Different.

Chapter 24: A Night of Surprises

Chapter 24

A Night of Surprises

Clad in black, weapons in tow, we prowled through the woods. In the distance a wolf howled. No one talked. No one made a sound.

A chill settled in the air and in our bones while we crawled across the forest floor. Although it wasn't entirely from the cold. At least, not for me. The flames inside of me had died down since my moment of stubborn insistence back at Valerod, and now I was just nervous about doing something as important as this.

At the same time, I hadn't realized it but over my time at Valerod I had grown so accustomed to being there that coming back out above ground was somewhat of a shock. I was grateful that we came out at night, otherwise it probably would've been ten times worse.

"Wait, did you hear that?"

At the front of our group, Alex cut through the blanket of near silence and put up a hand to stop us. We paused to listen, frozen in the eerie night.

I couldn't hear anything. Alex was probably just as jumpy as I was.

"Hold on, I heard it too," Parker took a step forward with his head cocked to the side.

"What is it?" I whispered a little loudly from the back of the pack.

Alex held up a single finger to his lips and closed his eyes, focusing on trying to make out whatever sound was indistinguishable to me.

"It's two men up ahead," Came Haden's fluid voice.

"They're waiting by the entrance," Finished Hazel.

"Want me to take care of them?" Delaney grinned wolfishly, letting her spikes slip out of one of her arms.

Alex, apparently the self appointed leader, shook his head.

"Jenna, Adam, you two go up and handle it. Stay quiet, we don't know how many more of them there are."

Adam hesitated long enough to purse his lips but otherwise followed behind Jenna's retreating form without protest.

"Who died and made you king?" I moved forward to stand next to Alex and eyed him with mild irritation.

He didn't even turn his head when he gave me his curt response, "I always lead when we go on jobs. But you wouldn't know that, since you've never even been on one before."

The claws are out then, got it.

Choosing to take the high road and refrain from starting another petty argument with him, I went to go check on Jenna and Adams progress despite Alex's angry growls.

It ended up not mattering anyways, because as I pushed through the thick foliage I ended up ramming head first into a rock solid body and tumbling back into the tiny clearing the group was waiting in. The rock solid body as it turned out belonged to Adam, who fell back with me and ended up-awkwardly enough-landing directly on top of me.

"Crap," He laugh-groaned, heaving himself up onto his hands. "are you o-"

"Shut up!" Alex hissed. "Do you wanna get us caught?"

"Are you okay?" Adam mouthed, his hair falling down around his face like a dark halo in stark contrast to his pale eyes.

Stifling a laugh I mouthed back, "I'm fine."

He nodded contentedly and pulled himself up off of me, extending his hands once he was solidly on his own feet. I took them gratefully and was heaved up with a surprisingly slight amount of effort. Adam had come some way from the bag of bones he was when we first met.