Chapter 1 - Lily
“Run, Lily! You can’t stop! Run!”
Alice’s voice barely reached me through the rush of blood thundering in my ears. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t feel my legs. The only thing I could still sense were the warm fingers intertwined with mine, tugging me mercilessly forward.
The thought barely crossed my mind when I tripped, and my hand slipped out of them. Pain exploded everywhere. I crashed onto the forest floor, nearly knocking my teeth out. Blood flooded my mouth, and I had no idea if that was good or a bad thing, but the sharp pain snapped my brain back into focus.
Voices. People shouting. The hunters… they were gaining on us!
Another twig snapped as Alice dug her heels into the ground, nearly slipping on the wet dirt. “Lily!” She rushed back to my side, hoisting me to my feet like I weighed nothing. Her fingers tightened painfully on my shoulders. “We have to keep moving! Please! If they catch us…”
Her fearful eyes met mine, and the pure horror in them made the pain melt away. She hadn’t looked scared when we fought that man in Roman’s garden or when that witch locked us up. Even while she was bleeding on the floor, clearly in agony and suffering, she had tried to calm me down. But now that mask is cracking, and the person underneath seemed even more shaken than me.
“Okay,” I nodded, grabbing her hand again.
She glanced gingerly behind me, but before I could look, we were running again.
My thoughts flew back to that house, to where Violet had stayed in exchange for our lives. That damn witch had lied! She had let us go, but she had conveniently forgotten to mention all the hunters roaming in this forest, waiting to capture us again. Or kill us, I didn’t know. But no matter what they had in store for us, my sister was still in that monster’s clutches!
“You’re not going to die,” Alice said breathlessly, and my eyes darted to her profile. When she sensed me looking, she turned sideways to meet my gaze. “I won’t let anything happen to my mate. Even if it kills me.”
My heart skipped a beat at the word. Mate. I still hadn’t wrapped my mind around that part, and while I was curious to find more about her, I was terrified that it might be too late. Part of me wished I hadn’t waited that long. I wished I had met her before all of this, so at least we had time to get to know each other and perhaps…
A shot echoed through the trees. I waited for the pain to come, but aside from the sharp pinch in my side at every inhale, there was nothing.
They had missed. We had survived. We had…
Alice veered to the left, dragging me along until we hid behind the trunk of a huge old tree. She shoved me against it, pushing me to the ground while she took a step back. It was only then that I noticed the blood sizzling from the graze on her shoulder.
“Oh my go…” I pushed to get up, but she motioned for me to stay put.
“We’re too slow,” she gritted out.
She took another step back, and my heart dropped. Wait, was she… planning on leaving me behind because I was slowing her down? No, she wouldn’t do that… or would she?
I shook my head. “Alice, please…”
“Don’t be afraid,” she took another step back. I moved to rise, desperate to stop her, when she yanked her shirt, tearing it in half. I stared at her naked chest in absolute shock, at the scars marring the soft skin on her stomach, her collarbones, her neck. I’d seen them on her hands, but this was… this was too cruel. Who could do that to a person? Who would dare do that to my mate?
Alice shoved her pants down, kicking them to the side, and I realized she wasn’t preparing to run. She was preparing to shift.
Gunshots sounded again, and when Alice dropped to the ground, I thought she’d been hit. My panicked scream died on my lips when her back arched at an impossible angle, and her skin started to tear. Dark brown fur spread over her limbs like fire eating through paper, and her bones grew and reshaped until there was nothing human left in her.
By the time she rose to her feet, my lungs were burning. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. I had known she was a shifter, and I had seen others in their wolf form, but to watch it happen with my own eyes was… both mesmerizing and terrifying.
Alice bared her teeth and horror like I’d never felt before squeezed my throat. When she took a step toward me, all I could do was close my eyes and pray. It wasn’t until I heard the shout, ‘Die, monster!’ that I realized it wasn’t me she was preparing to attack.
My head snapped up, just as she tackled a figure on the ground. Metal flashed in the air, followed by a loud sizzle, and I screamed as pain exploded in my side. My hand instinctively went to the wound, but there was… nothing. I wasn’t hurt. Then where did the pain come from?
A loud, final snap interrupted the sound of the scuffle, and the hunter’s body went limp on the ground. I was still listening to the blood gurgle from his torn neck when Alice turned. Red dripped from her muzzle while she took a step closer, pushing her nose against my arm. I flinched, and I swear I saw pain in her eyes, but then she nudged me again.
I staggered to my feet, and she twisted her body, dropping her hind legs to the ground. A moment passed while I stared in confusion when a strange sensation brushed over my mind, like an urgent caress that whispered one word.
Hurry.
