Chapter 109 Reprimanded
1106words
"Shh, it's okay. Calm down, Adeline," Sophia muttered softly. She rubbed her hand over my back to ease the pain from the liquid emptying from my stomach. "Someone might hear you," she urged.
I swallowed hard, looking up at the row of discarded bodies lying lifeless in front of me. Each one more mangled and disfigured than the last. The cruelty of such an act burned into my mind; it was as if someone was collecting the bodies as trophies of their triumph.
"D-do you think Alpha Christian knows about this? It's so close to his territory. What if he did this? Oh my Moon Goddess," she stuttered, fear shining in her hazel eyes. Even though I had no way to be certain, I still shook my head. It made no difference even if he did know—this was beyond cruel and vile. Whoever was responsible was nothing short of pure evil. "No. Alpha Christian wouldn't do something like this. Think about it, Jaxon has been friends with him since they were pups—he would have known. Alpha Christian loves his pack too much; look how quickly he sprinted to protect his borders," I replied, reaching for her hand in mine.
She took a deep breath. "Let's go before someone finds us creeping around their lair, or whatever the hell this is." She was right. With this many bodies lying around, someone was still actively using this cave as what seemed like a slaughter site. We rushed back to the center, hopping over the loose bones scattered on the dirt ground. A small light illuminated one of the pathways; I figured it must have been the one we had come from, although each path looked so similar. I pulled Sophia's hand into the small passage and took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air, trying to erase the stench from my nostrils.
A drifting gray cloud of fog hung over the forest line in the distance, making it nearly suffocating to breathe. "We're going to die," I yelped dramatically, cursing myself for not listening to my mate. I knew he had the best intentions, but I couldn't stand by while he fought a battle that wasn't even his to fight.
"We're going to have to shift; it'll be faster," Sophia said, pulling her blouse off. An uncomfortable feeling settled over me. My eyes scanned the surroundings. My wolf didn't pick up any scents, but I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching us. I followed Sophia's actions, unbuttoning my denim jeans and sliding them off my hips.
I felt my wolf push forward, cursing me for being so disobedient. Just as I managed to pull my jeans off, I felt the air leave my chest when I locked eyes with pristine blue ones in the distance. Just as quickly as they had appeared, they vanished. All it took was one blink. "Did you see that?" I whispered in a panicked voice to Sophia.
"See what? There's no one here. Just hurry up before someone actually finds us," she scolded, crouching down on all fours before shifting into her wolf. I shook my head, pulling myself out of my thoughts and blaming it on the distress running through my veins. Suddenly, the danger lurking around us felt so raw, so real. I yanked off the long sleeve crop top I had been wearing and shifted in record speed.
The gentle sounds of birds flapping their wings echoed above us, disappearing as they soared over the treetops. Our paws pounded the ground, faster with each stride, as we noticed a pair of paws rushing behind us, growing louder with every thud. Someone had been there—I hadn't imagined it. Someone was after us, determined to add us to their morbid collection.
"Run. There's something behind us. No matter what, keep running. No matter what you hear, keep fucking running," I screamed frantically to Sophia through the mind link.
Sophia gasped at my words but kept running through the gray fog surrounding us. As if a pang of power surged within me, I stopped running. Fury, rage, anger now fueled me like the air I breathed. I whipped my body around and bared my sharp canines, mustering a growl so intimidating, it shook me to my core. I was a Luna. A fucking Luna. I shouldn't be running from whatever this was. Jaxon wouldn't. Luna Fraya didn't when she saved us.
The fog made it difficult to see, even with my wolf vision. It was thick and filled with remnants of ash, reminding me of a fire crackling in a fireplace at my parents' house on cold nights when my dad lit the fire. A forest fire—that's what it was, I confirmed to myself.
Defying everything I had told Sophia to do, she stopped dead in her tracks. She growled at me, warning me to leave. "Are you insane? We have to get out of here. Jaxon and Alpha Christian are still fucking out there," she scolded.
She was right. This was not the time to appease my own ego. It would mean nothing even if I managed to take down whatever was on our trail. My mate was out there somewhere. He needed me, and I needed to get to him. Still, the ache inside me grew stronger to end the looming threat.
I whipped back around and ran past Sophia, trying to steady my vision through the dense fog. I felt my paw prick against the jagged rocks below but chose to ignore the throbbing pain, desperate to get Sophia and me out of the cloud that stung our nostrils.
I heard Jaxon's voice echo through my mind. "Who took you? Respond, dammit," he demanded. "Don't answer. We're close if we can hear him through the mind link; we just have to find them," Sophia insisted. My gut twisted and turned. Jaxon would never forgive us when we found him. My wolf winced at the pain slashing through my heart at disappointing our mate.
The energy drained from me as we continued running until we finally emerged from the fog into a clearing. The fog lifted instantly, but my questions remained clouded in my mind. I stopped, carefully lifting my paw to see the crimson blood pouring from it and matting into my fur. Even my shifter healing wasn't fixing the wound fast enough.
An intense growl roared through the field, causing my wolf to lift her head. A massive black wolf stood there in front of a large group of wolves, his canines elongated and his temper dangerously short.
"SHIFT," he instructed through the mind link.
