The True One

Chapter 35

Flora mumbled under her breath, "please be all right," and I wondered if she was referring to her mother or to herself.

We continued, but it felt like we made no progress. The moonless night disorientated me. Light from Alek's flashlight and our phones helped little to cut through the darkness. Even my wolf vision had its limits. I came to a standstill, both me and my wolf self, sniffing the air beyond our line of sight.

A whiff of rot raised my hackles. I bared my fangs and growled. Everyone stopped. Flora stared with wide eyes at me, a huge wolf in an attack stance. Alek ignored everything except his phone.

"We're here," he said, kicking at the dusty road like he might bully it into answering why Norvin had picked this spot. "What the hell?"

What the hell, indeed.

"Werewolves," I whispered to him. "Chip, and at least four others. Maybe more than that. They're almost here."

He nodded. As nervous as he must have been, he was keeping his shit together. "Flora, stay close to us. Backs together so we all face a different direction. Remember, they want us alive."

"Are we sure about that?" Flora's voice cracked. She moved in close. "Shouldn't we at least try to escape?"

"Can you run faster than a wolf?" I asked her. I placed a trembling hand on top of her arm. "It'll be okay."

The werewolves closed in. I growled again, circling the humans. We were outnumbered, facing an enemy we could not see, and uncertain what would happen next.

"Get ready," I said.

A howl rang out.

My wolf self turned to face the first of them.

Chip.

His snarling muzzle appeared out of the darkness as Alek's flashlight illuminated it.

"Verity, get back!" he said, his arm jutting out in front of my human body, but it was my wolf that he was focused on.

There was no time for retreat. Chip lunged. I screamed and yelped from both of my voices as his teeth dug into the flesh of my neck.

"Oh my God, Verity!" Pulling off her silk scarf, Flora pressed it against the bite that had formed on my hairless human neck. "Alek, do something. He's going to kill her!"

She's wrong. I'm not going to kill you. I would never! Chip's voice echoed through my consciousness. You're still my mate Verity, even if you aren't... quite right.

I'm the one who's not quite right? The nerve of that idiot.

Alek tossed his phone to the ground, freeing up a hand to unholster his gun.

"Not that!" I scream at him. Warm liquid coated Flora's scarf and dripped down my chest. It made me woozy, but I was still coherent enough to know Alek with a gun was a bad idea. "If you shoot the wrong wolf, I'm toast."

My wolf struggled underneath Chip's weight. He unclamped his jaw from my neck as if that proved he, a werewolf, was perfectly sane.

Alek stepped forward to either kick at Chip or get a chance at a better shot. This time it was me who placed an arm in front of him to prevent him from moving. "They're all here now."

The rest of Chip's pack, six werewolves, emerged from the darkness. As if we weren't screwed already...

"I'm sorry," I said to Flora, then turn to Alek. This might be the end of all three of us. "To you too."

Alek frowned. A jolt of emotion rolled through me and there was no mistaking who it came from. "You're sorry? Verity—"

It was all too much for me now. The blood loss, the world in shadows, Alek's despair raining down on me. As I swayed, I felt another pain, this time a prick on the opposite side of my neck from where Chip had bitten me. I looked to my wolf, but Chip had already backed away.

"The fuck is happening?" Flora said before collapsing next to me.

"Flora!" I screamed, wanting to reach a hand out to her, but the world continued to spin while I stood still, willing myself not to vomit.

"Humans." Alek turned around several times, trying to assess what was happening. He took a shot into the trees. "Aurum Venari hunters. They have darts."

That's what happened then: I'd been shot with a dart and was about to faint. Or was my wolf the one who was shot, and I was feeling the effects. I tried to bring an arm up to my neck, but my limbs refused to move when I commanded them to.

Using the last of my resolve, I attempted to collect my wolf back into my head only to find that my mind had become like my limbs. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to, except gravity.

Gravity worked perfectly.

I dropped to the earth. As everything shut off—my body, my brain—Alek's voice cut through the oblivion. It was his words that I carried into the darkness. His words that battled with unconsciousness. His words that, if I ever woke up from this, would be the first thing I'd think of.

"This wasn't part of the plan, Assholes!"

____

Author's Note: I hope reading this chapter was as intense an experience as writing it was! 

Did Verity collect her wolf or have they been separated? Why did Alek say that at the end of the chapter? Is he a traitor? 

We'll find out the answers to these questions, and so much more in the coming chapters!

XOXOXO