34
Her arms come to wrap around. Me. “No. But right now, your Sophia needs you. She’s struggling without you.”
My mother takes my face in her hands, forcing me to look at her. “She is your other half in every sense of the word. The Silver Wolf is an incomplete being. You complete her. Don’t ever forget it. You are her strength, her protector, her guardian. Your bond is not complete yet. And it’s hurting her. It’s going to hurt you as well.”
I seize her hands, confused. "What?”
The heavy grip on my shoulder appears once again and when I look up, I see my father standing behind me. "It’s time for us to go, son. It’s time for you to go as well. We’re proud of you and everything you have done."
My mother’s lips press against my cheek, and slowly before my eyes, the garden begins to disintegrate till there’s nothing but the darkness and the lingering scent of my mother’s favorite perfume in the air.
I stay frozen in place, my throat clogged with emotion. I only got a few minutes with them, but those minutes meant the world to me. I press the heels of my hands against my eyes, my breathing rough.
The darkness around me is suffocating. I finally look around, recalling my mother's words.
Sophia needs me.
But where am I?
I have to be dreaming. But how do I wake up from this dream?
Out of nowhere, I feel a pulse of urgency, an acrid fear that's not my own. A call for help.
Sophia!
Something is wrong.
I search for the bond between us that is always throbbing inside of me, almost like a second pulse.
It's still there but it’s faint.
Alarm bells go off in my head. The last time it was this weak was when we faced the dark witches Karina sent. What the hell is going on? Why is Sophia so weak? And where is she?
I have to wake up!
However, no matter how hard I try, it's as if there is something blocking me from getting out of this darkness. My wolf is fighting against something I can't comprehend. It's not paying attention to me. I can't get a hold of it.
The desperate cry for help rings out again.
Growling, I feel for the thread of my mate’s consciousness inside me. I can see it when I close my eyes. The glow around the thread is fading, its thickness disappearing. It's now a fine thread, on the verge of breaking. Without thinking, I grab on to it.
My strength flows through me and I see the thread pulse.
Once.
Twice.
I see the glow returning to the thread but it fades soon enough. I don't know what I've done, but when I try it again, I realize that it's just a temporary measure. The thread shows a hint of strength before fading back.
This isn't working.
I need to get to her.
I need to wake up!
Getting my wolf under control is not easy, which is a surprise. I've always been in control of my wolf. This is the first time I'm unable to reach out to it. It's blocking me off. Snarling, I force my will on it, ignoring its struggles to resist.
Our mate needs us.
Whatever she is trying to face, we can face it together.
Snarling, I push against the mental block he's placed around himself and this time my beast has no choice but to bend to my will.
My eyes fly open with a gasp.
For a moment, I am disoriented. My feet are not on the ground. I’m floating.
It takes me a few seconds to realize that that is not the case. My wrists and ankles are burning as if they’re on fire. That’s a sensation that can only be caused by iron. Wolf shifters and iron do not mix well. It is the best material to use to restrain my kind. I try to pull against the manacles suspending me in the air. The burning sensation is intense, scoring into skin, like a thousand hot needles piercing into me.
This isn’t the first time I’ve been restrained by iron manacles. Karina has done so a few times in that past in an attempt to humiliate me and hurt me. However, these chains are different.
Calming myself, I try to think back.
How did I end up here?
The last thing I remembered was eating a meal with those old women in the village, and then Sophia collapsed in my arms. That’s it. I don’t remember anything else.
How is that possible?
I look around. I am in some sort of stone chamber. There are candles all along the walls and when I look below, there’s a creepy-looking pentagram drawn on the floor with blood.
My blood, I realize.
Dark witches.
That’s the only explanation I can come up with. We were duped.
Groaning in embarrassment and anger, I try to think of a way out of here. There’s something different about my restraints that are holding me in the air. I have a feeling that escaping them isn’t going to be as easy as I first thought. And I’m proven right. The more I pull against them, the more they tighten against my skin till they’re digging into my flesh.
Hissing with pain, I look around. There has to be another way out of here. I don’t know where Sophia is, but she needs me. I don’t know what they’ve done to her.
Even as my worries grow, I maintain a sense of calm. No wonder my wolf was struggling. It must’ve been trying to escape.
If I bring out my animal, I might have a window of opportunity within that second split second of the shift. My bones will break and reform and that will give me the opportunity to slip out of these manacles. It’s not easy to do anything during the shift. This is because during the transition from human to animal or vice versa, the magic of the shift is intense and we lose control for that split second. This is the first time I will have tried to pull off something like this during the shift and I don’t know if it’s going to work. But it is the only option that I have.
Closing my eyes, I reach out to my wolf. It is watching in grim acceptance. I have to maintain my consciousness during the shift. I don’t know how I will do it, but there is a first time for everything.
Closing my eyes, I call forth my animal. As my bones begin to break, I feel two hands on my shoulders and my father’s voice in my ear.
You’ve got this, son.
My eyes fly open, and I yank the manacles around my wrists and ankles.
I fall into the pentagram in my wolf form. Dazed for a minute, I stumble, unable to find my balance, and then my wolf gains control.
I move quickly.
Sophia.
I have to get to Sophia.
I don’t bother with waiting around to see if anybody is outside. I streak out of the cave into the forest. But as I do, it occurs to me that I can’t catch Sophia’s scent anywhere.
Forcing myself to a halt, I look around. If I can’t find my mate, I can look for the witches. They will lead me to her. But the more I walk around, the more I begin to realize that I don’t know where I am. Normally, it’s not very hard to find a hint of a scent or something to guide me to the right location. However, in this situation, I’m fumbling in the dark. It’s almost as if something is blunting all my senses.
My wolf lets out a displeased growl. As if I am going to let something like this stop me from getting to my woman!
Shifting into my human form, I look around for the tallest tree, and begin climbing. Once I get to the top, I look around. There they are. The fields.
I slide down to the ground and shift back to my wolf form, before breaking into a run in the direction of the village.
Unlike others of my kind, I always studied the humans around me. After all, humans are the most vicious of the Goddess' creatures. They’re unmatched with it comes to violence and bloodlust. So I learned from them.