The Midnight Foxxx

Chapter 11

MADDOX

'Wilder? You say something?' There's no reply, but I can faintly feel he's conscious through the mindlink.

'You with me?' When he still doesn't respond, I push further into his mind. His eyes are open and though his vision is hazy, I'm able to see what he's seeing. Moonlight is shining through the tree canopy above, light rays glistening with the lighting bugs. It's beautiful. His gaze is fixated on a particular spot in the foliage. There doesn't appear to be anything there, but the longer I look, a faint outline of a face starts to come into focus. It's too hazy and dark to make out any details, but when the moonlight hits a pair of eyes, they sparkle like rubies. Suddenly, everything goes black and realize Wilder has closed his eyes again.

'Wilder, open your eyes,' his eyes stay closed. I press harder, willing him to obey, but he's out cold. There's nothing but leaves and branches when I look up to see for myself. The branch that once had red glistening eyes is now empty, if there was even anything there in the first place. I chalk it up to Wilder hallucinating from blood loss.

The gamma stays unconscious for the rest of the walk home. I bring him to the pack infirmary where the doctor and nurses immediately get to work on cleaning up the rough amputation of his hand. Unfortunately, they won't be able to reattach it; it's too damaged. Rage surges through my blood.

"Get him the best prosthesis specialist there is. I don't care how much it costs," the doctor nods to acknowledge the order. I leave in a huff, the sight of my long time friend beaten and bleeding clouding my mind with anger.

It's still dark outside, the moon emitting a soft glow that breaks through some of the shadows. Breaking out into wolf form, I make my way back to the area Wilder was attacked. There has to be something there that got overlooked.

'Asher,' I reach out through a mindlink, 'Has anyone found anything yet?'

'No, nothing yet,' he responds quickly. A snarl echos out into the surrounding woods and pick up my pace. The forest is still dead, not a single sound other than my paws thundering against the earth. There's no unusual scent either. Even as I'm approaching the area Wilder was attack, the only detectable smell is rust.

I skid to a halt once I reach the puddle of blood that was left behind, still not fully absorbed into the ground. The area around it is mostly undisturbed. Wilder didn't put up much of a fight if any, which means he was likely ambushed. A quick survey of the ground only shows tracks of pack members, but there's a faint path of disturbed leaf litter leading away from the blood. There's no discernible scent to it, and it heads directly into thick bushes and bramble. Odd. Most individuals would go around the thorns and pucker brush. But maybe not if someone was trying to hide. I follow the disturbed earth and flattened foliage into the bushes, immediately getting fur snagged on branches and thorns. The trail is lost in the brush, and find no other signs on the other side. With no other leads, I decide to continue on in the same general direction.

Eventually, the tree that had the hand mounted to it is staring back at me. The bark is splintered and rough with splatters of blood dried on it. The smell of rust is faint, intermingled with the scent of wood and oak, but nothing else. I huff loudly in frustration, not certain where to go from here. No prints or scent to follow, and the forest has become so dense it's anyone's guess where someone could be hiding. Red eyes flash in my mind and subconsciously find myself walking to the spot where Wilder had seen them. I gaze up into the canopy which no longer has moonlight filtering through it, the moon having fallen further down in the night sky. The shadows in the trees look darker now, more ominous. The feeling of being watched is starting to prickle at the base of my neck. The darkness speckled among the leaves is so deep, my eyes start to play tricks on me. Shapes and shadows dance inside the black like a spectral ghost; it’s hypnotizing.

Like a shooting star soaring through the cosmos, stunning and serendipitous, vermillion orbs appear staring back at me, unblinking. I don't dare take my eyes off them for fear they'll disappear again. Red is all I can see, the leaves and branches too thick to make out a size or shape. The only thing that moves are the tree limbs around them. It sits so still I start to think it's all in my head until they finally blink. I decide to take a single step forward and stop when I hear a faint low growl. It fades to a soft rumble, but the warning is still clear. An internal conflict begins to wage in my mind. Torn between anger and the desire to charge at them, but logic is screaming at me to calculate my next moves very carefully. I don't know who or what this thing is. It's fast enough and strong enough to not only overwhelm, but also subdue one of my strongest fighters. It doesn't give off a scent and is stealthy enough to move around without being seen or heard. Despite my better judgement, I take another step forward.

Everything happens so fast. There's a loud snarl before a blade is thrown right at my chest. I'm able to dodge, but not fast enough to avoid getting grazed. I grunt and shake off the mild stinging and bring my attention back to the assailant, but it's already gone. Before I even realize what I'm doing, I'm bounding up the tree, claws digging into bark and propelling me up. Once I'm at the right branch, there's nothing. Just leaves and bark. I glare at nothing, anger sizzling under my skin, but then I see... movement? No, not movement, a faint glimmer that's distorting its surroundings ever so slightly; cloaking magic.

I pull my lips back slowly into a snarl, and when I let out a growl, that's when I hear it. An intake of breath, so quiet and faint but definitely there. I lunge forward, snapping my teeth which sink into invisible flesh as they clamp down. There's a loud agonizing scream as blood fills my mouth. The taste is unpleasant but refuse to let go and lock my jaw. I feel them start to struggle, jerking and pulling, but just bite down harder, earning another scream of pain. Suddenly, the thrashing stops.

And then I'm yanked off balance, their body weight abruptly shifting and pulling me down. As I lose my footing and start to fall is when I realize the crazy fucker jumped, using their weight to throw me off kilter. Instinctively, my jaw releases during the decent and land with a loud thud. I'm able to pick myself up fairly quickly, though everything hurts but nothing seems broken. Once I get my wits about me, I see him hunched over just a couple of feet away from me. He has his arm clutched tight to his chest, blood running down his front and pooling on the ground beneath him. He's dressed in all black with a hood pulled over his head. He has a slender build, which is surprising because of how strong he is. I take a step towards him and see him visibly freeze. A growl rumbles in my chest, warning, no, daring him to move. Time feels like it's standing still as we stay in this stalemate.

‘Asher. I need you and a small group to come to my location. Now,' I mindlink my beta while keeping the intruder in line of sight.

‘On it,’ Asher replies instantly. ‘What’s going on?’

‘I found him. I managed to injure him, but I want some back up in case he tries to run.’ There’s a pregnant pause before I receive a response.

‘Be there in less than five minutes,’ and the link is severed.

In front of me, the attacker is still crumpled over and bleeding, chest heaving from labored breaths. The puddle of blood is growing alarmingly fast, and while I’d love for the bastard to bleed out and die, I want him alive. I want answers. When he shifts his weight trying to stand up, I stalk towards him, steps heavy and loud. Looking down at him, his entire body is shaking. From fear, pain, blood loss or all of the above, I'm not sure, but place a paw on his upper back. The muscles under my pads freeze, and the shaking stops abruptly. I start to push him down, wanting him to lie down in submission, but he's suddenly whipping around. The quick movement startles me, and I don't see the weapon being swung in my direction. Sharp pain bites into my shoulder and howl in agony. When I finally open my eyes, he's gone.

'Alpha! Are okay? We're almost there,' Asher's voice fills my head.

'f**k. I'm fine. He got me and took off. I'm not sure where he went. Get here and comb the area,' I snap. 'And he can use f*****g cloaking magic, but he's bleeding heavily. There's bound to be a trail.'

Pain radiates from my shoulder, the weapon still lodged deep in the flesh. Frustration boils over and howl into the dark night sky.

I will f*****g get you next time. You won't get away.