Amber's pov
How many times can you almost get your best friend killed, and they'd stop wanting to be your friend?
Not that long ago, I was sitting in our medical facility, praying to our Goddess not to let Azariah die. I remember thinking this exact question and hoping it was more than one. Looks like I needed to add to that number.
She wasn't just my best friend. She was my first. Sure, I've made other friends since then, but I might not have if she didn't come plowing into my life. And how do I repay her? I send her into danger, knowing full well what the outcome might be.
My biggest worry was that they'd get discovered and possibly captured. Which is bad enough on its own. But for her to get crushed, by hundreds of pounds of dirt and old rotting wood that was placed there many years ago. Well, that's an entirely different outcome, and a worse one, too.
I told them the damn thing could cave in. I also told them to look for the opening on a hill side. The fact that Jess fell into the opening should have told them all they needed to know. Whoever built that thing was not the brightest bulb out there.
Did they listen to me? No, no, they did not. The pair of them just had to explore to see where it led to. I already told them where it led to. The cabins at the back of the old boot camps property. Why did they feel the need to see it with their own eyes?
"Azariah! Answer me for fuck sakes," I mind link again. For at least the hundreth time. "Answer me!"
My wolf, Raeh, and I pace around the break room at the office building, anxiety festering within us. I was moments away from charging up there myself and digging her out with my bare hands. Now, that might not be a bad idea.
"Jared, Adler? What's taking so long?" I snarl at them.
"We're not sure how far in she is," Jared answers me.
How fucking hard can this be? Look for the spot where the ground appears to be sunken in. Or follow the smell of freshly disturbed dirt. Did nobody besides myself use their damn brain around here?
I race out of the small room, and down the hall to the main door. Azariah's oxygen was about to run out, if it already hasn't. Leaving her rescue up to those fools was no longer a choice. Thankfully the door to exit this place was a push or pull, and didn't rely on having to twist a knob. Raeh is pretty spectacular, but that's one feat I'm not sure she can pull off with just her teeth.
Once our paws hit the cement steps outside, we push our legs into a full out run. With no thought or plan on how I was going to get there, besides running, really fast, I make my way to the northwest part of the woods. If my calculations were correct, it was going to take me a solid twenty minutes running at this speed. It should have occured to me that if she wasn't out by then, I would be pulling her dead body out of that tunnel. Not my alive, healthy and sarcastic best friend.
"You better still be digging," I yell at them as I pass the outskirts of my pack. Jared assures me they are, while two of the wolf guards follow me off the pack lands.
"Luna Amber, where are you going?" One of them questions me.
"To rescue the damn Beta. Either join me, or go home," Neither one tries to get in my way, but it's clear they don't know which path to take.
They were obligated to keep the pack safe, but as Luna, their obligated to protect me as well. I continue running full tilt, with only one goal in mind. If I were to stop for even the briefest of seconds, it could cost Azariah her life. My prior thinking about her not lasting twenty minutes long forgotten.
"Azariah! You miserable bitch, answer me. There's no way a little bit of dirt has you rendered speechless." If my begging her wouldn't work, then it would stand to reason I should try another approach. "Just eat it for fuck sakes."
No matter how hard I try to break through to her mind, I only receive silence from her end. Sorta like when your in the middle of giving somebody a piece of your mind and they hang up the phone on you, but your not aware that they have. So you keep on talking away, making a bigger and bigger fool of yourself.
Staying within the cover of the woods, I remember to keep to the far left of the Bloodmoon pack. Their guards wouldn't recognize me, and I might end up getting my ass shot. It could be with a simple tranquilizer, or perhaps something more. No matter which one, I wasn't inclined to be finding out.
The two guards who were tailing me, keep up the fast pace I was setting. I guess they must have decided I was the priority, considering I was alone, and the pack had plenty of guards still patrolling. It's times like this that I wish the Moon Goddess gave all the packs the ability to mind link each other. It would be helpful if I could cut straight through Bloodmoon pack, and veer around the east side of the boot camp. The river runs on that side, and the sounds of it flowing downstream would mask the sounds our paws were making on the ground.
Raeh was panting hard, only at the halfway mark. This wasn't good. She usually had more stamina than this.
Are you forgetting that our body is expending most of its energy to grow two pups? Your barely eating enough to sustain all four of us.
Shit, my pups. I didn't even take that into consideration when I threw caution to the wind and came running out here half cocked. I quickly block my thoughts from the others, so nobody accidentally overhears us.
"Raeh, are they okay?"
I'm not sure if I should be insulted, or proud that you care about their safety. Anyways, my body is perfectly capable of keeping them safe you know.
