*Isla*
I open my eyes to the feeling of… suffocating. I grip my throat, fighting for breath as an icy blast of water shoots from my toes all the way to my fingertips, my hair standing on end as a crush pressure drags me down, and down, and down.
My eyes attempt to focus through the utter swirling darkness, not a single shred of light to be seen. I’m stuck. I’m thrashing. My head cracks against something hard and rough, and then I’m being pulled upwards towards the surface.
“Isla,” Poppy whispers in my ear, and I jolt back to reality, sucking in a desperate breath, and opening my eyes to Maddox’s bedroom. “I heard you crying out, Isla. Are you all right?”
“A nightmare,” I reply thickly, smoothing the hair away from my face. It takes me a moment to come to terms with the fact that I am in the bedroom, my body warm and tangled in the quilt. I turn to look at the bassinet near my bedside.
“I have him,” Poppy says quietly as I turn to her, seeing the tiny bundle in her arms. “He was crying, Isla, but you didn’t wake up.”
“Have you heard from Maddox?” I say, my voice a strained whisper in the darkness. I wrap my hand around my throat, that suffocating feeling still lingering as my eyes adjust to the shadowed room. It’s raining, a soft patter against the windows, as Poppy settles on the edge of the bed, adjusting Isaac’s weight in her arms.
“No, I haven’t. I’m sure we’ll hear something in the morning.”
I nod, struggling to swallow past the lump in my throat. This nightmare felt entirely too real. It had been months since I’d dreamt through someone else's eyes. Had this nightmare been just that? A glimpse into someone else's reality? Had it been Maddox falling into icy, violent depths?
Or someone else?
A shiver creeps over my skin, but I say nothing. After a stranger had been seen sneaking around the outside of the castle, I’d been on edge. Rightfully so. Our Alpha isn’t here, and I am the Luna home alone with the heir to Maddox’s title.
I’ve never felt more vulnerable, but I won’t admit it.
“Should I put him back in bed?”
I shake my head and reach for Isaac, accepting his comforting weight as Poppy lays him in my arms. Poppy rests her hand over mine, her eyes shining in the dark. “We’re all right, Isla.”
“I know,” I say, my voice trembling. “I know,” I repeat, as if trying to convince myself of it. It’s been three, almost four, days since Maddox left to return the diamond to the temple. He should reach the temple soon, if everything is going to plan.
But oh, how fast plans can change.
“You should go to bed, Poppy,” I whisper, squeezing her hand.
“I really should,” she agrees, chuckling softly as she stands. “I find it hard to sleep without Antony next to me…. I hate to admit it, but yeah, it’s a strange feeling.”
“I know what you mean,” I smile sadly. Poppy bobs her head at me and smiles down at Isaac, who is peacefully dreaming in my arms.
I lay down again as the door clicks closed, Isaac nestled in the crook of my arm.
“Maddox,” I whisper into the dark, wondering if somewhere, wherever he is, he can hear. “Please, hurry.”
* * *
*Maddox*
Trinity carries all of our supplies as she rides on Antony’s back while he’s in his wolf form, the four of us men having shifted some time ago. It’s easier for her to hold the supplies as a human. The day passes in a blur, the landscape changing from wide, sweeping fields of gray grass to rocky, uneven rolling hills as we near the base of the valley where the temple should be.
Where it will be, I tell myself with conviction. It has to be.
We shift, get dressed, and make camp as the stars begin to shine overhead, the storm of the morning giving way to a clear, open sky. Trinity hasn’t known she’s been carrying the diamond all this time, but when she drops the bags of supplies and the ground and leaves the area to find somewhere to sit and rest, I quickly tuck the diamond back into my pocket.
My mind is still picking through the fragmented details of my fall into the river, of the shortened rope and the line that should have held giving way and almost sending me to an icy death.
It was obvious that someone cut the rope and anchor but who? Who had manipulated the line in such a way that those woven strands of metal failed?
I look at Seth from across a small fire, watching as he stokes the flames with dry, dead twigs and bundles of dead grass. His face is expressionless, and he looks years older than he actually is. I wonder, with a pang of regret, when that light went out behind his eyes and why.
My suspicions of him may have weight, which is what shatters me the most. I want to ask him directly, to ask him as a friend and not his Alpha, what the hell is going on with him but….
My eyes flick to Leo, who is hacking away a felled tree. His youthful face is shadowed, dark circles lining his eyes. This man has not complained once, not about anything. I turn back to the bags of supplies and ponder what senior position I can promote him into once we return to the castle.
“Based on the map Alpha Hunter gave us, we’re not even ten miles from the temple,” Antony says in a near whisper as he crouches beside me, gingerly holding the ancient map Hunter had given us earlier in the morning, before we crossed the river. “I don’t understand… I guess I’m just surprised it was this close all this time.”
“Vember’s map was more modern,” I say, rifling through the meager food we’d packed. “There’s only a handful of packs in this area from what I understand, and they’re incredibly removed from the rest of the kingdom. It’s been that way for centuries.”
