Tethered Bonds

Chapter 7

Should I call Chris?

No, that just silly. How would it be possible for Chris to help me miles away? Plus, I would have to tell him about my aura abilities which is not an option.

I took a deep breath and released it slowly. After placing the car keys back in my purse, I hopped out of the car. I began walking with my purse over my right shoulder and my camera hung around my neck. I decided to leave the rest in the car to avoid adding extra weight to my wobbly legs.

It appears that the sunsets last longer here, which is a good thing for me. I took a detoured path to avoid any aura tethers by walking where the forest trees start at the edge of town. It's been about five minutes since I began my journey when I hear some deep voices yelling in the opposite direction I was heading.

Was it from the hospital?

Someone must have gotten hurt badly, the outcry had even disturbed the birds. My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. An overwhelming urge to go towards the outcry was tipping me back towards the sound.

I stopped moving and began to shake my head to get rid of this sensation. I turned back and kept heading for the B&B.

Not soon after, I sensed I was being watched from a far distance. Sounded like a couple of big animals were in the area. I quicken my pace, hoping it was nothing to worry about.

My legs clumsily move through a shallow iced creek. All the muscles in my lower body are screaming for a break, but I can't. I need to get back before it gets too dark. My phone's battery is low already from using the navigation app. Turning on the phone's flashlight would quickly drain the rest of the charge, leaving me completely lost in the dark.

I try to keep up a positive attitude by thinking of a nice hot bath to soak in. The lovely smell of shampoo...

“AGHH!”

The ice of the creek broke and my right foot slips into cold muddy sludge and sinks past my ankle with frost-burning pain shooting up my leg.

I stopped, with my shoulders slouching as I give my leg a few tugged pulls.

"AGGHH!"

Yup, it's stuck and I sprung it. At least the boots have helped keep my ankles from twisting until now.

I stare straight up to the sky as though I'm challenging it while I let out a frustrating cry. My eyes sting from the cold wind causing the tears to ice before they can fall on my cheeks.

I heard something moving in the snow from a distance. I had forgotten about the animals nearby. Hopefully, I didn't startle the creatures.

After a moment of getting use to the pain, I began to think of how to get out.

A stone was close enough for me to sit on, although it barely fit my keister. I grab a nearby stick and start to shovel the muck around my foot until it releases with a suction sound.

“AGH! Oh gosh, that was awful.”

It hurt to pull my foot out, causing my ankle to be worse. I take a moment to breathe and let the pain subside before moving.

I managed to tuck my clean foot under my hindquarters, perching on the stone with my muddy leg in the air. I know if my muddy boot makes contact with the icy creak it will immediately get stuck again.

Eying a nearby stone that's a tad smaller, I hop to it on my good leg. My left boot lands on the rock but slips a bit. The jump caused my camera to sway heavily around my neck and chest. Holding my purse is also causing me to be off-balance; I end up with the tip of the shoe landing on the ice and feel it stick.

I look around and see a bush that isn't too far off. After making sure my purse is completely closed, I chucked it at the shrub. As I see it fly in the air I begin to worry that I had overthrown it, but it landed perfectly on top of the bush.

I tuck my camera into my coat and began to try to get out of the shallow creek. I'm not far from the edge, about six feet away. I keep my hurt ankle in the air as I start crawling on the stones to safety.

I'm close to the edge when I hear my phone ringing in my purse.

“Crap!” I mutter to myself.

I hastily crawl the rest of the way and got to my purse in time to answer.

“Hello?” I say out of breath, trying to hold my phone while attempting to not get it dirty.

“Zayla?” Chris’s voice was full of worry, uncertainty, and anger; I never heard him sound like this before.

“Yes, something wrong?” I reply trying to sound more calm and collected.

“Were you at a hospital?!” I can hear him pacing back and forth as he speaks.

“Chris, now isn't a good time. My phone is almost dead and I need to get to the B&B to charge it.”

“NO ZAYLA! NOT LATER! NOW!" His anger and fury bothered me, I was shivering more from him than the cold weather.

