#8 The Archer and her Wolf

Thea

I wasn’t expecting this, this feeling I had when leaving the packhouse. It felt like I was leaving behind a piece of myself at Valor Moon. It only makes sense. Those people, that pack, they restarted my heart and now I was leaving it behind to become Crimson again.

I stepped out of the transport room and towards Effie’s office. My squad was already there in the briefing room. They greeted me as I entered.

“What’s going on?” I asked, sitting at the head of the table.

“I believe you’re familiar with a Grim Reading from the Green Mountain pack in Canada?” Effie asked and I nodded,

“Yes. I met him and several others at Sal’s pack.” I said, my face scrunching up in question.

“Good work with that, by the way. Queenie was chosen as the next Alpha.” Effie informed me.

“She was my choice.” I said, nodding thoughtfully.

“Anyway. Grim sent word to Sal who sent word to me. His brother’s pack is under attack by rogues. They’re sneaking in at night, stealing children and killing their parents.” Effie explained.

“Damn rogues.” Sapphire snarled.

“We’ll handle it.” I said sternly, standing up and nodding my head towards the door.

“Good work.” Effie said, “And Good luck.”

The squad followed me out the door and towards the portal room just as we’ve done a hundred times before. This time, though, something unnamable was twisting inside my stomach and churning my inside.

“You okay, Crim?” Black asked, nudging my shoulders.

“Course.” I fixed my face and shot Black a smug smile. He shook his head at me and we all stepped through the portal together.

It wasn’t much of a rogue group, honestly. Easy enough to track down and surround. Grim’s brother, the Alpha of the pack, sent a group of warriors with us once we found the rogues’ hideout. They were inside a large cave, no more than fifty of them, with the children they stole locked away in a giant cage.

Gray, Sapphire, and Rose surrounded the cave, taking sniper positions, while Black, Violet, Greenie, and myself prepared to storm the cave with Green Mountain’s warriors.

“You all will focus on getting out your children. We’ll take care of the rogues.” I said to the wolves who snorted, howled, and nodded their big furry heads in response, “Onwards.” I gave the command and our army advanced.

Green Mountain’s wolves snarled rabidly at the rogues, taking them all by surprise. Myself and the other Archers took aim, and began firing on the rogues as they started to shift. As the rogues began to draw closer, Black, Violet, Greenie, and myself readied ourselves for some hand to hand combat while Sapphire and Gray continued their assault from above.

I dropped my bow and it disappeared before it hit the ground. I exchanged it for my dueling swords, pulling them from the criss crossed sheaths on my back. I sliced my way through the rogues, one at a time, bringing down as many as I could. A child cried out and I was distracted for a moment, just one moment. And that’s all it took.

The swords were knocked out of my hands and skipped across the ground, echoing off the cave floor. Two wolves lunged at me. One was hit with a blue arrow, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. The wolves landed on top of me, toppling my body to the ground. I felt claws slice through my leather, the sound of fabric tearing as my cloak fluttered away in the breeze. They snarled and snapped at me, their foul breath blowing in my face. I grabbed the one closest to me and held it back just far enough to keep its teeth from my neck.

The second wolf was weaker, slower, with the now three blue arrows plunged into his back. But, he managed to get one good whack at my chest and I felt all the air leave my lungs. My arms gave way and I dropped the wolf I was keeping at bay. His teeth sank into my shoulder. I cried out and then the entire world went black.

“Hold on, Crim, hold on!” I heard someone’s voice calling out to me.

My eyes were blinking rapidly but they were too heavy for me to open fully. My vision was blurry and I couldn’t see anything besides fuzzy blobs of color rushing around me.

“Her pulse is weakening. I can hear her heartbeat giving out.” I recognized Violet’s voice.

“I can’t heal her. There’s nothing I can do. She’s too injured.” Sapphire sounded panicked and upset.

“We need to get her back to Base!” Black shouted so close to my ear that my teeth rattled.

Then there was laughter. Unmistakable laughter. Like something plucked from my nightmares.

