He Needs Help

The healer cracked open her door and peered out. Her blue eyes brightened with curiosity as to why I would be there in the middle of the night.

I could imagine how ridiculous I looked, standing there in my billowing white nightdress tossing in the slight breeze. ~Like a ghost in the dark.~

“Sabar is bleeding. He…Hit his head…”

She hissed through her teeth and stared at me suspiciously. “Are there any males out tonight?”

“None but the border guards, that I’ve seen. Why?” It instantly dawned on me how foolish my question was. I recalled how afraid of the night I was when I was unmated.

~Now I know the other males won’t touch me. They’d be ripped apart by my mates if they tried.~

~But the healer…~

“Never mind,” I said in response to her startled look. “I’ll be with you.”

“Show me where he is.” She draped a long, knitted blanket over her shoulders and followed me.

“He’s this way.” I pointed. We rounded the corner of the Faber cottage, and she saw Sabar on the ground.

“Sabar!” The healer hurried to his side as if she knew him. Sliding on her knees to reach him, she put a hand on his side to verify he was drawing breaths.

I chewed my lip. The pool of blood around him had grown. “I was scared to move him.”

“You couldn’t have anyway,” she reassured me over her shoulder. “He’s far too large for you to have budged.”

I nodded. But I was still guilty as I worried he might not be okay.

~He’s so kind. He can’t die. ~

In that moment I was struck by how much this pack had grown to mean to me.

~Sabar, Sara Jane, Laura, My mates…~

Even the alpha I’d grown to respect for his fair wisdom.

~Martha wants to hurt this pack. ~

That made a familiar rage boil in me.

I heard a branch crack in the distance and my head whipped in that direction. My wolf caught Martha’s scent on the wind. I looked down at the healer who had a ferocious look on her face.

“Go after her,” she snapped, lip curling. “But be careful!”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Find out what that old witch is up to.”

The healer’s clear animosity shocked me. ~Apparently, she’s seen something we had just suspected.~

“I don’t want to leave you,” I objected, remembering how scared she’d been to come out alone. I caught a slight movement next to me and realized someone had moved nearer us without making a sound. Startled, I gasped as I recognized another border guard; Calum had stepped between us without me having any idea he was there.

“I’ll stay with her.”

I gave him a reserved look. ~Leave a male with her?~

The healer caught my skirt. “It’ll be fine. He’ll look after me.”

~She trusts him?~

She was always so nervous around males. It faintly dawned on me that perhaps she avoided the others because ~this~ was the one she wanted.

“I won’t put a hand on her,” he told me so sternly that I was certain there was truth in it.

Calum was a reserved male, but he was nothing if not a creature of his word.

I stood and caught up my skirts in order to run. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wasn’t going to catch up to Martha like this.

I stepped behind a tree and shucked my nightdress. I turned from behind the tree and leapt over a log.

I could feel the fur peeling through my pores, each strand unfurling. A sense of relief rolled over me as I let her go. ~The she-wolf always scratching from inside me to be free.~

With the Mating Moon having passed, I hoped my female scent wouldn’t draw unwanted attention to me. But those concerns weren’t enough to stop me. Sabar lying there limp drove me after Martha’s trail.

I was loping through the dark. My cream fur made me easy to spot in the dark. So, I was working hard to follow Martha’s scent. All while trying to keep tree trunks between me and the path, I thought she might be traveling based on her smell.

~She’s going to the back wall? Why?~

I caught up to her and ducked behind a large tree. Peering out, I caught sight of her creeping through the woods.

She eventually reached the large stone wall. Putting a hand to it, she squinted in the dark. Her eyes changed from dark to shining yellow. Her wolf peered out to see in the night. She dragged her old, withered hand over the stones and uneven boulders until reaching a spot where there was a narrow gap in the wall. Just behind a tree.

I knew instantly that this was where the Roamers originally got in.

A lump of suspicion formed in my throat.

~She wouldn’t!~

I watched her awkwardly slip through the wall, her brown dress catching on a few rocks and gnarled branches. She reached over and ripped it free.

~Clearly in a rush to get somewhere.~

~Escaping the pack?~ I couldn’t fathom why she’d want to do that. She’s honored here.~

Her skills were appreciated, and us younger females looked up to her. We hung onto her every word.

~While she potentially poisons us.~

I sat, winding my furred tail around me, and tipped my head forward. As I relaxed my body and tipped it back, my neck elongated, and I shed the fur in a pile on the ground. I took the more subtle form of a naked woman.

~With less scent.~

I slipped next to the crack between the stones, shocked.

Someone had meticulously removed stones to create a discreet gap and easy handholds to climb over the wall.

~Slim enough the border guards missed it behind the tree.~ I knew how cautious they were, but the space between the tree and the wall was barely over a foot, then the crack a little more.

~Not much room to fit through.~ Yet, I suspected that a male must have done it from the other side.

Martha wasn’t strong enough to have moved those stones. But she surely could’ve been a lookout.

I peeked through the crack and was astonished to see Martha had her arms wrapped around a large, long-haired male who was tightly embracing her. His hands freely roaming over her full shape.

~She has a mate! What is she doing?~

I was so busy changing shape that I didn’t notice the faint scent of another wolf approaching from behind me. Didn’t hear the padding of paws moving smoothly over leaves, or realize that the speed of their approach should’ve given me a hint as to who it was.

Perhaps I should’ve been paying more attention…