Chapter 41 41
\[Damian’s POV\]
The taste in my mouth was like rotted swamp water. If I knew the taste that is.
I leaned over the side of the wooden cot, my body heaving like my ribs were going to snap. I retched again, and a thick, black sludge hit the dirt floor of the healer's cabin. It hissed against the ground, a foul-smelling steam rising into the air.
That was the last of it. The poison that had been eating my wolf from the inside out was finally out of my system.
I slumped back against the furs, gasping for air. My arm, which had been filled with purple, poisoned veins only hours ago, began to itch. I watched in the dim candlelight as the jagged wound started to knit itself back together. The grey, dead skin turned pink and healthy again. The burning in my blood was replaced by a cool, soothing relief.
The healer, an old man with eyes as white as milk and skin like wrinkled socks, wiped his bloody hands on a rag. He looked at me, his expression grave.
"You are lucky, young Alpha," the old man croaked. "The mixture on that blade was ancient. It was designed to rot the spirit before it killed the flesh. I have purged the liquid, but the mark remains."
I flexed my fingers, feeling my strength returning. "I’m fine. I can feel my wolf again."
"Do not be arrogant," the healer snapped, his blind eyes fixing on a spot just above my head. "The poison has left a scar on your wolf's soul. You are healed for now, but your protection is thin. If that venom touches your blood a second time, no healer in this world or the next will be able to pull you back. Your wolf will die, and you will become a hollow man."
Lucien stepped out of the shadows in the corner of the room. His face was tense, his silver eyes scanning my arm before looking at the healer. "He understands the risk. We thank you for your help."
He then reached into his pocket and placed a heavy pouch of gold on the table. We didn't have time for a long recovery. Every second we spent in this cabin was a second Rhea was alone in that apartment. The bond in my chest was pulling at me, telling me just how terrified she was.
We turned to leave, but the old man’s hand shot out, surprisingly fast, gripping my sleeve.
"Wait," he whispered, and turned his head toward the small, high window of the cabin. "Look at the sky."
I looked up. The sun was dipping below the horizon, but the light it left behind wasn't the usual orange or purple. It was a deep shade of red.
"Tonight is the Blood Moon," the healer said, his voice trembling with a hint of fear. "It is a rare and auspicious night. The veil between the man and the beast is at its thinnest. The moon will demand your blood and your control. If you are not behind solid walls and iron bars when the moon reaches its peak, you will lose yourselves. The beast will take over, and you will not remember who you love or what you are protecting."
I thought of Rhea. I thought of her sitting on the couch, wrapped in our jackets, waiting for us to come through the door. If we stayed here to wait out the moon, she would be alone for another twelve hours. Mark could be at her door right now.
"We don’t have time to hide," I said, pulling my arm away. "We have to get back to the city. We have to get back to her."
"The moon does not care about your heart, Alpha," the healer warned. "It only cares about the hunt."
"We’ll be fine," I muttered, heading for the door.
Lucien followed me, his expression grim. We stepped out into the cool evening air. The forest around the healer's cabin was unnervingly silent. The birds had stopped singing, and the usual rustle of small animals was gone. Everything was silent.
We set out toward the main road, moving at a fast human pace. We couldn't shift yet since we needed to save our energy for the long trek back.
We had been walking for about twenty minutes when I felt the hair on my neck suddenly stand. We were being watched. I glanced at Lucien, and I could tell by the tilt of his head that he had sensed it too.
"We’re being followed," Lucien whispered, his hand dropping to the knife at his belt.
I scanned the thick treeline to our left. "I don't smell anything. No scent of a wolf, no scent of a hunter."
"They're downwind," Lucien noted. "And they're good. They're staying just on the edge of my senses."
I looked at the sky. The red tint was deepening. The stars were starting to blink into existence, but they looked like drops of blood against the Crimson. "We should turn back and flush them out. See who has the balls to shadow two Alphas."
"No," I argued, my worry for Rhea overriding my need for a fight. "If we stop to fight, we won't make it back before the peak. We need to get to the apartment. We need to get her inside the safe room."
Lucien hesitated, then nodded. "You’re right. We take the shortcut through the deep woods. It’ll shave an hour off the trip."
We veered off the path and dived into the dense forest. The trees here were so thick, they blocked out the fading light. We moved quickly, our boots crunching over the dried pine needles.
The presence behind us didn't disappear, if anything, it moved with us.
Suddenly, an arrow, stuffed with black feathers and tipped with a shimmering silver point, whizzed past my ear. It slammed into the trunk of a pine tree right where my head had been a second ago. The wood hissed as the silver burned into the bark.
"Hunters!" Lucien shouted.
We didn't stop to look back. We broke into a full sprint, jumping over fallen logs and dodging low-hanging branches. My heart was pounding against my ribs, the blood rushing through my ears.
Another arrow hissed past, then another. They were trying to pin us down.
"They’re trying to drive us toward the clearing!" I yelled over the wind.
"Keep moving!" Lucien replied.
We ran as fast as our human legs could carry us. The city was still miles away. I could feel the pull of Rhea in my chest, more intense than ever. She was crying. I could feel it through the bond, a sharp, stabbing pain of loneliness and fear. It made me want to howl. It made me want to tear the world apart just to get to her side.
We reached a massive, ancient oak tree and skidded to a stop behind its thick trunk. I leaned my back against the bark, gasping for air. My arm was throbbing again, the spot where the poison had been feeling cold again.
"We have to shift," I said, looking at Lucien. "We can outrun them as wolves."
Lucien looked at the sky. His face went pale.
The clouds above us were parting. The heavy grey mist rolling away and revealing the moon in all its terrifying glory.
It wasn't white. It wasn't yellow. It was a deep, vibrant crimson. The Blood Moon had reached its peak.
"No. The healer said..."
Damien didn't get to finish.
The moment the red moonlight hit the forest floor, a wave of pure, agonizing heat exploded in my gut. It was a thousand times more intense than a normal shift. It felt like my blood was boiling, like my bones were being crushed in a hydraulic press and then reforged into something sharper.
"Argh!"
I fell to my knees, clawing at the dirt. I could hear Lucien screaming beside me, the sound of his bones snapping echoing through the clearing.
My human mind began to slip away. The memory of Rhea, the fear of the hunters, the plan to get back to the apartment, it all started to dissolve into a red haze. The only thing that remained was the hunger. The need to hunt. The need to kill.
The moonlight was like a drug, pouring into my skin, turning my thoughts into static.
I felt my jaw elongate, my teeth sharpening into lethal fangs. My fur erupted from my skin, black and coarse.
I let out a deep, chest-vibrating howl that shook the very leaves of the trees. Beside me, a massive silver wolf let out a mirroring cry.
Time to hunt.