Scarlet could hear the roar of the wind.
The whispers of the leaves, the rushing of water from the high mountains to the low slopes. She could hear the deer two miles out walking further into the thick brush, the rain beating against the flesh of the earth an army of chants echoing through her eardrums. She could hear this man gasping, his heart thundering from his chest and sputtering words attempting to leave his rain soaked lips that his brain wasn't assisting in forming. He stared at her like she were a ghost, a spirit come to personally haunt him to the ends of the Earth, an omen of death in the wild storm howling around their frozen bodies.
Scarlet knew she wasn't a ghost and she knew she had never seen this man, so why did he stare at her with a terrified familiarity? The rain beat against her skin, hail leaving red dots across her flesh as the storm mixed with the winter of the foreign land she stood upon. The wind pushed its rage across the unknown environment, screeching its fury at the interruption of its relationship with Scarlet. Her eyelashes fluttered with raindrops, her lips dripped with water as the rain kissed her in greeting. The storm missed her as much as she missed it, it needed her as much as she needed it.
Her scalp tingled, a deep itch she wanted to take her nails through like a wild animal with fleas, but she knew to never move in the eyes of a predator. No matter his appearance, this man was larger than Scarlet, his height and weight leaving her without a doubt that she would be taken down should this lead to a fight. Her arms shook in the freezing temperatures, her toes and fingertips a bright pink while her lips began to tremble with the settling cold.
He stared, his heart stuttered in his chest as he could see her skull slowly piling itself back into place, his stomach rolled and he thought he might be ill. Her flesh of her scalp bubbled and boiled and grew itself over the purchase of her corrected scull until it met and her cells mended back together. Scar tissue was visibly thick, running along her hairline, under her dark chocolate hair, and Jacobs heart thumped in his chest. Her brain had just moved, he just saw her brain tissue go from black and rotted to a fleshy pink. It had healed from the foul, death smelling, necrotic tissue he had just seen that morning, to a healthy, vibrant tissue that showed no remnants of the injury that had plagued her. Her skull just reconnected, the bones of her shattered cranium plucking themselves from her tissue and laying back together as a puzzle would be completed by a gentile player.
She had been dead.
Just that morning Jacob had heard the monotonous sound of a flatline echoing through the hospital wing as he entered through the storm that ravaged the mountains Sendöw rested on. He had pulled the pulse ox from her index finger, and had removed the leads and IV drips from her cold, stiff, skin and allowed her to rest in death, undisturbed. She had died alone, in the night. He had notified Sabina after sending a prayer to the Goddess for her safe delivery, and in turn the Alpha had been informed, just before the worst rainstorm of the year, grew double in its fury.
Fog stuck to the trees trunks, rolling thickly through the soaked grass as the clouds covered the high mountains, the animals rushed to find shelter before the first drops fell to the ground. Sendöw members allowing their children a moment in the harsh, freezing, weather before hearing the cracks of thunder and the roaring wind and pulling them inside their homes. They could feel the duress of this weather, they could feel its need to spread and reach all the land it could, the odd sense it was searching, prowling over their territory. It had a claim on that mountain, and it was going to find it.
He had just come from the site where they were digging her grave. It was on the peak of the mountain, beside the largest Sitka Spruce any had ever identified on their land. It's broad trunk climbed high through the sky and its leaves branched over a deep cliff, it overlooked the lake far below the mountain that eventually met the mouth of the ocean. In the spring you could see whales breeching the water as they sought mates, their large bodies creating explosions as they slammed against the surface of the ocean, a world only they could know. It was a beautiful spot, the space Orion had reserved for himself if he were to ever pass away, and he had decided to share it with this woman, this stranger, his only mate.
Staring at this frail woman, skin and bones and scars the freshest purple with their scabs dissolving and fresh flesh taking their place, in front of the grey hospital wings back exit, Jacob had realized this was what the storm was looking for. That was what the weather was destroying their land and lifting their soil to find, it broke the branches to their trees and tore the wood from roofs.
She was what had the storm destroying Sendöw.
How would he explain this?
Scarlet didn't understand, she didn't know this man, she was nude, and she was certain this was not Malkún territory. Her heart stuttered with panic, her face burned red as her shivering arms moved to cover her exposed flesh. She could feel the rough skin under her fingertips of the top of her breasts, she could almost smell the oil boiling her tissue that caused the scars. Her other hand covered her private, and as she stared at this man, fear struck her core. She knew what Malkún did to women crossing their territory, she had cleaned their cells on her hands and knees, mopped blood and fluids from the concrete ground and prayed for their salvation- was this pack as vile? She knew the pain of rape, she knew the terror of being unable to escape, unable to fight while a man strangled her into silence, and her heart hammered as a hummingbirds wings in flight. Her foot slipped over the pool of slick grass as she took a step back from the stuttering, horrified man. She could feel the scent of Orange Blossoms stuck in her lungs, clogging her nostrils, this man was going to hurt her.
Scarlet didn't want to be hurt.
"Please, stop." He gasped, his thin lips trembling as his hand stretched toward her, he blinked through the rain and hail slamming into his face.
She froze, staring at his shaking fingers.
"Do- do you have any pain?" He asked, his voice was gravely with panic.