“We’ve been on a different course based on Hunter’s map. Seth, he–he was the one who charted our route on the old map.”
I meet Antony’s eyes, watching them flicker with unease.
“He was leading us away from the temple, if Hunter’s map is correct in the end,” Antony says.
“We don’t know that for sure. None of us could have possibly known this area beforehand, save for Hunter and his pack.” My education of the history of my lands and kingdom had included the lore of this area, but I hadn’t had a reason to pay it any mind until recently. Legends of rogues with glowing eyes–creatures pulled and separated from their human souls–filled my mind as I tossed a few parcels wrapped in brown paper near the fire. There are rogues everywhere, but the reputation of these is far more terrifying.
The packs that dwelled here hadn’t been seen in decades, even by Hunter and his pack, the closest pack to this place. Hunter’s pack didn’t cross the river unless totally necessary, and that was only for hunting, or ceremonial purposes I didn’t quite understand.
Regardless, the idea of Seth possibly using the map Vember supplied us to… trick us is unsettling.
I shake my head, letting the thought simmer before fading away. “We need to be on guard,” I say in a whisper, “all night. No one leaves the camp.” Especially not Seth.
Antony nods and accepts the parcel of food I pass to him, which is nothing more than a few slices of bread and dried meat.
I glance at Seth as I sit back to eat, seeing that he hasn’t moved from his position by the fire at all. He’s looking into the flames.
Later that night, I awake to the sound of wolves growling, my eyes flying open and cutting through the night to see a horrendous sight.
Chaos, that’s what this is. Branches snap, and howling erupts through the air as I pick Trinity up with an arm around her waist and run in whatever direction my feet carry me. I hear Leo shout, his voice turning into a sharp, ear splitting howl as he sheds his human form somewhere behind me to join Antony and Seth who are fighting for their lives against whatever attacked our camp from the shadows.
“Climb!” I command, shoving Trinity toward a tree. Her lip trembles, her eyes wide as she looks into the total darkness over my shoulder.
“Maddox–”
“Climb, Trinity!”
She does, her hands fumbling over the cracked and ashen branches as she scales the tree, her grunts and whimpers of frustration and fear splitting through the sounds of battle behind me. I grab her ankle before she climbs out of sight, and she halts her progress, looking down at me.
She looks so much like Rebecca right now that my heart stops for a moment, some distant, blurred memory trying to claw its way to the surface of my mind.
“Take it,” I say, handing her the diamond. “Go to the temple in the morning.”
“Maddox, no–”
“Look at me!” I shout, squeezing her ankle. “You will do this if I don’t return. Do you understand?”
She swallows hard, nodding as she shakily lets go of the branch she’s clutching and takes the diamond from my hand.
“Try not to listen to what's happening,” I say, even though I know it’s impossible. Trinity only nods, her fear penetrating my senses as I let go of her ankle. “Higher,” I command, and she climbs out of sight, guarded by the dense canopy of the tree.
I turn to the campsite, the fire having spread to everything in sight. Embers ripple as shadows dart in all directions, waves of dust billowing in their wake.
Seth runs by in a blur of fur, followed by a wolf twice the size of anything I’ve ever seen. In the dark, only the wolves’ eyes are visible, red and full of nothing but death.
This is no ordinary attack. This is a hunt, and we are the prey.
I don’t waste any time. My clothing rips into shreds as my wolf takes hold and barrels into the fray. I knock the wolf chasing Seth to the side, the creature skidding through the embers and yelping in pain and surprise. The rogue’s fur catches flame, and it shrieks in panic.
I leave it to die. Seth is already on his feet and darting into the darkness as fire overtakes the first rogue.
But there is another one, and in the distance I can see Leo and Antony fighting for their lives as the rogue pins Leo to the ground, Antony clinging to the rogue's neck.
The rogue is too big for them to handle on their own.
‘Seth!’ I say through the link. He’s gone, I can’t see him anywhere. ‘SETH!’
But Leo’s screech and whimper of panic sets my paws moving before my brain can catch up, and I rush towards them just as the rogue shakes Antony from its neck, sending him flying through the air.
I rush the rogue, mouth open, teeth bared, and taloned paws spread wide as I leap into the air and close my jaw around the fur and skin along its spine. We tumbled to the side, its weight pinning me to the ground as we roll and roll.
I dig in my claws and teeth with all my strength, holding it down as Antony tears into its stomach and neck. My entire body strains with the effort, but once Leo joins in, we overtake the wolf, killing it in a matter of seconds.
The metallic tang of blood is heavy in the air, cut by the acrid smell of burning hair and flesh as the flames from what was once our warming fire lick the air over our heads.
One rogue is burning to nothing but bone, while the other is ripped to shreds at my feet.
I am back in my human form, coated with blood and ash. I look at Antony, who is panting, wolf teeth glazed crimson. Leo backs away, limping horrible as blood gushes from his back and neck, his tawny fur stained nearly black with blood.
“Where is Seth?” I say into the darkness, my stomach curling as I grab whatever disregarding clothing I can find to quickly dress.
But then Trinity’s scream rips through the air.