Chapter 6

Any sleep I had prayed would come to me had been unseen. Not that our pose was bad, but the thought I was chained here for an unknown period of time was keeping me wide awake. Onyx's movement of her ribs was kind of soothing and trying to lull me to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw only danger. My brain kept alerting me that it wasn't safe.

When the morning lights of the sun hit my back, I slowly pulled myself out of Onyx's hold and stood up. Her warmth that had spread through me for the night started dissipating. I had forgotten how cold the fall nights in the mountains were. I had spent more than a month at home, in my comfortable bed.

I watched the she-wolf for a moment. A beautiful black wolf with beautiful black eyes. She must've had black hair and the same eye color. A sad spark of curiosity shot through me, but I knew what she had been as a human was dead. Even Blake's memories never returned. And no matter how much I hated to admit it, he was a different person.

My head turned to the left, and I examined the trees and grass under us. The area seemed peaceful. I couldn't believe the turned were still sleeping. Didn't they have any patrols? Somebody had to be watching their borders. I just had to find out who. I narrowed my eyes and scanned the mix between brown, green, yellow, and red. Nothing suspicious. Most of the wolves were sleeping in smaller caves than this one. I could see some of them were just holes that barely fit their large bodies. Some of them were on the grass by trees or bushes. There were even a few families stacked together. The female and male wolves were curled up together, in a much similar fashion like me and Onyx. I huffed. Onyx. How had I come up with that? It was true, I didn't know anything else about my mate, other than the fact she had black fur and had a relation to the Alpha. But this name hit way too close to home. It reminded me of my brother. And the fact he'd come back and established a new life. My skin prickled at the thought of all the ways this mate bond between me and Onyx could develop. And fear settled into my stomach. I had to leave as soon as possible.

My mate stuttered behind me, and I turned my attention to her, wondering what she was going to do. Or I, for that matter. She slowly stood up, her raven fur shaking with her, and stretched. She blinked a few times and approached me. Her presence was intimidating. There was that typical Alpha aura around her that made a small part of me want to submit. If my deductions were right, then I was a level lower than her, which would make me a loyal sidekick. All the Betas were like that. But still, I was impressed to be mated to an Alpha blood.

She evaporated the distance between us so fast that I couldn't even mentally prepare myself. She stood next to me and leaned her body on mine, just gazing at the outside and her pack. Onyx turned around and went to the small puddle. She lowered her head and drank some of the cold fluid as I stood silently. When she returned to me and breathed out through her nose, she sent me a hard look and jumped out of the cave. I gasped as her claws scratched the hard stones under her paws. She was so fast and skillful.

Reaching the grassy ground, my mate was met by the bigger figure of the Alpha. They greeted each other in a small caress of their heads and headed in some direction, hiding between the trees. I gawked after them for a while, and when I decided enough time had passed, hid inside the cave, out of the pack's gazes. I shifted to my human self and groaned when the backpack dropped from my shoulders and hit the ground. Finally! I twisted my arms to the side, stretching them, and took a deep breath. I couldn't remain human for long. Who knew what they were going to do to me if they caught me like this...

I turned back into my werewolf body and approached the exit. Well, it was now or never. I looked around and jumped, landing on the big stone under the cave. Slipping on it, I collapsed on my stomach and gasped in pain. I saw sparks for a moment, but braced myself and stood up. I couldn't look like a weakling in front of a pack like this. The next rocks I climbed down on, I eyed much more carefully.

Finally hitting the ground, I let out a relieved breath, but then, my happiness crashed into pieces. I shivered. When had they surrounded me? There were at least ten wolves around me, all of them fixed on me. Some had their lips pulled back into a snarl, others had lowered their heads in warning. Their eyes were shining in murderous intentions, while others were visibly ready to push me to make just one small mistake. A chill raked through my body, and I wondered what to do. I felt like the witch on the stake, and they were the villagers with the fire in their hands. Just terrifying.

