It feels so right to be here with you oh
This chapter is dedicated to my readers that have stayed even after five long months. You da real MVP. (Really though, I seriously love all your asses for loving my flaky ass)
Just to warn all of you, this story is 80% different from the previous version of Heath you have probably read so bear in mind 80% of the things that happened in that version won't be remotely appearing in this version, so you can rest assured you won't be reading the same ol' shit one more time. And I can very safely say this book will have a solid plot with no instant love, love triangle (no offence to those who love love triangles but I seriously loathe them), a fucking badass female lead, a male lead who eventually opens up his heart and curses a lot in languages other than English (wink, wink), a lot of punching and stabbing, a search for something very lost for a very long time, and moments where you will feel like throwing your phone out the window and driving you car over it the number of times I kicked your asses with plot twists to space and back.
I just dropped so many major hints lol. This journey will definitely be a more hellish one, and feel free to predict what will happen next (but I doubt yall will be able to figure it out. Ooh, challenge issued. Are yall feeling the heat now? Ready to prove my arrogant ass wrong?)
Also keep in mind there are still rather important things I have yet to reveal, so don't be too quick to judge and jump to conclusions because things don't always turn out to be how they seem.
Light my comment section up if you're excited af because I am.
For the second and last time, let's begin.
Wheeeeeeeeee.
✡ One ✡
If you ever see a wolf, take this knife and drive it through his heart.
I looked down at the knife I was slowly turning over in my hand, my fingers moving with practiced ease. The grip of the handle felt smooth and warm against my palm, the slight depressions that had formed with years of use matching perfectly with the way my fingers wrapped around it.
Every hunter had a favourite knife, and every hunter's favourite knife was like their personalised fingerprint. The faint dents in the handles were one of a kind, unique to their owner. Only one person in the world has the exact strength, length and width of each individual finger to fit into the faint outline of five fingers curling around the handle.
That was why smart hunters didn't bring their favourite knives to kill things they didn't want people to know they killed. That was why I wasn't a smart hunter.
I put the knife back into its sheath, letting out a breath, the wind stirring the trees and making the leaves rustle. Eight years later and I still couldn't make myself hunt without Astrid's comforting weight on my thigh, even if it was the stupid thing to do.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that smart hunters also didn't name their favourite knives?
I bent my knees and crouched down, my eyes surveying the barely noticeable pattern of broken twigs and cracked leaves on the surface of the forest floor that led deeper into the woods. A more normal person wouldn't have noticed it. A not so normal person would have noticed it and passed it off as nothing. A very not normal person would have noticed it, would follow it and already know what she would see.
For what I lacked in smarts, I made up for in my uncanny ability to track. Of course, those broken twigs and leaves could have been made by anything that moved; maybe a boar or a bear, but I didn't doubt my instincts. My instincts told me that those tracks were made by wolves, my eyes could estimate the sizes of the wolves that had created the track, and my brain could already count the number of them that had passed over this area.
Three, and one with a limp in either of his left front or hind leg.
Seeing as there wasn't a single speck of blood on the dry, brownish-green layer of fallen leaves and twigs scattered over the forest floor, I'd say it wasn't a current injury, but an old one that had healed or was still healing.
I took a step forward towards the track, left hand already slipping my least favourite knife out of its sheath from my hip. This one bore no name, but it reaped most of my kills.
Dried leaves crumbled and crunched under the soles of my combat boots, and twigs snapped noisily in the quiet, windless evening. I was trying my best to attract attention, partly because I wanted an audience to showcase to my favourite pair of black combat boots. And also because I didn't chase. Wolves came to me.
My fingers flexed around the handle of my knife, my blood already racing with a comfortable kind of anticipation. I just wanted a kill or two before I got home for dinner.
I cleared my throat, before saying in a loud voice as I stood in the middle of the clearing, "Oh dear, I seem to have lost my way in this huge forest. Whatever shall I do? I sure hope there aren't any wild beasts around, for I, a fair, unarmed lady wandering around in these treacherous woods will be at mercy to even a baby bird that pecks at me–"
I dropped the act and grinned to myself as I heard the tell tale signs of crackling undergrowth of two sets of paws falling against the forest floor, quickly advancing in my direction. Why did my dramatic display always attract wolves so?
Then I frowned.
Two? What happened to the third one?
I didn't get to mull over it for long because in the next instant, I was locking gazes with a slit and yellow-eyed wolf five feet away as it slowly prowled into the clearing from behind the trees. Its height and size were average for a werewolf, a little larger than normal wolves.
I raised my left hand, the one holding the knife, and said, "Hi."
Those beady eyes instantly narrowed, and his teeth pulled back to showcase his complete set of very pointy teeth, displaying them like trophies in a trophy case. A feral growl rumbled from his throat as my lips pulled into a sharp smile.
