Months
It feels like it has been months and we are exhausted. We keep walking, but I think we have passed the twisted tree on the left four times at least. Sam will not stop walking; he insists that he knows the way, but we lost track of the campsite days ago. “Follow the path Brooklyn, follow the path,” he chants it like it will save us. I have tried to tell him that we should try and walk a different path, but he says they are just figments of our imagination. I do not know how much more of this I can take. “Sam can we please take the path to the left?” He angrily yelled, “No Brooklynn.” I think he is more tired of me than the constant walking in circles. Now I am on the verge of tears. I have the knife and Sam is walking a thin line between me using the knife on him or the tree. I wonder what he would do if I just stopped walking. He would probably just leave me here to die. If he kept walking though, he would just circle back to me eventually.
I quit walking a few minutes ago and now he is nothing more than a mere speck in the distance. I am just going to wait for him to realize that I am not behind him. I bet he runs back to make sure I am safe. But sitting here is making me bored and the path to the right of me is looking very interesting. I feel like if I leave Sam, I am betraying him, but maybe this path will lead back to the campsite and we can find our friends. I know that he will not stray from the path so if I leave and come back, I should be able to find him. It is decided. I get up and mark the tree that I was sitting by so that when I come back, I know which path to take.
I wish I were more of a navigator because now that I have taken this path, I feel more lost than ever. I think I have been walking for 20 minutes but I cannot be sure because the tree foliage blocks the sun. It feels like I am being watched and I cannot tell if that thought makes me more nervous than the thought of being lost. The faster I walk the faster the shadows seem to move and now I feel crazy. My heartbeat is faster than medically possible, and I am on the verge of a heart attack. I never thought that at 19 I would be stranded in some random forest after agreeing to go on a camping trip. Who agrees to a 6-month camping trip though? My mother warned me before we left, but I just brushed it off. She has always been far better at intuition than I have been. Something rustles the leaves to the left, and I am positive I am being followed. Now, I am running.
I can feel something breathe on the back of my neck and the next thing I know I am laying on the ground face down. The only thing I can think of is how I should have listened to Sam and stayed on the path because now I am going to die out here. Whatever tackled me hasn’t moved, it is just laying on top of me smelling me. I know it is smelling me because its nose is stuck to the base of my neck and it is cold and wet. I am too scared to wiggle and I do not know what will happen if I scream but I cannot just lie here and die. I suck in the biggest breath I can manage and scream for Sam. Suddenly, the thing on top of me is moving and I do not know what to think. The next thing I feel is something connecting to the back of my head and then everything begins to fade, and I think I hear someone say “shit.”
Unknown Pov:
“Shit.” All I could think about was how hard I hit her on the head. As an alpha, I was instantly worried not only about my pack but my wolf. I was out on patrol watching this human turn circles on the enchanted path made by the fairies. I could have sworn that I had seen a second human earlier, but there was only one a few minutes ago, maybe I had imagined the second one. Now here I was on top of the human that I thought I had imagined. But the thing that is puzzling both my wolf and I is that she smells like a fairy. I had been keeping my eye on them. This girl smelled like a fairy but did not look or act like one, and it was throwing my wolf off. I knew I couldn’t just stand here but I was wondering how she got off the path in the first place. It’s meant to keep people trapped until they are so confused there is no chance they come back to this area. It is a protection for my pack, one that is needed. But how did this girl find the only pathway that led away from enchanted path?
Now I am just standing over her body and I have two options: take her back to the pack and figure out the mystery or put her back on the path knocked out. I knew what decision I was going to make before I bent down to pick her up. She was so soft and beautiful, and I knew that I wanted to figure out the mystery. I also knew that my wolf was feeling something for this girl that I did not quite understand. It could not be the mate pull because that was the price I paid for the protection of my pack; it is one all the alphas make. If we do not have a mate, the pack will remain safer from outside forces. We can have an heir because we can choose a surrogate, but we don’t get a mate. But my wolf is showing the signs and his feelings feel too real through our link. I had to shut him out as I picked her up and settled her in my arms. The next thing I did was probably one of the worst decisions I have made, and I made it without thinking. I licked her neck, solidifying the small bond that was between us. Without realizing, I had just linked us forever and when we found out, it was going to be a massive problem.
