The Crow and The Wolf

Chapter 27

27.

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"That's enough," the voice ordered, "we don't want to kill."

Valeria felt the power of Zachery Blake vibrate through her and radiate around her.

The pressure of the pack was released from her, but she was too terrified and exhausted to get up from the floor. The hall was once again alive with conversing students as they walked each other to their respective classes, some walking over or around her body. They had forgotten about the girl, whom they had rejected and neglected, but she lay helpless in the hall.

Valeria's gaze was drawn to the ceiling lights that seemed to call for her, and she looked for her wolf in the cave. She called out to her and ran around the small woods that surrounded the cave, but her other half was nowhere to be seen. Her fear grew the more she couldn't get a response from her wolf.

As Valeria searched for her wolf, she couldn't help but feel a sense of loneliness and despair. She wondered if she would ever find her place in this world where she felt so invisible and forgotten.

Arms circled her and pulled Valeria from the cold and dirty floor. Valeria swayed as they walked away from the sound that served as a tether to her reality, sounds that kept her from slipping into the Etome and from fleeing out into the world to search for the missing wolf.

" I don't help rejects," the woman hissed, and Valeria could hear the disdain in the voice, "Do you know what they would do to me if they found I helped... this thing?"

The woman continued to spew insults at Valeria: " I will not suffer solitude, Beta, because a stupid she-wolf couldn't close her legs and wait for her mate like the rest of us."

Valeria heard Luc scoff at the statement, the words that came out of his mouth hard, " Julia, you and I both know that you aren't exactly pure and that the only reason your mate accepted you was that he was a rogue, not like he had a choice. It was either mate with your impure self or die at the hands of this pack." Julia, the school nurse, growled but was quickly put in her place by the Beta's dominant presence.

"Now do your job," Luc ordered and placed her gently on the bed, "the law doesn't stop you from doing that."

"Yes, Beta," whispered Lorna.

Valeria felt a twinge of pity for Lorna, knowing that the woman had always been insecure about her past, but she also knew that Luc was right—they needed the school nurse's help, and they couldn't afford to let personal grudges get in the way.

Silence fell between them, and for a moment Valeria felt Luc's presence vanish, and for a moment panic filled her, but a second later he returned. His scent of dew and wild rain filled her senses, and that seemed to calm her down. Valeria couldn't help but feel a strange attraction towards Luc, even though she knew it was forbidden. She tried to push the thought away and focus on the task at hand, but his scent lingered in her mind.

"I can't do much for her, she just has to rest," Lorna explained. "This is part of her punishment. Her physical wounds will heal with more time, but her mental wounds are only just beginning, there's nothing I can do to heal the brain's Beta."

Valeria could hear the resentment in her voice, and she wasn't the only one to pick it up as Luc's growl bounced off the walls. Valeria was too tired to continue to be in this world, her heart grew heavier with worry with every second that passed without feeling her wolf's presence.

Thunder pleaded with her to open her eyes as it echoed throughout the cave. She awoke in the Etome, in her wolf's cave. The floor and walls were wet as if a flood had taken place in them. She smelt the fresh rain in the cave and found it odd how it rained inside the shelter.

The cave was drenched with different scents, scents she knew belonged to her pack members, but she also knew that these wolves had trespassed into her wolf's territory without permission. She smelled the fresh blood that lingered in the air, and she knew her wolf had fought for her territory before she fled. She knew that she would be doomed if she stayed.

Her fingers brushed the cave walls, and she was haunted by the flashes of fighting and growls that echoed in the cave. She saw the way her wolf had fought against five, no, six, wolves. How her wolf's claws scratched at the unwanted trespassers, but she also knew that her wolf sustained injuries of her own. The stench of blood compelled her to exit the cave and find her injured wolf.

She felt the wind rage as she walked out of the cave, it threatened to lift her up and throw her far across the plains, and she became concerned, sensing the rage of the storm coming.

Her wolf was a rogue in the pack's eye, and for a specific time, she would have to try everything in her power to escape the death her pack members wanted. They had been deceived and betrayed by one of their own, and they didn't care if she was a pack member, her wolf had brought shame to the pack, and they wanted her blood.

The thunderstorm was still going strong, and it got colder with every second that passed. The wind fought hard against her body, and she realised that the storm was just part of the shun; it echoed the destruction and hunger for blood in the pack. It started pouring hard, and she felt the hail rocks hitting hard against her skin.

The ground soaked up the water and became muddy, which made it difficult for her to continue moving forward. Her clothes were drenched, and she felt how heavy they felt on her, and she thought how heavy the fur on her wolf must be when drenched.

Valeria could barely see through the downpour, and as she moved through the woods, her feet felt heavy and her eyelids were drooping from the exhaustion that had finally caught up with her.

She walked mindlessly around the plains without a sense of direction as to where her wolf could be. The more she walked, the more the rain became heavier, and the thunderstorm grew more violent. She was blind in the dark and had no choice but to turn to her wolf emotions to try and feel how close she was.

The mud clung to her feet as it immobilised her, and she quickly felt as if she was sinking in it. The dirt felt nice against her skin, and it was a nice change from the thrashing, harsh wind.

It felt like a blanket had been wrapped across her legs and hips, she was sinking, and she felt safe and secure. She was oblivious to the raging thunderstorm.

Valeria had walked straight into an enchanted mud pit that soothed tormented souls, and her heartbeat was thrashing at her flesh, but she couldn't hear it. She felt hollow and light as if she were at ease.

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