Touched by Oblivion (The Fourth Pack Series Book 1), page 9
Eventually, they stop in a clearing. Blackfire spits me out onto the ground, and I roll in the leaves, coughing as I grab my arm, wincing in pain from the bite. My blood pours through my fingers, and Reed shifts back first, immediately in front of me, grabbing my arm.
“Don’t lick me,” I manage to mumble out even as I feel dizzy from blood loss. “This has been a bad day. Is it over?”
But I’m too weak to fight him as he grabs my arm, takes my hand off it, and begins licking the bite. Eventually, the pain disappears, not the fuzziness. I think I’m going to pass out. “Bad day, not bad life, little human. Now tell me why the fuck you ran from me?”
Blackfire hasn’t shifted back, huffing and snarling as he’s walking back and forth near us. Eventually, he does shift, crouched on the ground, his hood flying around him and his black mask glittering. “Get the fuck away from her and take your dirty mouth with you, Reed.”
If I thought he was angry at Reed, who doesn’t move and only smirks as he licks my arm one more time, his eyes locked on Blackfire, it’s nothing compared to the fury that spills from Blackfire as he looks at me. “What the fuck is wrong with you? Decided to go for a little fly with a new friend?” he growls. “Hopeless as fucking usual.”
“Not willingly, you absolute dickhead,” I spit at him. Why did it have to be Blackfire who jumped for me? I’m still shocked that he did that, when I’m meant to be helping him win this thing. Not the other way around.
“What Blackfire means to ask is, are you alright?” Reed counters, finally letting my arm go but staying close enough that all I can smell and see is him.
“Yes, thank you,” I whisper softly. I need a drink and chocolate cake, and a nap. “Any chance you want to hunt down a cake for me? I mean, I know there aren’t wild cakes running about, but I’ve had a bad day, so maybe you might find something.”
Reed opens and shuts his mouth, clearly unsure what to say. He isn’t getting me a cake; that much is for sure.
“I saved you,” Blackfire snaps. “He was no use, so why are you thanking him and not me?”
Reed shakes his head and leans closer to me. “My pleasure. I will find—”
He reaches for me like he might kiss my forehead, but he doesn’t get that far. Blackfire slams him into the tree nearby, holding him there, the dagger pointed straight at his crotch. “The fuck is wrong with you, Reed? We agreed whoever found her first would—”
“I’m well the fuck aware of what we agreed,” Reed snarls back. “You lost her first, and what the fuck were those creatures? Why do they want her?”
I realize they know each other, and they made an agreement to get to me first. I lock eyes with Reed. “You lied to me.”
He smirks, and something cold echoes in his eyes. “First lesson, little human, never trust a wolf as pretty as me.”
“You’re not that pretty,” I snap.
“Second lesson,” he laughs. “You need to learn to lie better.”
“She does,” Blackfire agrees with him, even as he has his dagger pointed at Reed’s crotch. Okay, they are weird, and coming from me, that’s saying something. They’re both heirs, and they clearly get along. I thought the packs all hated each other. I shake my head, dizzily getting to my feet. “But back to the point, this isn’t what we agreed. How did you not find out about the creatures? What else haven’t you mentioned, Reed?”
“I didn’t know about them either, you prick!” he snarls back, both of them growling.
“Luckily you’re okay, I think,” Tannith hisses. “That was creepy. Why do the stone creatures have six-packs? I was so close to it at one point, and I was tempted to lick it.”
“I know. I noticed that too. Very creepy,” I whisper back, ignoring Blackfire and Reed, who are arguing about how Reed didn’t protect me, and Reed is arguing that Blackfire took too long to get to me.
“Why are they both arguing about who protected you best?” Tannith watches them from my neck, where she has crawled out of the bag and hidden. “You’re building a nice little collection here of hot males. One of them must want to sleep with you. Even for a pity fuck. Tell them you’re a virgin—”
“Please stop talking,” I mutter, moving to the nearest tree and leaning my back against it.
