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Chapter Sixteen
Eris
They cut my food allowance. Or at least, what they gave me from the pack stores. This forced my wolf and I to hunt more at night, cutting into what little sleep time I was still managing. And even with her skill, the scarcity of game made it difficult to catch enough to keep strong.
And someone stole my blankets, all but one threadbare one that did little to protect me from the cold. I had taken to sleeping in my fur, when I dared. Not that there was a specific rule against doing so but no one did, and I had a vague, free-form anxiety that insisted if they found me in my fur, they would do something even worse like throw me out of the pack or somehow stop me from shifting.
I couldn’t think how they could do that, but then, I didn’t know why nobody ever slept in their fur when it was so cold.
Or why I’d never thought of it until now.
Rather, I could figure that out. People in this pack and, I assumed those we associated with, shifted almost never. Only for pack runs, really. So why would it have been in my mind to just do it for comfort. Certainly, my wolf had been a lot happier since I’d been letting her out more regularly. Something that only happened once I refused the arranged mating and began to think for myself.
Oh, sure I knew I was the only one in the pack who believed in the Prophesy, but I always just thought that made me kind of intellectual and maybe interesting. I guess…I daydreamed about my future mate as a gift from the stars in a way my friends didn’t. Former friends? That stung more than I liked to admit. I’d always been something of an outlier now that I thought of it. At the edge of the small group of girls my age. More tolerated than liked or appreciated.
Now, nobody spoke to me at all.
This was hard, so hard…
And I wasn’t sure how long I could withstand the pressure from all sides. If it didn’t let up, I would have to either cave and do what they wanted or just walk off into the land until I couldn’t walk anymore. The only thing that kept me going so far was the underlying knowledge that my wolf did not deserve to die with me.
Still, it was hard. Painful. And this morning, they cut back on the amount of water I was allowed.
I didn’t have other sources for that.
Or the energy, after emptying the buckets, to shift and run. Or shift at all.
So, now I lay in my little dugout, just bigger than a grave, wrapped in all my clothing and the single tattered blanket, my teeth chattering so hard, I feared they would shatter. They’d finally found the way to break me. Nobody could survive on the tiny amount of water I was allowed. And stealing water was a capital offense. Nothing was more precious.
I never thought I’d sleep, but exhaustion and thirst and cold sapped away my consciousness until the close sides of my “home” faded away and I found myself standing on the plain near a low hillock. I had never seen this place and had no idea where I was or how I happened to arrive. I needed to find shelter first and figure out any other details later, or I’d soon be hypothermic and die.
For a fraction of a second, I wondered if that was a bad thing. I had seen no sign of my fated mate coming to rescue me. My pack was treating me horribly, mating Zeke the only way to return to my status as a person who deserved water to drink, food to eat, and blankets. And even as I stood here, facing imminent death, I found that preferable to allowing our alpha’s son to lay one finger on me.
I’d die choking on my own vomit if he did. At least here, wherever this was, I could lie down on the natural, cold ground and close my eyes then…
A whiff of smoke teased my nose, snapping me out of thoughts that could only lead to the worst, and into wondering where the bitter, woodsy aroma came from. It was dark, the night lit only by stars and the moon not yet risen, but I could see it rising over the low hill. A thin ribbon of smoke rising toward the heavens.
I dropped to my hands and knees and crept up the slope toward the top. My wolf was on alert, as well, but I didn’t want to shift and alarm whoever might be there. Whoever they were, they were quiet. But just as I reached the top of the hill and shimmied to look over, the smell changed. Burning hair, paper, herbs, and the silence was replaced by a low murmur, like a prayer.
I listened, still not knowing who was there, but a buzzing in my ears had me shaking my head, trying to stop it.
“Luna, I’ve come so far, and I fear I don’t have the strength to make it all the way. But my mate is there. She’s waiting for me. I should have been smarter, traveled more carefully…please. Let me find her.”
My heart thudding so loudly it overwhelmed the buzzing, I dragged myself just a little more over the edge and saw him. One lean man with dark, shaggy hair, hunched over a pot of burning items, praying, thanking the Luna for his family and all the good things in life. Begging for the strength to reach his mate.
Could he be…my mate? No, of course not. But whoever he was seeking was a very lucky she-wolf.
Then, like a door slamming shut he was gone, the fire was gone, everything was gone, and I lay in my crypt-like bed. But I wasn’t cold, wasn’t as thirsty, and I knew he was coming.
I could wait. If I knew where he was, I’d go to him.
“Help me help him,” I prayed to deities I had no name for. “Please.”
