Are you guys losing interest in this story? Cuz I noticed how last chapter didn't have nearly as many reads as normal :/
Chapter 23-Azula's POV
It felt like poison was running through my veins. Every breath, every movement, was excruciating. My whole being was focused on the pain, on the empty hole that was slowly consuming me. I hadn’t realised how big a part of me my pack tie with Dad actually was. Now that it was gone, I was lost, an empty shell of the girl who was once good enough to be called Manu’s daughter. Who was once good enough to be part of the Saito pack.
I missed Dad. What I wouldn’t give to see his smiling face as he told me some lame, cheesy joke. To hug him one last time and tell him I loved him. To tell him how sorry I was and how I wished things were different. But of course that would never happen. I’d made sure of that. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat.
Anger rose within me, its ugly head rising suddenly and without warning. Its fire burned away the ice covering my heart, scolding me in the process. Shivers racked my body.
Why did this shit have to happen to me? I didn’t ask for any of this! I didn’t ask to survive that stupid disease. It probably would have been better for everyone if I’d just died along with the rest of them. Then I wouldn’t be hurting the person I loved most in the world.
What made the anger morph to fury was that I knew I had no one to blame but myself. I’d practically dug my grave, despite Dad’s attempt at stopping me. Now I guess I had to lay in it.
“You don’t deserve to live,” a voice whispered in my head. No matter my attempts to drown out its evil words, they echoed around my skull like the buzzing of a bee.
“Why should you live when all the other women died? What makes you so special?”
“The Moon Goddess must have willed me to live,” I argued back, although not aloud. My attempt was weak even to my own ears. “I’m not anything special, but who am I to argue with fate?”
“Fate? Oh please. You should just end it now. There’d be no more pain. No more suffering. You would never hurt anyone ever again. It would be better for everyone if you didn’t exist.”
My fur bristled, my hackles rising. “I’m no coward.”
“Honestly, giving yourself up would be the bravest thing you'd ever do.”
The phrase repeated over and over again until it became the only thing I could hear. Would it really be the most courageous thing? Then again, did I really have anything left to lose? Everything that had ever meant anything to me, my Dad, my innocence, my mate, had either been ripped away from me or turned out to be some sick joke.
“Need to pee, need to pee,” a voice muttered from beside me.
I jumped at the sound as it penetrated the layers of fog clouding my dazed mind. My eyes searched for its source, focusing on the silhouette of a man jumping around. I quickly realised that it was Dobry, not knowing any other wolf in the pack to be capable of such ridiculous actions.
I watched, amused, as he gazed desperately towards the mouth of the cave.
“Stay,” he commanded me, holding his palm out in a stop motion before he sprinted out of the cave, muttering, “Need to pee,” under his breath.
Now that my mind wasn’t filtering out other sounds, I was able to hear the low hum of chatter outside. I frowned when I heard voices that I didn’t recognise. Who the hell was out there?
As I continued to listen, I discovered that there was another pack here, probably just passing through. My heart beat a little faster when I realised that Amias was trying to protect me but as usual, he was failing. It wasn’t until Dobry’s interception that the other pack agreed to leave me alone. Or, more accurately, leave this cave alone.
I couldn’t help but be slightly flattered that Amias and all of Tenebra had gone to such lengths to protect me. But then a new thought rose.
I’m an even bigger burden to them than I was to my father.
The tension in the air was still thick, despite the packs’ recent agreement. Dobry and Amias had almost gotten into a brawl because of me. Just so that I wouldn’t be discovered. It reminded me of the countless times Dad had come home bloody and broken because of situations that I’d gotten him into.
I knew that I had to do something. I couldn’t let these people, even if I despised them, risk their lives for me. It wasn’t fair. It was sweet of them, to jeopardise everything for someone they hardly knew, but their deaths wasn’t something I could have on my conscious. And there would be death. They were lucky this time, but what about the next time, and the time after that? We should just get it all over and done with now.
Before I gave myself time to think about the implications of what I was about to do, I shifted back to human form and stepped out of the cave.
“Wow. All of this trouble for lil’ ol’ me? You shouldn’t have.” I meant the words casually, but I couldn’t help the slight bitterness and seriousness that tinged them. They should have just given me up and let me deal with the consequences. I wasn’t their problem.
