Dawn of Destiny (The Warrior Angels Trilogy - Book 1)

Chapter Thirty-One

Something warm and wet brushed against Beatrice's left cheek. She groaned and waved her hand, shooing away whatever or whoever that was.

Then it happened again, giving her a clearer indication that it was a tongue licking her. Someone was licking her.

Beatrice shot open her eyes and gritted her teeth, prepared to scream at the disgusting mongrel. However, she caught her breath in her throat when she stared right into a bright yellow gaze of an animal instead.

"Don't move, Your Highness," Ashton's soft voice came from somewhere on her right. "That is a wolf."

Beatrice's blood went cold. She blinked hard and drew her head back, getting a better view of the beast's face. A gray wolf was hovering over her, its wet nose twitching. From her peripheral, she spotted movement, presumably from more of them. It took every bit of her courage to turn her head and see they were surrounded by a pack.

Three of them were investigating Ashton, sniffing and carefully nudging his face. He was stiff and avoided looking any of them directly in the eyes. But he looked at her, then his lower lip protruded to form a small pout.

This was what they got for falling asleep by the pond instead of returning to Mayra's cottage. They hadn't meant to, though! One moment, they were talking about their fondest childhood memories (or rather, Ashton went on and on about his sisters) and... well, now it was morning. She could not even recall closing her eyes and drifting off.

Beatrice glanced at the same patch of grass she had tried to set on fire last night. Perhaps if she ignited it now, the wolves would become frightened and run away. She clenched her teeth again and concentrated, narrowing her gaze.

Then a white wolf emerged from behind the blackberry shrubs and she froze, her mouth falling open. It halted beside Ashton and stared down at him. While Beatrice expected the wolf to attack or snarl, it whined. Ashton also appeared taken aback by this.

"What is happening?" she demanded.

The white wolf suddenly took off, and the others went with it. Beatrice sighed, allowing her shoulders to relax until she noticed Ashton getting up and going after them.

"What are you doing?" she scolded, yet he didn't stop running.

Beatrice groaned and rose to her feet. The safest thing to do would be to make her way back to the village... if she remembered how to get there. But when had she ever taken the safer route? That was such a dull way to live.

She picked up her skirts and called out to Ashton as she ran to catch up with him. Low tree branches kept scraping against her face no matter how much she tried to duck and push them out of the way with her hand. She saw glimpses of Ashton up ahead and kept calling his name, except her cries were drowned out by the wolves who'd begun to howl.

I thought wolves only howled at the moon, she bitterly thought.

They went up the hill and when Beatrice glanced over her shoulder to see how far they've gone, she ran right into Ashton's back. He whirled around and caught her before she could fall from the impact.

"Your Highness," he breathed, his eyes wide. "Are you alright?"

Beatrice blinked hard a few times, doing her best to regain herself. She kept her hands on his chest and glanced at his still resting on her waist. A choked squeal escaped through his lips as he let go and jumped back. She would've laughed at that had she not then caught sight of the wolves sitting around in a small field of wildflowers.

"What are they doing?" she asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"I... I don't know," Ashton answered. "I'd always heard wolves were quite vicious. These don't seem to want to harm us at all, though."