I took a step further, with them still following every breath I took. If their glares had been weapons, I would've been gone by now. My chest was filled with horror, inclined to believe if even a hair on my body moved in the wrong way, I would be dead. But none of them moved to challenge or hurt me. When I took another step forward, I noticed they were starting to grow smaller and smaller in my eyesight. They weren't following. My breathing slightly calmed down. Pushing on, I grinned victoriously as the beasts around stayed behind and didn't touch me. If my mate hadn't sent anybody to keep an eye on me, then... were they still not developed? Weren't they evolving? No, that couldn't be. I had seen the way they communicated to each other.

Moving between the trees, I stared at some wolves as they shared a bird. There were pups playing around them, totally ignoring the food in their parents' mouths. When I stepped on a stick, and it broke under my foot, I froze. But I was too late. The turned were already glaring at me, showing me their sharp fangs. I took a step back, but another rustle behind me made me halt once more. So, I had eyes on me, after all. There were two wolves, growling at the couple and probably threatening it not to harm me.

That was good. Maybe this pack could survive.

I stepped back to my protectors and slowly turned to face them. A churning feeling nearly made me fall when I saw the one on my right. That brown one that had watched while his friends had been trying to kill my mate! Why was he even in this pack, if he had tried to kill the Alpha's daughter or whatever? Actually, why was he even alive? And if he was here, were the other three also here?

I gritted my teeth and returned to the central clearing of the packland. The place I openly saw from Onyx's cave. I calmly lay down on my stomach and held back a groan. How hard had I fallen? I had to act indifferently if I wanted to survive. But this pack... it only smelled of trouble. I had to get away as soon as possible. I couldn't deal with it on my own.

As I was licking my paw, I kept throwing my eyes to the black wolf that was sitting some distance away from me. He was staring to the left, so I traced his gaze and gasped when I caught two other wolves playing with each other. His eyes were frozen on them, so I wondered what the reason was. Was one of them his mate or something?

...

I spent most of the day stuck in the beginning of the clearing, under the shade of a tree. Light drops of rain had made my fur damp and warmth radiated off me in waves. I hoped the weather could clear up a bit because it was easier to escape like this. I didn't want to run through mud and puddles of water. Not that I hadn't done it before. But perhaps that was the reason I knew my preferences. I narrowed my eyes and looked around, engraving every small slope or turn into my memory.

The turned were pretty interesting. The females took care of the pups, while the males patrolled around the space. I noticed a group of them changing places at the same time. Some of the wolves brought food to the others and shared it without a complaint. So they even had hunters?

Staring at a few turned gnarling at a deer, my stomach knotted and growled loudly. I hadn't eaten anything in a day. I had gone through worse, but my hunger still made its presence known and tugged at my conscience. An idea popped into my mind, and I whirled my head to the right, searching for the direction I had come from. I needed to get back to the cave. I had some food in my backpack. The weak sunrays that peeked between the clouds hit my eyes, and I narrowed them, letting them adjust to the light. Then they widened. The sky had shifted into a gray mask, signaling the arrival of dusk. A cool gust of wind blew through me and brought me the stench of raw meat and dirty fur. My stomach growled harder.

I rose on my feet and started to walk when the brown wolf stood in front of me and shielded me from my path of choice. He lowered his head menacingly, his front part of the body following, and lifted his tail in the air. A light growl was his warning. I wasn't running away. Yet. I just wanted to get something to eat.

My chest rumbled at him, furious at his demeanor, and he slowly approached me, pushing me to turn left. What now? I felt like a prisoner at the mercy of some Neanderthals or some ancient tribe. And I had to do everything to obey them.

Groaning inwardly, I walked in the direction the beast wanted me to, without noticing the way the other wolves' presence became more and more sparse. Before I knew it, we were alone and Brownie was staring at me, baring his teeth. What the? So that's how it was going to be. I glared, my tension rising to new levels.