Lex’s jaw tightened, but she nodded nonetheless. She grasped Nyssa’s shoulders and pulled her up to her feet. “Come, princess. We must go quickly.”
“No! No, I’m not leaving her—”
“Nyssa, we must go!” Lex nearly shouted. “You will see her again—”
“By any means necessary,” Aydra called to Lex.
Lex’s hand struck Nyssa’s cheek. Nyssa gasped and stared at her with wilding eyes.
“You—”
“If you think I am going to give my life for your kicking and screaming, you are wrong,” Lex hissed, her hand in Nyssa’s face. “Your sister is hurt, but she can take care of herself. If we stay here much longer, we will be eaten or worse. You will listen to me, princess. Now get on your horse and shut up.”
Nyssa’s mouth ceased movement, and she looked towards Aydra.
Aydra raised a brow. “Listen to her,” Aydra demanded. “It could mean your life.”
Lex was staring sternly down at the princess when she turned again, but Aydra didn’t miss the smirk and wink Lex gave her when she met her gaze. Aydra clenched her jaw to keep from smiling.
The noise of their horses’ hooves on the dirt quickly vanished just as the sun set around her. Aydra was torn between starting a fire or keeping herself in the dark so as to not attract more Noctuans than she would already.
But as the chill of the forest surrounded her, she decided she would rather die swiftly in the teeth of a Noctuan than slowly in the cold.
She’d just got the fire started with what she could crawl around and find when she felt creatures familiar to her coming up on every side of her. Her horse began to shift hysterically, but she placed a hand on its neck and tried to calm it.
A low growl cut through the silence of the rustling winds. And slowly from the darkness, emerged one of the most beautifully menacing wolf creatures she’d ever seen.
Sharp yellow-green eyes pierced the darkness. The slender of its elongated narrow wolf-nose rose into the light of the fire. It was crouched down as it came into the light, teeth bared.
The alpha female.
The sheen of her dark silver fur vibrated in the firelight. Five feet tall at the tops of its tall pointed ears. Black lines like shadows lined beneath her eyes and down the sides of her nose. It inched closer, and she saw one of its great paws press into the dirt just feet away from her.
Which was when she felt the breath of another standing directly to her right. Her head twisted just slightly to see it towering above her, white fangs flashing. The rest of the pack was black in color, opposite from the female, with silver shadows beneath its eyes and down their noses.
Aydra allowed their core to consume her, and when she opened her eyes, she was filled with the voice of its kind.
Hello, alpha, she acknowledged the one standing in front of her.
The alpha gave her a slow blink.Queen Aydra, it knew.It has been long since your last visit.
How do the moons treat you on this round?
Enough with the small talk, Sun Queen, it said, sitting back on its haunches.Tell me why I should not eat your filly.
Because I know the truth of you. I know you have more pride than to hunt and eat something that was not worthy of preying upon.
The alpha stared at her for a long while, long enough that she heard the tree canopy rustling over her head. The amount of creatures entering her core consumed her to the point of nausea. Voices, all questioning her presence filled her ears. She had to shut her eyes tight.
Who is she?
Why is she here?
Why is she not dead?
Can we kill her?
The horse is a good meal.