“I’m trying to make light of the situation. You’ve obviously lost a lot of blood. That means you may be a bit delirious, therefore open to talking about some of this stuff.” She brushes against my neck, and I know she cares, and she is trying to distract me from the awful situation I have myself in. There have been five moments in my life where I actually thought about ending it all and seriously leaving this fucked-up world. Five moments where I was at my lowest, and five times, I managed to convince myself to keep going. I can’t live through a sixth moment, and this time, I’d take Tannith with me, which is unacceptable.
“What’s the point, Tannith?” I whisper softly.
She whispers back, “You are the point. You’re still fighting. Since we were children, you’ve always said that you want to give up, but you never actually have. You’ve been given many reasons to, and you know what? That didn’t break you, and I don’t think there is anything or anyone that could.”
“You have far more belief in me than I do,” I mutter. She always has done; it’s why I have to save her, why I have to make sure she has a life after this as a human. I can’t leave her cursed to be a drake forever.
She hums. “Maybe I believe that it’s the ones that want to give up and don’t who are the strongest of us all.”
I lay my head back as she climbs back into the bag, and I zip her up. One of us should get some sleep, as I don’t foresee this day getting any better for me, and I’m tired. Reed and Blackfire are still arguing like an old married couple, but no more daggers are involved, so at least they won’t stab each other. I don’t know why I’m happy they won’t stab each other. They probably should, and then I’ll get a chance to run again. I also don’t want to run straight into the creature who bit me.
Well, my plan to hide and sleep until this is all over hasn’t worked out. I don’t have a Plan B.
My arm still throbs, and even though the skin is healed, I swear something looks like it’s below my skin. I keep looking at my arm just as something metal pricks against my throat, and I freeze. My eyes widen as I take in the smell that spreads through the world into my senses, so earthy and just like maple syrup. I remember who this is. Orion, the devastatingly beautiful wolf, is holding a dagger to my throat, and he pulls my back straight against his chest, my bag with Tannith in slipping to my hip.
“You’re dead,” he laughs before he bites down hard on my ear, and I scream.
Chapter Eleven
Pain throbs through my ear, blood pouring down my neck, but it’s not Orion who I see when I close my eyes. Instead, I get locked into my memories, memories of another time my ear was bleeding, and I can’t get out of them.
Suddenly I’m standing outside the orphanage, moving logs from an enormous pile into the shed as punishment. My hands are covered in splinters of wood, a drop of blood trickling between my icy fingers, but I barely feel it because it’s so cold. Snow is falling fast through the sky, but it’s to be expected as it’s the middle of winter, and I’ve long forgotten what it is like to feel warm. The orphanage rarely has the heaters on, and burning firewood is all we have, which is only done in the main living area where everyone gathers, and the matron’s personal bedroom.
Bells ring across the city, marking the middle of the night, and I grunt as I lift another heavy log onto the pile. It’s midnight, which means Christmas is tomorrow. I’ve never cared much for Christmas celebrations because we don’t get gifts, lovely meals or anything to celebrate. Tannith and I always give each other a stone, our running joke that we are each other’s rock in a dark place. When I’m finally done with this, I will need to find the perfect stone for her.
“Do you want some help, lass?” a male voice carries to me, and I turn, stopping to look for where the voice came from. The male is cloaked in shadows, but he steps forward into the dim light from the streetlights outside the orphanage, and I frown. He is handsome, with red locks of hair falling all over his face and a cheeky grin filling out his face. He must be a similar age to me, maybe sixteen or seventeen. There’s something distinctively strange about him, something that makes the hair on the back of my neck rise.
“You’re a wolf,” I point out. “A shifter. Crone Pack, I’d guess from your red eyes and hair.”
“Guilty as charged.” He grins, holding his hands up. “And you’re a human orphan, I’d guess, and strangely beautiful.”
No one has called me beautiful before. They call Tannith all those sweet names, and she happily lets them. I get called the angry one, the one who jokes and is easily ignored. “Now we know each other, I’ll answer your first question—no, I don’t need your help.”
My heart pounds as I turn back to the pile and continue lifting one after the other. Turning my back on the wolf is a bad idea and disrespectful, but I have to get to work. I can’t spend my time speaking to this wolf when I need to move all of these logs into the woodshed and get them out of the storm.
