Harlyn:
“Are we clear on your end?” I asked Talon through the pack link that was shared between us. As an alpha, the ability to establish a link to pack members was inherent for me, but it didn’t mean that I was a master at it yet. It took a certain strength to be able to reach as many people as my father could and I was nowhere near close to that type of power yet. The best I could do for the time being was the link that I had established long ago with my two best friends, Talon and Penny. The link between me and my father went without saying; links between families were almost always a given.
“Everything’s fine, alpha,” returned Talon through the link. “Found footprints along the inner tree line, but they look old. I’m going to follow up on them and get back at you if I’ve found something.”
I could hear the brooding tone in his voice as he spoke. I cared about Talon and I cared about his feelings so naturally, I couldn’t help but ask, “Tal, are…are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Lyn.” He barely gave me space to finish my question before he responded.
“Well, you don’t sound like it, so why don’t you stop bloody moping and tell me what-”
“I don’t have time for this, Lynn,” hissed Talon, once again cutting me off. “I have work to do. I’ll meet back up with you all at the rendezvous point when I’m done here,” he added.
I knew that there was no point in trying to pull anything else out of him. It was evident that Talon had very little else to say to me at this point.
“Okay, fine. I’ll-” Before I could finish my sentence, I felt the link cut out. “See you then,” I murmured the rest of what I had intended to say before Talon disconnected from our conversation.
“Take it, that conversation didn’t go too well.”
I had completely forgotten that Penny was even present until she interrupted my thoughts with her voice.
“Obviously not,” I countered disinterestedly. I wasn’t in the mood to have much of a conversation with her at all, let alone this subject in particular.
Eventually, we ended up at the beach, the last place that I wanted to be; I hated being at the beach. It was the place where what should have been a happy evening turned out to be one of the worst nights/birthdays of my life. Still, regardless of the traumatic memories suffered that night, the beach had been a high focal point over the last few years. Because of this, the beach was a place that was considered a mandatory checkpoint during the pack’s stakeouts.
Penny’s presence should have made the check-in at the beach easier, but it didn’t. I wasn’t in the mood for her worthless chatter. In truth, all three high-ranking pack members should have been going about their routes separately. Unfortunately, because delta Minken didn’t fully trust that Penny could handle a route on her own, I was stuck with her-though he wouldn’t tell her this. She was extremely sensitive after all. And boy was she bloody worthless. Unless I pointed out a suspicious point on our route, she would not budge to figure things out on her own. She was so oblivious to everything that she thought did not concern her. And by everything, I mean all things superficial.
In my opinion, Penny was far too sensitive and clueless for the role that she was born to play. She was the complete opposite of her father, and sometimes I wondered if she even had it in her to take a life whenever the time would eventually call for Penny to do what needed to be done.
It was fortunate for her, that she had both Talon and me to look after her. At least until she grew into her own.
“We keep looking out for her, and she will never grow up,” My wolf barked in the back of my mind. Admittedly, she was right.
“We’ll talk about this later,” I said to my wolf, Fera, cutting short the conversation as while I didn’t mind putting Penny in her place, I wasn’t in the mood for her dramatic sulking afterward.
“What are you thinking?” She asked, once again, pulling me out of my personal notions. I swear it was like the girl was too anxious to stay quiet for even a minute.
It took me a moment to reply-in truth because I didn’t want to. This only resulted in Penny trying to assume what was on my mind anyway. Something that Penelope Minken was famous for doing in the first place.
“It’s going to take time, Harly,” she said before any subject of conversation between us could be confirmed. “Talon will eventually get over it,” Penny continued. “He needs to understand that you deserve better than a beta wolf. Regardless, of the circumstances that fate put you two in. Eventually, he’ll get over it and himself when the time comes,” she ignorantly spat.
I knew why she’d said this, however. Penelope might have meant well but a lot of the things that she would say were only to please me. The girl was known for assuming that she knew what I wanted to hear and most of the time she was wrong.
