Page 1 of Wild Wolf

CHAPTER ONE

The wind hissed through my hair, fat drops of rain driving against my cheeks and carving lines of ice across my skin, but I could barely feel it as we flew over a dark and unfamiliar terrain.

Mountains pierced the ground below in a jagged, broken formation which punctured the swathes of flat, open jungle between them, and fog hung in deep pockets over the valleys, hiding the secrets of the land.

This pain in my heart was a ruinous thing, set to devour me from the inside out, gnawing through me relentlessly until I found it hard to draw breath.

Dante banked hard, plunging from the sky and I braced on instinct, my body knowing how to move with him as he flew even while my heart broke apart within my chest and threatened to fall out of me piece by piece.

A flash of dark, feathered wings drew my attention to the Harpy who flew with us, my eyes tracing over a myriad of tattoos which were visible on his bare chest and back as he passed us. Gabriel had come all this way to help us but even with him on our side – the greatest Seer in Solaria – we had failed so horribly. Had he known? Had he seen it and not stopped it?

As the thought occurred to me, I dismissed it. He’d made it clear our odds of success were low in his predictions about the escape and yet I’d chosen to stack our fate in the hands of them anyway. I was certain he wouldn’t have allowed this fate to play out if he had seen any way to avoid it, or realised that it was coming at all. But like all things, fate was never set, the future could change on the toss of a coin and even the greatest of Seers couldn’t predict every outcome.

Esme was sobbing quietly behind me, but the others were all deathly quiet.

I didn’t look to any of them. I couldn’t. Not while I held so many of them accountable for us losing Roary. The men at my back had claimed such devastating feelings for me but had still ripped me away from the man I had sacrificed so much to rescue. They’d forced me to leave him behind. They’d taken that choice from me, and no matter what justification they might claim for doing so, my anger at them was second only to the raw pain tearing through my heart.

Leon still held me close, though the kids’ arms had grown slack around my waist, their little bodies becoming soft with sleep during the long flight. I’d stolen strength from the love in their embraces, but I hadn’t been able to look at any of them either, the weight of my failure ripping through me, the guilt grinding away my core. They’d never seen their uncle Roary in the flesh and had come all this way because they’d believed in me and my foolhardy plans. They’d been as eager to finally meet him as he had been to hold them in his arms at long last, but that sweet and beautiful moment had been snatched away in the wicked claws of fate.

They’d come to unite with him and had been forced to swallow the bitterness of my failure instead. I closed my eyes tightly against a fresh surge of tears as I tried to swallow the reality of that failure.

Dante tucked his wings and Hastings shrieked as we plummeted towards the ground with a low, rumbling snarl, electricity crackling from his scales and setting the clouds sparking with light.

“Oh my Jolly Rodger!” Plunger cried and Cain cursed darkly.

Thick beads of heavy moisture swept across my skin as we dove into a cloud, the world becoming swathed in thick grey all around us, the fine hairs lining my arms standing on end as the Storm Dragon’s electricity infected the air itself, the static clinging to me and zapping against my chilled flesh.

The cloud cleared as suddenly as it had engulfed us, the rainforest filling the view beneath us in a rush.

We hit the ground with a violent thump, Plunger screaming as he fell from his spot behind me while Dante chose a perch on the side of one of the mountains, landing in a clearing between the towering trees that was big enough for his immense body.

The others began to dismount, but I remained where I was, staring out into the trees where animals squawked and bellowed, chirped and hooted. The air was muggy and thick with moisture, my filthy skin growing slick with it as I stared out at nothing and tried to come up with any kind of plan which might fix this.

Leon gave my shoulder a squeeze then lifted the kids into his arms and leapt down to the jungle floor, neither of them waking as he cradled them against him. I found myself watching them as he moved to speak to Gabriel in a low tone, the black-winged Harpy having landed several paces away from the escapees. My eyes fixed on them, their murmured words of loss and pain, of horror over the way this had gone washing over me as if they were hurling accusations at me with vitriol. I wished they really would offer me their anger. Instead, there was this air of bleak acceptance to Leon and Gabriel, their disbelief and sadness not bleeding into the rage I deserved for failing them.

“Rosalie, love?” Ethan murmured, his hand landing on my shoulder.

I jerked away from him, snarling darkly as I pushed to my feet and glared at him.

“Don’t,” I warned before turning my back and leaping to the ground. I couldn’t bear to look at him after what he’d done to help drag me from that place without Roary in my arms.

The impact with the dirt jarred through my legs but I ignored the twinge of pain, stalking around Dante’s large, dark blue body and moving to stand before his face.

He was utterly enormous in this form and I raised my chin as he looked me over, his bright Dragon eyes sizing me up in a way which might have made another Fae shit their pants.

"You left without him,” I hissed, my body tight with tension, rage eating me alive and fury making me toss blame out in every direction I could.

Dante shifted suddenly, causing Ethan to curse loudly as he was dropped to the jungle floor in the process. I was forced to tilt my head back to glare up at my cousin who towered over me in his Fae form.

“We’ll fix it, Rosa,” he swore. “You know we will.”

A lump formed in my throat, a thousand furious accusations tightening my gut. Those same words had been tossed around for the last ten years and they hadn’t meant shit. This had been our shot to get him back. Our one chance. The backs of my eyes burned as my fingers curled into fists which threatened to crack bone, my agony desperate for an outlet that I couldn’t offer it.

“Despair won’t get you anywhere,” Dante growled, catching my chin in his grasp and forcing my eyes onto his. I blinked and two tears spilled down my cheeks, racing one another towards their demise, their easy escape from the agony within me making me jealous of their brief existence. “Take that pain and forge it into something fierce, something powerful, something real, Rosa. Make it drive you or it will break you.”

I flexed the fist curled at my side and he caught the motion, raising his chin to offer me a target if I wanted it. But punching him wouldn’t make me feel better. I couldn’t truly lay any blame at his feet anyway. This had been my plan. My responsibility. My failure.

“I need to return these convicts to custody,” Cain snarled from my left and I whirled on him, happy to have a real target for my rage as I bared my teeth and advanced on him.

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