Shattered and Saved (Ashen Wolves #2)

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A V R I L

“Did you get a lead on them yet, Eli?” I pressed my gamma, anxiety building by the second.

“Not yet,” he replied regretfully through the mindlink. Meanwhile, his wolf, Conri, continued to sniff the ground, entirely focused on his task.

After driving for two hours, I shifted alongside my beta, gamma, and six skilled warriors as we entered the forest where we hoped to track the fledgling. In our wolf forms, we could stay under the radar if we strayed too close to another pack’s borders. An hour passed without any trace of them, and the knot of worry in my stomach tightened.

Elijah wasn’t one of our strongest fighters by any means, but he was the best tracker we had. I always made sure to bring him along on our rescue missions because he could pick up on scents and follow leads better than any other wolf in our pack. He usually found traces much quicker than this.

The longer it took us to find our lost kin, the higher the chances of them running into trouble. If we couldn’t find them soon, they might end up accidentally exposing our secret, which could risk the safety of our kind as a whole. Yet, there was something else on the back of my mind I worried about.

Would Koen be alright all by himself at Azure Smoke?

“All I can smell are some rogues close by,” Elijah added, interrupting my thoughts.

Getting my head back in the game, I observed, “Their scent could be masking that of our target.” Aside from having poor control over their newly unlocked abilities and their still-developing animal forms, recently transformed Ashen Wolves also had a fainter scent that grew stronger once the characteristic mark appeared on their forearm.

“If that’s the case, I’ll do my best to discern it,” my gamma assured me.

As we marched on, I found myself getting lost in my head again. I wondered what Koen was doing, and if he could be feeling alone. Maybe I should have left one of the boys with them to keep him company - and watch over him.

“You’re giving Koen too little credit,” Kea scolded me, and I couldn’t argue with her. “We might be more powerful than him, but he’s not helpless, Avril. He will be fine on his own until we return, however long it takes.”

“ You’re right, ” I gave in. “ But I’m still worried the pack might give him a hard time. ”

“They’ll leave him alone,” she asserted.

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because you ordered them to do so,” she pointed out simply. “You have too little faith in our pack’s loyalty to us. They recognize all we’ve done for them, and they trust our decisions,” she reminded me, and I finally allowed myself to feel a bit calmer.

Just as our conversation ended, I caught a change in Conri’s posture. His ears perked up, nose up in the air, and his front paw barely touched the ground - he always raised it a little when he found something.

“I picked up on his scent,” Elijah announced through the group mindlink. Before I could celebrate, the alertness in his wolf’s eyes warned me he still had bad news to share. “But I think the rogues might have found him first.”

“Take us to him!” I demanded, and Conri immediately obliged.

We dashed through the trees, using our powers to teleport between shadows to reach our destination faster. The stench hit me in seconds, putrid and thick. Minutes later, it was all I could smell, making it hard to breathe. Rogues often reeked of death. After being packless for too long, spending most of their days in animal form as they tried to survive alone in the wild, their human side withered away. They smelled like something rotting because, in a way, a part of them was.

I saw the fledgling before I could distinguish his scent amidst the stink. He was frightened, his teenage wolf constantly tripping over his own huge paws, not used to his form as he tried to outrun the mindless beasts chasing him. At that moment, my suspicions were confirmed - he had no idea what he was.

He reminded me of myself when I was exiled from Whispering Hills. Alone. Lost. Scared. Then again, most of our pack members were like that when we found them. Even on the rare occasion that they knew the truth - raised by another Ashen Wolf who, in most cases, perished in the wilderness - they were still alone. Forced to adopt a solitary lifestyle to keep their secret hidden, they couldn’t fend off the constant threats on their own. It always ended the same way.

That’s why I swore I’d do whatever it took to restore my kind’s dignity.

“Theo!” I called through the mindlink, running ahead of my team.

“On it,” he replied before I even needed to voice a command.

With a low bark, Theo instructed the other warriors to get in formation. There were five enemies against nine of us. An Ashen Wolf already had the upper hand in one-on-one combat with a rogue. Since we also had the numbers, this should be easy.

As we advanced together, organized in two groups to corner the oblivious rogues, smoke surrounded us. With their visibility affected, the creatures slowed down, but they still couldn’t see us. Just as I ran past the fledgling, he must have sensed me, because his eyes darted in my direction. In a moment of distraction, he tripped and fell. The rogues wasted no time to seize the opportunity, one of them jumping at the prey they had been chasing.

But Kea never let him get near the fledgling.

Finally revealing herself, she stepped out of her smoke cloud, jumping over the young Ashen Wolf. Mid-air, she teleported to a spot untouched by sunlight. Appearing right in front of the vicious rogue, she closed her powerful jaws around the creature’s neck, snapping it with deadly precision.

