Chapitre 27

I ran straight ahead blindly, aimless with only one thought.

Away from the monster.

The ice crystals whipped against my face like little knives. The paws thundered behind me, stronger, faster, better, fueled by anger and destruction. Small, panicked puffs of steam escaped my mouth.

My legs burned, but I couldn't stand. Fear was the fire that drove her. My heart pumped hot blood through my body, pounding in my ears.

The snow under my feet didn't make it easier for me. Like quicksand it slowed my steps. The bag slammed against my hip with every step, but I ignored it.

The silver bracelet couldn't help me, even if it wasn't set in eternal glass. The primeval wolf was immune to it.

A scream sounded in the distance. Before I could react or stop, a figure came towards me. Without noticing me, he faced the beast.

Lucas, the border guard.

He yelled something, but his words came out slurred to me. Other warriors stood at his side in front of the monster.

I breathed a sigh of relief. My panting breath was heavy in the air. Without warning, the primeval wolf lunged at the warriors.

"No!"

My desperate scream did nothing. The monster mauled them one by one as if they were toys. The heart in my chest slipped into my stomach, where it was seared by the acid.

Blood spattered the innocent snow, turning it red. I slowly took a few steps back. I jerked around and did the only thing my mind and body could do.

I ran.

Nothing could stop me. Not the thunder picking up speed and chasing me, and not the bag. My thigh muscles burned, driving my feet faster and faster against the ground.

The trees thinned toward the border, but I didn't stop. My heart made me fly, it wanted to live so badly, no matter the cost.

The thunder behind me was getting closer and closer. The hot breath of the monster was on my neck and the fine hairs were directed towards him. All the beast had to do was jump and its huge saber teeth would pierce my neck.

A claw hissed through the freezing air.

That was the end, but I couldn't give up. I closed my eyes and kept pushing my legs. Instead of pain, I heard the tearing of fabric and the silence of the paws. The leather bag hung in tatters on my hip.

I looked back for a millisecond. The beast stood a few meters behind me, but its eyes were no longer fixed on me. It was staring at the content I had just lost.

My three treasures.

The cookbook, the holy water and the silver bracelet.

For the first time I saw something other than hate in those blood red eyes: fear.

I stopped abruptly, in the midst of the borders in the vervain field. A permanent cloud of ice formed before my eyes while my heart was still racing. My eyes darted between the monster and my treasures.

Weakness.

The primeval wolf looked at me for a second. In complete silence we stood facing each other in the storm of night and desolation. A human and a monster.

My head was screaming at me while my body was doing something stupid. I put one foot forward. The snow crunched under my shoe as the beast mirrored my movement and backed away.

My heart eased as I took another cautious step. My whole body was electrified and ready for another onslaught from the beast. But it seemed completely swimming in its own fear.

Suddenly I ran forward and grabbed my treasures from the floor. They were freezing from the snow. The primeval wolf didn't seem to like that. Aggressive and mindless, the monster lunged forward. The claws gleamed above me like silver knives.

My veins contracted with fear as the blood froze in them. I cried out and crawled backwards. At the same time I turned around. The claw hissed just past my ear, leaving a menacing ringing sound.

I sprinted across the clearing and into the murky forest everyone had warned me about. But any warning was dearer to me than death. My ears listened, but there was no thunder.

Although I looked around I saw nothing but thick tree trunks. I had left the border behind, just like the monster. My burning legs caved in when the fire went out.

I dropped my treasures in the snow and gasped. My heart was beating so fast against my chest like it would never slow down again.

My windpipe had shrunk and couldn't get enough fresh air. I tried to breathe calmly, but what was happening was devastating everything inside me. Hundreds of images of darkness and pain played over and over in my mind.

Shards, blood and death.

Red eyes, silver claws.

My voice brought out a trembling gasp. I would have cried out if I had had the strength. The freezing cold of the winter night increased the tremors in my body.

The thoughts in my head were screeching and not letting me hear or see clearly. My heart suddenly plummeted from the high while invisible stars blocked my vision.

