Stolen Soul

Chapter 4: Gone

Hunter

My wolf, Xander has been arguing with me since we caught scent of ocean breeze and amber, the scent of our mate.  Rose died in my arms over a century ago.  That scent brings back so much joy, but so much pain. 

It was my fault, I promised I would meet her in our spot in the woods, it was her 21st birthday the anniversary of our mating.  She had something important to tell me, and wanted to do it in our spot.  As the moon began to rise in the sky I beamed in anticipation and anxiety to meet my love, but Willow stopped me.  Saying some non-sense about how my witch friend Esme needed my help.  That it was urgent, vampires had attacked their coven, and a werewolf’s venom is lethal to them.  We had heard of vampires but they generally stayed away from the packs, but Esme had been a close friend since child hood. I followed Esme’s sister Willow out of the pack boundaries towards the witch’s coven, keeping pace with her quick agile steps through the forest. 

I felt Rose’s pain before I faintly heard her blood curdling scream.    The burning sensation at my neck overtook me as my body dropped writhing to the forest floor.  I could barely make out the sounds of Willow calling to me, and reciting something over and over again.  The pain in my neck was ripped at my tendons, blinding and instant.  What felt like hours was only moments, as I felt her life force leave this plain of existence.  My chest tightened and my breathing grew ragged as I raced to our spot in the woods.  What I found shattered my existence, there lying in a matted mess of her own crimson blood was my one true love.  

Her face struck in agony; her arms tightly wrapped around her midsection.  Her beautiful brown hair, red, matted thick in her own blood, the sickly metallic scent thickly coating my nostrils. Without thought I pulled her up into my arms, her body devoid of life, from the gaping wound at her neck.  A howled into the night sky, Xander and my despair devouring our soul, when blackness took me.

When I awoke sounds were keener than they had ever been before.  I could hear the whispered arguments of Esme with her sister, they were arguing about her tying her life force to me, turning me hybrid. Each heartbeat in the coven was distinct, I could almost hear the blood pumping in and out with each beat.  But I couldn’t hear my own heartbeat. My mind began to race, what happened to me last night, and did they say hybrid? I had heard of hybrids; vampire werewolf being tied to the soul of a witch.  The beast side untouched, but the human souls bond taken and replaced.  That day my beast side receded into the depths of my mind, unwilling to serve the witches which kept us alive.  Xander welcomed the notion of death without Rose, I was left confused, aching for my wolf and my lost bond, confused by the ties to another woman.

Our mate could not have returned.  I have never heard of such a thing; my human soul is bound by magic to another.  No other hybrids have had their mate returned.  In the century that the coven has taken me in, I have not been able to resist their call. 

I tried at first in an attempt to reconnect with my wolf.  My soul’s connection to Esme made him angry, and retreat further into the recesses of my mind.  His despair at the loss of our mate left me a hollow shell of the once strong warrior I was.  For decades I was bitter and angry, I wished death could take me, but the magic prevented that.  I tried to drink the pain away, but could never get drunk enough to numb the absence of rose, the loss of my wolf, the guilt of my connection to Esme.

Slowly Esme helped me to work through the pain, but my wolf would not come to her.  When I found myself falling in love with Esme, Xander fell completely silent.  Until yesterday I had not shifted to his form in a century.  For the first time in 100 years, I felt alive, so I let my barriers down.  As we exited the car into the woods I knew so well, I allowed Xander to stretch to every inch of my mind and retreated to its depth.  Once again, I changed forms, my ebony black wolf appearing where my once human form stood.

I could feel Xander disdain for my uncertainty of staying, my uncertainty in her scent.  Even I had to admit we were no longer one being.  He hates Esme, and refuses to give up the ill-conceived notion that the moon goddess would return Rose to him.  It is why he refuses to bring her soul peace, and I know it is the reason he thinks that she has returned. I’m not sure if Xander is right, but his reasoning seems sound.  His soul is not connected to Esme the coven can only beckon to my soul, if he is strong enough, he can resist the call as long as we are in wolf form, he insists he cannot hear their call.  It already getting late, its nearly eleven pm before we get to the woods.  I shift immediately once we enter the woods, and begin to hear the call of the witch’s coven, calling me back to Esme.  Xander seems entirely unphased back the pull of the witch’s call, were I in my human form I would be unable to move forward, but Xander has found the familiar scent.

While my mind knows it cannot be her, I feel completed confused. Something or someone in these woods does smell a lot like her.  In my wolf form the lingering scent of salt, and musky amber scent.  The scent is trailed through the woods, it leads back to the water, and deeper through the woods.  As we reach the water’s edge, I hear a branch snap in the distance, it’s not far.  Then I see her, it’s Rose. I brace myself for her to come rushing towards us, but she doesn’t.  She turns and bolts in the opposite direction.

Without thinking my instinct kicks in and we chase.  She graceful glides through the woods.  The way her fur shimmers in the light of the moon sends shivers down my spine through my paws, electrifying the thrill of the chase. Her scent coats my nostrils, intermingling with my own, as happy memories overtake my senses.  Until I hear 3 more heartbeats to the north, and catch the scent of the wolves. We are at the border of Crescent Moons pack boundaries.  Skidding to a stop, my heart sinks as I watch Rose collide with 3 wolves.