Just as Kea’s lifeless victim hit the ground, the rest of my team emerged from the darkness. There was no time for whimpers or cries - only the crunch of breaking bones and the last, ragged breaths of the dying. One by one, the bodies crumpled onto the forest floor. Just like that, it was over.

When Kea looked at the fledgling, I realized he had shifted into his human form. The young boy had wide eyes as he crouched in the dirt, paralyzed by fear.

“W-who… What a-are y-ou?” he stammered, his voice just as shaky as his body.

One of the warriors tossed the backpack he’d been carrying at Kea’s feet. She dragged out a robe before allowing me back control, and I quickly put it on as soon as I was in human form again. As I turned to fledgling again, I lowered myself, breathing slowly, trying to convey through my body language that I wasn’t a threat.

Stretching my hand out to him, I told him, “We are your family.”

“B-but I’m an o-orphan,” he countered, hesitantly accepting my help.

“I’m sorry. Your parents must not have made it,” I observed, a mix of aching and anger brewing within me. I tried to keep it at bay not to further scare him before I continued, “But you don’t have to be alone anymore. You’re one of us.”

“W-what?” He took a step back, swaying as if he was dizzy - given how hard he was panting after running for heaven knows how long, it didn’t surprise me. “But you’re a stranger. I don’t know you. How could we be related?”

As the confused boy tried to make sense of the situation, I noticed him scratching his forearm. I instantly knew what was happening, and I took it as an opportunity to convince him.

“What is your name?” I asked in a soothing voice.

“Oliver,” he replied automatically, almost as if he felt compelled to answer me, even if he couldn’t understand why.

“Oliver,” I repeated. “I’m Avril,” I introduced myself, pointing at his arm. He glanced at it, ceasing to scratch it, and offered it to me.

As I held his wrist gently, twisting his arm to inspect the irritated area, he mumbled, “I-I think it’s a rash.”

“No. It’s your mark. It’s starting to appear,” I informed him, letting go of him. He frowned in confusion, until I showed him the intricate tattoo-like mark on my arm. Clarity sparked in his eyes as I went on, “In less than forty-eight hours, it’ll look exactly like mine. Everyone of us has it.”

“And who are you?” he wondered, correcting, “Who are we?”

“You, me, and them…” I glanced at my team, smiling as my eyes fell on the boy again. “We’re Ashen Wolves, Oliver.”

Suddenly, Kea’s ears jolted up inside my head as we both heard a twig snap nearby. All of my calm wore off. Sniffing the air, I picked up on a different scent. With the intense rotten smell of the rogues and pungent fresh blood, it had gone unnoticed at first, but now I could sense it. There was someone else here.

My team barely had time to shift their stances, ready to defend us, when the stranger revealed themselves.

“O-oliver?” The female spoke shyly.

She looked to be around the same age as the boy. From her scent, she had to belong to a wolf pack - and she certainly wasn’t one of us. My mind raced as I tried to decide what I should do in a fraction of a second.

“What does she mean you’re one of them?” the female continued, terror in her eyes. “What’s an Ashen Wolf? H-how did they do this?” Her eyes hovered over the fallen rogues, her attention stolen by them. I watched her lips part as she prepared to ask more questions, but I didn’t allow her to.

In the blink of an eye, I threw off my robe, and Kea took over again. Using our abilities, she appeared right behind the girl and ended her life just as quickly as she had the rogue’s moments before.

“No!” Oliver’s sharp scream pierced through the forest as he rushed to the she-wolf. He cradled her in his arms, staring into her lifeless eyes. “W-why? She must have come after me to help. She wasn’t a threat!” he cried out.

“I’m sorry, Oliver,” I told him sincerely, kneeling beside him. He stiffened when I touched his shoulder, but he didn’t try to push me away. “Everyone who isn’t like us is a threat.”

“Not her! She was my friend!” he argued.

“She saw us. She heard us. She learned about you - about all of us,” I tried to explain.

“So what?”

“You’ll come to understand why we must protect our secret. If the world knows, they’ll come for you - for us .” I made a brief pause, urging him to get back up. “It'll make sense once we tell you everything. Come with us, Oliver. You’ll be safe with us, and no one will ever harm you again.”

Reluctantly, he released his friend, standing back up. Although clearly still scared and confused, he chose to follow us. I was sure it was because he could feel and sense the similarities between us. Even if he couldn’t comprehend it yet, his wolf knew that they belonged with us.

As I turned back to my team, there was no shock in their expressions. They knew why I had done what I had done. I truly regretted having to end the innocent girl’s life, but I couldn’t say I was remorseful. As sad as it had been, I had no choice.

The Ashen Wolves didn’t initiate the bloodshed; it was forced upon us. We were once innocent too. But in a world where we were relentlessly persecuted, there was no room for right or wrong - only the brutal choice between kill or be killed. If it was one of my own or one of them, I would always choose my family, in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I didn’t care how many lives I had to take as long as it allowed us to thrive.

I would be damned if I let them succeed in wiping us out.