The only time that she did speak more frankly than usual was when she would about Valene. And even then she’d be cautious about her choice of words, but even still, she’d always make sure that I understand that she thought it best that Valene died that night because it meant less trouble for the Wade family as a whole.
According to her, Vali was stirring too much trouble-trouble that was unnecessary, and being gone was beneficial to us. The thought alone made me scoff under my breath.
While Valene and I had somewhat of a tumultuous relationship, toward the end, she was still a sister to me; whether I was mature enough to accept it at the time or not.
I walked ahead of Penny, deciding not to return to the conversation. Tired of her bloody blathering, I checked along the treeline for footprints.
Suddenly I became apprehensive when I suddenly felt a pair of eyes on me. I couldn’t see but I knew they were there. And though I was not visually aware, I almost could sense that our eyes were met.
“Oh come on, Harly!” Penny expressed loudly. “Everything’s quiet on our end, so let’s just chill for a minute!” she chuckled.
And to be honest, I found nothing funny. I had grown impatient with the girl that was supposed to be my best friend.
“You’ve been on chill since this mission started, Penny,” I hissed. “And quite frankly, I’m tired of it.”
Penny’s cool demeanor seemed to immediately turn anxious after what I’d said. “Harly, I-I was just trying to-”
“Trying to do what, Penny? Distract me while we’re on an active mission? Have you forgotten that we are on our own out here? All you do is breeze through life like you have no responsibilities to the position that you will one day inherit. Talon and I cannot keep looking after you. Bloody hell!” I snapped, throwing my hands up in resignation. “You’re the two who’s supposed to have my back! Or have you forgotten?”
“I-I haven’t forgotten, Harlyn,” she stumbled to say.
“So then you just don’t care then. Is that it?”
“I never said that-”
“Your actions do, Penny.”
With a sigh, she shrugged. “I just…I thought that since everything was quiet maybe we could have fun like we used to.” Then she rolled her eyes, something, I knew, lingering on the tip of her tongue.
“What is it? You have something to say, so say it.” I demanded.
She was reluctant at first, obviously considering whether she should express herself or not. Then she finally did. “Ever since that drudge died, you’ve been….different. You act as if you miss her-as if you prefer being around her rather than me…your best friend.”
I stood there a minute, trying to find the right words to say. Then I walked over to the large log where Penny sat; this was the same log where Vali and I had our last heart-to-heart. I settled next to Penny.
“Penny, there…is something that you should know.”
“What is it?” she asked.
I exhaled. “Valene was like a sister to me. In fact, legally, she was my sister. She was adopted as a baby and because she enriched my parents’ lives for the better, they had me-their miracle child.” I confessed.
While Talon knew the intimacies of Valene and I’s relationship, I never bothered to tell Penelope as she was far more close-minded. Something that I guess I should not blame her for as it was instilled in her by her aunt and at one point in time, her father.
“I guess that’s nice of you to say, but I still think that you give her too much credit,”
I laughed when Penelope said this and so did she though I was sure that we were laughing for two different reasons. “And you give her far too little,” I said. “You see, the truth is, Penny if I could trade you for one more minute with my adopted sister…I would,” I shrugged, finally shutting her up. “Truth of the matter is, you’re by my side because you are meant to be, but you have never challenged me or even at the very least supplied an actual conversation worth remembering as something useful.” I stood, hearing the beginnings of her cry. I didn’t care, though. “I lost someone who meant something to me. And I wish she were here now.”
After I said what I’d said, there was nothing else to discuss as far as I was concerned. I walked away and started toward the tree line again. Then without warning a large beast leaped out of the forest, pouncing on me.
“Harly!” I heard Penny scream in the background.
Thinking fast, I kicked up as hard as I could, knocking the beast off of me before quickly standing to my feet. Swiftly after, I beckoned flames from the air and shot two spheres of fire at the feral. I got one good hit in and that was all I needed to give me time to transform into Fera.
As the beast was making its recovery, I had already been at full speed, rushing toward the feral wolf-like creature. In Fera’s form, I pounced and immediately snapped the beast’s neck.
