Chapter 145: The Shooter In The Trees

Maddie Pov

I stood over Theo and I watched the blood soak into the dirt. He was not moving. His eyes were open but he was not looking at anything.

The green vial was in a hundred pieces around his head. I felt the red feeling in my brain start to pull back. It was like a fever was finally breaking. The red fur on my legs started to itch.

It felt like my skin was too tight for a second and then the white light came back. It was not as bright as before but it was there. I felt the heat in my chest calm down.

I looked at my paws. They were white again, i was not the monster anymore.

I looked toward the trees where the shot had come from. The smoke from the rifle was still hanging in the air. It was a thin grey cloud that moved slowly between the branches.

A woman stepped out from the shadows. She was holding a long rifle and her hands were steady. She was wearing a grey coat that was dirty at the bottom, she had a bruise on her forehead and her hair was messy.

It was Lila.

I remembered her from Silverthorn. She had been Jace’s girlfriend for a long time. She was the one who used to look at me like I was something she found on the bottom of her shoe but now she looked different. She looked like she had been living in the woods for weeks. Her face was thin and her eyes were very dark.

Lila walked toward the fire and she did not look at the girls. She only looked at Theo. She stopped three feet away and she kicked his leg with her boot. He did not move.

"Is he dead?" Lila asked and she did not look at me.

I let out a small huff of air. I could not speak while I was a wolf but I think she knew what I meant.

"Good," Lila said and she wiped a bit of dirt off her cheek. "I have been following him for two days. I was waiting for him to stop moving so I could get a clean shot."

I looked at the girls. Elara was staring at Lila with her mouth open. The other girls were pulling at their ropes but they were still stuck.

"Lila?" Elara said and her voice was very small.

"Shut up, kid," Lila said and she finally looked at me.

I took a step toward the girls. I wanted to use my teeth to rip the ropes off their wrists. I wanted to get them out of the clearing before more Silverthorn wolves showed up. But as soon as I moved, I heard a sound that made my ears flat against my head.

It was the sound of a gun being cocked.

I looked back. Lila had raised the rifle again. She was not pointing it at Theo anymore. She was pointing it at my chest. Her finger was on the trigger and her knuckles were white.

"Do not move," Lila said and her voice was very flat.

I stopped. I felt the hair on my back stand up. I looked at her eyes and I saw that she was not joking. She looked like someone who had nothing left to lose.

"You think I did this for you?" Lila asked.

I stayed very still. I did not growl. I just watched her.

"I did not do it to save you, Maddie," Lila said and she stepped closer to the fire. "I did it because Theo was a traitor. He took the pack away from Jace. He made everyone turn on him. He thought he could just take over and become the Alpha."

She looked at Theo’s body and she spit on the ground.

"Jace is gone because of him," she said. "And because of you."

I felt a low rumble in my throat. I did not mean to do it. It was just a reaction.

"Do not growl at me," Lila said and she adjusted her grip on the gun. "I am the one with the rifle.

I am the one who just saved your life. I could have let him give you that liquid. I could have watched you kill those girls."

"Please help us," Elara shouted from the ground.

"I told you to shut up!" Lila screamed and she looked at the girls for a second.

The girls all went quiet. One of the smaller wolves started to cry. It was a quiet, soft sound that made me want to run to her.

"You took everything from me, Maddie," Lila said and she looked back at me. "I was going to be the Luna. I had a life. I had a pack. Then you showed up with your white fur and your prophecy and everything went to hell. Jace stopped looking at me. He only talked about you. He became obsessed with you."

I looked at her and I tried to make my eyes look soft. I wanted her to see that I did not want Jace. I never wanted any of it.

"Now he is a joke," Lila said and a tear ran down her face. "He is hiding in the mountains like a stray dog. He does not even remember who I am half the time. He just says your name."

She took another step toward me. The barrel of the gun was almost touching my fur. I could smell the metal and the oil on the weapon.

"Theo is dead," Lila said and she wiped her eyes with her free hand. "That is one problem gone. Now I think I should take care of the other one."

I looked at the girls and then I looked at the woods. I could hear something in the distance. It was the sound of branches breaking. Someone was coming. It could be Calix or it could be the rest of the Silverthorn pack. I did not have much time.

I looked at Lila. I could jump at her. I was fast enough that I could probably knock the gun out of her hand before she could pull the trigger. But she might get a shot off. If she did, it might hit one of the girls behind me. I could not take that risk.

I had to talk to her. I had to make her see that killing me would not bring Jace back.