Revenge of the Luna Queen

Chapter 25

"Where are you going?" Fide called out to them.

"To get my baby." Aislinn replied without stopping or turning.

"You said the Princess does not have a pup." Fide said questioningly. His long legs helping him to close the distance between them quickly. Aislinn's injuries and tiredness hampering her own efforts to hurry through the thick brush.

"Hulk. Hulk. Hulk. So much to learn." Ciera said glancing over her shoulder at the Alpha, then turning back to look at Aislinn. "You do realize were walking towards the people who just tried to kill us."

"Your point?" Aislinn asked, pushing a branch out of her way and ducking underneath another.

"Well, that perhaps we should be going in the other direction? You know, away from the bloodthirsty morons?"

"I told you I'm not leaving her there in the woods."

"Aislinn!" Ciera snapped, her hand grabbing Aislinn's sleeve forcing her to stop. Anger flaring Aislinn spun on her heel, her eyes snapping dangerously as she pinned the girl down with her steely gaze. "Yes Ciera?"

Holding her ground Ciera stiffened her spine meeting the Queen's stare head on. "You can't go back."

"Are you with me, or are you not?" Aislinn demanded her face giving away nothing.

Ciera's eyes widened in surprise and hurt. A sigh escaping her lips as her hand fell from where it had grabbed her sleeve. "You know I am." She said weakly, her eyes opening slowly a final desperate attempt to try and convince Aislinn of the madness of her plan shining brightly.

Ignoring the look, Aislinn nodded once before turning back to the trail that would lead her to the den of those looking to kill her.

"I do not understand." Came Fide's deep voice from behind them. His footfalls heavy as he moved to catch up once more with Ciera as she trailed after the stubborn Queen. "It's okay Hulk, neither do I." Ciera's words were met with a look of pure confusion which she resignedly waved off.

.

.

Aislinn loved the feeling of the car accelerating under her. The power and the contained destructiveness that sat just beneath her fingertips. The way it responded to her commands. The slightest touch from her earning an instant response. The lethal combination of speed and strength melded together into machine of metal and steel that at her discretion could become a weapon at the drop of a hat.

The dark night sailed past them, the trees blurring together as they glided down the deserted streets. The shadows were deep and thick, the light from the moon not strong enough to penetrate the thickest of them.

Aislinn tuned out the bickering from her two passengers. The calm steady stoic sounds of Alpha Fide from the backseat competing against the bubbly chatter of Ciera in the passenger seat. Glancing in the rearview mirror she internally breathed a sigh of relief as she took in Kio curled in the back seat his little black nose peeking out as he slept peacefully.

She still hadn't felt her wolf. Not a stirring. Not a whimper. Nothing. Not even when she was about to die. She had felt the life draining from her as that council wolf's hands had been circled around her neck. Pressing harder and harder against her windpipe, cutting off her airway. Her lungs screaming out for oxygen, and yet at the moment when her wolf should have exploded forth, pure unrestrained survival and primal instinct taking over, there had been nothing but complete dead silence.

Aislinn had to beat back the bubbling panic she felt as she probed against the silent and empty corner of her mind and soul.

Driving had always been her outlet, a time when she could feel free. The few rare moments she had been able to carve out of her existence where the horrors of her past and the weight of her future were able to ease off just a touch. For the five years that she had stayed hidden in the academy, it had only been her rushed weekend and day trips to the city and her extravagant but not always necessarily legal car rides that had broken up the monotony, and had eased the maddening feel of never being able to shift. The feel of flying over the pavement. Of pushing so close to the edge, of being so close to completely out of control, a humming beast exploding beneath her, would quiet the itching constricted feeling that made her feel like her skin was too tight. She could breathe as she hurtled through the dark and over the miles. Relaxing around the hair-pin turns and soaring over the hills. She would drive for hours, her mind floating in a sea of nothingness as she imagined herself falling into one of her rare fantasies. A dream of just never stopping would circle around her. A picture of never turning around. Leaving it all behind and just driving forever.