"You have a nice set of teeth. Maybe I'll take that canine and make it into a necklace for myself." I tapped my chin in thought with the flat side of the blade of my least favourite knife. The silver-plated blade felt cool against my skin. "But your teeth sure could use a scrub. Or do you think yellow suits my complexion better?"
His pal slunk into the clearing next to him as the first wolf snarled at me. My eyes fixed on the muscles in his hind legs coiling with tension.
"Not very friendly, is he?" I made a face at the second wolf as I used my knife to point to the other one that was about to launch itself at me.
They both sprung forward simultaneously, and my grin slipped from my face as adrenaline flooded my veins.
Fucking finally. I thought I would have to resort to insulting their mothers before I got them to attack me.
But I didn't wait for them to reach me. That wasn't my style. I was a more in-your-face kind of girl.
And their expressions were always so amusing when you do something they least expected, like going nose-to-snout with them and then carving out their insides.
If you ever see a wolf, take this knife and drive it through his heart.
So I took my least favourite knife, drove it through the first wolf's heart with my left hand before pulling it out with my right and slicing the second wolf straight down its underbelly, cutting him clean open. I fluidly sidestepped as both wolves lurched and pitched forward, falling to the ground like dead flies.
The first wolf had died instantly, but I looked down at the second wolf that was still alive, looked him straight in the eye, watching as his body heaved with heavy breaths, dark red blood matting his fur. The pool of blood was spreading around him quickly. I held his gaze steady and I didn't look away, not until the life in his eyes drained away and they turned vacant.
I smiled.
I took my least favourite knife and wiped it clean on the first wolf's fur.
I sheathed it.
Then I walked away.
It would have been perfect if it had ended like that. Simple and clean.
But of course the third wolf I hadn't forgotten about just had to appear right at that moment. And he even called for back up and brought his friends along. A low growl stirred his throat as he stood at the edge of the clearing with four others flanking him from both the left and right. All five pairs of eyes were fixed on me, all equally baleful and all promising violence and pain.
It was a good thing I embraced violence and pain with my knives.
My eyes flitted to the third wolf's left hind leg. The joint in it made it appear bent out of shape, like an old wound that hadn't been set right and had healed wrong.
The air was thick and the metallic scent of blood hung heavy in the air. I flashed all five of them a grin that might have looked a little more than scary, and I waved.
Then I turned, and ran.
I may lack smarts, but any person who possessed a brain that could remotely think would know one human girl facing off against five very pissed off wolves in combat had only one possible fate. And it rhymes with Math.
So of course, I ran away from them with very much of my dignity still left intact.
I ducked under low-hanging branches, skipped over gnarling roots, ignored the protruding twigs that scratched and pulled at my clothes and hair as I tore through the forest. I ran as fast as I could, my legs straining and my heart racing in my chest. Adrenaline pumped through my veins, and my ponytail flew out behind me in a mess of brown three shades lighter than the leaves and twigs crunching under my boots.
The chase almost seemed fun, if only I couldn't hear them advancing on me, snarling and snapping their jaws at me. I could hear the out-of-rhythm pounding of a set of paws falling against the ground from behind me, sounding alarmingly close to my ears. For a wolf with a limp, it sure could run.
Then my ears picked up on something else. It started as a distant roaring, the sound of water slapping against rocks, and my blood pounded faster in my ears.
Well, fuck.
I knew the wolves could hear it too, and I could practically hear their cackles of glee from behind me as we raced through the forest. It might have been a figment of my imagination, but I could hear myself laughing along too. Partly because I was crazy, mostly because I knew exactly what those five blundering idiots didn't.
I was going to jump.
The thought resounded in my head with a calming certainty.
I would prefer the rocks shredding and tearing me to pieces to letting those mongrels sink their claws into me, that, my brain and body seemed to have a consensus about.
But still, even as I neared the edge of the precipice, my heart couldn't help but clench in a mix of fear and anticipation. The sound of the gushing water was almost deafening by now.
But my legs pumped harder, my breaths came out faster, and I heard my pursuers slowing down in confusion from behind me. I could practically hear them thinking over the thundering sound of my impending doom, "No fucking way. Is she that stupid?"
A grin lifted my lips, and I replied, "Yes fucking way, I am that stupid."
Then I burst through the edge of the thinning forest, my feet lifting from the edge of the cliff. For a very split second, I was airborne as my eyes looked down and focused on the rushing water churning fifty feet below me, the sharp rocks peeking out from the surface of the rapids, ready to tear me apart.
Was I crazy? Yes. Was I stupid? Yes. Did I regret it? Hell fucking no.
And I plummeted fifty feet to my death with a smile on my face.
Fuck yeah.