Page 15 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

“Shit,” I growled under my breath, my arm wrapping around her waist to move her if need be.

She came back then, a gasp leaving her lips as she felt my hand touch her.

“Did you have a vision?” I asked, my eyes never leaving the strange shadowy creatures as they began to circle around us.

“No,” she choked out, her hand pushing against my arm to break free of my hold. “No. I don’t know what happened.”

She looked pale as I looked back at her. The color of her eyes even dimmed as she stared in fear at the creatures that moved closer.

“Blood Wisps,” she whispered.

My own eyes widened at the words, my gaze taking in the full magnitude of what we were staring at now.

I had heard of wisps. I had heard tales of both good and bad of the spirit creatures that could lead a person to their destiny or to their death. I had never, however, heard them classified as Sasha called them.

I had also never heard of any of the wisps in tales being black shadows with crimson eyes.

“You have to aim for their heads!” she yelled out just as the creatures advanced on us. “Between the eyes!”

As much as I wanted to question her on how she could know that, I didn’t have time. The creatures moved fast as one, passing the barrier of the wards with ease.

I could feel my blood pulled beneath my skin. My veins puckered and pulled as if my very blood was trying to escape my body. Bruises began to form along my arms, growing redder as the blood threatened to break the surface.

My wolf helped take control, our hold on Sasha’s waist never breaking as we moved quickly with precision attacks. We followed her advice, shouting it out to Baer and Aurora as they became overwhelmed by the creatures, floating orbs of blood pulled from their skin and sucked into the floating creatures.

I understood then why Sasha had called them blood wisps.

My claw stabbed into the center of a wisp’s head, right between the eyes, as Sasha had told me to do. I watched as the creature froze, its grin falling as its eyes began to dim until their form began to disintegrate to nothing.

I looked down at Sasha, still in my arms, with a look of confusion and fear in her eyes. She stared at the space that the creature had been moments before, and I couldn’t help but wonder how she could know.

My family had studied everything we could in the Forgotten Forest. We had lists of creatures to expect in the realm. Creatures that were found in myths and tales passed down through both human and supernatural circles.

I knew that there were dragons, a phoenix, centaurs, and sprites. I had read every book and reread every tale I could and studied the different regions’ beliefs on each creature. But I had never come across anything about wisps who stole the blood from its victims. And certainly nothing on how to effectively kill such creatures.

So how did she know?

“Aim for their heads, between the eyes!” I called out to Baer and Aurora.

They both looked over at me, then nodded. I watched as Baer took out the next wisp, its body disappearing with a haunting scream.

Sasha gasped in my arms; my attention turned back to her as a wisp latched to her chest. I punched my arm through its head, the creature letting out a hiss as he released her and turned his attention to me. I growled when he didn’t disappear, solidifying the exact aim needed to kill these strange creatures.

“Fuck,” I growled as the creature turned his blood red gaze on me.

That same pull along my veins returned, the bruising on my arms darkening before orbs of blood floated in the air towards the wisp. I could feel tears along my cheeks, though I knew I wasn’t crying. More blood filled the air around us and my head began to grow light as my vision blurred.

My wolf let out a deep howl, my clawed hand lashing out on his command and piercing the wisp directly through his forehead between the eyes.

I felt my knees buckle underneath my weight, both Sasha and me falling to the ground as my body gave out.

She stared back at me in horror, the wisps around us all disappearing as Baer and Aurora finished off the last of them and rushed to our sides.

“We have to go,” Aurora called out. She pulled Sasha to her feet as Baer grabbed me and threw my weight over his shoulder.

The four of us ran, my connection to the forest gone with my strength from the loss of blood. I tried to find my grounding, to help lead us out of the dangers of the forest, but I couldn’t regain my strength. Not fast enough, anyway.

“Don’t worry, Fairchild,” Baer whispered to me. “We got this. Just hang on, we can see the forest’s edge. We’re almost out.”

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