Losing Her Mate (Book 2 of The Red Dawn Trilogy )

Chapter EIGHTEEN

Brittany's head jerks up and she looks at me with utter betrayal.

"Why are you on their side, you know what he did to me. Why would you want his spawn to live?"

"Who is she talking about?" Jared ask looking at me in confusion.

"Tell them James tell him what he did to us" she gives me a challenging stare daring me to air out my unpleasant dirty laundry in front of my colleagues. I ignore her request afraid of their reactions and their opinions of me dropping.

"Brittany please I just want to help you. Come with me"

She scoffs at me shaking her head in disappointment. "I knew you wouldn't have the balls but then you expect me to live with it when you can't even say it"

"This isn't about me" I reason ignoring her blatant insults.

"Coward!" she spits at me and the word hits home as derision and shame passes over me. I am a coward. Here I am trying to console others and I can't admit my own problems out loud for fear of rebuke from my peers.

She looks around at the group. "I'm not letting you near me. You're not going to take me back"

"Brittany-"

"No" she growls. She removes herself from the tree and shifts into a mousy brown colored werewolf, her protruding belly almost low enough to touch the ground. She quickly glances around for an exit, finds one, and takes off into the trees.

"Shit, this is a mess" Jared says staring at her retreating form.

"I'll go after her but I think I should go alone the less people the more comfortable she will be and the easier it will be to convince her to come home" I say hoping to detour the others from volunteering to come.

"You don't need back-up?" Thomas ask finally recovered from his retching episode.

"No I can handle her"

"You sure she seemed alittle off. I can come and help" Jared asks fully prepared to aid me in wrangling our crazed pack mate.

"Yes I'm sure don't worry I got this. I will bring her back." I assure him before focusing my energy and shifting into my black wolf shaking out my fur. Without further discussion I set off after Brittany.

I traverse through the trees at top speed, low branches and bushes scrap at my face and the intense wind blows my fur down flat. I have my senses on high alert while following the trail of snap twigs, disrupted grass, and smashed vegetation that Brittany left in her wake.

My nose picks up the smell of small animals scurring out of my way. They tempt my wolf to chase and hunt them down but I keep him focused promising to go hunting soon, perhaps with Renee. The mention of Renee settles him and we get back to the task at hand.

After a while evidence of Brittany's presence begins to diminish until the point where I can't find her trail anymore. I slow to a stop sniffing at the ground. She couldn't have gone far especially in her wounded condition. Maybe she slowed down and started to be more cautious about giving away her position.

I stop and think about my next move. If I were in her situation hiding would be my only real option until my pursuers moved on and I could make my move away. I lift my muzzle to the sky. It's a little difficult to differentiate her earthy scent from the surrounding forest scents but finally I catch a whiff of her to the East.

This time I approach slowly looking out for any signs of her. I come to a large empty field with very little except for tall thick green grass that comes up to my chest. I know she's here I can sense her stalking me hidden somewhere in the grass, obviously deciding on an offensive approach instead of running.

I listen carefully but hear nothing. I don't see anything either no unusual shifting of grass other than what the wind is doing. She must be moving with the blowing grass allowing it to mask her scent and approach, laying low enough so that I can't spot her. I have to admit I'm thoroughly impressed she's good at this but not as good as me. I've advanced beyond the normal senses to the point where I can feel her aura. A neat trick I picked up when studying meditation and learning how to channel energy.

A mere second before her canines reaches my neck I dive low and she go sailing over me crashes in a heap a few feet away. I immediately bounce up and prepare for her next attack.

Now that her presence is known she freely lets loose vicious growls and grunts of pain as she get to her feet. I take a moment to observe her and what I see worries me. The iris of her glowing eyes have expanded so much I can barely see any white left and heavy foam is dripping from her mouth profusely. She looks rabid, correction she looks like a rogue.

Her animal side is in charge now and she's one pissed off she-wolf.

*°~*°~ *°~ *°~ *°~ *°~ *°~*

VOTE-COMMENT-VOTE-COMMENT-VOTE !!!!! ^_^