I nearly jump when he moves to my side, and he picks up four of the very heavy logs in one go, putting them in the pile I’ve made. He carries on moving them as I watch for a second longer before my legs make me move. We work together in silence, but he puts so much on that soon the job is completely done hours before it should be.
I frown at him. Snow is falling into the locks of his red hair, his eyes glowing a vibrant red. His clothes are expensive and posh, tightly clinging to him, and he isn’t much taller than me. Why is he here? “Thank you,” I manage to say, still feeling utterly terrified. What’s a wolf doing here near an orphanage? I don’t know, but I don’t like it. “See you around.” He doesn’t leave as I sit down on the log pile, leaning against the back wall. I’m not allowed back into the orphanage until daybreak, even if it’s all done. I wrap my arms around my legs, shivering.
The stranger doesn’t leave; he climbs up next to me and sits back, resting his head on his bent knee. “Why are you out here, anyway?”
I sigh, wondering what is wrong with him. The only wolves I’ve met have made me kneel and call them master. They never once looked at me and saw a person, not like he is currently doing. He also hasn’t demanded I call him master. I don’t know whether to tell him or not. “Two new girls came to the orphanage yesterday. Five years old and just terrified little twins. They spoke out of turn and stole food that they probably shouldn’t have when they were starving because the matron forgot to feed them on arrival. The matron was beating them for it…whipping. I stepped in the middle of them. I couldn’t watch it or just walk away. I never can. I ended up with three whippings on my back for interrupting and then being thrown out here for the entire night to pile wood as punishment. This is a nice punishment in comparison to other things, so it’s fine. I’m sure the matron is hoping I freeze to death so she can finally be rid of me before I age out at eighteen.”
“You’re very brave, then,” he murmurs, his eyes locked on my face.
“Or stupid. Most people would call me stupid,” I mutter. “My best friend does. She says I have to stop trying to save everyone and damning myself.”
“I wouldn’t call you stupid for it. I don’t really know anyone from around here. I was just walking along when I heard you and smelt the blood. I was concerned, but instead I found someone I admire and want to see again. My parents think I should be around humans more who aren’t enslaved. Well, my mother does…my father does not.” He grins at me.
“Yes. Well, here you go. You’ve been around a human. So, if you could leave, I have a mission of trying not to freeze for the night…” I wave at the gates.
“No.” He moves closer, his shoulder brushing against mine. The stranger picks up one of the logs. My eyes widen as he holds it in his hands, and a fire sparks in the centre of the log. Warmth immediately spreads around us as he piles several and makes a fire. “I’ll make sure there is no evidence of a fire by morning. You can relax with me.”
I glance up at the orphanage nervously and back down. “I’ll get far worse punishment than this if they catch us.”
“I’ll say it’s my fault. Your matron’s only human, right? It won’t be a problem.” He brushes my concern off. “She is sleeping; I can hear her snores from down here.” He coaxes the flames with his hand, and the flames spit into the air. How can he hear her? It must be a wolf gift.
“Well, thank you. You never told me your name,” I mutter and wince as one of the flames spits too high and burns my ear. I touch it, feeling it wet with my blood.
“I’m sorry, my golden girl. I’ve always had trouble controlling my flames.” He touches my ear softly. “You didn’t even cry out when it burnt your ear. You didn’t even cry out in pain.”
“No, it’s nothing. Just pain.” I tightly smile. “I don’t even know your name.”
“Eli.” He lifts my hand and kisses it, just like I’ve read about in my romance books. My cheeks burn. “It’s a pleasure, Meredith.”
I never asked how he knew my name or why he kept coming back to see me. Instead, like a fool, I ran straight into the trap the wolf had set out in flames, and little did I know that I’d burn.
“Are you even listening to what I’m saying?” Orion’s dagger presses hard against my neck, but he doesn’t cut me. Not yet anyway.
“No. All I heard was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m a rich, stuck-up asshole. Blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m going to kill you. Blah.” I laugh like a madwoman.
