She took two steps back, then three, and was halfway out of the fighting ring before her loner wolf friend realized what was happening.
They were going to retreat.
Part of me wanted to take them both out now. Together, as a pack, we probably could, but Eliza was injured, I could sense it.
‘How badly are you hurt?’ I asked her.
‘Who cares. Let’s finish them.’
I turned and gave her a wolfish grin. I knew I’d originally liked her for a reason. But when I saw the hunk of fur and flesh hanging off her ribcage and the pool of blood beneath her, fear washed over me.
Ivanna and her wolf used my distraction then to tuck tail and run, heading for the open flat landscape around us.
Knowing they were gone and wouldn’t likely come back, I ran to Eliza and used my nose to bring the flap of fur up to her exposed ribcage.
She whimpered.
‘Lie down,’ I commanded.
She plopped down in her own blood and I used my nose to stick the skin back to her flank so that it could heal properly.
She needed food. Raw meat preferably.
I peered at the two dead wolves laying around us and Eliza looked up at me.
‘I’m not that hungry,’ she assured me.
‘I didn’t say anything.’ I tried to act innocent.
‘You were thinking it.’
Damn, she already knew me too well. I’d never eaten my own kind, couldn’t even fathom it until now.
‘I’ll be fine with some rest and water,’ she said.
I moved to grab one of the water bead strings and then dragged it over to her. She crushed the bulbs in her mouth and then began to pant.
Panting meant pain and I was about to make things worse because my instinct was telling me that lying injured near two fresh kills was a stupid idea. ‘We should move. These bodies are going to attract animals.’
I hated myself for saying it because I knew she would do as I asked. With a wide-eyed look of horror, she nodded once and tried to stand. She fell twice and I felt awful.
‘I can shift and carry you,’ I said.
‘Don’t you dare,’ she snapped. ‘Save your energy, they could come back and we still have to walk out of here.’
On her third attempt, I used my snout to help her stand and she stumbled forward, out of the blood puddle and away from the carnage.
‘Even a quarter of a mile will help us. Anything to put a distance between us and the bodies,’ I told her.
She limped, whimpering with each step as we moved away from where the fight had gone down. When we’d gotten a good enough way away, I called for her to stop. She did, and promptly fell to the ground with a yelp.
I immediately nuzzled her neck, fear gripping me. I felt so conflicted. She was now my packmate, someone I had a connection with. I could feel her pain. I couldn’t just let her die. She was more injured than she’d let on. I saw that now. Blood pooled around her and I knew that without food, her healing magic would be slow. Too slow.
‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you,’ I told her. The fact that we were both in a competition to win the Queen Trials didn’t matter anymore. Only this bond mattered, she was a pack sister now.
Cyrus was going to kill me because I knew in this moment I could never hurt her. If we both made it back to Death Mountain alive and I was put in a fight against her, I couldn’t do it.
What had I done?
She looked up at me. ‘If I’m not better tomorrow morning, leave me.’
I growled, as if that was a crazy thing to say. ‘Packmates stick together,’ I told her.
She shook her head. ‘I don’t want Ivanna marrying the king and leading my people. Leave me and win the trials.’
A whimper lodged in my throat then and I fell onto the ground next to her, snuggling up to her good side.
‘Tell me a story,’ she said. ‘Distraction helps with the pain and hunger.’
And so I did. I told her my secret, one very few people knew.
‘I knew King Axil before when he was just a young teenager. I loved him.’
She gasped, a small wolfish sound and I nodded, proceeding to tell her the entire story. Why not? She might bleed out right here in the middle of nowhere and I wanted to share the weight of what I carried with someone else. She listened quietly and then I finished with him walking away with his brother after King Ansel had said all of those horrible things about me.
‘That explains so much,’ she said sleepily when I finished.
I frowned. ‘What do you mean?’
She stared at me, her yellow wolf eyes searing into my soul. ‘My sister works in the palace as Axil’s personal assistant. She once questioned why he never took lovers.’
My heart frantically pounded against the walls of my chest. ‘What did he say?’
‘That he’d already given his heart away when he was fifteen and anything else would pale in comparison,’ Eliza replied blearily.
My muzzle unhinged as her words hit me like tossed stones. He … he said that about me? It didn’t make sense, he was the one who walked away.
When I glanced back down at Eliza, her eyes were closed, and she was asleep.
I didn’t say anything more, my stomach was tied into knots over Eliza’s state of health and I was still processing her words about Axil. She must be mistaken, heard her sister wrong. Axil wouldn’t say that about me … I shook myself, pushing all of that away.
Even though I knew we should be moving and making as much distance between the two dead wolven bodies as possible, I forced myself to keep watch as Eliza slept. She needed the healing rest more than anything.
A few hours ticked by and I constantly had to make myself get up and move in circles to keep awake. I was just making the hundredth circle around Eliza when I smelled it.
I froze, my wolf snout tipping up into the air so that I could take in a deep breath.
No.
Bearin.
It must have found the two dead wolves. We had to get out of here. Eliza was covered in blood and he would find her too and finish us both off. I’d fought bearin plenty of times with my pack, but never alone. Lone wolves got picked off by bearin.
‘’Liza.’ I nudged her with my snout, shortening her name in a rush.
When her head lolled to the side, limp, I whimpered.
No.
Pressing my nose tightly to her neck, I nearly cried in relief when I felt a strong pulse. She was passed out, which wasn’t good, but she also wasn’t dead.
I would have to shift into my human form and carry her, not stopping until we reached Death Mountain. She was family. Pack. As much as Cyrus would have counseled me to leave her behind, I couldn’t now. I’d bonded myself to this woman and I wasn’t going to let her die.
Dammit, Zara.
I was just about to force myself to change when I heard heavy footsteps behind me.
No. No. No.
I was too late.
Spinning around, I came face to face with the black bearin. The only saving grace was that he was smaller, a younger male who was still nearly twice my size but nothing like the adult males who were four times my wolf.
Every instinct inside of me urged me to run but then I remembered the way Eliza had stood over me when I was waking up from whatever they’d drugged us with. She’d protected me when Ivanna tried to take me out. She was loyal and I wasn’t going to lose my honor by leaving a packmate behind. I’d rather die here protecting her body than run back to Death Mountain a coward and a pack traitor.