"Yes, Chris. I fainted, I've been released and I'm heading back to the b&b right now. How do you know anyway?"

"The hospital called and inform me. I was also threatened by the doctor that I wasn't allowed to travel to see you. What is going on?"

"What?! The doctor didn't say anything like that to me?!" I say after I gasped from hearing his info.

“Well, it pissed me off! I'm trying to find a flight to get there but all the flights are booked right now! Has anyone seem hostile towards you?” His voice sounded calmer but it was clear how upset he was.

"No. Chris, let me get to the b&b and get my phone charging and we can figure this out."

"Sigh.. ok, please hurry."

I hang up my call and look in the direction I need to go on my app. Fortunately, I made it on the other side of the creek so I didn't have to worry about it again.

I begin to limp in the direction my phone navigation was pointing to. The boot was helping as a cast and the ground was squishy making my ankle not hurt as much.

After hearing the soft crunch of the snow with my boots, I could hear additional snow crunches of some close by.

I turned and looked to see two giant wolves walking in the forest in the distance. They had three auras like the other townsfolk here. Strange, all the animals I took photos of this morning had normal auras. One interesting thing

about them was that they were tethered together by a golden glow with pink clovers.

The wolfs' weren't looking at me, just sniffing the ground looking for food. The lighting was perfect with the sunset, my photographer-side took over and I pulled out my camera from my coat to take a few shots.

They were beautiful wolves, it was adorable as they would nuzzle each other. I was looking at them through my camera not able to see what their auras were doing. As I kept taking photos they appeared to be wondering closer. I proceeded to take more photos before I had to head back.

While taking the shots, the dark wolf with a copper tip tail made direct eye contact with me then the golden wolf with white paws followed his companion’s action.

OH GOSH! The perfect shot! I click my camera as quickly as I could and was overjoyed at my photo.

Then I felt a weird sensation, like an urge, desire, or longing. I lowered my camera down to see what was going on. Before I could move I noticed that their tethered aura began to protrude and was heading in my direction.

“No! No n-n-no!” I drop my camera and began running.

“OW!” I screamed. I had forgotten about my hurt ankle and applied full weight on it. I adjusted the way I ran to accommodate for the pain.

Why are these glowing tethers reaching out to me?!

I glance back and see the wolves with the bright cords are chasing me. As much as I want to scream I use all my energy on running while fighting through the pain of my ankle. I could hear it crack a few times making the limp worse as I began to whimper.

I attempted to get over tree roots and rocks while zig-zagging between trees while I held on to low branches to relieve pressure on my ankle. My body was giving out on me, I lost all sense of direction and decided to stand behind a giant pine tree to hide. After a few seconds, I look back and notice the wolves were gone along with their tethered strings.

Can I outrun two wolves? No, no I can’t. Maybe they weren’t chasing me. I decide to stop and catch my breath.

I’m trembling from all the adrenaline that is pumping into my body along with the freezing weather. I never had an aura come after me before. My ankle is throbbing, it's never hurt this bad.

I try to find my phone, but I ended up dropping my phone and purse while running. My camera was still dangling like a heavy necklace around my neck.

I have no idea where I am with no way to get help. I left my backpack with the flareguns in my car. I haven't eaten anything since gran-nan's pancakes, and I can feel my blood sugar is dropping. My body has been pushed to its limit and I realize I may die from the cold, last time I checked it was -15 degrees Fahrenheit before I got my foot stuck.

There is a slight tingle sensation on my twisted ankle, it feels nice. I look down to see if a bug was crawling on my ankle.

"AGHH! PLEASE NO!" I scream as I see one of the tethers is wrapped around both my ankles.

"No no noOOO!" Before I could try to run, it pulled me harshly and my body snapped onto the ground as it pulled me away. As I try to claw onto anything I can, I feel a second tingle sensation around my wrist. Soon, both my wrist are bonded together by the second tethered. Now I have no way to stop myself from the tethers pulling me. My body was bumping into trees and rocks at a fast pace. It was pulling me by my ankles and not my wrist so I held my arms over my face to block the impacts as best as I could and try to ignore the throbbing pain of my hurt ankle.