I blinked, but they continued to expand in my field of vision. I could still feel myself tipping sideways and my head landing in the snow next to my treasures.

Where was Eros...

TUESDAY OF THE 9TH MOON COUNT:

Soft rustling pierced the gray mist of sleep that surrounded me. My mind was paralyzed, still in the presence of peace. I breathed in the warm air and sighed. My body was light.

Sleep brought relaxation.

But my consciousness slowly came back to the surface. Whispers, like the buzzing of bees, circled the room. I frowned as my mind raced.

Memories of the night flooded my head, taking everything in their path with them. My breathing quickened and I opened my lids.

Bright light blinded me and drew a blurry picture of faces. I lay there confused, my muscles still asleep.

"Go, right now!" a loud female voice called.

At the command, the figures disappeared, revealing a wooden ceiling. Shadows of flame danced across the dark boards. I frantically turned my head and saw a fire crackling in a stone fireplace.

Someone had put me on a soft animal skin. I was still wearing my coat and I saw my three treasures on the table in front of the fireplace, book, bottle and bracelet.

A door slammed shut and I sat up in shock. My gaze met that of a girl.

I could only stare at her in amazement. Her long black hair was tied back neatly while she held a silver crossbow over her shoulder. Her dark eyes studied me intently.

"So here you are, after all," she said, not moving an inch as if waiting for my reaction. My voice was unable to respond as my mind ran through hundreds of scenarios.

She was a slayer. Her crossbow was made of worn silver. A human. Young. Determined. Pretty. fatal.

She wore black leather pants to match her hair. I tried to strain my brain cells to get something out of my mouth, but the girl beat me to it.

"It hit you pretty bad yesterday. You're lucky you had the coat on. He protected you from the worst."

I looked down at my hands, which bore some small cuts from the glass window I had jumped out of. Someone had cleaned them and dried the blood. Memories still came back, like waves.

I must have been in shock yesterday because I couldn't remember any pain. But the scratches pinched all the more.

"Who are you?" I asked in a hard voice.

To my surprise, the girl relaxed a bit and put her crossbow on the table. She approached me. Suspiciously, I backed away from her steps against the headboard of the bed.

"You don't have to be afraid of the wolves anymore. You are safe here. Anyway, I didn't understand why you didn't flee straight to us-"

"Escaped?" I asked. "Were you the voice that gave me that devilish gift?"

The girl laughed.

"My name is Sonnia, but you can call me Sonni. I thought you could flee to us with the soap," she replied.

"She just brought me trouble instead of help," I said, rubbing my head, which was starting to pound like someone was banging a hammer on it.

"I'm sorry for that."

I just nodded before silence enveloped us. Only the crackle of the fire was the proof that time was moving on. As the headache slowly subsided, I looked up.

"Where am I exactly?"

"You are in our hiding place. We've been here for almost 10 years," Sonni replied.

"Who is we?"

"We Are the Rebels: The Last Stand Against the Wolves."

I stared at her, dumbfounded, but there wasn't a spark of humor in her eyes. The girl was serious. I absentmindedly rubbed my neck where the mark beneath the fabric was beginning to tingle. If only she knew...

My gaze slid to the crossbow, glittering ominously in the fire. Better I didn't tell the truth for now; or as long as I could.

"Take a break. I'll get you something to eat and drink. Then I'll introduce you to the others."

With these words she grabbed her gun, crossed the room to the wooden door and left me alone with the licking flames.

I let the air out of my lungs that had been dammed up with the tension. I was alive, with bruises and trauma, but my heart was still beating. It wasn't over yet.

In the silence I was overcome by thoughts of last night and how everything was taking its course. Demetrius and I had been drinking tea; poisoned tea.

deadly nightshade

Betrayal coursed through my veins. No wonder I was hallucinating and sick. Everything made sense. My heart pumped fresh anger into my body as I thought of the person who wanted to kill me.

karen

How could I be so blind when the answer was right in front of me? Behind the facade of niceness lay a monster that had blinded us all. I had even read about the deadly nightshade...

