The Last Wolf

I ran as if my life depended on it. Those screams, as familiar as they sounded, were not something I’d heard before. White River trailed behind me, but he couldn’t keep up. My feet carried me across the threshold as the new cottage came into view.

I watched as the once half human body lying deathly still on the bed an hour before, now writhed in the pain of humanity. His bruises looked more like knots of blood against his pale skin. Cuts reopened, muscles spasmed with the stress of change, but he was human,

“It’s okay,” Phoenix whispered, shushing him gently.

Agony swept over my senses. He needed help, needed healing. Shock set into his bones as the shaking got worse. Screams welled in my throat but they wouldn’t come out. My brain didn’t work, the nightmare in front of me couldn’t be happening!

“Get the Belladonna. I need aloe and the…” My ears stopped working as White River was shouting orders. Viper began grabbing the things she needed to make whatever White River was shouting. She pushed past me twice before someone pulled me into the open air.

Deep slow breaths filled my lungs. Waves of stress crashed against my own muscles. Macon shushed me carefully while rubbing circles over my shoulders. I shrugged him off, shaking my head. The waves shuddering through my body didn’t stop. I tried to count the number of day’s I’d been here. How many days passed since I last saw... since Colt saved me?

“You have to calm down.” Macon watched me closely. His hands held up, palms facing me, while the thick growls coursed through my veins. I turned away from him. Walking seemed to help clam me down before I became a freak of nature, something from a novel.

This felt dangerous, but I knew the control belonged to me. A light breeze pushed my hair behind me. I shoved the fear down, but the spasms raked through my body. The sunset began while I took slow, deep breaths. The moon wasn’t quite full; all it lacked as a sliver of a crescent moon. The scent of rain filled my nostrils even though it was about a week away. It mixed with the stench of Colt’s sweat and the pungent fragrance of the herbs in the concoction Viper prepared. Macon’s voice rang clear in my head even though the cottage was at least a mile away from me.

“She ran,” he sighed. “It’s not good, whatever happened to her. I think she’s really sick.”

“She’ll be fine,” White River promised.

The spasms rocked my spine forcing me to double over. This can’t be happening. The moon… My shoulder blade popped out of its joint and readjusted. Shit!

“That doesn’t look good, Little Wolf.”

My head jolted to the left, the direction of the slight whisper, while my body continued its painful contortion act. Bones shifting and twisting echoed through my skin. I cringed at the scent of sickeningly sweet lilacs and sunflowers. Leaves rustled to my right, my nose jutted from my face quickly forming a muzzle, and my ears followed the noise.

“That-a-girl, Little Wolf.” The whisper floated on the soft breeze while its scent became faint. I growled before rushing after it into the woods beneath the rising moon.