What Lurks Beneath

Chapter 5

Kaida POV 

    Crimson Shadow Pack. That’s my only option right now. I know they won’t accept me and they might kill me on sight but they’re enemies with my pack. Brone won’t be able to follow me there without risking war. Hopefully I won’t be spotted by any patrols and I'll be able to find somewhere to hide. Just until my shift is over and then... then I don’t know. I’ll figure it out as I go.  

    Their Alpha is said to be exceptionally brutal and war like. He’s not under the council either, which is unheard of. Normally you’d either be forced into their submission or made rogue... but he’s too strong. They can’t touch him. Of course, if you asked the council members, they would tell you that wasn’t true. It had been an agreement of mutual benefit for him to separate from the council. Bull s**t. I was there when he officially renounced the council. I still have nightmares from that day.  

    I pull my thoughts away, not wanting to remember those awful memories. I don’t need to add to my mounting fears. This is neither the time nor the place. I need to focus on my survival. I’ve been running for over an hour and I’m not sure if anyone has noticed my absence yet but I really hope not. Who am I kidding... it’s getting too close to my shift. Brone is most definitely already out there, hunting me down. Shivers creep down my spine and it's not from the cold night’s air. 

    It’s hard to believe we once used to be so close but there’s no trace of that now. My heart clenches slightly at the thought. Breaking at the memories of what once was. I used to dream he would be my mate. He was so sweet and caring. Overly protective as hell, but still sweet. Now... now I dread just being in the same room as him. The sense of comfort he used to provide, gone, replaced by pure fear. 

    How did everything go so wrong? How could things change so quickly? Is love truly that fickle? Because I know he loved me. Even if just as a sister, he loved me at one time. How can you just stop loving someone? How could he turn his back on me so easily? I can feel my heart in my throat as I fight back the tears. NO. I cannot cry hear.  

    Keep running, we’re almost at the border. Stop dwelling in the past. 

    Don’t you think I know that? My whole life is coming apart. I’m entitled to being emotional 

    In a perfect world perhaps, but you do not have the luxury of it. I can smell him nearing but you have been too lost in your thoughts to notice.  

    What! 

Panic creeps into in my being. Causing me to falter. 

    Heart racing, I take a deep breath, sniffing the air. s**t. I’m so close to freedom, I can't be caught now. I won’t allow it. I will myself to run faster than I have ever run in my entire life. This would be so much easier if I had my wolf. I’d be able to run much faster for much longer periods of time. I would have been able to scent Brone’s approach sooner. Figures, Shifting, what could save my life is also what I dread at this moment. It would leave me too vulnerable. 

    Look. There’s the border. Just a little more and... 

    She doesn’t get to finish her sentence. We’re both hit with strong searing pain, starting in our stomach and burning like a wild fire that’s spreading. The pain extends into my extremities and I crumple onto the forest floor, the cold dampness offering some form of relief. The pain is so intense and only growing by the second. My vision begins to blur, my consciousness slowly slipping before it all goes black. 

    When I wake up, I expect to either be in my wolf form or in a dungeon. Probably the latter, I didn’t make it across the border before my shift. 

    We didn’t shift, but you need to get up fast. I can hear Brone. He is too close for comfort 

    My eyes shoot open and I jump to my feet. Everything is enveloped in red. Just like that night. 

    What do you mean we didn’t shift. What the hell was that all about then? 

    Not now. We don’t have time for this 

    I was determined to get answers out of her when I hear the howling of a wolf and my heart instantly stops. 

    When I turn, I see a large black wolf with a white streak straight down his right eye heading right for us. It’s Alastor, there’s no mistaking him. He’s staring me down in what I can only is a “don’t you dare cross that border” kind of stare. I scoff. If he thinks I'm going to wait for him here so that he can maul me to death, he has another thing coming. I cross the border and I shoot him a defiant glare, staring straight into his eyes for the first time since everything fell apart. Challenging him, daring him to cross.  

    He stops just shy of the border and... whimpers. What? No snarling? No teeth gnashing just at the border? Come on now, I was really hoping for some of that. It would give me such satisfaction watching him struggle between his need to kill me and his duty to his pack. But this? I wasn’t ready for this. I stare at him in Confusion. I really don’t have time to sit and ponder his actions though. Who knows when a border patrol will come by, if they haven’t already noticed the intrusion. 

    I make to leave when I hear the all familiar sound of bones snapping, signifying he’s shifting back into his human form.  

    “Where do you think you’re going” 

    “Um... Anywhere but here” 

    “you can’t leave me” 

    “I’m rogue” I say proudly, standing up straighter. I’m feeling braver, and bolder. “You don’t control anything about me anymore” 

    “you are MINE” he snarls 

    “To kill? Yeah, I don’t think so” 

    He seems taken aback. Confusion riddling his face. For a split second I swear I see hurt flash across his eyes, but that makes no sense. 

    “No, I would never hurt you” 

    I burst into laughter. Not the elegant, sweet kind of laughter but the erratic borderline crazy kind of laughter.  

    “How dumb do you think I am?” I narrow my eyes at him, resentment filling me to my core “You made it abundantly clear you would stop at nothing to have me killed” 

His face contorts in pain  

    “I would never kill my mate” he all but whispers 

His words take me by surprise 

    What the hell is he talking about? 

    I honestly have no clue. I feel nothing toward him. 

I laugh even more hysterically this time 

    “You must be really desperate to try and fake a mate bond” I give him the middle finger and turn on my heals heading further into Crimson Shadow territory. I hear a loud growl and what happens next takes me by complete surprise.  

    I hear him growl “MINE” his voice a few octaves lower and fluctuating between human and animalistic as he's mid shift. My body hits the ground and all the air escapes from my lungs. My already injured back, throbbing with the weight of his wolf on top of me. I turn to face him and notice for the first time since the start of this conversation that his eyes aren’t their usual ocean blue. Instead, they’re the dark Black of his wolf, signifying it was Alastor who was in control. Alastor is the one I've been talking to this whole time. He’s the one who is claiming us as his mate. He’s the one who wants me to stay, and he's the one who completely disregarded the border for the sake of keeping me by his side. 

Unknown POV 

     How sweet, the little Alpha has found his mate. I chuckle to myself. This is going to be fun. I observe the two amidst their little lovers' quarrel. Completely oblivious to the danger lurking just a few feet away from them.  

    I could kill them right here and now but I’ll let them go for today. This new information has put me in an unusually good mood. I’m going to enjoy tearing his whole world apart. Him and his whole pack won’t even know what hit them. I signal my comrades to follow behind me and we leave the two love birds behind, blissfully ignorant. 

They Should be happy. I don’t normally condone intruders on my territory.