“What the fuck did you just say to your master?” he snarls in my ear. Fear threatens to choke me for a moment as his fury tastes like soil on my tongue.
“Let the lassie go. Now!” Blackfire growls. Reed is at his side, a few feet away from us as I lift my eyes. Both of them are shaking with anger and fury, and I sigh. I feel like I’m a dog toy and they are arguing about who gets to chew me first. Either way, I’m dead, and they are just teasing me with an ending. I wonder which wolf is going to rip me apart—black, white or whatever colour Orion shifts into.
“I don’t want to let the bitch go. She’s got a smart mouth, but she seems not to know how to shut it, even with a dagger flush at her throat.” Orion’s voice is husky, breathing into my ear. He breathes me in deep. “She is easy to find, like a golden beacon.”
“You seem to underestimate my ability to actually give a shit.” I tilt my head to the side carefully and I lock eyes with him. “Kill me. Do it.”
He grips tighter as he presses the dagger into my skin, enough to actually hurt. I hold in my wince, and I don’t move.
“Don’t you fucking dare, Orion. Be smart and tell your instincts to calm the fuck down. You’re letting your wolf win this battle.” Blackfire growls louder, and everything starts getting warm around us. The ground shakes lightly at our feet. Reed is slowly moving closer, a silent footstep at a time, as Blackfire takes all of Orion’s attention. “What happened the last time you let your wolf take over? Be smart. We can’t fuck this up.”
“This is not what we agreed to,” Reed murmurs softly, quietly. “You’re more than your wolf, Ori.”
Ori? They are friends.
“I want her dead,” Orion snarls, and he doesn’t seem any calmer. “It would be a mercy to end her now.”
“Do I get a say in this, as I vote—”
“NO!” Blackfire barks, along with Orion and Reed. Oh, look, they are all in agreement that the woman here doesn’t get a say in her own life. If they start explaining why I should do as they say, I’m seriously going to barf all over them.
“Orion, you can have her after this is over. I told you this. We agreed to it already,” Blackfire tells him. Ouch. Making an agreement about where to send me after this is over? At least they think I’m going to survive this. I mean, pretty much the only people that do, I do not agree with them. I’m so dead. “My uncle will want her to be used by the other packs to get information. He won’t keep her after this; she will be used, and you can have her. He won’t care if you don’t return her alive.”
Assholes. I hate men. Well, no, I like men when they don’t talk or plot out my death.
“Let her go. She’s not your prey.” Reed’s voice is so calm, like he is coaxing a wild beast.
“Do you want to bet? Her blood is on my tongue. I taste her in my mouth, and she tastes so very sweet. Almost as sweet as she smells. I’m sure you’ve noticed, Reed; you’re the pack that has a weird obsession with humans. She would be fucked until she breaks in your pack.” He looks at Reed with a challenging smirk. “You like to fuck them, play with them like toys when they’re nothing. They should be permanently on their knees for their masters, with one of those enslaved marks and no thoughts in their minds. This one needs to be broken, and not by you.”
“Not all of us agree with the enslavement mark or hate people like you do,” Reed says casually as he moves closer. His eyes lock with mine. He tilts his head to the side just enough to tell me to jump when he’s ready. I blink once at him to tell him I understand. Reed is the lesser of three evils in my opinion, even if what Orion just said about his pack is a little concerning.
“You should hate people that aren’t us. They ruin everything.” He pushes the dagger closer to my neck, this time cutting me harder. Blood pours down my neck. I wince, but I don’t move. The three of them seem to go dead still. “Make me a vow, and I’ll let her go.”
“What new vow do you need?” Reed carefully asks. “What happened to the three of us vowing to trust each other all those years ago?”
“This bitch is what happened. I wanted to kill her in the Crone Pack, and you two stopped me. You even killed that prisoner who spat on her because he dared to go near her at all. I think you care about this one.” Reed did what? My heart pounds as Reed’s eyes find mine, and I see no regret in his eyes. “Now you won’t let me kill her. If our vow to trust each other still stood, you’d have stepped away.”
