If Only

8. Emily

"Emily. Sweetheart, please open your eyes. Please." Cool liquid flows down my face, catching on the broken skin, the dull ache nothing compared to the pain burning in my leg, or the numbness around my ribs. "Emily, baby. Please. Goddess, please give her back to me. Please." My eyes crack open, meeting Maggie's warm brown eyes. I can't talk, my breathing is shallow, and I can't breathe. I can't move. My eyes plead with Maggie, begging her to tell me what happened. My jaw shakes, but I can't speak.

"Sweetheart, you're ok. You're just banged up, everywhere. Oh baby girl, don't try to talk, ok. You've been out for days. I feared you had gone to the moon with our Goddess. But you're awake, and I know you're in pain. Baby, I know, but you need to leave." My eyebrows furrow, the one part of my body that seemed to be moving.

Leave?

I can't even move.

How would I leave?

"Emily, darling. You can't stay, baby; if you stay, your father will kill you. I should have made you leave when he started trying to marry you off to all those men, but love, that man, that Alpha. You'll be safe; I saw the love in his eyes. He will protect you. Get to him, baby, I know."

Silent tears fell. I can't leave. I need to stay with Maggie. I can't go even if I wanted to. I can't walk, my leg feels like it's not even attached to my body anymore, and I can't breathe. Every breath sends shockwaves through my body.

Her fingers run down my cheek, "baby. I know. But you can't stay here. You will die here. It's a two-day run, shift, and run. If anyone can do it, it's you. You take all that stubbornness from your momma, and you run. That Alpha will heal you up when you get to him. Just get there, baby. Your momma would be ashamed of your father, I know it. I know she is up there with our Goddess waiting until his day, and she'll kill him again." Maggie cries, and my head shakes gently. I can't. "Emily, baby. You have to. He will kill you. Sweetheart, do you hear me? You have to."

My head shakes again, my eyes heavy, pulling me back under the darkness.

"Emily Faye, no. Baby girl, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Taylor, help me get her up." Arms grip my forearms, and another set wraps around my chest, pulling a cry from my throat, clinging to Maggie like a newborn, but I'm up. "Now, shift, and run. Don't look back; you hear me. Don't stop until you get to him. I know you know the way, you follow the river, follow his scent and you'll get there." My head shakes, my jaw shakes, I can't. Everything hurts. "You have to." Heat builds in my eyes, I try to force it back, but I'm too weak, too broken.

Growls pour from my throat as I crumble to the floor, bones breaking and fusing back together, wrong, out of place. My other half grumbles in my mind, I know, but we stand, on three legs, limping with the broken leg barely touching the ground. My leopard's violet eyes burn through me. At the same time, Maggie runs her fingers through the white and gray peppered fur and hugs me.

"You take care. I love you so much, baby. Go. Go before he comes back."

And I run. I don't look back. We find the river and run down it, keeping close to the river bank, a two-day run broken and with death breathing down our neck?

Yeah, we can do that.