Page 18 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
The thought was a bright ember that I cradled close to my heart while tears streaked my cheeks. When had I started crying?
I brushed them away with trembling fingers and let myself back inside. The bedroom door remained closed, Wolf nowhere in sight. Crossing to the couch, I collapsed and cradled my face in my hands. All my angry fire had extinguished. Cold filled my chest and the tears flowed in earnest.
Grandma Ruby may not have been the warmest, most loving person, but she was mine. She’d been the only one who listened. The one who cared enough to pat my shoulder with a “There, there,” before she distracted me with some other task to do for her. I couldn’t believe she was gone.
Would anyone again rest a comforting hand on me? No one in the village, that was certain. The loss twisted my stomach. By the time I finished sobbing, I felt wrung out. My eyes were heavy and swollen in my puffy face, and my stomach ached.
“I’m sorry, Grandma,” I whispered to the empty room.
If only I’d come earlier, maybe I could have saved her. Maybe Wolf wouldn’t have attacked a poor old woman on her own if I’d been here. Or we’d both be dead. Which had me questioning again why Wolf hadn’t killed me. I would have to stay alert. I had to be ready to defend myself.
I dragged my body off the couch to retrieve the heavy fire poker from where it had fallen. At least Wolf hadn’t taken it with him when he barricaded himself in the bedroom, the slime-addled worm. I added a log to the fire to brighten the space and then, cradling the fire poker close to my chest, I returned to the couch.
Mist swirled over the walkway that melted into banks of white. This couldn’t last forever. Soon, it would have to clear, and then I was gone. My eyes burned heavy, but I refused to fall asleep with a monster in the next room. I just had to last until I could run.
I didn't remember falling asleep, but I awoke to darkness.
A blanket covered me, and I searched for a memory of retrieving it that didn’t come. My eyes darted to the closed bedroom door.
Tossing the blanket off, I padded over to press my ear to it, hearing nothing. In the distance, a low howl broke the night, sending a shiver skittering down my spine. I retreated to the kitchen for water and a handful of saltines from the pantry. Backat the safety of the couch, I buried myself in the blanket that had magically appeared, because that’s what I decided to believe had happened. I was supposed to believe in magic now, right?
I ate, and I thought, and I let all my emotions wash through me until I was numb.
This time, I stayed awake. Watching. Listening. I jumped at every noise and clutched the blanket close.
Morning dawned dim with a deep orange glow, a sure sign the Mist had not relented yet. The bedroom door had remained closed all night.
What did Wolf do last night? Had he emerged to eat? The memory of finding myself draped in a warm blanket came with an unwelcome rush of heat. He saw me sleeping. He could have done anything.
Watched me.
Hurt me.
Killed me.
Touchedme.
Maybe his fingers had brushed the skin of my arms when he laid the blanket over me.
With a flash of bright anger, I stuffed the lightning heat raised by that mental picture way down deep under all the layers of hatred. A single kind gesture didn’t make up for anything. It changed nothing.
In fact, all my thinking had left me with a plan. I was done being helpless. While I couldn’t do much about the Mist outside, or the monsters it hid, I could end one threat. I had to try. When Wolf woke up, I would be ready.
Chapter 9
Wolf
Iclimbed out the bedroom window, dropping to the soft dirt below and crushing a few pansies with my fall. It was just like the nasty witch to keep a flower garden in the depths of Aglonbriar. The constant shroud of misery wasn’t forherto live in, only the rest of us. I snarled with dark satisfaction as I rushed past the hastily dug grave.
I was weak against the pull of the Mist. All day, I’d felt the wolf stretching just below the surface, clawing at me to run free. Tendrils of Mist beckoned me forward until it embraced me, setting my bones alight and searing my flesh as it shifted. I fell to the forest floor with a heaving gasp and shook the tension from screaming muscles until they stopped twitching. That was better. Four legs felt more natural than two by now.
The space left by no longer resisting the curse’s demands was liberating. I had room to think again.
Senses awakened, the night brightened, and I breathed deep of the damp, cool air. My paws flexed over a soft bed of needles and fallen leaves.
I covered ground fast, leaping downed trees and skirting tangles of thorny brush. My heart drew me in the direction of the enclave, and my soul longed to go that way. I wondered what they were all doing, who had provided dinner earlier, and whether Hawk and Robin were arguing as usual or if Bear had drawn her into a card game instead. I could picture Fox sitting alone by the fire with that faraway look he got when no one was there to pull him out of it.
By now they knew I’d failed, and I couldn’t face them without something to offer. Some trace of hope.
