Page 3 of Consider The Lilies

“Mari!” I scream the best I can through my closed-up throat, but before I can take more than two steps, something hard slips around my waist and yanks me backward.

Ponytail alpha laughs in my ear as I struggle in his arms. His breath is warm and wet against the side of my neck, making my skin crawl. “Where are you going?” he grumbles, pushing his nose against the side of my face.

I don’t have time to be scared. I’m too panicked for Mari. She’s doubled over, cradling her stomach with her dirty blonde hair in her face as she heaves onto the forest floor. There’s nothing for her to throw up but spit and snot. We haven’t eaten since yesterday.

“Mari!” I mouth her name, unable to actually speak out loud. My voice has completely failed me. Between my fear and inability to breathe, all I can do is wheeze and whisper.

Ponytail snakes his tongue out, lapping at the side of my face. My legs give out, and I slip through his arms, hitting the hard forest floor. It takes me a full second to realize I’m free. But Iquickly gather myself, then I do exactly what my sister told me to do, and I run.

I run as fast as my pathetic body will allow.

Pumping my arms and legs, I stumble across the uneven ground, racing next to the cliff’s edge.

“Don’t let go of him!” Cardis yells somewhere behind me. I pray he’s chasing me too. Mari has done enough over the last two years to protect me. It’s my turn to be the sacrificial lamb.

I pick up my pace, doing my best to ignore the burn in my chest. A mighty spruce blocks my path, and I cut left, away from the cliff’s sharp edge. But before I can get around it, someone grabs a handful of my hair and lurches me backward. I let out a horrible yelp as I slam into Ponytail’s hard body.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he growls into my face.

I wheeze, too tired to think of anything cutting to say.

“Get your ass back over here.” Ponytail spins us, forcing me to walk back the way we came.

Panicked, I look for Mari, terrified to find her fighting with Cardis. She’s on his back, dangerously close to the cliff’s edge. She hits his head, back, and the sides of his face with her tiny fists. The enraged sounds that leave her mouth are horrible and vicious, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.She’s going to kill him.

I hope…

“Careful!” Ponytail yells out when his brother stumbles back toward the edge of the cliff.

“Mari!” I scream, but my sister’s name comes out as more of a squeak than an actual word.

Cardis lets out a furious growl, and then everything moves as if in slow motion. The big alpha curls inward, then bucks his whole body backward.

Mari flings off his back.

Her hands flail as she flies through the air.

For a brief second, it looks like she might catch herself on the ledge, but she misses the edge by a hair, and her big brown eyes go wide with shock.

She doesn’t scream or cry. Her mouth just drops open as she silently falls through the air.

Feet kicking.

Fingers outstretched.

Her shirt flutters as she falls.

And then she’s gone.

There’s a deafening silence that follows. One second, two, three. Heck. It might even be a thousand. But then I hear a loud, wet thud, and my heart stops.

Next to the Cliff

Stefan

Iam numb.

The pain in my chest no longer matters, and the hot tears streaming down my face feel like they belong to someone else.She has to be okay.Mari is a fighter, a survivor. She has lived through things that would have taken down full-grown alphas. She’s invincible.

---