“What’s that?” Gray’s voice, usually so quiet and sure, was unnaturally shaking.

“Impossible. We killed you.” Rose gasped.

“I escaped. Ran all the way here and made as big of a fuss as I could manage to catch your attention. I knew that she would come. That all of you would come.” My blood froze in my veins and my entire body began to shake.

“She’s having a seizure!” Someone shouted. I was getting too delirious to focus on who the voice belonged to.

“You’re outnumbered. We’ve killed all of your rogues.” Black said,

“And Green Mountain’s pack isn’t far.” Violet spoke this time.

“Green Mountain has taken the kids back. They’re distracted by their pups. They won’t be coming back for you. Why would the Archers need their help?” The man snickered.

I felt the tears, the hot tears burn a trail down my face. Something else was running down my body, something wet and warm, like my tears, but thicker. I couldn’t be crying that much, could I? No, that doesn’t make sense. Blood, it must be my blood.

“It’s only you and you’re nothing.” Greenie’s snarl was violent but something else too. Scared?

“We have to go, she needs medical attention.” Sapphire called out and I felt someone’s hands on my body.

“I have a witch here. She can heal her, but you all have to go. Leave her here and she will live.” The man said,

“Are you mad?” One of the Archers yelled.

“Take her from here and she’ll die.” The man sounded smug.

“She’ll die.” Sapphire’s voice was so sad, “She will. I can hear it. Her heart is failing.”

“We can’t leave her!” Green sobbed.

“You have no choice.” The man’s voice was the last thing I heard before I was swallowed by blackness again with an unimaginable pain coursing through my body.

“What fresh hell is this?” I moaned, trying to sit up.

Something rattled and tugged me back down. I looked around and saw my ankles were wrapped in a metal cuff attached to a chain. The chains were secured to the cave wall behind me.

“What?” I mumbled to myself in a dead voice.

Looking around, I was in a cave. I was inside the cage that used to hold Green Mountain’s children. I was still in my Archer uniform but it was torn to hell and back. I remembered my injuries and started scanning myself. I had fresh scars on my chest, arms, and stomach, but they were healed; days or weeks old, even.

“Well, well, well.” That voice again. That voice that plagued my nightmares. That voice I tried so hard to forget.

I closed my eyes tight, imagining that I was in one of those nightmares and tried to wake myself up. Something rattled the cage, forcing me back to the reality I was trapped in.

“Berlin.” I snarled.

“Oh, you know better than that.” Berlin tsked, “It’s Alpha Berlin to you, now isn’t it?”

“Alpha of what now?” I pulled myself across the floor to grip the bars of the cell. Berlin’s face contorted,

“And whose fault is that? Twice now.” He kicked the cage, trying to rattle me.

“Yes, and you died once already, too. Shall we make that happen twice?” I was goating him. I always goated him.

You see, this was Alpha Berlin of the rogue pack in Northern Michigan. The same rogue pack that held me captive for ten days. The same rogue pack that my squad, supposedly, had destroyed. Unlucky for me, the lovely Alpha Berlin must’ve escaped to start a new rogue pack here, in Canada.

“Smug little girl.” He unlocked the cage and crept inside, stalking towards me. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of looking afraid.

“You did all of this just to get my attention?” I asked, refusing to look away from him.

“Aren’t you flattered?” His smile disgusted me almost as much as his scent.

“Not in the slightest.” I snapped back.

Berlin grabbed my arms and forced me up to my knees, he crouched down so we were eye level.

“You’ll do well to be more kind to me.”

“You’re a fool for staying here. My squad will come back for me.” I threatened him, not bothering to fight against his grip.

“They haven’t in the past three weeks.” He smirked. I felt my face drain of color,

“Three weeks?” I stammered.

“Oh, yes. You were dying, you see, dead, really. I had a witch who could heal you and then she shielded this place from anyone. From everyone.” Now I knew why he was so smug.

Oh, I was so in for it now.