Shattered - Completed

35 -Nuts

As our pup's fear fades, other scents grow stronger. Males were here. How often did they hurt our female? We lick our maw, remembering the bloody taste of so many of this rotten pack's warriors. They will not harm her again. Corpses can't hurt females.

Our pup curls back up onto our female, and we flop our tail over both. It covers most of our female and pup. Our love starts to shiver. Our pup is warm. She did a good job of caring for him in this freakish, bizarre storm that reeks of magic.

"Will she be warm now?" our pup asks.

We gaze at him until he nods and lays down with our female, his small hands patting her hair.

"Why won't you shift back?" our pup asks us, his voice hushed.

Not safe.

The Knowing has made a fool of us before; taken our CeCe from our side and hidden her from us. Yet, there are other reasons for its foolishness, and we know we are about to discover why it is such a temperamental bitch.

The storm continues raging outside. Our little family warms up slowly. Our pup falls asleep. Our female doesn't wake. We watch the entrance, waiting. We are with our family. We can be patient.

Time passes as the storm rages, keeping our warriors and father away. It doesn't matter, we know who is coming. We can hear her approach. The Knowing nudges us, the hissing grows. We snap our canines at the Knowing, offended. We do not need help. We are our female's strength.

We scent her, next. The stench of magic and insanity grow stronger.

She will speak with a forked tongue.

We know. We are not stupid.

Go to the shadows.

We move swiftly, leaving our vulnerable family on the mat of sticks, curled together as mother and son. It makes us angry to see them shiver, to see them alone even when we are merely an arms-length away. Pouting like a pup ourselves, we fade into the darkest part of the cave just before a small figure cloaked in dark grey and bitterness appears at the entrance. We recognize her. Under the hood of her thick cloak is a female with dark curls like my love and blue eyes. Her mouth is twisted, snakelike and filled with self-righteous rage.

We lower our eyes to mere slits, feigning a relaxation we do not feel. Her blue eyes rest on our female and our pup, as if we do not exist. We hold ourselves still, fighting our urge to twitch our tail in excitement. We will have this venomous bitch's blood on our tongue soon.

As if sensing the danger, our female stirs with a soft whimper. Her gorgeous green eyes open, and she sits up slowly before freezing in place when she spots the bitch.

"It seems your Sight is growing stronger," the old crone smirks.

"Mother," our female says flatly. "How are you here?" Our love stands carefully, her pale limbs trembling with renewed cold. She snatches up her damp cloak with a brief look of confusion and wraps it around herself like a shield. We bite back our whine of protest. We are warm, she can wrap us around her. And in her. We can warm her well.

Penelope, Princess to the Royal pack, the venomous bitch, smiles coldly. "I am here to make certain you don't ruin my family." Her eyes travel to our shivering pup. "Oh, a bonus."

My love's heart falters. "What have you done?" she whispers.

The crone's eyes grow even colder. "What have I done?" she repeats. "I am not the one who brought the Black Prince north, Cecelia."

Our tail twitches proudly before we can stop it. We are the Black Prince. I bet this bitch's bones will be brittle under my teeth. Crunch.

"I brought him here?" CeCe repeats, dumbfounded. Our little she-wolf is backing away from the older female, a snarl curling at her lip. She hovers in front of our pup, who is awake, silent and terrified. We will have to work on his awareness. He would be calm if he knew we were behind him.