were coming from. She kept up a steady pace as she all but ran to the place her nightmare began. A feeling of dread welled in her very soul, but Aira pushed it aside. She needed to see their faces – to see for herself the people lost in a memory, long ago pushed to the deepest, darkest part of her mind.

Aira brushed past trees and bushes, her eyes barely registering the surroundings as her thoughts were lost in a whirlpool of emotions.

But her eyes suddenly widened when a branch scraped against her arm, leaving behind a nasty scratch.

The sudden sting served as a sharp and sudden reminder of her reality, and it weighed down her body even more heavily as if she could carry any more weight.

"No," she whispered, shaking her head as she looked down at her wound that slowly trickled blood. "This can't be real."

As she neared the camp, she could hear chatter and children's giggles. The smell of cooked food sent her senses into overdrive, making her realize that if she could smell food, she could probably taste it as well.

Memories flooded back to her in waves of emotions, cracking whatever sanity she clung to in this desolate dream world.

As soon as she stepped into the clearing, she noticed a sudden stillness.

All voices had abruptly stopped their chatter, and now the air was silent and uneasy.

The eyes she vaguely remembered from a time long gone were all focused on her in complete shock.

The warmth of blood trickling down her arm was difficult to ignore, but she managed to ignore the sting of the injury - unable to tear her gaze away from the man and woman standing in front of her, paralyzed with shock.

"Hey, miss, are you okay?"

Aira spun around, her face filled with fear as she trembled and pulled away from the young man's touch.

A boy stood behind her – not much younger than herself – and eyed her with a worried expression.

"You're hurt. Where'd you come from? Do you need help?"

The torrent of questions made it difficult for her to process everything at once. She placed a trembling hand on her forehead, her eyes moving around the vicinity to try and assess the situation.