Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 8 - Trance

Before we walk through the door to the pack house, James pulls me towards the woods.

    "Come on, you agreed to talk," he mentions.

    I was hoping he had forgotten about that. "Alright, let's go for a walk." "Sterling, Nathan," I yell to the two at the porch, "I'm going to give Alpha Hudson a tour. I'll be back before dark"

    "What are they? Your babysitters?" James asks.

    "They only ever let me out of their sight if they're going on a patrol," I disclose, knowing who is behind it.

    "Mateus's orders, probably."

    "Yeah, I imagine."

    "He's been worrying about you a lot."

    "He shouldn't," I state, hoping that Mateus doesn't think about me as much as I think about him.

    "Well, why not?" James questions.

    "I told him we're not mates!" I exclaim.

    "But that was a lie."

    We come to a clearing, and I stop to sit in the grass. James sits a few feet from me, facing me. Twilight sets in. The last vestiges of the sun cause everything around us to have a certain orange glow to it, and the shadows of the pine trees get larger with every minute.

    "I know that," I utter. "I know I'm terrible, but it's really better for him this way."

    "How do you know that?" he asks.

    "Well, first off, he can't afford to worry about me all the time! He has a pack to run, other packs to protect. I don't want to just distract him from all of that."

    "I think he would worry less if you had stayed with him."

    Twilight dwindles, and dusk settles.

"I'm not selfish enough to do that," I finally admit. "You don't know how much I didn't want to have to leave..."

The wind carries new scents to my nostrils, and, recognizing them from the patrols, I stop mid sentence.

"Rogues," I whisper.

"Where?" he asks, tilting his nose up and trying to keep as silent as possible.

"I think up ahead. I don't know how many there are. Let's try and go back to the house. They might just be passing through." Somehow, I doubt this though. It smells like there's a group of them. We're likely outnumbered, and James and I might not be able to hold out.

We both quietly get up.

"Let's walk sideways," I suggest. "I'll focus on watching the front. You focus on the back."

He nods and we start up the trail, almost back to back. The light is gone now, and, even with superior vision, I struggle to make out anything in the dark. If there is any moonlight tonight, the tall tree limbs have blocked it out.

By the time we're almost to the house, a menacing growl comes from James's side. My head snaps over, and I try to see the wolf who made the noise. When I'm not looking, a heavy force knocks into my chest, pushing me to the ground. I look up into the threatening eyes of a dark-colored wolf. My mind freezes, and I can only think about that night 5 years ago.

It snarls before it jaws come down towards me, snapping me out of my trance. My fist flies up to its jaw, and I work at pushing my knee that's under it's body up, allowing me to get it off of me. Somewhere on the side of me, I hear more snarls. When its head comes towards my face again, its body shifts enough for me to kick it off. Quickly, I scramble to grab the neck of the downed wolf; it twists and snaps beneath my hands.

I stand up fully and rapidly take in the sight of the four other wolves around me. A lighter one, presumably James because of his natural blonde hair color, is facing off against three darker ones. Jumping up, my body shifts mid air, and I pounce on the one with its back turned to me. My jaws tear into its side, and it spins around, using its hind legs to kick me off. As I rush forward to make another attack on the wolf, another tackles me from the side. When the new one manages to tear into my stomach, I can't help but let out a pained whimper. Not letting that get to me, I roll over, trying to get back up, but the wolf I pounced on before comes to help. After I clamp onto the new arrival's exposed neck, the other one slams onto my back, but I don't let go of the neck until I feel it die.

Now, pinned down, my legs twisted uncomfortably beneath me, I don't have many options. The wolf above me latches onto the back of my neck, and I know I'm going to have the same fate as the wolf I just killed. Warm blood gushes out onto my fur as the unbearable pain sets in.

    Something smashes into the wolf above me. James. I try to get up to help him, but my shaky legs and spinning head cause me to crash back down in a heap. I slow my breathing so my stomach moves less. Then, I contemplate whether changing could help or hurt. James's human face appears in front of me. He feels the wound on my neck.

    "Hey, you can't change because it'll just open the neck wound more, and I can't carry your wolf alone without jostling your head around." The words come come in one big rush out of his mouth. "I need to go get help, so I have to leave you here. If anymore come just play dead or something, ok?"

    I let out a noise, something between a whine and a whimper, to show I understand.

    James runs off in the direction of the house, leaving me to concentrate on breathing evenly. A weight disappears from my head, and I realize that He was watching my thoughts the whole time.

    Just as I decide to let my eyes rest for a second, I hear feet pounding up the trail.

    "Ari!" I hear yelling.

    Shh... be quiet.

    Hands touch me. Lift me up. There's so much pain as if I'm floating around in a sea of it.

    And so many voices.

    Shh...

    There's green eyes. And a hand on my head.

    Ow.

    Light.

    Stop. It hurts.

    Hands.

    Faces.

    Sleep.

-------

    "You told him!"

    I'm cold.

    "What'd you tell him?"

    Ouch.

    "She's not dead!"

    Go away with that thing.

    "He's coming?!"

-------

    Why can't I move my right hand? I try and shake the weight off. My eyes won't open all the way, so everything is blurry. I can feel my heart start to race out of panic. My abdomen shoots tingles of pain up my body. I reach to touch it with my left hand, but someone stops me.

"Hey, hey," the person says softly. A hand touches my forehead. "Calm down." It brushes my hair back.

That feels nice.

"She needs to sleep, so the healing will work faster."

Ow. Enough with that thing please.

~~~~~~~~~~

This was an interesting chapter for me to write because it's so different in style than all the other chapters. It's full of short, choppy sentences and confused moments.

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