Chapter Ten
I do the most sensible thing anyone could do when stone creatures that are gigantic with disturbing six-packs start screaming, roaring and running—I run in the opposite direction.
My feet take off across the forest floor, and it’s all a blur as I run like I don’t hear Reed shout my name or the roaring of the creatures.
I hear Reed’s wolf’s growl following me, the sweet smell of seawater in the air, but I don’t dare look back.
After a while, I don’t hear anything as I continue running straight through the forest, passing tree after tree.
My heart pounds so fast it might be covering up any sounds, though.
Instantaneously, my legs fly off the ground, and they don’t come back down.
Something has grabbed onto my back, yanking me up into the air with it, and I scream to the sky.
I look down to see the river flooding across the forest floor, a wave coming out of the river that is washing everything away and dragging the creatures into the river.
Reed’s water magic. I can’t see Reed as I’m dragged higher and higher into the sky until we break out of the treeline.
I expect the creature to be horrid as I look up, but instead I find the creature who pointed at me.
His grip is tight on my waist, and my arms are crushed against his cold chest. The wind blows his cloak hood down, and I get my first look at the creature I thought was a monster.
His skin is grey like stone, but his eyes are black with glimmers of silver—almost like stars.
Fangs peek out of his plush lips, and he’s weirdly good-looking.
Long black hair falls over his forehead and ears, the tips are grey, and his eyes lock onto mine.
There is a tattoo or marking on his neck, something I can’t quite see. I’m speechless as he continues to stare at me, and I wait for my death. He is going to kill me. I swear he smirks before he grabs my arm, and he bites down hard.
I’m screaming, kicking, and wriggling in his arms as he flies swiftly across the sky with me, biting down deeper and pulling at my blood as he groans.
I fight him, but he’s actually like stone in strength, and my efforts do nothing to make him let me go.
Nothing I do undoes his grip, and he continues to bite, continues to drain blood from my arm until he suddenly stops.
I flinch as my arm falls to my side, and I feel weak.
The stars in his eyes glow as he watches me.
His voice is dark, deep and so strange. He leans into me, breathing in deep.
“You’re mine, my stone, and I will never let you go from this moment until we are done with this world.
” He is growling his words into my ear, and yet I can barely hold my head up.
I shiver in his tight grip as he keeps flying with his heavy wings.
I want to scream, tell him I’m not his and that he can drop me to my death, but I just can’t. I feel like I’m in a trance.
He’s too busy looking at me, and he doesn’t see, but I feel it.
I feel fire lick down my spine, like an awareness, just before a huge black wolf, its fur literally on fire—black fire to be exact—jumps from the top of a huge tree.
The wolf slams into us, grabbing me in its mouth and flying through the air.
I scream this time as my stomach drops, the world spinning as we fall, and I hear the creature’s roar echo in the sky.
Endless black fire pours into the air almost like a shield, wrapping around us as we slam onto the ground, and the trees light up with the fire in its wake.
Blackfire. It’s Blackfire who has me. He runs fast with me in his mouth, and the fire spitting off his fur doesn’t hurt me; it just brushes against my skin.
I can barely feel anything as I’m held inside the mouth of the wolf, his teeth inches away from my bleeding arm as he continues to run through the forest. I look over, my eyes widening because we aren’t alone now.
I see the white wolf—Reed. I expect him to fight Blackfire, but he doesn’t, and the two of them run side by side through the forest.
Eventually, they stop in a clearing. Blackfire spits me out onto the ground, and I roll in the leaves, coughing as I grab my arm, wincing in pain from the bite. My blood pours through my fingers, and Reed shifts back first, immediately in front of me, grabbing my arm.
“Don’t lick me,” I manage to mumble out even as I feel dizzy from blood loss. “This has been a bad day. Is it over?”
But I’m too weak to fight him as he grabs my arm, takes my hand off it, and begins licking the bite. Eventually, the pain disappears, not the fuzziness. I think I’m going to pass out. “Bad day, not bad life, little human. Now tell me why the fuck you ran from me?”
Blackfire hasn’t shifted back, huffing and snarling as he’s walking back and forth near us. Eventually, he does shift, crouched on the ground, his hood flying around him and his black mask glittering. “Get the fuck away from her and take your dirty mouth with you, Reed.”
If I thought he was angry at Reed, who doesn’t move and only smirks as he licks my arm one more time, his eyes locked on Blackfire, it’s nothing compared to the fury that spills from Blackfire as he looks at me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? Decided to go for a little fly with a new friend?” he growls. “Hopeless as fucking usual.”
“Not willingly, you absolute dickhead,” I spit at him. Why did it have to be Blackfire who jumped for me? I’m still shocked that he did that, when I’m meant to be helping him win this thing. Not the other way around.
