CHAPTER 2: A Hot-Headed Leader
1337 Words
Ilyra's POV
He was shirtless and terrifyingly still and for a heart-stopping second, I feared we were too late.
He was a stranger not from our village or the hunters from yesterday. His face was even bruised and caked with dirt but it was the brutal wounds across his torso that stole my breath... deep gashes that spoke of claws and steel and not any ordinary accident.
“Stay back,” I whispered to the girls with my healer’s instincts shoving my own fear aside.
I knelt cautiously with the damp earth soaking into my trousers and my fingers, surprisingly steady found the side of his neck.
There.. I found a pulse.. faint and thready like a spool of silk about to snap, but it was there. He was clinging to life by the thinnest of threads.
“He’s alive,” I breathed out with a relief so strong it made me dizzy but the relief was short-lived. The wounds were grievous and he needed help.. now.
Just then the crack of twigs announced the arrival of Baylor and two other men from the village with their faces etched with concern. They must have seen the girls running and followed.
“Ilyra? What’s happened?” Baylor asked with his eyes widening as he took in the scene.
“I need your help,” I said with my voice leaving no room for argument. “This man… he’ll die if we don’t move him. We need to get him to my cave. Now!”
To their credit.. they didn’t hesitate and didn’t ask who he was or how he got here. Baylor and the other man carefully slid their hands under the stranger’s shoulders and knees, lifting him with a grunt of effort.
“Easy now,” I instructed with my eyes scanning his pale face for any sign of pain. “His injuries are severe.”
As they began the careful trek back towards the path, I took a final look around the grove with my gaze sweeping the trampled grass and the dark damp soil where he had lain and that’s when I saw it.
A glint of something half-buried in the dirt partly obscured by a leaf. Without thinking, I stooped and picked it up.
It was a pendant.. heavy in my palm and attached to a broken leather cord. It was carved from a dark polished stone into the shape of a magnificent snarling wolf’s head.
My eyes widened and a silent chilling shock froze me to the spot. I knew this symbol.. everyone in the surrounding territories knew it. It was the crest of the most powerful and most feared Alpha in all the regions.. the crest of Alpha Kaelric Varyn! The very man the witch hunters had said was paying a fortune for people like me!
A cold dread settled around my heart but I shoved the pendant deep into my pocket burying the secret along with it. There was no time for this now… There was a life to save.
***
Kaelric's POV
“I’m telling you, Alpha, this is a mistake. We should turn back.”
Beta Rhevan’s voice was low and frustrated beside me. We were crouched in a thicket while ahead and through the trees we could see them... a column of Ironmaw soldiers moving with a purpose that made my wolf stir uneasily within me.
“Turn back?” I scoffed, keeping my eyes on the enemy. “And let Drogan’s raiders sack another defenseless pack? We saw the same intelligence, Rhev. They’re heading for the Sunfall pack and they have maybe two dozen warriors. These brutes will slaughter them.”
Rhevan ran a hand through his messy hair.
“I know that. But look at them. I counted at least 3 thousand strong maybe more. We have 26. This isn’t a fight, it’s a suicide mission!”
“It’s called an ambush,” I said with a reckless grin tugging at my lips. “We have the element of surprise and I’ve got a good idea.”
“Your ‘good ideas’ usually end with me pulling splinters out of my backside for a week,” he muttered.
“This one is brilliant,” I insisted. “You’re the fastest rider we have. I need you to turn around right now and ride like the hellhounds are on your tail. Get back to Blackrift and bring the reinforcements. We’ll harry them and slow them down until you get back.”
Rhevan’s face fell.
“Absolutely not. I’m not leaving your side. You’ll get yourself killed without me here to watch your back.”
I straightened up letting just a fraction of my Alpha dominance ripple through the air. It wasn’t a threat, but a reminder and a command.
“Beta Rhevan Stonewild. You're my best friend but my Beta too and that was an order. Go. Now.”
He glared at me with his loyalty warring with his duty and finally, he cursed under his breath.
“You’d better be in one piece when I get back,” he growled before melting back into the forest and I heard the soft thud of hooves a moment later as he raced away.
I turned back to my small squad with their faces grim but determined.
“Alright, lads. We hit hard and we hit fast. Shift at the last second. Let’s give Rhevan a good show to come back to.”
We mounted up and broke from the tree line with our horses charging across the open field. It was only as we got closer with the distance shrinking that the sickening truth hit me.
Rhevan was right. It was a mistake…
The column wasn’t just three thousand men.. it was sixty maybe seventy thousand. They’d been hidden by the dip in the land and the foliage. It was far far too late to turn back.
“For Blackrift!” I roared, pouring every ounce of my fear into a battle cry.
The air was immediately filled with the ring of steel.. the savage growls of wolves and the shouts and cries of men. I lost my horse, shifting mid-fall into my wolf form with my black fur matted with blood that wasn’t my own.
I remember the searing pain of claws raking down my side, the crushing weight of a massive grey wolf on top of me and then… nothing as the world went black.
***
A dull throbbing ache was the first thing that returned to me and then the smell from herbs, earth and smoke.
I pried my eyes open and the world was quite blurry. I was lying on something soft.. furs maybe. A low ceiling of rough dark rock arched above me.. a cave?
I was shirtless and dandages.. clean and tight were wrapped around my chest and stomach.. someone had treated me. I tried to sit up with a groan escaping my lips as fire lanced through my side. Gritting my teeth, I pushed through the pain struggling to my feet. I had to know where I was and who had me.
I stumbled toward the mouth of the cave and toward the sliver of daylight with each step a fresh agony. Was I captured? Was I rescued? Where were my men?
Just as I reached for the hide covering the entrance, it was swept aside and a girl stood there, silhouetted against the light.
She was holding a basket of herbs with her eyes wide with surprise at seeing me upright and then I felt it.. a sudden sharp internal pain that had nothing to do with my wounds.. it was a cold warning jolt straight to my core and my wolf stirred, recoiling in recognition.
My eyes snapped to hers with the realization dawning with terrifying clarity. The herbs.. the isolation and the strange calming energy that felt so wrong.
I stumbled back with my voice coming out in a weak but accusing rasp.
“You’re a witch!”
- Writer
