Page 3 of Hunted By Wolves and Shadow
Oh, and turned into a man.
Chapter 2
Wolf
Before kicking the door closed, I caught a glimpse of the monster that had sent the woman screaming my way. I knew that sloping back and long head well. A pang hit my heart at the sight.
Failure. That was the shape of my failure.
I was supposed to save us from that fate, but instead, this woman’s presence was evidence of my futility. Strangers never made it this far into the forest without dire consequences, but the scream that reached me had been undeniably human. How had someone roamed this deep into Aglonbriar and remained human enough to yell for help? It beggared belief.
The woman detached herself from my chest and stared at me. Beneath the scent I’d caught of warm vanilla, she reeked of fear. Given the manner of her arrival, that was understandable.
For her part, she was at least as shocked to see me as I was to see her.
“Wha–? Who are you?” She was gasping, wide eyes showing white all the way around brilliant green irises.
A stray thought wandered through my head that I hoped she was scared from her ordeal, and not from the mere sight of me. I did try to only inspire fear in my enemies, and so far, she didn’t count.
“I think I’m the guy who just saved you.”
Her brow furrowed before she startled again at the sound of a soulless howl chasing the echo of the slamming door. I didn’t blame her for being half-frantic. The howl of a fenriswulf was truly blood-chilling.
That gut-wrenching sound pierced me with the painful reality that the Mist was still at our doorstep. The monsters were still at our collective heels.
Her hood had fallen back to reveal a cascade of dark red locks, an unusual shade in a world where most of us were fair and light-haired, as I was. This woman would soon be another victim of the curse, I was sure, but when she fixed her jewel-bright gaze on me, it twisted my stomach as if for the first time. I’d lost so many already, one more shouldn’t matter. But I hated the thought of adding her lovely face to my mental catalog of the lost.
At least I could prolong the inevitable. I’d saved her for now.
Recovering, she pinned me with another look. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same.” I stepped aside to get a better view out the window at the woods where she came from. The Mist was shockingly close. “How did you get through...that?”
“I ran. Clearly.”
Clearly.
But she shouldn't have been able to simply run through Mist that thick. That's not how the curse worked. Unless…maybe it was changing after all.
I’d thought when the witch died, the Mist would simply evaporate. Lift. Vanish.
Something.
If anything, it was worse. That was why I was still at the cottage, licking my wounds and searching for answers. I was supposed to end it.
“Sorry for smacking into you. There was this…thing, and it was chasing me. Well, you saw.”
“I did.”
We looked at each other uneasily for another few heartbeats. “Oh, I’m Emi. And you are…?“
Emi. It suited her. A pretty name for a pretty girl. Light and joyful. Nothing like this life of darkness. A name like Emi didn’t belong among monsters. How had she gotten here with that name still intact?
“Wolf.” My name belonged in the forest, unlike hers. I belonged to the woods.
Whatever reason she’d had to enter this forbidding place, Emi had been lucky to make it to this cottage as she was. Now she was stuck here hoping that the clearing retained some of its magic the same way the Mist had persisted. Maybe if I could figure out the key to breaking the curse, Emi would never have to succumb to it. Until then, we were both trapped here.
“That's your name? Wolf?”
