Darkest Wolf

XII

Eve's POV

My legs ached from the cold and my wolf begged me to turn again so I would have a warm coat. Jade, who had turned hours ago, trotted carefully next to me. She offered a little warmth by rubbing her head against my legs but it was a teasing feeling compared to what I knew I would feel if I just changed. 

I was weak and tired and hungry. We needed rest and food but there was no where to rest without being spotted and nothing to eat without stealing so we stuck to a river.

"We have to be coming up to something, right? A town or a village or a cabin," I asked her but she just stared back at me, not wanting to use her link," We've been walking for almost two days now. I have no idea how Aunt November did it."

She huffed and continued forward. I watched her fluffy brown and white coat bounce with the chill of the Greenlandic fall. Winter would arrive soon and if we were still in Greenland then we would have trouble. 

After escaping Hvid Skoken we followed the river for a while since all rivers flow south. 

I watched her trot further down before freezing up. My tired legs didn't want to but I pushed them to go faster. There were people ice fishing.

My fingers grazed Jade's tail and she let out a mournful howl as if she were in pain. The fishers looked up just as she pretended to fall to the snowy floor.

I, of course, dropped beside her.

"Jade are you okay? Someone help! My dog is hurt!"

A man and his son came running to us while another man stayed back and watched from afar.

"Is something wrong, miss?"

The man spoke in broken English but it would do as neither of the others seemed to understand the situation at all.

"Yes, please, yes. My dog just fell into the snow. I think she's sick, can you take us to a vet?"

He nodded after a minute of mental translation and shouted something to his friend while his son stood next to him and feared for the very large "dog" that was panting in the snow.

_

Jade was put into the back of a truck that I rode in with her and we taken to the nearest animal rehabilitation center. I sat in the waiting room with the man who could speak English- as the others stayed behind to fish more- and waited patiently for her to escape the room with a warm blanket around my shoulders.

I couldn't understand a word on the television but I watched it anyway because there was nothing else for me to do. The man was going to leave as soon as I got "my dog" back so there was no real point in talking to him, not that I really thought he could keep up conversation for long. He really struggled with the few sentences he got out while taking me here.

A NEWS story was on about some fire going on and from the pictures it looked really bad. Some of the people who lived in the areas affected were interviewed and even though I couldn't understand what they were saying I could feel that it was hurting them very bad.

Suddenly, the story cut out to show a face I immediately recognized. My brother.

"My name is Ethan Wright and this," a picture of us together at the packs New Year's Eve party last year with those dumb cone hats and big, laughing smiles appeared next to his head. I was wasted in that picture but I don't think there's another one that makes me look so happy and good," is my twin sister, Eve. She went missing a few weeks ago and we have reason to think that she is in eastern Greenland.

"She is 19 years old with deep, green-blue eyes and scruffy blond hair. She's 5'9" but she swears she's 5'10". She was last seen in-"

He stopped talking and looked away from the camera. His hand came up to rub his facial hair that had gone from kind of scrubby to half a beard. I've never seen him look so tired and worn down. Ida came on screen from where she must have been on the sidelines. She put her hand on the side of his face before hugging him gently. Luna Lacey came on screen from the other side and put a hand on both their shoulders, saying something too low for the television to pick up. Her eyes looked so sincere as she spoke with the young mates before nodding and they left the screen. She picked up a paper that Ethan had been holding.

"Ethan was too distraught to continue. I am Lucille Stone, a family friend of Eve. She went missing exactly 23 days ago. She was last seen at Ethan and her birthday party but disappeared later in the night with this girl," a picture of Jade during our last pack celebration came up.  Alpha Arturo from the Angel Rosa pack had visited with his Luna, Regina, and their son, Victor. She had been flirting all night and he took a picture of her in that short red dress and her dark makeup. She was beautiful.

"Her name is Jade Wright and she is Eve's cousin through her father's sister. I've known these girls since the days they were born. They are beautiful and kind and smart and they are dangerous to anyone who could mean them harm so please help us to find them and bring them home. Jade and Eve Wright, if you can hear me then please come back to us. We need you back here. We love you."

Off screen I heard a voice ask if she could talk. Luna Lacey nodded and went off screen to grab her hand and bring her on screen.

My good, beautiful mother. 

She looked worse than Ethan.

My heart broke seeing her tear streaked face and pulled at hair. Her beautiful blond locks were standing up on her head in a style that reminded me of remorse and grief. Her beautiful blue eyes were staring directly at the camera when they managed to stop watching her broken down nails pick at each other. She looked like she had made the attempt to put on makeup this morning but it was smudged to say the least and the mascara just emphasized how hurt she was by defining the tear streaks that traveled down from their gathering place at her eyes all the way to her collar bone where they disappeared underneath her stained, grey sweater.

"Eve," she said, directly to me," I know you think you're no good and that you are unwanted but you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. You are your brother being born made me into a mother and I don't know who I would be without you two. Please come back to me. Please."

"We are willing to offer a reward to anyone who can offer up information on these girls. For further information please dial the number below."

The screen with my mother and Luna on shrunk up and disappeared into the corner. I stood up to watch my mother go away but she was gone too soon. My heart ached as I turned around to sit but everyone was watching me, the girl who had gone missing and was now being offered up for money.