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 todistract 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 throughthe 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.
Chapter Eleven
Pain throbs through my ear, blood pouring down my neck, but it’s not Orion who I see when I close my eyes. Instead, I get locked into my memories, memories of another time my ear was bleeding, and I can’t get out of them.
Suddenly I’m standing outside the orphanage, moving logs from an enormous pile into the shed as punishment. My hands are covered in splinters of wood, a drop of blood trickling between my icy fingers, but I barely feel it because it’s so cold. Snow is falling fast through the sky, but it’s to be expected as it’s the middle of winter, and I’ve long forgotten what it is like to feel warm. The orphanage rarely has the heaters on, and burning firewood is all we have, which is only done in the main living area where everyone gathers, and the matron’s personal bedroom.
Bells ring across the city, marking the middle of the night, and I grunt as I lift another heavy log onto the pile. It’s midnight, which means Christmas is tomorrow. I’ve never cared much for Christmas celebrations because we don’t get gifts, lovely meals or anything to celebrate. Tannith and I always give each other a stone, our running joke that we are each other’s rock in a dark place. When I’m finally done with this, I will need to find the perfect stone for her.
“Do you want some help, lass?” a male voice carries to me, and I turn, stopping to look for where the voice came from. The male is cloaked in shadows, but he steps forward into the dim light from the streetlights outside the orphanage, and I frown. He is handsome, with red locks of hair falling all over his face and a cheeky grin filling out his face. He must be a similar age to me, maybe sixteen or seventeen. There’s something distinctively strange about him, something that makes the hair on the back of my neck rise.
“You’re a wolf,” I point out. “A shifter. Crone Pack, I’d guess from your red eyes and hair.”
“Guilty as charged.” He grins, holding his hands up. “And you’re a human orphan, I’d guess, and strangely beautiful.”
No one has called me beautiful before. They call Tannith all those sweet names, and she happily lets them. I get called the angry one, the one who jokes and is easily ignored. “Now we know each other, I’ll answer your first question—no, I don’t need your help.”
My heart pounds as I turn back to the pile and continue lifting one after the other. Turning my back on the wolf is a bad idea and disrespectful, but I have to get to work. I can’t spend my time speaking to this wolf when I need to move all of these logs into the woodshed and get them out of the storm.