I buried my hands in my hair. The worst part was that it wasn't the worst of yesterday. True evil had shown its face in the depths of the night.

The primeval wolf.

He was hiding in the shadows, in the pack. He had waited for his moment and he had seized it: the monster without a track. The pieces fell together while inside I felt like I was broken.

How did he get into the tree house? The blood in my veins hardened to ice. Castor and Pollux. Were they okay? Gray uncertainty shrunk my lungs. Had Demetrius survived?

The image of the blood-soaked snow on the border crushed my heart with sorrow. My vision blurred like rain as a sob escaped my throat, raw and painful. Hot drops rolled down my cheeks.

I fled like a coward. I had deserted the border guards, who had paid for my survival with theirs. How should I ever forgive myself?

Deep sobs for the dead climbed out through my windpipe. Terrible tones painted the melody that mingled with the croaking flames.

Emotions had overwhelmed me as I bathed in tears. A feeling protruded from beneath the wave and overwhelmed my entire body.

Longing.

longing for Eros.

My soul drew me towards him. I wanted to feel his strong arms around me and his words that everything would be fine, that everything was fine.

Nothing was okay.

In just one night my entire life had been ripped into a thousand pieces and I stood before the pieces unable to put them back together.

I wiped away the tears and tried to calm my breathing. I wanted to feel Eros close, the closeness of his heart, his security, his strength.

But now I was in the hiding place of the rebels. They wouldn't just let me go back. They still seemed friendly, but the tide could turn quickly. If they found out that Eros was my mate...

I looked out the narrow window and pushed the covers aside. It was morning. As soon as night fell I would go back to the pack. I had to warn them that they had a traitor among them.

They must have already noticed the chaos of the primeval wolf.

Hope they caught him.

Hope everyone was fine.

Hopefully I'd be back with Eros tonight...

A dark foreboding crept over me and gnawed at my heart. A dim inkling that none of my hopes would come true.

****

MONDAY OF THE 9TH MOON COUNT:

Something was wrong. Eros could feel it.

His instincts warned him. His wolf paced restlessly. He put down his pen and stood up. Behind him the wind howled in the freezing, snowy night.

Ephilia has been gone too long. Eros wanted her back in his arms in this storm. A dull feeling gripped his stomach and pierced through.

What's going on? he asked Castor.

Alph-

Suddenly the warrior's voice trailed off. A dark foreboding loomed over the horizon. Without waiting, Eros stormed out the door onto the path into the merciless night. A spark of panic drove him on the way to his companion.

Ephilia.

Her beautiful smile was reflected in Ero's inner eye and his wolf growled menacingly. He pushed open the front door and sprinted through the snow towards Demetrius' treehouse. The whipping snowflakes barely stopped him.

The metallic smell of blood clouded his mind and made his heart pound through his body like an earthquake. The logs rushed past him at full speed. Only one thought troubled him.

Ephilia.

Something was wrong.

Horrifying images of their agony continued to churn in his heart, pumping hot anger through his veins. Whoever dared would pay with a cruel death.

The smell of blood intensified until the tree house came into view, shrouded entirely in the dark night. But his senses were as sharp as a weapon blade. Soft screams pierced the storm of snow and cold. Ero's steps slowed.

One figure lay on the white background while another crouched above it. Wailing sobs surrounded the night. The smell of fresh blood killed everything else.

The Twins.

Eros came towards her. Castor was lying on the floor. His eyes were closed. From his peaceful expression you could almost think he would be asleep if it weren't for the huge hole in his chest that wasn't healing.

A dead werewolf couldn't heal.

"No!"

Pollux squeezed his lifeless brother's shoulders as if his desperate cries could bring him back. His scar was twisted in pain while big tears dripped from his eyes. They fell on Castor's body and shattered into hundreds of splinters.

But his brother's heart stayed still in his shattered chest, as if someone had crushed it. A pang of rage ran through Eros' body at the sight of the loyal warrior who had lost his life.

