Frost

Chapter EIGHT

He might not be about to die.

Maybe they were planning on taking him alive and hauling him back to Sheira. That was a likely enough scenario. After all, she wanted her Gift back, right? And from what he understood they couldn't just kill him to take it. Just steal some of his blood... but he was useless now. And they knew it. So maybe they didn't know about the Gift. He should still try and run back to the ward. They couldn't get past it and if he didn't get back, if they took him at all Gabby would come looking for him. His stomach knotted more. If they didn't leave now and he was still caught it would delay the departure. They might find her when she inevitably came clomping through the woods trying to find him. He couldn't protect her like this. They would absolutely kill her. For the first time he wished he had decided to learn just a small amount of Chemistry-

He realized they were waiting for him to talk.

Chris made sure his voice would be even before he spoke, trying to push the storm of racing thoughts away. "What do you want with me."

The four of them exchanged glances and then the one named Ivy hopped down from the fallen tree, approaching with a confident sway to her step. "What would you say if we said we wanted to help you?"

He met her eyes coldly. "I'd say that's a line. What do you really want."

"You're a Warrior originally, right?" The one called Zone asked, looking him up and down. Apparently he failed the assessment because he continued to frown. Chris had no idea what he meant. Was he referencing Rose's Gift? Was that something they could see on him? No. He'd never known about Mariah being The Lily. It wasn't something that could be sensed.

"The Lily trained me, yes."

Ivy shook her head so that her dark hair fell in her eyes. "No, we mean you were talking about Sheira. You are from the Warrior Pack."

He stared, lost in this conversation. "I don't know what that is."

"Oh yeah," Mollie nodded. "He's a Warrior alright. I bet he doesn't know much about other Packs. That was a good call, Ivy. But, Eli, see how he is alone? That's why we approached. You should-"

Chris bolted.

It was all well and good to be the subject of a teaching moment but if they were all going to be distracted and stand around talking, he was taking his chance at making it back towards the ward. He easily dodged Ivy's half-hearted attempted to snatch him and cursed his lack of shoes. Even having run around the mountains day in and out his human feet were nowhere near as tough as paws would have been running over the sticks and rocks.

He broke through the tree line and could hear they were following. Dammit. He'd hoped they'd try and shift instead and waste time. His feet hit the asphalt and he felt a great pain in the back of his calf as something smashed against it. Chris went down hard, skin sliding off his palms as he caught his fall and kept his head from cracking open on the road. Zone stood over him. A tree branch. He'd thrown a huge piece of a branch to trip him. It worked spectacularly and he felt himself being dragged quickly back into the cover of the trees with Zone cursing under his breath the whole time. Zone was big and as a human, Chris was no match for him. He allowed himself to be pulled and worked on catching his breath.

Mollie looked annoyed but Ivy seemed to find his attempt at an escape funny. "We said we were going to help you and you run away from us?"

Chris glared up at her, trying not to be too obviously distraught over his failed attempt. "You never said how you were going to help me and to be honest- none of how you behaved seems helpful. I think you mean harm, not help."