I leaned against the wall and hid my breasts by crossing my arms as all eyes were suddenly on me. Most of Tenebra looked at me like I was insane, but White Falls... Their heated looks set me on edge. Perhaps this hadn’t been such a good idea. I mean, what had I thought I’d actually achieve by doing this? I’d just put them in the danger they’d just avoided.
I was so fucking stupid.
“What are you doing?” Amias hissed, his hazel eyes full of panic and anguish. I blinked. He’d materialised right in front of me, blocking me from the view of everyone else. I opened my mouth to answer him, but no words came out, so I closed it again, glancing down.
“Well look who’s got a dirty little secret,” someone sneered. I peaked around Amias to find that the voice had come from a tall man with blond hair. He had a sense of power about him that suggested he was either an Alpha or a Beta.
Amias spun to face the were, giving me his back. I noted how he’d shifted into a defensive stance, bending forward slightly and widening his feet.
“She has nothing to do with you, Bowen,” Amias spat. “She’s under my protection so you’ll leave her alone.”
Bowen ignored him. “So this beautiful creature is what you tried so hard to hide.”
I shuddered in disgust at his words, trying to force down the memories that assailed me. My heart raced, my body beaded with sweat. I breathed deeply, willing myself to be calm. Reynolds is dead. He couldn’t hurt me unless I let him.
“You don’t even deserve to look at her,” Amias growled, reaching back and grabbing one of my hands. He rubbed soothing circles there that had my heart rate increasing for a different reason. It was almost as if he’d sensed my panic and sought to help me remain composed.
“What’s your name, my sweet?” Bowen continued. It was as if he’d become deaf to every word that spewed from Amias’ mouth.
“I’m not your anything,” I muttered. My hands clenched at the thought of being associated to him in any way.
“Azula, just stay behind me, okay?” Amias said. I bristled.
“Ah, so your name is Azula!” Bowen exclaimed at the same time I said, “I don’t need your protection. My Dad taught me to eat pups like him for breakfast!”
Now it was Bowen’s turn to bristle. “Pup? Look at this body, Azula. Does this look like the body of a pup?” He gestured down at himself. I stifled a snort at his arrogance. I allowed my eyes to graze over every inch of him.
“You’re right.” I paused before adding, “You’re more like the runt of the litter.”
Tenebra chuckled at my joke, but the other pack, who were standing at two fires with their teeth bared, merely growled at me.
“Runt?” Bowen repeated, his face darkening. “Runt?”
He didn’t give any indicator that he was about to attack. He just launched himself towards me with a roar of fury.
I tensed to meet him, but Amias used the hand he had on me to push me back and effectively steal my thunder.
“Hey!” I yelled as I crashed to the floor. Tenebra pack members immediately swarmed around me. Ash helped me to my feet as they formed a ring, protecting me from the other pack’s members, who’d moved closer to my position.
A cry of pain drew my attention to Amias and Bowen, who were wrestling with each other in the middle of the clearing. They gripped one another in a mockery of a lover’s embrace. Bowen tangled his leg around Amias’, trying to get him to fall. I could see Amias losing his balance, but just before he was about to go down, he shifted so that it was Bowen he took the weight of it; Amias landed on top.
“Let me in and I can stop this fight,” a voice said. I glanced around sharply, wondering who had said that, but most people appeared to be focused on the fight or growling at the opposition.
“Azula, I can make them leave. All you need to do is let me in.” It took me a moment to realise that the voice was coming from inside my head.
“Who are you?” I asked it, being careful not to speak aloud.
“It doesn’t matter who I am. Just know that I can stop this violence you caused if you wish.”
I paused, my gaze flitting back to the melee in time to see Bowen deliver a punishing blow to Amias’ kidney. Amias retaliated my slamming his elbow into Bowen’s neck before grabbing a fistful of Bowen’s blond hair and tugging so hard that clumps came out in his hand.
“How can you stop it?”
“Let me in and I’ll show you.”
I bit my lip as I debated it. I had no idea what this creature was or even if it would keep its word. But I had caused this fight with my own stupidity. It was only fitting that it should be me that ended it.
It was Amias’ cry of pain that made the decision for me.
