Chapter 16 ~ Hike

We drove back to the Wolf Territory in silence. The questions swirled around my mind desperate to be released so they could find their answers but for some reason I couldn't get them passed my lips. I stared out the window into the dense forest, feeling Kellan's gaze on me again and again as we got closer to the house. My fingers scratched at the skin of my wrist when the first cottages appeared. The skin turned an angry red, but I couldn't stop. The slight pain distracting me from the sheer terror of where I was. Of what I had agreed to.

Was it too late to change my mind? I whipped my head around to Kellan ready to beg him to take me back to The Lone Wolf. The cure, I thought to myself. Focus on the cure. If you can get through this, it's yours. You'll never have to feel like this again. I strengthened my resolve and forced my body to calm down. I could do this. And if I could convince him to show me where he was keeping the vial, I might even be able to get out of here without having anything more to do with the Wolf inside me.

The large house loomed into view and my heart pounded. I forced myself to take long deep breaths. I could do this. I could stay here until I got my hands on the cure. I just hoped it wasn't going to be too long. We drove passed the turn into the driveway with the parking spaces and I shifted my gaze from the wolves outside to the one in the car with me.

"Where are we going?" I questioned, not the first question I wanted to ask when he said he'd answer anything but necessary as the village of Wolves disappeared behind us and we continued on a narrow overgrown path. The leaves scraped at the windows like claws and the old truck groaned with the effort of moving up the steep slope before it.

"Well, I know you aren't going to want to stay down there with a pack of Wolves. I can smell how terrified you are of them. So, we are going to head into the forest higher up the mountain. There is a small cabin up here, it's where we take Wolves before their first shift."

"Will anyone else be up there?" He shook his head. At least there was that. Though the idea that he was taking me to the place where Wolves shifted for the first time wasn't the most comforting thought. Was he going to make me shift too?

"What does teaching me about Wolves involve anyway?" The corners of his lips turned up in a grin and I felt a smile tug at mine in response. He turned the truck around a sharp corner and brought us to a stop with a jolt.

"You're about to find out." He pulled his door open and jumped out a spring in his step that wasn't there before. The tiredness seemed to leave his body as he strode around to my side. I pulled my own door open before he had a chance to and stepped out, eyes searching the thick forest around us for any sign of the cabin he'd mentioned.

"It's a bit further yet," He chuckled at what I am sure was a look of pure horror on my face. The idea of hiking through thick forest up a mountain in the middle of the night was not high on the list of things I wanted to do right now. In the morning, after a good nights rest, sure. But not here, not now. I shook my head, but the grin on his face only stretched wider lighting the depths of his tired, grey eyes.

"How much further are we going?"

"Just a couple more kilometres. It shouldn't take long." He turned toward the thick wall of trees. Was he serious? This was ridiculous. We should have waited until morning. He tugged his shirt over his head and I gasped stepping back.

"What are you doing?" He tilted his head back to look at me, that heart-warming grin still on his face and excitement in his eyes.

"Well, I don't know about you but I don't see well in the dark. Wolves have better vision." I shook my head moving backwards away from the horror in front of me until my back hit the cool metal of the truck.

"No. Kellan, please, we can just walk. It's fine. Don't shift. Please don't shift." My words trailed off into a whisper by the end as he continued to remove his clothing and ignore my pleas.

"It'll be easier if you shift too. The forest through here is extremely hard to navigate as a human and we'll be able to travel much faster if we are both Wolves." I shook my head again. No way. It would be bad enough walking in darkness with a Wolf at my side. There was no way I was going to let him talk me into shifting as well.

"I thought you said you take Wolves to this cabin to shift for the first time. How do they get there?" I grumbled at him. He lifted a shoulder in a shrug and stepped into the depths of the trees.

I heard the snap and crack of bone, felt the shift in the air. My hands shook at my sides as I moved forward, forcing my tired, terrified limbs to carry me closer and closer to the thing that I had been running from for what felt like my entire life.

The Wolf that stepped from the trees to meet me was easily twice the size of a regular wolf. His dark grey coat shimmered in the faint glimmer of moonlight that filtered down from above. His grey eyes held the same happiness and excitement as they had before and I realised this is what he'd been excited about. He wanted to shift. Wanted to run as a wolf. A shaky breath left my lungs and I took the final few steps towards him.

He dipped his head and forced it under my hand. The soft fur felt beautiful against my skin, almost comforting despite the monster that wore it. I stroked the dark fur of his neck, each stroke more confident and comfortable than the last. He waited his gentle eyes watching me and once my hands no longer hesitated to touch him he started to move. He did it in slow motion, nothing fast or sudden every move slow and purposeful and his eyes never left me. He moved so that we both faced into the dark woods and then he tilted his head and met my gaze. A question written in their depths. I shook my head and stepped forward. He huffed and the noise made me smile. Despite my refusal to shift with him he followed by my side as we started the long walk through the trees.

My eyes adjusted as well as they could to the dark shroud of the dense woods. There was no real path to follow so all I could do was try to follow Kellan's dark Wolf. He disappeared at times blending into the darkness so well that I couldn't separate him from the trees. It was those periods of darkness when a root would sneak out of nowhere and trip me. The thin sheet that I had tied around my body did nothing to protect me from the harsh scrape of branches on my arms or the hard knock of earth and roots on my knees.

My breath came in gasps as I struggled to keep up with Kellan. I could tell he was already moving much slower than he wanted to, his strides short and stiff and I didn't want to slow him down even further. I pushed my tired legs on cursing the uneven ground as I fell yet again. The metallic tang of blood hit the air and I swiped the blood from my knee as I pushed myself back to my feet.

Kellan froze, the instant my blood hit the air, his dark eyes fixed on me and a deep growl emanated from him, vibrating from deep within his chest. I stopped the sound bringing back memories I couldn't handle right now. I forced the fear back down deep and started moving again. When I reached him he still didn't move. The growl rumbled again vibrating the ground at my feet and his eyes stared at the shallow scrape on my knee.

"Come on, Kellan. Let's go." I grumbled back at him, too tired to waste time standing around when we should be walking. I had no idea how far we had come but it felt like we'd been at it for hours. He stared at me a minute longer then shook his big head and started moving again.

We barely made it another ten metres before I stumbled again. A searing pain shot up my leg and a cry of pain slipped from my lips despite my best attempt to keep it in, knowing Kellan would hear and want to stop again. And he did. His head whipped around so fast at the sound that I almost didn't even see the movement.

He raced the few steps back to me and skidded to a stop, eyes peering at the ankle I was grasping. A soft growl hovered in the air before he turned away again and ran deeper into the trees. Panic clawed at my throat as I watched him disappear from sight. Was he leaving me here? Abandoning me to die?

The snap of a twig behind me had me shuffling around to try and see what was there. The soft hoot of an owl made me jump and the movement jostled my ankle. I cried out and then covered my mouth afraid, for the first time since we'd started this hike, of what might hear me.

Vote & Comment please!!! What do you think will happen next? Did Kellan really abandon Delilah?