Hypothetically, I knew it was safe for me to shift and go for a run while pregnant. But since I couldn't currently feel my body, because it had given up its position to my wolf form, I was worried. I have read lots of medical books that talk about how the shift works while carrying a pup, and the benefits of doing so later in the pregnancy to take pressure off our human forms back. Raeh could run about, or roll around in the grass, and it wouldn't hurt them in the slightest. Now if I were to try rolling around when I was at full term, it would be challenging to get my ass back to a standing position.
In the middle of our private conversation, Raeh stops dead in her tracks. Her head whips side to side, as she inhales deeply through her snout. Each one of the guards stops beside us. As they box me in, they too smell the air.
Sour milk, or rotting garbage. Either way, it's the same smell the injected wolves carry. What do we do?
Once we pinpoint the direction it's coming from, dread sinks into our belly. Bloodmoon! They were under attack. Malcomb must have used the exchange between Jace and Xavier as a distraction so he could go after another pack. With all of our guards either with them, or back home protecting our boarders, there was nobody to spare.
And that prick knew it.
"Luna, if we run in that direction to offer aid, they'll think we're with the drugged wolves and attempt to take us down as well. We need to get you back on our pack lands, where you'll be safe." One of them breaks through the block I put up. I guess in this extreme situation, I let my guard down.
"We can't just leave them without helping. One of you guys needs to run home and sound the alarm. Let the others know what's happening. Call Micah." When neither of them moves, I'm left having to make it an order. "NOW" I holler at them.
Reluctantly, one of them leaves. Now the only question, is what do we do. Continue on to Azariah, or head to Bloodmoon and help them?
There's nothing to debate. We're not going anywhere near that place. I won't risk our pups. Lets get to Azariah, then get the hell out of here.
It may sound terrible of me, but Azariah's life was more important than everyone else at that pack. A pack that refused to help us during this crisis I might add. Guilt consumes me as I slowly start making my way in the direction we were originally heading in. Alpha Tony and Fenris might have been to chicken to fight, but their mates were not.
I have to hope that our pack will send help to them. Although, if the attack was already happening, it would be long over before they got there.
Opening my mind to all of our pack who was in wolf form, I try and get them help immediately. "Hello? Who's out here?"
"Amber! What in the hell," Micah's voice rings in my head.
"Where are you?" I ask him. Or more importatntly, "Why are you shifted?"
"I'm with Jace, we just arrived to help Azariah. Please tell me your still at the office." He frantically asks.
"Umm, that would be a no. I was heading out there myself to dig her out. But we have a bigger problem. From the way it smells where I am, Bloodmoon is under attack."
"For fuck sakes!" He growls. "Jace, I gotta go get Amber. Adler, Jared, help him dig her out, I'm going to my mate. Amber, you need to stay put, or turn around. Do not, I repeat, do NOT go to Bloodmoon."
I can almost physically feel his desperation to get me back to safety. Here I was, somewhere close to the left side of Bloodmoon, and not that far from my original destination. My desperation to find and rescue Azariah was still outweighing common sense.
"Don't you order me around. I want her out of that tunnel this minute. And I'm not going anywhere until she's safe. I'm heading that way." I try sounding firm, to let him know his bossy attitude wasn't going to work on me.
"Jace will get her out. Please Amber, for the love of all that's holy, don't come any closer."
Sometime during this argument, I managed to take myself off my original course. The smell of rot is stronger than before, and the guard that was with me starts to growl low in his throat. He makes circles around me, in a protective manner. Turning and running was probably not the best idea. If there was a drugged wolf close to us, they'd still have that instinct to give chase to something that was trying to run away.
When the growling gets louder, I realize it's not coming from my guard. "Luna, I'll hold it off, you need to run." He tells me.
The crazed wolf steps into my line of sight, causing my heart to skip a beat. This was a level of agitation I've not seen before. How was it even possible for these things to appear more pissed off than the last batch we went up against?
It lunges straight for us without warning. My guard puts himself between the jacked up wolf and myself. My eyes have a hard time tracking their movements. Dark blobs of fur roll across the ground, the pair of them blending into one. With the amount of blood thats flying around them my guard doesn't stand a chance against this thing. This death was on my shoulders. He wouldn't have been out here if it wasn't for me.
Normally, I wouldn't even consider getting into a fight, let alone with a crazy fucker who was hell bent on destruction. But an opportunity presented itself, and I was desperate to help my guard. They roll close to where Raeh stood, the crazy one on top, trying it's hardest to get to the guards throat.
Raeh jumps at the moment the wolf rears his head back, aiming for it's throat before he can do the same to the wolf underneath him. She locks onto the fur of his neck,and swings her head back and forth like an excited puppy playing with it's favorite toy. She manages to pull it off of the guard, but it won't go down so easily. He throws his weight into us, hoping that we lose our hold on him. Raeh clamps her teeth in harder, the taste of his blood finally hitting her tongue. She rips her head to the side one more time, pulling his fur and skin with her.