My mind was too overwhelmed by what was happening when I skidded over some leaves that had been covered to hide a netted trap. I was immediately wrapped in the net and hoisted up in the air upside down. I looked down to see I was dangling about forty feet from the ground. Both my ankles and wrist were still pulling me in the direction I was going causing the net to be pulled at a 30degree angle from the tethered pull. The tethers were causing my wrists and feet to push out of the netting and making my sprang ankle’s pain tolerance unbearable.

I began to scream from the pain.

"PLEASE! ANYBODY OUT HERE?! I NEED HELP!" I used all my energy to call for help, my arms and legs have gone numb from the pressure of the net. The cold is starting to feel warmer at least. I can feel myself nod off to sleep.

While my eyes are closed, I can hear the sound of snow crunching from human feet.

"Mam, are you awake?!" I hear a deep voice that sends my body tingling, prominently around my ankles.

I'm trying to pry my eyes open and to say something but I'm having difficulty doing so.

"How should we get her down?" This voice wasn't as deep, it sounded similar to Chris but with more softness in his tone. I could feel my wrist begin to tingle more after he spoke.

"I'm still trying to figure out why the net is acting like it is. Look how it projects to the side and not dangling loosely." Says the deeper tone man.

"Yeah, it's weird but we need to get her out. She may be going into hypothermia." The concern in his voice alarmed me.

While they were talking I was doing my best to talk back.

"Still awake," I say weakly, they both seemed to have heard me.

"Can you move at all?" Said the softer tone man.

"No," was all I could reply to his question.

"I'm climbing up and getting her down." States the deeper male voice.

"We don't know how bad her condition is, let's wait for the other betas and nurses to arrive.

"I can't just stand here while she is in pain!” I could hear that his voice was closer as if he was climbing trees. Within seconds he was on a branch behind me that was part of the tree holding the net.

I turn my head slowly and open one eye slightly. It's too dark to see what he looks like but he is sitting on the branch looking for a way to grab the net. I'm about ten feet from him and I noticed that the net had moved its angle between the two of them and was more centered. I start to think of what I could do to help.

“What’s your thought to get her safely out of there?” The voice boomed below me, he moved directly under my net as if to catch it.

The man in the tree sighed, “If she wasn't in such a week condition I jump over, cut the net, and drop down with her.”

Yeah, um no, we aren't going to do that. I need to help somehow.

Two of the least painful parts of my body are my hips and hindquarters. I start to shift my hips side-to-side to swing the net closer to him.

“Good idea Zayla. Keep it up.” The man in the tree said.

How does he know my name? I decide that's not the most important thing to focus on and keep swinging.

“You’re doing great, just a few more swings, ” he says assuringly.

With his motivating words, I gave it my all and felt the net stop as he grabbed it and ripped the netted ropes with his bare hands. I wrapped my fingers onto the rope worried I would fall. Swiftly, I was scoped up as though I weighed like a feather.

“Let go of the ropes my love, I got you.” He smelled so amazing that my body immediately relaxed into him to smell him more. My fingers released themselves of the rope on their own accord. I wrapped whatever body part could move to hold on to him tightly.

He buried his head into the side of my neck and breathed in. I should have freaked out that he was doing it, but it felt incredibly comforting.

“Don’t try to bring her down yet!” The man below bellowed.

“Sit up on that branch and focus on warming her up first. The other Betas and medical team should be here shortly.”

I felt my rescuer nod his head as he sat down on the branch. He somehow managed to open his long coat and I sank further into him as the coat was now wrapping both of us up.

“Don’t worry my sweet, sweet angel. I got you and I won't let you go, ” he whispers into my ear. The warmth of his breath felt wonderful, I didn't want him to stop. He kept assuring me that everything would be fine and I was able to relax enough to fall asleep within this stranger's arms.