Page 20 of Empowering the Wolf's Heart

“I am staying here.”

“Fine. You stay. But I’m leaving.”

CHAPTER 6

A Tactical Retreat

ALIA

You’re a flea-bitten, mangy squirrel,Ran grumbled, plodding away from the werewolf and pup.

Ran was still ill I’d woken her. But it was best to get out of there, give the werewolf a chance to escape with the pup. It would do my conscience some good to actually let something live for once.

But then I think of those he may kill. Those he likelywillkill.

And I don’t know if assuaging my conscience will only mean I’m responsible for more death. Grandma would have me flayed if I told her.

Ran’s steps paused when a large bird fluttered overhead, pushing his wings to soar beyond the canopy above.

Ran’s ears pricked. Her body stiffened beneath me, and she came to a stop, snorting. I set a hand on her shoulder. “What is it, girl?” I whispered.

Naked two-legs.

In other words, humans. Naked was her term for no fur.

“How many?”

She snorted again, stomping a foot.Too many.

Great. What the heck would a bunch of humans be out here for?

They smell of magic. Black magic. They are fanned out, searching.

I only knew one thing in these woods they’d be looking for. Well, two to be exact, but both were together.

Freakin’ awesome.

Black magic was not something to mess around with. It was paid for with blood. All magic had a blessing and a curse, both of which normally went to the user of said magic. It was its own system of checks and balances.

With blood magic, you could change that. You could make someone else bear the curse of the magic and even create magic where there was no curse for the user. It was an abomination and one thing I was all for eradicating.

We could sneak past them, leave the pup and the werewolf to escape. The werewolf was powerful. I was sure they’d be fine.

Don’t lie to yourself, Two-Legs. It’s unbecoming.

Great. My unicorn was calling me out.

“Then what do you suggest?” My mind had already been through the back and forth of whether or not to let the black mages take care of the little problems I’d released back into the wild.

She shook her mane, shooting me a side-eye. We both knew I wasn’t one to shirk danger.What you’ve been thinking from the moment you knew there was a danger to those stinky mutts.

There were many positives and negatives to having a unicorn so in tune with you that they know what you're gonna do even before you know what you're gonna do.

I snorted out a half-laugh and scratched beneath her mane. “Let’s go.”

She released a tiny nicker, which sounded somewhat between that of a bird’s twitter and a cat’s mewl, and whirled around. She changed her coat to blend with the green, and I laid low on her neck, pulling up my green hood to cover anyhair escaping my braid as we dodged trees and leapt bushes. She slowed, picking her steps carefully to prevent snapping twigs. For being such a large creature, she was uncannily quiet and patient when making her way back from where we came from.

There was the rock the werewolf sat on with a few dark spots of dried blood and the flattened grass where Ran had slept.

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