Veritas

Chapter 8

Aislinn clung to her mother's fur as the she-wolf zipped through the forest, weaving through the trees effortlessly. The rogue on their trail, as Aislinn could see when looking back over her shoulder, was not so light on its feet. Before long, they had completely lost him, and the two were left to assume he'd given up.

"I hope my wolf is as fast as you" Aislinn said quietly to her mother, once they'd stopped by a stream for a rest.

Daisy had shifted back to her human form, and gave her daughter a tired smile. "She'll no doubt be as fast as Emese, and as strong as Axel. You will be an amazing warrior."

The mention of Axel brought a sad silence on between the two. It had been three weeks since they'd been chased from their home, and forced to leave everything they knew behind. They weren't even able to hold a proper funeral or burial for JJ, since his body was still back at the pack. Still, they did their best to have a makeshift service for themselves to honour his memory, and say goodbye.

Ever since, though, they'd mostly been on the run. They did stop at some human cities or towns every now and then to stock up on supplies where they could. Unfortunately, most human areas were also linked to witches, which made it tricky for uninvited wolves to remain in them for long. Due to this, it was often a quick trip in to steal some food before making a run for it again.

Daisy knew it was a big risk to even steal from humans who were protected by a coven, since that coven could retaliate on the wolves. Still, she hoped that if they took small enough amounts of things that they'd be ignored; and, until now, that had been the case. They'd been fortunate in that regard.

Their misfortune came from the constant threat of rogues finding them. Female wolves with a pup were often seen as easy prey, so the couple had been routinely attacked by rogues since they'd been on the run. And while Aislinn was an excellent fighter for her age, she was more often than not a distraction for Daisy if she joined the fray. Due to this, she was usually forced to climb a tree to safety and watch her mother defend them.

"Alright, let's go munchkin. We should find a place to set up for the night" Daisy said tiredly, looking up at the sky. It hadn't quite reached sunset, yet, but the rogues seemed to become even more persistent at night. Werewolves were, after all, strongest under Selene's watchful gaze at night; so, it made sense. Still, it was safest to travel by day, leaving little choice but to hide at night.

"Okay, mom...But why do we keep leaving the safe places we find?" Aislinn asked.

"There are a few reasons" Daisy replied patiently. "One is that the longer we stay in one place, the stronger our scent will be there, and the bigger the target will be on our backs...And two, we are going to the Royal Pack. What happened to us is wrong, and I am going to make sure that Alpha Waters answers to the King for what he's done."

Aislinn nodded in understanding, but looked a bit nervous.

Daisy placed a hand on her daughter's shoulders and knelt down to be eye level with her. She knew Aislinn was still feeling guilty about her father's death, and their banishment. "Hey, don't be nervous. What the Alpha said was all lies, and I'm going to make sure the King knows that. You and I did nothing wrong, do you hear me? And if it wasn't for your dream...I think a lot more people would have died that night. You saved lives, sweetie. Remember that" she encouraged, pulling Aislinn in for a hug.

Aislinn hugged Daisy back fiercely, holding back her tears. The guilt followed her, plagued her really, and she had nightmares almost every night now. It was wearing on her, but she knew it wore her mother down too, and that added to her guilt. She just felt like a burden all around.

"I love you, sweetheart" Daisy said, kissing the side of her head.

"I love you, too, mom" Aislinn replied with a wavering voice.

Daisy let go of her daughter and went to stand up, but froze mid-crouch as she listened to the quiet of the forest. Her eyes widened, as she realized it was too quiet. She'd been so focused on her daughter that she'd stupidly let her guard down. She shoved Aislinn away so that she could shift, but at that exact moment a rogue launched itself at the two.

Aislinn fell back to the ground, her training kicking in so she rolled with the landing and got back to her feet. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw her mother mid-shift, with the rogue on top of her.

Daisy was able to shift near-instantly most of the time, but the exhaustion of the past three weeks was taking its toll. She'd been able to shift almost entirely by the time the rogue hit her, but he was still able to do quite a bit of damage to her shoulder. By the time she had shifted fully, and snapped her jaws at the rogue to make it jump away, she was in a lot of trouble.

Her front right shoulder had a large chunk taken out of it, making it impossible for her to put weight on it. Just like her sluggish shift, her healing was sluggish too. She figured that all she had to do to survive this was to buy herself some time. If she circled the rogue a few times, and played her injury even more heavily than it was, maybe she'd make it out of this.

Just as the thought passed through her mind, though, the rogue turned its back on her to focus on Aislinn.

"Run, Aislinn! Up a tree!" Daisy screamed at her daughter, and attempted to jump at the rogue. She was too slow, and too injured for a strong push-off, though, and the rogue had already pounced towards her daughter.

Aislinn's eyes widened at first, but she remembered her training and instead of fleeing, she ran at the rogue. This caused the rogue to falter for a moment, since it was expecting her to cower and try to escape. Aislinn took the moment of confusion to dive under the rogue and punch its soft underbelly with all her might.

The rogue was shocked by the attack and jumped away to reassess the situation, although Aislinn's hit didn't do as much damage as she'd hoped. Still, she now stood between her mother and the rogue, and decided she had to protect her.

"Don't worry, mom. I can buy you time to heal!" She assured Daisy.

"Don't be a fool, Aislinn! Get to safety, I can handle this" Daisy ordered, terrified for her child. She limped forward, intent on pushing Aislinn behind her. The attempt to launch herself at the rogue earlier had actually damaged her front shoulder even more, so she knew she'd have to fight on three paws.

"I won't let you die because of me" Aislinn replied with determination, pulling out a small make-shift knife that she'd made from a sharp rock. She ran at the rogue again, not wanting to let her mother reach her.

By this time, the rogue seemed to determine that it had the upper hand, so it was worth the trouble to stay and fight. It let out a snarl as it charged at Aislinn again to meet her own charge.

Aislinn dodged to the side quickly, turning to skid in the dirt and launch her blade into the side of the rogue in an effort to slice through its entire side. Instead, her blade sunk into the wolf's skin and stuck there, causing her a moment of confusion.

The stab enraged the rogue, and it took the moment of confusion to twist towards Aislinn. It bit down on her, teeth sinking into her shoulder and down to her bellybutton, with the clear intention of ripping her in half.

The pain was unbelievable, second only to the pain of losing her father, and it took her breath away. Although, she soon realized it might be the blood that suddenly came up her throat, as her scream of agony came out garbled with blood dripping from her lips. Stars smattered her vision, and she could do nothing but hope that she at least bought her mom enough time to survive. She could hear her mother screaming her name in her head; but, she couldn't bring herself to respond.

The next thing she knew, she was dropped to the ground and landed hard. The pain barely registered, as she tried to continue breathing enough air to stay alive. The edges of her vision darkened as her consciousness wavered, but she remained aware enough to understand that her mother was now fighting the rogue.

Aislinn could no longer keep her eyes open, letting her lids flutter shut. With a fresh wave of agony suddenly ripping through her, she determined that this was where she was going to die, and embraced the darkness to escape the pain.