Sofia focused on the sound of the forest as they moved, their footsteps silent. It was clear when the rustle of the wind turned into the rustle of animals ahead. Lumi signaled as Sofia came to a stop, crouching down in the undergrowth carefully. The shapeshifter twisted into their hawk form and shot off through the trees. They returned a minute later, landing on their human feet without a sound.
“A herd of elk just ahead,” Lumi said. “I think we can bring down at least one, but my hawk form won’t do us any good.”
“Can you hunt the normal way?”
Lumi’s face scrunched. “I don’t know what you mean by the normal way, but I can handle a bow, yes.”
Sofia realized what she had said too late and gave a sheepish apology.
They crept forward together, Sofia back in her element out here in the quiet. It had been a while since she’d hunted. Perhaps Lumi had a point. She needed this.
She saw the elk before she heard them, their towering antlers rising above the tall grass of the clearing. It stretched out wide, yellowed grass blowing in the breeze beneath the sun. She wondered if the field hid other cenotes or underground rivers. It was an added obstacle to the hunt that only made her blood sing.
Beside her, Lumi pulled their bow, the hum of the string just a whisper, no louder than the wind through the trees. Yet, in the same moment, the elk herd lifted their heads in unison, ears twitching.
Sofia held her breath, the wind seeming to pause as they waited. The herd stood frozen for just long enough that Sofia thought there wouldn’t be a problem.
She took a breath. The metallic scent of blood overwhelmed her senses as chaos erupted. Birds shot into the sky, the elk bucked and ran, and seven enormous wolves bolted into the clearing, taking down two of the elk before they could escape.
“Shit!” Lumi said, stumbling back and looping their bow over their head. “Run.”
Sofia didn’t need to be told. She was already turning, her own bow tucked away. She pulled her dagger, hoping she wouldn’t need to use it. But she’d never been that lucky.
The wolfshifter was already standing behind them, his teeth glistening with blood and gore as he smiled.
“You.” He was looking at Sofia, nostrils flaring as he took in a deep breath that made her shudder.
“This is our territory,” Lumi said, voice unwavering despite how small they looked staring up at the wolfshifter. “Your tribe isn’t welcome here.”
“The treaty was broken when this one murdered my friends inourterritory.”
“You have no proof of anything,” Sofia said.
“Their bodies still smelled of you,” he said, nostrils flaring again. “You and someone else. The treaty is broken. We hunt where we please now.”
Lumi practically snarled. “We’ll see how that goes.”
It was an empty threat. Even Sofia knew it. There were hardly any shapeshifters left in their tribe to defend themselves. She had to wonder if the wolfshifters knew that. The man’s eyes danced with glee.
“You won’t live to see it ,” he said. In the next blink, a giant wolf was lunging forward, and Lumi disappeared into a chaos of feathers and fur. Their hawk form dove and pecked at the wolf, but they were forced to retreat with every swipe of his claws. Sofia held her dagger, hesitating to attack as Lumi darted around the wolf faster than she could follow.
The rustling behind her was the only warning she had as a second wolf slammed into her from behind. She had just enough time to turn as she fell. The wolf’s fangs lodged into her forearm, tearing skin even as she sank her dagger into the soft skin of its neck.
The stitches along her back pulled, the hot pain competing with the torn flesh on her arm. Her scream was involuntary. The wolfshifter fell back for only a moment before it lunged again, blood pouring from its neck. In the clearing beyond, more wolfshifters stalked toward them, filled from their hunt of the elk and ready to join the fight. She couldn’t see Lumi from where she was, and shestabbed at the wolfshifter again and again, the creature weakening with every attack.
Lumi screamed in the same moment teeth scraped along Sofia’s calf. She closed her eyes for only a second and wondered if, after everything, this was how she’d die. She wondered if Fox would hear about it and how he’d feel. Would he keep fighting if she were gone? Was she so self-absorbed to think her death would impact him?
The wolfshifter’s teeth never had time to sink into the meat of her muscle. It disappeared in a gust of icy wind. A roar shook the trees and the ground beneath her. She opened her eyes to see Chalia twisting through the air, a wolf hanging from her jaws.
“Stay away from my friends,”she screamed into Sofia’s mind, and she saw from the way the wolfshifters flinched that they heard her, too.
She pushed at the wolfshifter that had collapsed onto her, pulling herself free. Her lungs burned from the exertion of the fight, and she bit back a cough. Her knees shook as she stood. She saw the wolfshifter Lumi had been fighting lying dead on the ground a few yards away, but the shifter was nowhere to be seen.
Stumbling over the rocky ground, she heard Chalia chasing after the other wolfshifters, snapping and breaking them with her jaws as they howled.
“Lumi!” Sofia said, a wheezing cough rattling her chest.
A groan from somewhere beyond the dead wolf had her moving, legs shaky as she saw Lumi lying there between two giant ferns, covered in blood.
