Chapter 8 #2
“You.” He was looking at Sofia, nostrils flaring as he took in a deep breath that made her shudder.
“This is our territory,” Lumi said, voice unwavering despite how small they looked staring up at the wolfshifter. “Your tribe isn’t welcome here.”
“The treaty was broken when this one murdered my friends in our territory.”
“You have no proof of anything,” Sofia said.
“Their bodies still smelled of you,” he said, nostrils flaring again. “You and someone else. The treaty is broken. We hunt where we please now.”
Lumi practically snarled. “We’ll see how that goes.”
It was an empty threat. Even Sofia knew it. There were hardly any shapeshifters left in their tribe to defend themselves. She had to wonder if the wolfshifters knew that. The man’s eyes danced with glee.
“You won’t live to see it ,” he said. In the next blink, a giant wolf was lunging forward, and Lumi disappeared into a chaos of feathers and fur.
Their hawk form dove and pecked at the wolf, but they were forced to retreat with every swipe of his claws.
Sofia held her dagger, hesitating to attack as Lumi darted around the wolf faster than she could follow.
The rustling behind her was the only warning she had as a second wolf slammed into her from behind. She had just enough time to turn as she fell. The wolf’s fangs lodged into her forearm, tearing skin even as she sank her dagger into the soft skin of its neck.
The stitches along her back pulled, the hot pain competing with the torn flesh on her arm.
Her scream was involuntary. The wolfshifter fell back for only a moment before it lunged again, blood pouring from its neck.
In the clearing beyond, more wolfshifters stalked toward them, filled from their hunt of the elk and ready to join the fight.
She couldn’t see Lumi from where she was, and she stabbed at the wolfshifter again and again, the creature weakening with every attack.
Lumi screamed in the same moment teeth scraped along Sofia’s calf.
She closed her eyes for only a second and wondered if, after everything, this was how she’d die.
She wondered if Fox would hear about it and how he’d feel.
Would he keep fighting if she were gone?
Was she so self-absorbed to think her death would impact him?
The wolfshifter’s teeth never had time to sink into the meat of her muscle. It disappeared in a gust of icy wind. A roar shook the trees and the ground beneath her. She opened her eyes to see Chalia twisting through the air, a wolf hanging from her jaws.
“Stay away from my friends,” she screamed into Sofia’s mind, and she saw from the way the wolfshifters flinched that they heard her, too.
She pushed at the wolfshifter that had collapsed onto her, pulling herself free.
Her lungs burned from the exertion of the fight, and she bit back a cough.
Her knees shook as she stood. She saw the wolfshifter Lumi had been fighting lying dead on the ground a few yards away, but the shifter was nowhere to be seen.
Stumbling over the rocky ground, she heard Chalia chasing after the other wolfshifters, snapping and breaking them with her jaws as they howled.
“Lumi!” Sofia said, a wheezing cough rattling her chest.
A groan from somewhere beyond the dead wolf had her moving, legs shaky as she saw Lumi lying there between two giant ferns, covered in blood.
“Shit,” she said, falling to her knees beside the shifter.
“I’m fine,” they said, eyes cracking open.
The groan that slipped out did nothing to assuage Sofia’s anxiety, particularly as she noticed the deep slices across their stomach.
She wasn’t a healer or an expert in wounds, but they were deep, and she felt sick looking at the blood steadily weeping from them.
“I don’t think you should move,” Sofia said.
“That’s good,” they responded, voice weak. “I’m pretty sure I can’t, so I’ll just rest here for a bit.”
An icy wind alerted Sofia to Chalia’s return, and she looked to see the dragon landing in the field. She pushed her head through two particularly large trees, trying to see where Sofia and Lumi were crouched, despite being unable to fit her entire body.
“I’ve missed wolves,” she said, snapping her teeth. “Best meat there is.”
Sofia saw a flash of craggy boulders covered in snow, her mind in Chalia’s for just a moment as the dragon snapped a wolf up with her claws and tossed it into the air before sinking her teeth into it. She pushed away the vision, focusing back on Lumi groaning in pain.
Sofia thought back to her times watching Flor heal. She looked around, finding the clothes Lumi had abandoned, grabbing the tunic and pressing it into their stomach.
The shapeshifter let out a growl before clenching their teeth. Sofia didn’t need to tell them what to do. They snatched the tunic away, pressing it into their own stomach.
“I need to get help.”
“Don’t be gone long. I don’t want to meet any other wolfshifters today.”
“I’ll eat their friends, too,” Chalia said, her breath cold against Sofia’s neck. “I told you not to go without me.”
Sofia didn’t bother with apologies, running over and jumping on Chalia’s back.
“Don’t bother with stealth,” she said. “Just get us there and back as fast as possible.”
Chalia didn’t need to be asked twice. She shot into the air, unfettered by the trees.