Before I realized what I was doing, I was sliding my fingers into her fur and climbing onto her back. My thighs instinctively locked around her powerful frame, and when she wobbled on her way up, I panicked that I was too heavy.
Without warning, Alice shot forward, almost sending me tumbling back. The world blurred as her powerful feet hit the ground, carrying us forward faster than I could have ever hoped to run. I was afraid to look back. To look aside. To look forward at the trees coming at us, which she deftly avoided. So I buried my face into her soft fur, praying to… Jesus, the Moon Goddess, or whichever entity actually cared to help us survive today.
I had lost so much already, suffered pain more humans only learned about in movies and books. I’d lost my sister not once, but twice. I wasn’t sure I could survive losing another person. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, especially if it was Alice.
A low whimper came from beneath me, and Alice’s whole body shuddered. I wasn’t sure if it was from pain, fear, or because she had done that weird thing where she’d almost read my mind, but when I looked up, something was moving in the distance.
Alice dug her heels into the ground, sending dirt and leaves into the air. I choked on the cloud that formed around us, trying to see past it. I was still trying when something snapped above us, and I instinctively looked up. For a moment I thought a branch had broken off and was falling straight toward us, but then that branch expanded, spreading in all directions like snakes flying through the air.
The net fell before Alice could react, the weights at the end sinking into the ground and trapping us beneath. Her ferocious howl echoed in my ears, making me scream with the same desperation as I pushed against the rope.
“Take them down!” someone shouted, and I lifted my head in the direction of the voice. Three figures came running through the trees, and as they drew closer, I noticed two of them raising the rifles hanging from their backs.
Alice shook her body so violently that I was thrown to the ground. The air whooshed out of my lungs as I landed, then something big and warm pressed me down. I fought against it until I felt claws press harder against my skin, nearly breaking it.
Gunshots echoed through the forest, and Alice roared. My head spun with panic and rage as I thrashed against her hold, trying to… I wasn’t sure what I was even trying to do, but I couldn’t just lie there and watch them kill her.
She was my mate. My perfect match. My…
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Her body toppled to the side, and I finally slipped free. Shooting to my wobbly feet, I turned around to face the hunters, knowing full well there was little I could do against their guns. It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Not when my sister gave up her freedom for me.
Not when my mate gave her life for me.
Not when I still had breath in my lungs.
Something slammed into my stomach. Pain spread through the spot, making me stagger back, but… it wasn’t as bad as I expected a bullet to feel. I lowered my eyes to the wound, expecting to see blood pouring out of my body, but there was nothing. Just… a dart?
My hand grew blurry when I yanked it out of my body. The tip was long and sharp, painted with a drop of blood. There was a tiny, empty vial at the end, and something was telling me it hadn’t been empty for long.
I staggered back as a sudden weight pressed on my shoulders, making it impossible to stay on my feet. My knee hit the ground, and I tilted to the side. My fingers sank into soft fur. Alice’s chest was moving despite her still form.
She… she wasn’t dead.
“We’ve caught them.” The words sounded strangely distorted, and when I looked at the hunter that had almost reached us, his face was blurry too. He had a long, serrated knife in hand, but no gun. “Wait until the wolf is fully out. She’ll switch to human and be easier to carry up. The girl…”
He reached for me, but I swatted his hand away—or tried to. My arm felt too heavy, too big. I couldn’t even lift it, let alone move it quickly. My body tilted further, and I crashed over Alice’s belly, watching helplessly as the hunter drew closer.
His hand was just a few inches away from me when a tendril of shadow slithered around his wrist. I struggled to keep my eyes open while the darkness tightened and tightened until the skin beneath tore. Then it yanked.
Blood sprayed from the stump of the hunter’s arm as his hand thudded to the ground. I felt its warmth as it hit my face, tasted it on my tongue when it slipped between my parted lips. The hunter staggered back with a scream, unsheathing his knife and spinning around. I could hardly see him in the melting colors, but I tried my best to focus on his silhouette, on his screams.
He continued the fight the shadows gathering around him, tearing piece after piece until he fell and just kept screaming. More voices joined him, full of pain and horror as they faced against whatever monster attacked them, while all I could do was lie there, waiting my turn.
Alice’s warmth seeped into my back, her heartbeat beating slow but steady as she lay just as still. Alive. My eyes drifted upward, toward the fading light coming through the trees, when I noticed a movement. A lone, smooth piece of green silk flew through the air, falling impossibly slowly toward me. A strange light pulsed around it, almost like it was alive, and when it fell onto my hand, it felt soft, almost like a warm caress.
Darkness crept into the edges of my vision, swallowing the remaining colors of the world until the last ray of light disappeared beneath it. I sank deeper into it, one hand gripping the fur of my mate, while the other held onto that silk just as tightly.