“What Blackfire means to ask is, are you alright?” Reed counters, finally letting my arm go but staying close enough that all I can smell and see is him.
“Yes, thank you,” I whisper softly. I need a drink and chocolate cake, and a nap. “Any chance you want to hunt down a cake for me? I mean, I know there aren’t wild cakes running about, but I’ve had a bad day, so maybe you might find something.”
Reed opens and shuts his mouth, clearly unsure what to say. He isn’t getting me a cake; that much is for sure.
“I saved you,” Blackfire snaps. “He was no use, so why are you thanking him and not me?”
Reed shakes his head and leans closer to me. “My pleasure. I will find—”
He reaches for me like he might kiss my forehead, but he doesn’t get that far. Blackfire slams him into the tree nearby, holding him there, the dagger pointed straight at his crotch. “The fuck is wrong with you, Reed? We agreed whoever found her first would—”
“I’m well the fuck aware of what we agreed,” Reed snarls back. “You lost her first, and what the fuck were those creatures? Why do they want her?”
I realize they know each other, and they made an agreement to get to me first. I lock eyes with Reed. “You lied to me.”
He smirks, and something cold echoes in his eyes. “First lesson, little human, never trust a wolf as pretty as me.”
“You’re not that pretty,” I snap.
“Second lesson,” he laughs. “You need to learn to lie better.”
“She does,” Blackfire agrees with him, even as he has his dagger pointed at Reed’s crotch.
Okay, they are weird, and coming from me, that’s saying something.
They’re both heirs, and they clearly get along.
I thought the packs all hated each other.
I shake my head, dizzily getting to my feet.
“But back to the point, this isn’t what we agreed.
How did you not find out about the creatures? What else haven’t you mentioned, Reed?”
“I didn’t know about them either, you prick!” he snarls back, both of them growling.
“Luckily you’re okay, I think,” Tannith hisses. “That was creepy. Why do the stone creatures have six-packs? I was so close to it at one point, and I was tempted to lick it.”
“I know. I noticed that too. Very creepy,” I whisper back, ignoring Blackfire and Reed, who are arguing about how Reed didn’t protect me, and Reed is arguing that Blackfire took too long to get to me.
“Why are they both arguing about who protected you best?” Tannith watches them from my neck, where she has crawled out of the bag and hidden. “You’re building a nice little collection here of hot males. One of them must want to sleep with you. Even for a pity fuck. Tell them you’re a virgin—”
“Please stop talking,” I mutter, moving to the nearest tree and leaning my back against it.
“I’m trying to make light of the situation.
You’ve obviously lost a lot of blood. That means you may be a bit delirious, therefore open to talking about some of this stuff.
” She brushes against my neck, and I know she cares, and she is trying to distract me from the awful situation I have myself in.
There have been five moments in my life where I actually thought about ending it all and seriously leaving this fucked-up world.
Five moments where I was at my lowest, and five times, I managed to convince myself to keep going.
I can’t live through a sixth moment, and this time, I’d take Tannith with me, which is unacceptable.
“What’s the point, Tannith?” I whisper softly.
She whispers back, “You are the point. You’re still fighting. Since we were children, you’ve always said that you want to give up, but you never actually have. You’ve been given many reasons to, and you know what? That didn’t break you, and I don’t think there is anything or anyone that could.”
“You have far more belief in me than I do,” I mutter. She always has done; it’s why I have to save her, why I have to make sure she has a life after this as a human. I can’t leave her cursed to be a drake forever.
She hums. “Maybe I believe that it’s the ones that want to give up and don’t who are the strongest of us all.”
I lay my head back as she climbs back into the bag, and I zip her up.
One of us should get some sleep, as I don’t foresee this day getting any better for me, and I’m tired.
Reed and Blackfire are still arguing like an old married couple, but no more daggers are involved, so at least they won’t stab each other.
I don’t know why I’m happy they won’t stab each other.
They probably should, and then I’ll get a chance to run again.
I also don’t want to run straight into the creature who bit me.
Well, my plan to hide and sleep until this is all over hasn’t worked out. I don’t have a Plan B.
My arm still throbs, and even though the skin is healed, I swear something looks like it’s below my skin.
I keep looking at my arm just as something metal pricks against my throat, and I freeze.
My eyes widen as I take in the smell that spreads through the world into my senses, so earthy and just like maple syrup.
I remember who this is. Orion, the devastatingly beautiful wolf, is holding a dagger to my throat, and he pulls my back straight against his chest, my bag with Tannith in slipping to my hip.
“You’re dead,” he laughs before he bites down hard on my ear, and I scream.