A/N
So...I'm alive? 😅
• Katski•
I was bristling with more anger than I cared to admit, a sputter of varying curses leaving my lips, as sharp as the brambles I trampled upon as I tracked my way through the terrain. I couldn't care less for whatever nearby critters were unfortunate enough to bear witness to the graceless manner in which I stomped through the forest, a pair of Ethan's shoes on my feet since I didn't have any of my own.
There were stark white when I took them, but over half an hour tracking his scent through the woodlands had definitely had their effect. And maybe that was a little bit for the satisfaction of vengeance. The nerve of that damn wolf. To think he really just left like that...
And the worst thing was, I was pretty sure I knew where he was going. Or at least what he might be attempting to do.
Ethan was a lot of things, I knew—his pride one of his most definitive traits. As well as his reckless nature.
He was certain to attempt something stupid. If he hadn't already.
If he had already gotten himself in trouble, it would be all my fault. Like so much—if not all, of this was. If only I hadn't gotten him involved. If only I hadn't told him the truth all those moons ago. It hurt to think about, since it meant we would not have gotten together...Or maybe we could have made it work. Maybe, in another reality we had worked out our conflict differently, without ever having learned each other's secrets. Feeling the mating bond one-sidedly.
No, I thought with a shake of my head, small, desolate smile on my face. That wouldn't be the same at all. I loved all of him. Both sides of himself. And I could never feel right pretending with someone I love to be something I was not.
When I saw Ethan, as soon as I found him, we were going to have a very good, long chat while I dragged him by the scruff of his neck (if necessary) back to the house. His scent was getting stronger, which meant I was heading in the right direction.
I should have been paying more attention. I tripped over my own feet, in Ethan's one-size-too-big shoes, going down with an undignified squawk, seconds after I had been lost in thought, looking up at the sky like a ditz.
I groaned in dismay, knowing there wasn't a soul around to see that but embarrassed for myself nonetheless. Ethan's shoes were going to be even more dirty for sure.
I looked behind me as I pushed up, to confirm my thoughts. Then I realized I had actually tripped over something. Something in the dirt. I looked at the rope tangled around my ankle, so covered by the leaves and dirt that there was no way I would have seen it.
I stared in appall, irritated by the sole convenience that someone decided to leave their junk in the woods and the cursed coincidence that I had to cross its path. I gave it a tug, trying to pry my foot from its clutches. Then too fast, there was a sharp snap, the ground flew away from me, I think I might have screamed, and suddenly I was suspended in the air, limbs caught in more rope. A net. A trap.
"Are you kidding me?!" I roared. Of all the damn traps that could have been set up. In frustration that I did not have the patience for this, I exclaimed. "There aren't even bears in this region!"
Then I heard a laugh. A slow, vibrating laugh. Grainy like gravel and hazy like smoke. It made my blood go cold and my body freeze.
"And to think, I was actually beginning to doubt this would work."
"You..." I said, because that was all that came to mind as I stared down at the man who had tried so hard to kill me.
"You." He was smiling. "Finally. Finally got you. And this time, you won't so easily slither away."
"What do you want?! What did I ever do to you?!" I roared, shaking the net that held me in a rage. "Why won't you leave me be?!"
I thought he would howl back some story of triumph, legacy or duty. Some secret organization that hunted my kind or something of the sort. That at least would have made more sense to me than what he answered with.
"That's not the way to talk to blood, nephew."
...what?
He must have seen the look on my face because the next thing I knew, he was laughing. "Oh, how I've waited for this. You really had no idea did you?"
"No...Why don't you monologue it out for me?"
The smirk on his face twisted into a foul grimace. "Don't get smart with me kid!"
"Me? No, never."
"You little shit—that's your father's blood in you alright. That son of a bitch who cursed you mother. My sister."
What? What? What? What?
He looked up at me with a foul glare. "I bet you don't even recall her do you."
I snarled in anger. "I remember my mother! Just like I remember my father! And he did not do what you say! He would never have done anything to hurt her!"
Because he loved her, I thought. So much so that he was never really the same after she passed away. Like he had lost a part of himself.
"Of course he did! He turned her into a monster!"
"BULLSHIT!" I snapped. "My mother chose to turn! It was her choice!" she used to tell me what it had been like, how it had felt to connect to a new being of herself. She made it sound so wonderful, and she had always smiled as she stroked my hair, while my father had gazed at her like she hung the moon.
"She had lost her mind!" The man, my uncle, apparently, bellowed. "She turned into a beast and it changed her! She left our family for that animal! She had you!" The veins twitched at his temple. His hands were fists that shook at his sides. His voice lowered to a deadly growl. "She was beyond saving. I ended that creature before it could soul the memory I had of my sister any more..."
"You...you what?" I repeated slowly, the words like fog, not quite reaching my ears. Even as my heart sped up and my claws lengthened at the tips of my nails. My fangs split my lip as they grew in my rising anger, spilling blood down my chin. "YOU DID WHAT?!" I swear the trees shook.
The hunter stepped back. Hesitant. Maybe even afraid.
I did not care what he felt.
"YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!"
I had never known. My father told me it had been an accident. A freaking car accident. We buried her in a closed casket because he didn't want me to see. He had lied.
"HOW COULD YOU?" I screamed at him. "YOU TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME! YOUR OWN SISTER! HOW CAN YOU EVEN LOOK AT YOURSELF—"
"I SAVED HER!" He yelled in a rage. In a flash he had drawn a pistol from within his coat and had it aimed up at me. "I DID WHAT WAS BEST FOR HER! I SAVED HER SOUL FROM HELL FOR WHAT SHE HAD DONE!"
"BULL. SHIT!" I screamed.
"...It doesn't matter what you think." He relented with newfound steel in his eyes. "You will be taken care of soon enough. As will ever monster in this town. This is my mission. For failing to save my sister, I will eradicate all of the hell spawn from this country."
Ever other...?
Oh. Oh FUCK.
"The hell do you mean there's more monsters?" I demanded.
My uncle smirked. "Don't pay me for a fool. I know this forest is riddled with beasts. That wolf-boy was proof enough there are more of you vermin." To my horror, he withdrew something from his back and tossed it out before him. Right below me.
A dagger.
A silver dagger. Painted in blood.
Ethan's scent.
"Pity for you, he was so willing to do whatever it took to make me leave."
"You...you..."
No. No there was no way.
He killed my mother. He couldn't have taken him from me too...
I started tearing at the thick ropes, willing them to break and free me. Tears blocked my vision, I couldn't control them.
And then we heard it, making the two of us freeze.
His howl.