Chapter 17 - Thane #2
Willow finally meets my eyes, her soft blue orbs glossed over with tears, twinkling as she feebly smiles. “Werewolves are more dangerous than lions,” she giggles nervously, prompting me to laugh through my anger.
“You really are something else, you know?” I say in awe, my voice dropping a bit lower as I stare into her eyes.
“Thane….” She says my name in that same tone she used on the night my house burned down and I chased her into the woods.
“Willow…” I whisper, and feel the shift a second before we both begin to lean in. For a fleeting moment, all the inhibitions in her eyes are gone, and they're clearer than ever, full of the ferocious passion I'd been searching for long before I knew it was Willow I was searching for.
The moment her eyelids flutter closed, I move in, forgetting all about the promise I made to remain friends when her scent, like jasmine, fills the air I breathe. It's intoxicating, addicting, and I no longer care to be the gentleman I've been around her.
Just as I'm about to touch her lips with mine, the air shifts. One second, all I can hear is her breath mingling with mine, soft and uneven; the next, the forest exhales in a way that feels wrong, the fine hairs on the back of my neck prickling with sharp alertness.
I still for a heartbeat, my instincts snapping to attention. My wolf prickles beneath my skin, ready to be unleashed.
“Did you hear that?” I whisper without moving, only my eyes flicking to the sides.
Willow blinks, startled out of the moment. “What?” she breathes, the sound of her voice tapering into the rustling of bushes close by.
Before I can answer, a treacherous hiss slices through the air, and I'm stung in the neck, a sudden fire ripping through the sting. The shock robs me of breath before searing pain replaces it, my fingers flying to the wound, finding the slick shaft of a dart embedded in my flesh.
“Thane!” Willow exclaims, her voice high and trembling.
“Stay b-back,” I rasp, already tasting metal on my tongue.
My body is reacting too fast to what I suspect is poison, not just a tranquilizer.
My pulse slows down, then surges all over again, my wolf's natural heat rising to fight the venom threading through my veins.
My vision fractures at the edges, the trees melting like blurred shadows, and pain blazes through me.
I crawl toward Willow, drawing my knife free from its sheath when my wolf can't come to the fore, impaired by the poison. “Run, Willow.”
“I’m not leaving you!” she yelps, grabbing my shoulders.
“Run!” I roar this time, but it’s too late.
Figures emerge from the dark behind her head—four, maybe five, I can't tell when their shadowy figures morph into dots in my blurred vision.
Wolves.
Not ours.
I can tell by the putrid scent that hits me like a curse.
Blood Claw.
My grip tightens on the wooden handle, but my fingers won’t obey.
“Well, well…” the one in front sneers. “Would you look at that…a Snehvolk alpha playing house with his little charity case.”
Willow stiffens beside me, turning slowly to face the perpetrators. The taunting laughter that follows blares through the clearing like the sound of horror.
“She always was easy, wasn’t she?” another voice jabs. “Heard you can buy her with a roof and a warm bed. Isn't that right, omega?”
“Shut up,” Willow whispers, voice trembling but sharp enough to make me glance at her. Her hands are in her lap now, curling into fists at her sides.
The first wolf smirks, stepping closer. “You hear that, boys? The pet’s got bite now.”
Rage surges through me, but my limbs feel too heavy to act. I keel forward, my knife raised in front of my face, and the world tilts in a treacherous slant. Poison sears through my bloodstream, eating away at my strength, and I fight to keep my eyes open.
“Thane!” Willow’s voice breaks. She crouches beside me, grabbing my shoulders, practically shaking me. “What’s happening?”
“Poison…” I manage through clenched teeth. “Dart.” My eyes dart to the side where I'd been shot. “You have to go—”
“No! I’m not leaving you!” she cries again.
The Blood Claw wolves circle our blanket, savoring the prowl.
“Oh, look, she’s loyal now. He sure did pay well.”
Something inside Willow snaps, a clear shift in her eyes from fear to fury. Her hands tremble as she removes them from my shoulders, but not from weakness.
Gold light flickers on her fingertips, faint at first, then brighter, pulsing like a heartbeat.
“I said…” her voice cracks like thunder as she turns fully, a menacing glint in her eyes, her face hardened. “Don’t. Touch. Him!”
The air thickens, humming with a current that feels alive as it pulses through my paralyzed body.
The wolves hesitate, some backtracking and glancing at each other. But they're out of time. Out of luck.
A second later, the clearing explodes in gold flashes of light that burst from Willow's palms, flooding the night with brilliant luminescence.
It rolls out in a wave, sending the Blood Claw wolves sprawling backward.
The fire pit extinguishes, and snow whirls violently around us, caught in the surge of energy.
One of the wolves tries to rise, shifting into wolf form and snarling at Willow, its eyes full of fear and terror. But she raises her arm, golden veins snaking up her skin, and the snow beneath him turns molten. He howls as he scrambles back, shifting back into human form as his wolf cowers.
“Witch!” he spits, but the word is swallowed by another pulse of light.
“Get out!” she screams in warning, and this time the power in her voice is enough to make the ground quake. The wolves scatter, tripping over each other in their haste to flee.
When silence finally returns, Willow drops to her knees beside me, panting heavily. Her hands hover over my wound, glowing faintly with remnants of gold as if instinctively trying to heal me.
“Thane…stay with m-me,” she pleads, her voice breaking. “Don’t you dare close your eyes!”
Not able to feel my fingers anymore, the poison is burning cold through my veins, dragging me under to the throes of darkness that threaten to consume me. Still, I manage a faint smile as I stare at Willow's distorted face. “R-remind me to…to never make you angry.”
Tears blur her eyes. “Don’t talk!” she wails. “I-I can fix this…I can fix you!”
“R-run,” I murmur again, even though we both know I’m already too weak to protect her.
She shakes her head vigorously. “No. Not again. You saved me before, Thane. It’s my turn now.”
The world flickers with Willow's golden light surrounding us, and I etch her tear-stricken face to memory.
The last thing I hear is her voice calling my name, desperate and fierce, before everything goes black.