When I turned around to check and see if Penny was alright, I noticed that she had transformed into her beast as well. At least she could do that.
“Are you alright?” I asked her. After she confirmed, I immediately contacted Talon to let him know that we were under attack.
“I’m on my way-”
“No! Find delta Minken-”
“There’s no time for that, Lyn!” He exclaimed. “I’m coming now!” Immediately after, Talon disconnected our link. And no sooner he did, more feral beasts began to emerge from the woods.
“Alright, Penny!” I exclaimed. “I’m going to need you to do more than just stand there!” I remarked as I watched what had to have been a dozen more of these beasts surface from the forest. “Penny!” I growled angrily as I could feel her still standing there behind me. Then suddenly, I heard it! Then the predictable sound of retreat. I was alone.
When Penny cowardly retreated, this seemed to be the beasts’ cue to attack, they all stampeding toward me all at once. Quickly I howled into the air to let everyone know where I was located, before preparing myself for the fight of my life and an inevitable death.
As the first beast reached me, Fera and I quickly summoned fire to envelop us before attacking as many of the beasts as we could. We injured a few of them as they tried to attack, but our move was short-lived once we were caught by surprise. A feral grabbed Fera by her neck so fast, neither of us saw it coming nor could defend against it. The beast tossed us aside like a ragdoll, a stray branch catching my wolf and myself in the side.
The stray stick when clean through and was so malformed that it was hard to dislodge from it. We certainly wouldn’t be able to before the ferals reached us.
“Daddy!” I exclaimed in a whisper as I began to revert back to my human form. I knew that I was about to die.
The last thing that I saw before closing my eyes and coming to terms with my death was the giant site of an ugly wolf-like beast about to descend on me.
Then I heard a flutter, a loud flutter! Multiple harsh flutters-like…like wings and my death never came. When I opened my eyes, I was blinded by the shadow of what had to have been thousands of bat-like creatures swarming the area, blackening out the night sky. It was frightening to see but one thing that I noticed was that they had no interest in me at all.
The beasts howled in anguish as through the blinding swarm something was attacking them in team with the wild creatures.
The shock of what was happening paralyzed me. All I could do was watch as a silhouette moved with such swift precision through the shadowy creatures, picking off these powerful ferals one by one without a struggle.
Gradually as the deathly distressed howls came to a deafening silence, the bat-like shadow creatures began to disperse. And finally, the silhouette that I’d seen through their mad flutters was clear.
Her back was facing me as a blade twisted in her hand as she gutted a beast. I was so flabbergasted by this mysterious woman that I had not noticed a stray coming toward me. Within moments the feral’s neck was snapped and they collapsed barely inches away from me. She then took her glowing blade and embedded it into the creature’s chest.
I watched her closely, as she stood squatted there for a moment, her long wavy hair covering her face. The color of her hair reminded me so much of…
The female stood and it was then that I saw her clad in all black, her face finally revealed to me.
“No-no…it…it can’t be!” I was breathless, panicking as I came face to face with those familiar and yet…darkly veiled golden eyes. “V-Valene-”
Her eyes lingered on me and in them, I saw the rage that she was harboring. She wouldn’t speak, only glared at me.
“Valene, please-” I started to say when the sound of stampeding could be heard in the distance.
She wasn’t spooked, however. Her eyes casually shifted in the direction that the sound was coming from then she looked back at me. Before another word could be spoken, she dissipated into the mass of shadow-like bat creatures that had descended before. I looked into the sky as they disappeared.
“Harly!” Talon’s voice echoed frantically in the distance. “Harly!” He slid into the sand next to me. “Are you alright?” He looked behind me.
I was in too much shock to answer his question, my body shaking violently as I tried to come to terms with who I’d just seen.
“Wh-did you do this?” he asked of the corpses littering the beach.
The only thing that I could do was vigorously shake my head, no. It wasn’t until that moment that I realized the rush of tears grazing down my cheek.
“Well, then how did this happen, Lyn?”
The only thing that I could say as I looked into Talon’s eyes was, “It-it was her-her…” I stuttered. “She…she’s alive.”