"No!" yelled Pollux, his throat ripping open with anger and pain as if hell had opened up. For a second, Eros squeezed his shoulder in a promise that he would get justice.

A shuddering growl in the distance snapped him out of his rigid state. The heavenly scent of Ephilia reached his senses, along with an all-encompassing fear for her and pure anger. He followed her trail, into the old man's house, where she mingled with more blood.

But it wasn't hers.

"E-Eros," Demetrius gasped.

He was leaning against a wall as he stared at the shattered window that let in the freezing storm. The old man's eyes lit up as if he wanted to say something, but his strength left him.

Eros rushed towards him. Porcelain crunched under his shoes as he knelt. He sought the wound that made it difficult for Demetrius to breathe. The smell of acrid silver enveloped him like a cloud. It had entered his bloodstream and was burning him up from the inside.

Demetrius closed his eyes and toppled over. His heart was still beating.

I need all available healers at Demetrius House immediately! Eros roared through the pack band. Voices answered him, but he ignored them.

He carefully lowered the old man to the ground while his wolf yelled at him, jerking at the control that was holding him back.

Ephilia.

She had jumped out the window. What drove her to do this? Eros followed the trail and landed in the snow, scattered with hundreds of pieces of broken glass.

Blood.

His nose burned as he realized whose blood it was. she was hurt Eros felt nothing but pure anger that took over his entire being. His wolf freed the inner bonds and Eros let it happen. A deafening growl escaped his chest as his bones began to crack.

Visibility sharpened, the trail clearer, as if he could follow a thread through the forest. Immediately his wolf rushed after him. Her heavenly scent drove him on. Her footprints were visible, along with those of a giant wolf. But the track of the pursuer was missing.

It was as if a ghost had followed her through the storm, only the footprints were proof that she had run for her life. The thought of her fear drove him faster, but a chilling sight made him lose his composure.

A bloodbath lay ahead. Dead bodies graced the blood-soaked ground while fresh snow landed on their motionless bodies. A low growl escaped Eros at the sight of the dead warriors, his pack members.

Ephilia's trail led right through the battlefield of destruction and beyond. A foreboding made his footsteps echo across the floor. His wolf drove him faster than he ever thought possible.

His soul longed for her, for her closeness, for her smile, for her warmth. Never in his life had he felt so connected to a living being. He had never felt so afraid of losing someone.

She had just stumbled into his life, in her stubborn, loving way. His wolf snarled possessively at the thought of her beautiful eyes that always shone with pure joy, her small hands digging into his shirt and her sweet yawn, every time she was tired.

Ero's thoughts stopped abruptly as he stopped in front of the clearing. Black rags from her leather bag lay in the snow. The beast had attacked her. She had escaped.

The vervain field killed her further scent, but Eros could clearly feel that she was on the other side. The monster had urged her to run into the hunter's forest.

While their footprints led into enemy territory, the huge paws had turned and disappeared back into his pack. A growl escaped his throat as his wolf saw nothing but red.

He followed the footprints of the monster, which could disguise its scent but not its tracks. Eros Wolf wanted blood for the dead and the pain it had left. It would atone in the cruellest way there was.

Suddenly the tracks were lost in front of a huge tree. Snarling, Eros paused in search of an enemy or a lead, but found nothing. It was as if the monster had vanished into thin air.

He couldn't prevent it anymore. His growl rumbled through the pack, jolting each member out of the depths of their dreams. Even Julien.

All to the packhouse at once brought out Eros in his rage while his wolf retreated angrily, leaving him in control. There was nothing he could fight. Now a plan was needed, a deadly plan that would set everything right that had gone wrong during the night.

An inner anger seethed in his veins and pooled in his heart. Ephilia had fled. Eros felt deep in his soul that she was still alive. A heavy guilt weighed on his shoulders. Why hadn't he noticed what had crept into his pack?