“Okay. Just make the other pack leave.”
At once, I felt something probing at my mind. I forced myself to drop all my shields so that it could enter.
My knees shook, collapsing beneath me as fire rushed through my veins. I fell to the ground, gripping my head in a silent agony that was over as soon as it had begun. My eyes rolled back in my head as I writhed on the floor, my ears ringing. Blood trickled from my nose.
My hand moved to wipe it away, but I hadn’t given it the order to. Something else had. I found my body getting up and shoving people out the way; I could do nothing but watch. It was like I had been forced back in the recesses of my mind and could only observe as this being controlled my body. I was a fucking puppet and I hated every second.
“Now you know how I feel,” Mahina whispered, her voice soft. It was the first I’d heard from her in a while, but I didn’t reply, too focused on the scene before me.
My body pointed both arms at the brawling men. I felt power rush through me, focusing in my hands. They tingled unpleasantly, glowing dark green. My arms moved suddenly in opposite directions and both men flew through the air, colliding into trees on different sides of the clearing. Amias and Bowen yelled in shock, staring at me with fear.
My arms stayed in their position as my head moved to study each man in turn. Both seemed trapped where they were against their trees, hovering just above the ground, only this being’s power keeping them upright despite their struggles to get free.
“You fight over someone who does not want to be fought over,” I said, but my voice came out distorted, almost like there was someone else speaking alongside me. The words were not my own, but they were the truth all the same.
“Let me go, you little bitch!” Bowen shouted, his brown eyes burning with hatred. I could feel him flailing wildly against my hold, but the being kept him as still as a rock.
Amias was the opposite of Bowen. He hung limply, like a corpse, staring at me as if I were a stranger. It hurt me more than I cared to admit.
“White Falls, you have no place here,” the being continued. White Falls? That must be the visiting pack. I remembered Dad saying that they neighboured Tenebra territory.
“You will leave now, all of you, or you invite the wrath of the spirits to descend upon you.”
The hand pointing towards Bowen clenched into a fist and suddenly, the were couldn’t breathe. He clawed at his throat, trying to eradicate the imaginary hands that were throttling him. I watched as his face turned an alarming shade of red.
I felt my fist relax, both my arms falling to my sides. Bowen sucked as much oxygen as he could, his chest heaving as he fell to the ground with a grunt, my power no longer holding him up. Amias landed on his feet, but made no attempt to move from his position.
“Now go, before I decide not to show you any mercy,” I murmured.
Bowen glanced towards his pack and nodded once. They all shifted as one, the crack of bones loud in the silence that followed my statement. We all watched as fur sprouted all over their bodies and their nails sharpened into claws.
Bowen sent me one last hateful look before he ran off in the direction of his land, his pack on his heels.
“Five of you follow them and make sure they leave our land,” Amias commanded, his gaze never leaving mine. “I don’t care who.” Five men dropped to their knees and shifted before running off into the forest.
“It seems like my work here is done,” the being said, this time in my head.
“Thank you,” I whispered as I felt it beginning to fade away.
The fire left me in a rush, leaving me colder than snow. I swayed from side to side as all of my strength seeped out of me. I felt weaker than a fawn.
“Azula?” Amias called, but his voice sounded so far away.
My knees buckled. The last thing I remembered was seeing the grass rushing towards my face before everything faded to black.
***
I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually so proud I finshed this chapter today. It's like 1:30am and I have stuff on tomorrow morning, but OH WELL, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.
SoOooOoo... Whacha think? I sort of wanted to explain a bit why Azula did what she did and then she realised what a freaking dunce she is. I did like how she went all apeshit crazy with the spirit though.
I'm so sorry it took so long to update. For those of you who didn't get my broadcasts, I've got a week of mocks next week that I've been cramming for. I know they're only mocks but I'm a dumbass so... On the bright side, at the end of the week, I get to go on a weekend writing course - Gothic Horror and Romance Writing course! I haven't decided if I want to work on Hunted that weekend or if I'm gonna work on a prose I've been considering for a contest.
ANYWAY, I should probably get some sleep now o.O Man, I'm gonna be a freaking zombie tomorrow. And not the cool kind either ;'(
Bye! Hope you liked it! Sorry for any mistakes :(