The Queen and her Wolf

Chapter Sixteen

Cruel laughter echoed in the darkness.

"You are no wolf!"

The disembodied voice came from everywhere and nowhere, it was both singular and many, familiar and foreign. It boomed around me, loud enough that I covered my ears until it abated.

"I'm as much a wolf as any of you!" I cried into the blackness.

More laughter mocked me, whirling, I tried to catch a glimpse of anyone slinking within the shadows.

"You're an abomination."

"I'm not."

"Broken."

"No!"

"A traitor to your very nature."

The layered voices cut through me and I fell to my knees. I wasn't-

I'm not-

"I'm a-"

"Disappointment."

Looking up, a figure came into view as the many voices coalesced into one I recognised. A voice that never failed to make me feel small.

"Father?"

"You disappoint me and the entire pack," he snarled.

"It's not my fault," I bellowed, leaping to my feet. "You fools would rather I disappeared than have to deal with me every day. If I hadn't left of my own volition you all would have exiled me in time."

"Of course," he replied calmly, peering at me from beneath his brows without a hint of paternal instinct. "What good is a she-wolf who cannot be mated and cannot produce a litter?"

Rage and hurt battled for supremacy within me as I clenched my fists at my sides.

"The diseased must be cut out so that the rest may thrive."

My father seemed to grow larger as his voice boomed around me. More voices layered on top of his and more forms walked out of the darkness. Faceless figures cackled and snarled as their limbs twisted in the dark, poised for attack.

My heart began to pound in my chest and my feet were running beneath me before I knew it.

Ear-splitting screeches sounded behind me as I flew into the darkness. Blind as I was I didn't stop. One foot after the other, over and over.

"Diseased."

"Broken."

"Traitor," the voices hissed.

Shadows raced alongside me as my breath burned in my lungs. They were so fast.

"Cut out the disease."

"Disappointment."

I cried out as a shadow reached for me, slicing into my flesh. It chittered with sick delight but I couldn't stop.

Keep running.

Stay alive.

"Not a wolf."

"Abomination."

My ankle twisted and I went down hard with a grunt of pain. The shadows were on me in a second.

Ripping.

Tearing.

Slicing.

A bloodcurdling scream wrenched itself from my throat as the pain became my entire existence.

My vision began to blur with tears just as a piercing howl rent the air.

The shadows ceased their frenzy, pausing with nervous energy instead.

Unsure.

Scared?

Another howl joined the first.

Then another.

Louder.

Each one was more beautiful and elegant than the last.

Screeching their frustration the faceless creatures clambered over one another in their haste to flee back to the dark, leaving my limp and bleeding body to the encroaching blackness. Unable to move I simply allowed the harmony of howls to wash over me, to nestle around me and soothe my wounds.

The more I listened the more I thought it sounded like...singing.

Who would be singing in this dark place? Why? Everything hurt and I was far too exhausted to ponder the answers, instead, safely wrapped in the strange melody, my eyelids fell closed.

The faint scent of roses drifted in the air.