He lands on top of us, still snarling like he didn't just have a large chunk of his throat removed. My guard finally recovers enough that he jumps on the wolfs back, not considering that my poor body had to now hold both of their weight. From behind, he grabs the scruff of the crazy wolf, and pulls him off of me, pinning him to the ground.
"He'll bleed out eventually, so I'm just going to try and hold him here. You need to run Luna. Please." He tells me.
"What's your name?" Thinking about him as just my guard, seems wrong. I probably should have asked long ago.
He hesitates for a moment before answering."Luna Amber, it's me, Greg."
Rolling over to get myself into a standing position, I wobble when getting up. Looking at the one who has followed me this entire time, I'm momentarily frozen in shock.
Greg.
Aka, one of Mike's friends who participated in tormenting me back in high school. I haven't given his friends any thought in so long, it was like they disappeared. Hearing his name brings back memories I'd much rather forget. Besides him, there was still two more in that circle that used to harrass me. Daily.
For the moment, I need to push my personal feeling aside for this male. "Right. Umm, Greg, it usually takes a drugged wolf anywhere from one to three hours to lose it's steam. Holding it down probably won't work."
Greg still had it by the back of the neck, and was using his body weight to keep it down, but that wouldn't hold him for very long. Once it starts thrashing around, it would buck him off like one of those mechanical bull rides you see in bars.
Before I can come up with any creative solutions, Raeh starts drooling all over the ground. Our legs get a bit wobbly, so she sits us on our ass, and tries to get her bearings.
"Luna, it might just be the adrenaline rush, but something about this wolfs blood looks and smells off."
I follow where his eyes were looking, and see a large pool of blood that had seeped out from its neck. Raeh gets up and takes a few steps towards it so I can get a better look. I glance at the drugged wolves face, and notice that its eyes had glossed over, with no sign of life left in it. Its tongue was hanging out as well, and while thats not weird, the color of it was.
"Greg, let it go. Get away from it, NOW!" He scrambles off of him, while looking in every direction thinking another threat was coming at us.
The puddle that was in front of the wolf, was more brown in color than red. Which happened to match its tongue. I try to push past the smell of rot, and figure out if my theory is correct. For starters, the wolf died way to fast. Greg and I put together shouldn't have been able to kill it. On top of that, its blood was the wrong color, and didn't carry that coppery smell, but instead, there was a distinct smell that all werewolves know. Or should know, cause it's one of the few things that can poison us.
Wolfsbane. Or Aconitum napellus if you wanted to get technical. I'm willing to bet most wolves don't know its real name, and I don't have the time nor the patience to educate them on the matter.
Small doses of it would cause our kind to get sick, sometimes severly sick. A medium dose could put us in a coma, or cause permanent damage like the loss of fine motor skills. Large doses would straight up kill us. When I say small, I mean a drop or two. Large would be about the size of a tablespoon. Depending on the concentration levels in this wolves blood, would determine ones fate.
I get close enough to look at the wolfs neck, so I could determine if the blood was brown when it exited the body, or if that happened once it was out in the air.
"Luna," Gregs voice comes out choppy, and surprisingly, in his human tone. When I look over at him, he had shifted back to human, and was currently on his hands and knees vomiting his guts out. Somehow, I'm losing track of time. My head feels like I've been spinning in circles. Walking a straight line was a chore, and we were on four legs.
"Micah!" I scream through the link. "Contact our pack, now. The drugged wolves are poisoned. Anyone coming into contact with their blood is in danger. My guard is down, we need a medical team out here."
"What? Why is your guard down?" He screams into my mind.
"We were attacked." As I say the word 'we' it dawns on me that some of this wolves blood got into my mouth.
Raeh's body is trying to fight the poison with our first defense. Drooling. But that wasn't going to cut it. The blood hit my tongue, and would have been instantly absorbed.
Greg was wretching so bad I don't know how he's going to make it till we get home. "Greg needs a blood transfusion, and he needs it like five minutes ago." Even as I say this, I know he won't make it that long. He had his teeth sunk into that thing multiple times.
"I've mind linked the guards at our pack. They are going to inform our medics, get the doctor,and send out help. They'll also contact Bloodmoon and Ambersy. I hope Finn has some muscle he can spare. I'm one minute away Amber, hold tight."
Raeh, shift. I'll try to expell this shit from our body. She does as asked, making this our fastest shift ever. It took less than fifteen seconds for our entire bodies bones to break, then realign back while our fur receeded. I'd say that doing it that fast wasn't good on our pups, but the poison currently outranked a fast shift.
I mimic Greg's pose and end up on all fours, trying to convince myself to puke. Now that I'm back in control, the foggy brain and stomach cramps have amplified tenfold. There was a metalic taste in my mouth that didn't belong to the wolfsbane. Not that I've tasted it before to compare, but from what I've read, it has a bitter taste.