His wolf growled. Now wasn't the time for regrets. Everything had to be put right first and he would do anything for it, even if it was his last act. And if it meant tearing the whole pack apart, then he would do it.

With a cracking crack of bones, he transformed into his human form and changed into fresh clothes. Then, without hesitation, he stormed toward the packhouse. Only one thought stuck in his head. Retrieve Ephilia from the hunters and kill the monster that drove her there.

What do you think they did to her? A chill ran through Ero's muscles as he imagined her screaming in pain, tormented by her own kind. He felt his eyes take on the deadly black most feared.

Just not Ephilia.

The door of the pack house nearly fell off its hinges as he stormed through. A few frantic figures flitted about.

"Alpha, what happened?" a soft voice asked, but Eros didn't have the nerve for gentleness, not until Ephilia was back in his arms.

"Not now, Karen," he just growled and walked past the wolf, up into the secluded rooms, where his representatives were already waiting.

"I smelled blood and heard screams. What's going on here, Eros?" Johnson asked immediately. His hair was tousled from sleep, but his eyes were wide awake. His instinct was to protect the pack.

"We have a traitor in the pack. a wolf. He killed Castor and seriously wounded Demetrius."

With every word, his voice drained of emotion as anger brewed inside him like a storm. Julien hardly seemed responsive, but Eros hardly noticed him. Johnson came to an excited halt in front of his Alpha before any color drained from his face.

"Where's Ephilia?" he asked, dumbfounded.

Ero's vision darkened and he clenched his fists so tight they began to tremble.

"She's alive," Eros replied, sounding like he was trying to calm himself. "She fled across the border."

Silence enveloped the room like a suffocating blanket. The tension crackled and a small spark was enough to make Eros explode.

"She's what?" Johnson echoed.

Ero's heart pounded wildly against his chest as he held on to the last thread of control he felt inside.

"We've waited too long. We should attack," said Johnson determinedly.

"Are you crazy? How do you think we cross the verbena field. We don't even know how many hunters are waiting for us. They will have prepared," said Julien, his first words on what was happening.

"But this is-"

"QUIET!"

Eros rubbed his temples, the unruly monster in his chest wanting to tear its way through and do exactly what Johnson had suggested. Just kill.

If only it was that easy...

"How are we supposed to attack the enemy when we have a traitor in our own ranks?" Eros asked his representatives, who suddenly fell silent.

The heartbeats of the pack members pounded dullly beneath them like a hundred drums, some slow, others frantic.

"Even if I have to put everyone through the wringer to get answers," he snapped.

"Eros, remember. Only one is guilty. The others didn't do anything wrong," Julien warned. His hands were raised as a sign that he meant no harm.

Eros just growled, thrown completely off balance by his Beta's stupid comment, which unfortunately wouldn't shut up.

"I could never imagine the pain I would feel if Lucia were no longer with me, but you must remain calm."

"STAY CALM?!"

Ero's eyes must be the color of death, that's how he felt. Even Johnson took a step back. His wolf wanted to tear Julien's head off.

"THERE IS NO REST IN INFINITE ANGRY! HOW DID WE ALL Escape WHAT WAS SHOWN BEFORE OUR EYES?!"

Never in his life had he felt such a mass of anger. His wolf has never been so angry and wanted to bury his claws in something living.

"JULIEN, YOU MAKE SURE THAT DEMETRIUS IS TRANSFERRED HERE. AS SOON AS THERE IS A SIGN OF IMPROVEMENT, I WANT TO KNOW."

The beta nodded frantically while Eros already turned to Johnson.

"YOU MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS PREPARED FOR THE FINAL HONOR OF ALL WARRIORS. ALSO, I WANT THE BEST FIGHTERS ON THE FRONTIER. EVERY LITTLE THING SHOULD BE REPORTED TO ME."

"Yes!" Johnson called, bowing firmly before storming out of the room.

Ephilia wasn't gone even a few hours and he felt like his whole world was falling apart. If he didn't feel her in his arms again soon, he would lose his mind, that was for sure...