My consciousness expands and I can tell I’m reaching further and further, spreading out my feelers across the country, hunting, ready to commune.
I repeat a mantra:“Hear me, listen, let our wolves commune, run alongside me.”
I ignore the frequencies of wolves that aren’t Mal, narrowing in until I feel a pull. I can’t tell if it’s her, but the signal is strong. Whoever this person is, they’re extremely in touch with their wolf self. They’re older, strong, resilient.
Narrower and narrower, I focus my search, feeling the pull of this energy, trying to figure out if it’s Mal or not. In terms of actual location, I can tell which direction I’m being pulled. The energy I’m sensing is coming from the east, slightly further south than where we are now. Closer and closer, I move toward the energy, feeling it growing louder, more prominent. I even think they’ve noticed me and are sending out a message. Fast as lightning, I travel as if by air, faster and faster, toward the pinpoint of energy, and I’m almost able to reach it, almost able to connect with it when I hear a cold, insidious laugh behind me.
Turning, I see Walter standing in front of me as if he’s actually here, his body somehow transported to the Lunar Plane. But he can’t be, that’s not possible. He must be projecting. How did he find me though? How did he know to intercept me?
“You’re too late,” he says. And a fire lights in his eyes, a fire so bright the image is transported directly into mine. And suddenly I’m surrounded by it.
Flames rise all around me, burning the trees of a forest which surround me, a familiar place that fills me with a nervous buzzing. And that’s not all that’s on fire. Everywhere I look there are wolves, some in human form and some on all fours, bleeding and burning. They’re howling in pain as they fall to the ground.
I spin and find myself encircled by pain and suffering. The fire rages. Wolves tumble. Until I alone am left standing in the center of this mass destruction.
“Max?” I hear a pained voice say, struggling to make sound.
I turn again and there is Jasper, covered in soot and dark ashy smudges, his clothes torn, his face scratched.
“Why weren’t you here?” he asks. “Why did you leave?”
“I’m here,” I say and try to run to him, but my feet won’t move. “Jasper!”
Right in front of my eyes he explodes in a ball of flames. They encase him and he screams, collapsing to his knees.
His eyes are full of tears.
He howls in terror.
I cry out, seeing my mate fall.
“Jasper!”
ROGUE RANCH
Jasper is burning, his eyes staring into mine, full of blame. Around me the familiar forest is overtaken by fire. It’s all I can see. The stench of smoke and something putrid, the stink of burning flesh and fur fills my nose.
I reach for Jasper, still frozen to the spot, but knowing I have to try.
I reach and reach and reach until the flames catch at the tips of my fingers.
They spread up my arm. The pain is intolerable. They rip across my chest and down my legs and up my throat until searing pain consumes me. The world goes black and all I know is that I failed. The Elite Pack has fallen. Jasper is gone. Everything is over. And then ...
“Open your eyes, Blood Wolf.”I hear a familiar voice. The dulcet sound of a woman speaking to me. A woman I know.Mal.“This pain isn’t real. The visions you see are false. Open your eyes. Come find me.”
For a moment it seems like I can’t do as she’s instructing. I’m so overwhelmed by pain and grief that my muscles don’t want to obey. But eventually I regain control over myself and put all my focus into opening my damn eyes.
Finally, they snap open, and I’m pulled back into the real world. I collapse backward, Olivia diving to keep me from hitting my head on a pointy piece of quartz.
“Whoa,” Omar says.
“What’s happening?” Mia asks.
“Help me get him up.” Olivia is already hoisting me out of the circle and back to the log.
“It’s okay,” I say, finding my feet and my balance, but letting myself be helped to sitting. “I’m all right.”
Omar is in front of me instantly, kneeling. “Are you hurt? What did you see?”
