Craving The Primordial Elder

Chapter 25

Naelis was still in the woods, totally oblivious to Lihont’s presence.

The cold seeping into her bones as her sobs finally began to die down. She stayed on her knees for a long time, her forehead pressed against the rough bark of a fallen tree.

The silence of the woods, which usually felt like a sanctuary, now felt heavy and suffocating, reminding her of why she was in the woods in the first place.

She felt used and abandoned, the anger that had flared earlier was now a dull, throbbing ache in her chest that wouldn’t go away.

Slowly, Naelis began to calm down, wiping the hot tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand. She took several deep breaths to steady her racing heart.

“SNAP.”

The sound of dried branches breaking came from behind her.

Naelis immediately became alert, her survival instincts surging through her veins and drowning out her grief. She didn't turn around immediately, instead, she crouched down, her fingers curling into the dirt as she got into fight mode.

She could feel an intense, suffocating aura emanating from behind her. It wasn't the clean, powerful scent of a shifter, it was something different. And from how intense the aura was, she knew instinctively that there wasn't only one person.

She slowly got up and turned around, breathing slowly on purpose as she didn't want to appear scared.Naelis eyes widened in shock when she saw who… Or what was behind her.

Standing several yards away from her were creatures she had never seen in any textbook or history lesson. They looked like half-shifted wolves, but their forms were twisted, as if their bones had been broken and rearranged. Their fur was patchy and matted, but it was their eyes that truly terrified her, not like any she has ever seen before. Their eyes were a deep, glowing purple that gave her chills just by looking at them.

Their bodies were hunched over, their spines protruding through their skin in jagged ridges. Their canines were unusually long, protruding past their lower lips, and a thick, purple liquid dripped from their mouths, sizzling slightly as it hit the leaves on the forest floor.

They stared at her with a hunger that wasn't just physical, they looked like they wanted to devour her soul.

Naelis quickly counted with her eyes and realized that there were five of them.

A cold panic flared in Naelis’s chest and she instinctively reached for her pocket, her heart sinking as her hand met nothing but the fabric of her gown.

In her rush to find Zoran, she had left her phone back in her room.

She was alone, and had no way of calling for backup… no way to alert Rowan or the guards. The realization hit her like a physical hard, leaving her frustrated and terrified.

The creatures began to move, their movements jerky and unnatural. As they stepped closer, Naelis saw their claws.

They weren't like normal wolf claws, they were elongated and shimmering like sharp blades, emitting a cold metallic glint.

Naelis knew immediately that she would definitely not be able to take them head on. So she quickly racked her head for a plan.

A few seconds later, Naelis swiftly shifted into her wolf in one fluid motion, her red fur exploding outward as her bones shifted and cracked.

Without looking back, she dashed deeper into the woods. She couldn't head home as the creatures were positioned perfectly to block her path home. Her only choice was to run into the heart of the forest.

The creatures pursued her with an inhumane speed, their limbs moving in a blur as they tore through the underbrush. Naelis pushed her body to its absolute limit, her paws thudding against the ground as she wove through the trees.

She was fast but they were relentless and fast.She could hear the snapping of wood and the guttural, wet sounds of their breathing right behind her.

Three of the creatures stayed on her tail, their purple eyes fixed on her haunches, while the other two leaped into the trees.

They moved through the trees with terrifying agility, jumping from branch to branch, trying to get to the front to trap her.

The wind whipped through her fur, and the scent filled her senses, they smelled like rotten flesh. Naelis’s heart hammered against her ribs, her lungs burning with the effort to keep running. She saw a fallen tree ahead, its trunk massive and slick with moss.

She tried to leap over it, but her back paw caught on a jagged branch.

Naelis tumbled, her majestic red wolf-form hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

She rolled several times, crashing through a row of thorns before coming to a stop. A sharp, piercing pain shot through her hind leg.

“Woo!” Her wolf let out a pained, high-pitched howl that echoed through the trees.

Unable to maintain the shift through the shock of the pain, she shifted back to her human form, gasping for air.

“No.. no.. no,” she whispered, her voice trembling.

She grabbed her ankle, crying out as she felt it already getting swollen. She looked up, her vision blurring with fresh tears of frustration.

The creatures were no longer running, they were slowly approaching, their hunched forms casting long, terrifying shadows over her.

They surrounded her in a perfect circle, their blades scraping against the ground, creating a sound like knives being sharpened.

One of them, the largest of the group, stepped forward. It leaned down, the purple glow of its eyes reflecting in Naelis’s terrified gaze. It reached out a bladed hand, ready to grab her…

“No.. No..”Naelis squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the impact of those cold blades.

She had imagined how she would die but this was beyond her imagination and she wasn't ready to die yet… She still has a lot of things she hasn't done.

“Awooof!”

“Awooof!”

Suddenly, the air was filled with a chorus of fierce, powerful growls.

Before the creature could touch her, a massive grey wolf lunged from the shadows, slamming into the monster with enough force to send it flying backward into a tree. Two more wolves followed, their fur dark and scarred, savagely tearing into the other creatures

Naelis eyes widened as she watched, frozen in shock, as a brutal fight broke out around her.

These weren't the mindless monsters, these were true wolves, disciplined and fierce. They fought with a desperation that matched the creatures' hunger, teeth snapping and claws tearing through fur.

The tide of the battle seemed to be turning in favor of the newcomers, but then, something strange happened.

The purple-eyed creatures suddenly stopped mid-fight. They didn't retreat because they were losing, they all stopped at exactly the same time, as if they had heard a command.

They tilted their heads in unison, their glowing eyes dimming for a split second, and then they turned and ran in the other direction with the same inhumane speed they had used to chase her. It was as if someone had called them back.

Silence returned to the clearing, broken only by the heavy panting of the wolves who had saved her. Naelis stayed on the ground, her hand still clutched around her throbbing ankle, her heart still beating widely in her chest.

One by one, the wolves turned toward her and began to shift back to their human forms.

Naelis watched them warily, her eyes scanning their faces. They were dressed in rugged, worn out leathers and heavy fabrics that had seen better days.

They looked rough, their skin marked by scars and the harshness of a life lived outside the safety of pack borders. She didn't recognize any of them as they were certain not from Frostpine.

But as the leader stepped forward, Naelis felt a strange jolt in her chest.

He was a tall man, his hair a mixture of silver and black, with piercing blue eyes. There was something about the way he carried himself and the intensity of his gaze that felt hauntingly familiar.

She realized then who they were. The lack of pack marks, the untamed aura and the way they moved without a care.

They were rogues.

The leader approached her slowly, holding up his hands to show he wasn't a threat. His eyes softened as he looked down at her, taking in her red hair, her trembling form, and the vigilance in her eyes despite her fear.

Naelis swallowed hard, her throat dry. "Thank you," she managed to say, her voice cracking slightly. "You saved my life."

The man didn't answer immediately. He knelt down in front of her, his gaze searching her face. He looked at her like he was seeing a ghost.

He reached out as if to touch her, then stopped himself, his hand trembling slightly before he pulled it back.

The other rogues stood behind him, watching the exchange in a respectful, heavy silence. Naelis felt the weight of the moment, and she couldn't understand why he was reacting weirdly.

"You look so much like your mother." The leader said, leaving Naelis stunned.