What in the actual fuck was going on here?
Forgetting that I was in the middle of inspecting the wolfs injury, I look back over to its neck. The blood was definitely coming out brown, meaning the wolfsbane was injected prior to the shift, but that wasn't what concerned me most. It was the blackened area around the wound. There's only one thing that causes wounds edges to turn black.
Silver.
The problem here, was that silver would do that if the wound was inflicted by silver. Could it do that if it was put into our system prior to being cut by something else? If my eyes were seeing this correctly, then the answer is yes. Unless mine and Greg's teeth were made of silver and we somehow didn't notice.
My stomach rolls around faster and faster with this new revelation. It would appear Malcomb concocted a deadly serum to inject into these things to add to the good times they brought with them. What this potentially means, is that anyone who tries to stop them from the path of destruction they were on, would likely die themselves.
I pray to the Goddess that I'm wrong.
"Hang on Greg, help is on the way," I tell him while he continues to puke.
Moments later, Kihe comes crashing through the woods none to quietly, and stops a foot in front of me. His wet nose attempts to brush my hair out of my face as I start to dry heave. I can't even look up at him, so he steps back and starts to shift as well.
The cramping in my stomach kicks up a notch, then finally agrees to rid our body of what was in there. Poor Micah takes control of his body to sight of me heaving up everything I've eaten in what seems like the last couple weeks. He rushes over and holds my hair back with one hand, and rubs my lower back with the other.
"Why are you sick? Did it bite you? Are you hurt?" He fires question after question, not giving me time to answer any of them.
Shaking my head no, to what I believe was his second question, "I....bit.." Quick pause to puke some more, "the wolf. It was going to kill Greg." And...back to puking.
"Its blood got in your mouth?" The panic in Micah's voice is enough for the both of us. I shake my head yes, then fold my body in half while holding my stomach through another round of cramps.
"Don't let them burn the wolf. I need blood samples from it." My brain tries to make a come back from it's foggy state. I was going to need to be certain of what it was given.
The sound of engines, then doors slamming shut makes me jerk my head in that direction. "They're here. Come on Amber, put your arms around my neck." He hooks his arm under my arms, and attempts to lift me off the ground.
"The road is to far away. What if that's Malcomb dropping off more cannon fodder? " I slap his hands away, stopping him from picking me up.
"I don't know where you think you got to, but the spot that we took Jace to earlier is just a couple minutes down the road. But if somehow that's Malcomb, this will be his last night on earth." He informs me.
Shit. I really did take us off course. My sense of smell was currently broken, because Micah tells me exactly who was here to retreive us. All I could smell was the wolfsbane, and barf. Some of it mine. "Greg, they're here." When I turn to speak with him, he's face down in a pool of his own vomit. His body is curled into itself, but there is no sign of movement.
"Micah! Help him," I try to get up and go to him myself, but he stops me. The rational part of me knew it was to late, but I still felt the need to try and save his life.
"Amber, he's gone. Now come on, we need to get you medical attention." This time he grabs me like I weigh nothing, and lifts me off the ground. "You didn't injest that much. You're going to be just fine, okay." I'm not entirely sure who he's trying to convince, me or him.
What I do know, is fine wasn't the word I'd use. For the first time in my life, I couldn't care less that I was completely naked, being carried through the woods by an equally naked male. Even when the other males come running into the woods, I still couldn't care less. Between sweating, cramping and vomiting, my shame couldn't find its way through.
Just as were seconds away from the truck, my mouth makes a decision my brain didn't agree to. "Ya I'll probably be fine," I start crying, "But they might not be."
Micah freezes on the spot, "Who's they?" My poor mate was so confused he starts looking all around us. This wasn't the way this was supposed to happen, but if we get to the medical building, and I'm unconscious, Micah will have to make decisions regarding my care for me. Then, he'll hear about our pregnancy from someone else, like doctor Zucca.
I put one hand protectively over my stomach. "Our pups." No sooner does those words leave my mouth, and I have to lean over his arm and vomit some more. Micah starts barking out orders, car doors were slamming closed, and my whole world was spinning off its axils.
Everyone in the car was frantic. The person behind the wheel most of all. The truck feels like it's being driven by someone who was to short to see over the wheel and was just winging it. The side to side motion, along with the uneven road, has me picking my head off of Micah's lap, and puking near his feet. Or maybe on his feet, I honestly have no clue.
When the coast is clear, I place my sweaty face back on his lap. One of the guards tosses his shirt back to us, and Micah helps put it on me. I guess he was more worried about my nudity than I was.
Once he wrestles me into it, Micah leans down and whispers in my ear. "Did you say pups? As in, more than one?"