Who dares come in our realm?
What stranger is this?
Aydra’s hands pressed to the sides of her head, and she doubled over as she tried to push them out. Their voices overwhelmed her. Asking the same questions over and over. Her breaths were shortening. She didn’t know the creatures in her head. There were too many. She couldn’t shake their cores inside her. Hungry. Bloodthirsty. Alone. Scared.
Who is she?
Who is she?
Who is she?
SHUT UP!she finally shouted into the darkness.
All noises silenced.
Her chest was heaving as she tried to catch her breath. Her eyes widened around her, and although she could not see the creatures in the trees and sitting in the darkness, she felt them all heed her words and listen at once.
My name is Aydra Ravenspeak. I can hear all of you. I feel your pains. I mean you no harm or intrusion. I am hurt. My horse is injured. I am simply waiting on my companions to return.
The Alpha settled down on the ground in front of her, its paws crossing over each other.
Then we will wait with you, it told her.Our darkest brothers will not harm you.
The Ulfram beside her laid down and sat its great head in her lap. Her chest swelled with gratitude for the beasts surrounding her, and she poured it into the cores of each of them in an attempt to show her thanks to each for not only sparing her life, but also protecting her from the Noctuans who would not have such mercy on her.
An hour passed in silence. She felt her eyes drooping with exhaustion, but she dared not sleep. Despite the promise of the creatures surrounding her, she did not know what might consume her if she let her guard down. So she stroked the head of the Ulfram lying in her lap, and let the smells of the forest fill her.
Until she heard the noise of hooves pounding the dirt once more.
Venari,the Ulfram told her.
It didn’t surprise her. She’d assumed they would find her. She only hoped she knew who it was.
“Well, well…” came the mockingly deep voice of the one she had least wanted to find her that way. “If it isn’t the Sun Queen.”
Aydra’s jaw tightened, and she felt her nostrils flare as she looked past her to the left to see three men on horses. “Venari King,” she said through clenched teeth as he dismounted his horse.
His smug smile was the first thing she saw illuminated in the firelight she’d made. Faint curly scruff danced along his long, angular jaw and above his lips, and his green eyes were hooded beneath his dark brows.
He continued to smirk as he pulled his long walnut hair into a thick bun atop his head, his taut muscles flexing as he moved them. Two other Hunters dropped to the ground from their own steeds, and before she could move, Draven had crouched in front of her.
“What happened? Monthly patrols gone wrong?”
“It’s not your business.”
A laugh emitted from the two Hunters still standing. Aydra glared at their annoyingly handsome faces. She didn’t recognize the one to her left, with his mop of tight brown curls fluffed on his head, the dark caramel tone of his skin glistening in the fire’s light.
“You’re hurt,” Draven noted.
A flash of green showed behind his already emerald irises, and she remembered he could see in the dark.
“Her horse is hurt as well,” called one of the men. “Looks like trees had a bit of fun at her expense.”
“Shadow thieves,” Draven muttered as he looked at the whelps wrapped around her ankles.
Aydra’s jaw tensed. “Don’t look so happy. Your glee for my being harmed might come across as macabre to your men.”
“My men know of the darkness themselves,” Draven smarted. “Your lying in it makes the pain dance in their eyes.”