Scarlet stared, startled, at this grey man. His grey button-up was soaked over his aged body, his grey thinning hair stuck plastered to his pale cheeks, his grey eyes shining with fear, he was truly a grey man in this cool colored territory. She slowly shook her head no, afraid if she didn't respond, this mans inaction would change quickly.
"None?" He asked incredulously, his heart hammering away in his chest so loud Scarlet could count its rhythm.
Again, a shake of her head as she slowly lifted her foot to sneak in another step backwards, the water from the puddle she rested in moved around the flesh of her heel while she began her retreat.
Scarlet startled.
A panicked laugh left his mouth in an explosion of sound while he jumped, his hand quickly coming down to cover his wobbly smile while his other pushed his thinned hair away from the sides of his eyes. A vicious breeze blew through the small clearing they stood in, the still open door behind Scarlet banging against the building. He stared at her, slight fear and bewilderment shining through viciously as he scanned her from top to bottom, Scarlets skin prickled in discomfort as he stared at certain areas of her body with interest.
"Please, please, I need you to follow me back to the room you came from. I know you don't know where you are, and you don't know who I am- well, my name is Jacob- but you must trust that I won't hurt you. I can explain everything." Scarlets heart hammered, blood rushing through her ears, her skin a live fire despite the shivers from the freezing rain and hard-hitting hail cooling her flesh.
She took another step back, this man was making a request. It wasn't a command, it was a plea. She was stepping into unknown territory, diving deep into something she didn't fully understand. She knew yelling, she knew hitting, she knew the spectrum of abuse, she didn't know this-this uncertainty. This mans need for her cooperation without force was turmoil on her stomach, a tornado in her brain tearing down all she had known as law for her life.
If she didn't listen would he hurt her?
Would he kill her?
She stared at his large hands, and his tall frame. She could not defeat him, just as she could not defeat the Border Wolves of Malkún who would not hesitate to murder her. She was too weak, her little muscles she had trembling viciously in the freezing atmosphere, she had no strength. Was he just as vicious, was this pack just as murderous?
She had no choice..
She could see the man step forward to follow her backwards motions, and he spit out the plea violently," Please! You don't understand what is at stake!" His hands ferociously shook in front of him as he attempted to stop her retreat.
He needed to save his Alpha, he needed to save his Luna. Jacob Novache's brain was sucked into a vortex of confusion, swirling and tumbling with the laws of nature- things that died stayed dead. Staring at Scarlet, he was dumbfounded. He had felt her rigid skin, her stiff knuckles as he pulled off the pulse ox monitor. But she was trembling in the freezing winter rain, her flesh was tan and tinged pink, showing blood flow. She was alive, and this meant his Alpha would never have to experience the loss that was Jacobs worst fear. A dark sensation of fear and trepidation sunk like a rock in Jacobs stomach though desperation coursed through his veins as hope ignited in his belly for his leader.
She didn't know if it was the rain, or saliva spitting from his lips in desperation. His shirt and pants were completely soaked through now, an umbrella visible in the brush behind him, forgotten and filling with a puddle of ice and water. Her shoulders trembled, her rib cage aching and back fiercely tense from the cold and from terror. This man seemed genuine, he seemed as terrified of her as she was of him, though she had only known him these few moments. She shouldn't trust him, she knew better than to trust anybody, they were all cruel.
Everyone would know who she was, she was marked as useless, as "Hated" from her scars.
"No wolf gains all these scars from being useful and good to their pack." They would laugh, while Apollo spoke to her. "If you leave, they will see your skin, they will see you damaged as you stand and will kill you. They will know your sins, how useless you are, what pain and burden you have brought to us, and they will slaughter you."
"They'll smell it in your blood" they would cackle, " you're weak!"
The man dropped his head, and took a deep breath before lifting his gaze back to her eyes, grey clashing with crystal blue.
"My name is Doctor Jacob Novache, and I am the physician that was caring for you. I promise you I will not hurt you, but you are in a new territory, and you are severely malnourished and severely injured. I promise I will explain everything to you, but it is vital you come back inside the hospital room with me so I can examine you." Scarlet took deep breaths, repeating his words over and over in her mind trying to find anything to indicate a false or trick statement.
She stared at him, his shaking shoulders, his hasty breaths. It was the oddest thing, but as Scarlet looked at him, really looked at him, the rain grew warm against her skin. Her stomach, rolled so tightly with anxiety and pure fear, began to unravel. Her tornado of confusion in her brain began to dissipate and as her feet stood firm on the earth of this foreign ground, Scarlet felt her fear diminish. Her anxiety bubbled from her skin, mixing with the rain as it fell from her body to the earth.
With a shaky breath, she slowly nodded, her blue never leaving his grey, giving him permission to lead the way while she stepped to the side, holding her arms close to her body and tucking her chin to keep a strong eye on the stranger. The back of Scarlets mind was raging with thoughts, a whirlwind of confusion and plans or escape should anything go wrong, but in her forefront of her mind, something would not stop pestering Scarlet.
Something about this land is different.
Scarlets wolf was never strong in her Flesh, but she knew when she felt its presence she was to listen- it had saved her life on many occasions.
She could feel her, thrumming beneath her skin, closer than ever before.
She would listen.
What is her wolf trying to tell her? What will Jacob tell her?
Oooooohh..
Don't forget to favorite the chapters, for every chapter that is favorited my books ranking will go up for more people to be able to view and enjoy themselves.
And don't be afraid to leave a comment, I love to interact with my readers!