Chapter 164: The Power Thief

Calix Pov

The gravel path by the creek was totally wet from the morning frost. I came around the willow bushes with my hunting skin in my left hand and I stopped dead when I saw the two shapes by the water trail. Maddie was standing very close to the freezing current and Kai was right in front of her face.

My blood went totally hot in one second.

I dropped the hunting skin into the mud and I launched my body across the flat rocks until I was right between them. I shoved my shoulder straight into Kai’s chest and he stumbled back three steps before his boots caught a thick tree root. His long grey coat swung out wide.

"Get away from my mate," I shouted and my claws came out of my fingers.

Kai did not look mad at all. He just straightened his coat and looked at me with his small grey eyes.

"You are too late to stop this, Calix," Kai said.

"I told you to leave the valley yesterday," I said and I kept my body flat against Maddie to keep her behind my back.

"I cannot leave my own blood power behind," Kai said and he pointed his long finger at Maddie’s right arm. "Ask her what she just learned. Ask her who the golden light really belongs to."

I turned my head just enough to look at Maddie. Her face was completely white and her blue eyes were shaking as she looked from me to the old man. She had her right hand tucked inside the leather of her boot where she was hiding something flat.

"Is it true, Maddie?" I asked.

"He says my mother took his strength when I was a baby," Maddie said and her voice was very small in the cold air. "He says the gold light is his."

"He is a northern liar," I said and I turned back to face him fully. "He wants to break our pack because we are building the new cabin. He wants to take the White Wolf to the peaks."

"I do not care about your little wooden cabin, young Alpha," Kai said and he took one slow step forward on the gravel. "I want my power back. I have been empty for twenty years while she carried it in her veins."

"You will have to kill me before you touch her skin again," I said.

"That would be very easy to do," Kai said.

The bushes behind us rattled loud and Marcus ran out onto the trail with his iron spear in his hand. Two other guards followed him and they dropped into a low circle around Kai with their teeth showing.

"We heard the shouting from the main logs, Alpha," Marcus said.

"Keep your spears up," I said. "He is trying to steal from the pack."

Kai looked at the three iron points and then he looked back at Maddie. A small, strange smile came onto his thin lips and he did not move his feet at all.

"You think your pack numbers can protect her from what is inside her own bones," Kai said.

"We are standing right here," I said.

"Watch this then," Kai said.

He did not raise his arms and he did not shift into his wolf form. He just closed his eyes tight and he held his right palm flat toward the sky. A tiny speck of yellow light sparked on his thumb.

Suddenly, Maddie’s body went completely stiff behind me.

She did not scream and she did not make a sound. Her arms dropped down straight to her sides like two pieces of heavy pine wood. She lifted her right foot and she took one step sideways until she was no longer behind my back.

"Maddie, what are you doing?" I asked and I reached out to grab her elbow.

She did not look at me. Her blue eyes were completely blank and wide open, but she moved her left leg forward too. She walked right past the point of Marcus’s iron spear like she did not even see the metal.

"Maddie, stop," I shouted and I caught her waist with both of my hands.

Her skin felt ice cold under her white shirt. I pulled back with all the weight in my legs, but her body kept moving forward toward Kai like an ox pulling a heavy cart. My boots dragged through the wet mud and I could not slow her down even an inch.

"She cannot hear you, Calix," Kai said and his eyes opened slow. "The gold light inside her responds to my heart because it is my blood. I can make her walk wherever I want."

"Let her go," I roared and my teeth caught the side of my own lip until blood came out.

"Come to the north ridge tomorrow morning, Maddie," Kai said and he turned his face directly to her blank eyes. "Bring the bone key or the light will burn your chest open."

Kai dropped his hand back into his coat pocket and the tiny yellow speck went out.

Maddie’s knees broke instantly and she collapsed forward onto the stones. I caught her before her head hit the sharp gravel and I pulled her tight against my chest. Her breathing came back in big, loud gasps and she began to shake against my shirt.

Kai did not wait for the guards to move. He stepped sideways into the thick willow brush and his grey shape vanished into the dark woods before Marcus could throw the spear.

"Are you back?" I whispered and I rubbed my hand against her wet hair.

"I could not stop my feet, Calix," Maddie said and she grabbed the front of my shirt with both of her hands. "I could not stop my feet at all."