A Hundred Whispers Make a Howl

Chapter 21

               The blood is not fresh. It's intermingled with an odor of decay, and something like musk and mange. The scent of a sick animal.

My stomach churns with fear, because I can guess what this means: Rogues. The feral, mindless werewolves that have been causing so much damage recently. From the pungent, heavy scent drifting from upwind, I can tell that there are a lot of them, though I can't estimate an exact number.

I start to shake, and turn my wide eyes up towards Shay. The she-wolf stands stone still, face to the wind. Every muscle in her body sings with tension, coiled and ready to strike. Her brow is furrowed, and her eyes are dangerous; focused and predatory, and brimming with fury. But, as the black-wolf turns and locks her gaze with mine, I also see fear within those jewel-like depths.

Shay places her hands on my shoulders, holding me steady a she stares down at me with a grave expression. "Nikole, can you find your way back to the cabin from here?"

"I-" My voice wavers, breaks, so I swallow hard and try again. "Yes, I should be able to follow our scent trail back."

One of Shay's hand's leaves my shoulder to gently cup my cheek, and a calloused thumb tenderly sweeps beneath my eye to gather the single tear that falls. "Good, that's good." The black-wolf smiles so sweetly that another tear falls. She wipes it away again, and the affection behind the gesture nearly shatters me. "I need you to run back to the cabin and warn the others. Get them away to safety."

With trembling fingers, I reach out to touch Shay's skin, caressing a scar that runs jagged along the ridge of her collar bone. A remnant of her previous fight. "What about you?" It's a question I already know the answer to, but I desperately want to be proven wrong.

"I need to try and draw them away. Buy us some time."

The words are like a torrent of ice water injected straight into my heart. I step closer into Shay's personal space with a whimper. "No! You can't, Shay! Not alone, you-"

My mentor cuts me off. "Nikole, please, there's no time to argue. I need you to listen to me, baby, and do as I say. I'll be fine." Her voice is firm, contrasting with the small, sad smile on her face, and leaves no room for argument. She pushes me away. "Go. Go now. Fast as you can."

There are fresh tears blurring my vision as I force myself to turn away from her. I feel her eyes on my back as I break into a run, but then Shay is gone. It takes every ounce of strength I have not to turn back around and chase after her; every instinct screams to follow. But I can't. I know I can't. Not with Marian and the others sleeping unaware back at the cabin.

Thick brush tears at my calves as I run naked through the forest, following the trail Shay and I had left the night before. How different things were now; a few hours ago I had been euphoric and fearless. Now, terror grips at my chest like a frozen vice as I stumble down a steep incline. The sun isn't even up yet.

"Change!" I cry out the order to my body. The wolf inside is already responding to my desperation. The shift starts while I continue to run. Even when my legs shatter, and I fall to the ground, I continue to drag myself forward, clawed fingers digging into soft dew-laden earth as I crawl. Misshapen and aching, but unwilling to waste any of the precious time Shay is fighting to give me.

The next few minutes are a blur in which I find my paws and continue to run, faster now that I'm on four legs. White foam drips from my jaws, and my lungs burn with exertion, but I never slow down. I charge through the dim forest, back towards the cabin, stumbling and hurdling over the jagged terrain until the earth begins to flatten and I burst forth from the tree line into the clearing.