CHAPTER 6 –Blood on the Wind

Carolyn

I don't remember when I lost my shoes. I only realised when a sharp stone pierced my foot. It must have flown off somewhere in the forest, but that was the least of my problems. As much pain as I felt at this point, I would pick it over being executed.

The forest tore at me as I ran through it, extended branches that covered the path scratching my legs and slapping against my face. Thorns and splinters bit under my bare foot and sharp edged stones scattered around the path kept poking the sole of my feet with each footfall. Every step was fucking raw pain, like the ground itself was trying to drink my blood.

My lungs screamed for air, my throat was dry and tight, my stomach twisting in on itself with a hunger pang so sharp it made my vision blur.

"Fuck!"

I had not eaten or rested. I had run for hours and yet they were still chasing after me.

I could smell them, a thick wolf smell mixed with smoke and fuel. They were loud and furious, bulldozing everything in their path as they charged after me.

My heart slammed violently against my ribs as their engines growled ruining the quiet night, their bikes tearing through the woods behind me, snapping branches and flattening underbrush in their wake.

They weren't even trying to be quiet. How would they when they didn't need to. They saw themselves as guardians of justice bringing a killer to the law and I couldn't blame them because all odds were against me and all evidence pointed at me.

I glanced over my shoulder, my silver hair whipping across my face, and saw flashes of headlights piercing the dark, two, maybe three bikes weaving through the trees, their riders in dark leathers, eyes glowing with the reflection of their own lights.

Fear flooded my veins so fast it made me dizzy. My legs felt heavy, uncoordinated, like they might give out at any second. I stumbled, nearly face-planting into the dirt, my palms scraping painfully against the ground.

Get up. Get up or you die.

I pushed myself forward with a sob tearing from my chest, my breath coming in ragged gasps. Tears blurred my vision, but I wiped them away roughly. Crying wouldn't save me. Begging wouldn't save me.

Peter, my only hope, my only chance at survival didn't believe me. Who could save me at this point if my own mate wanted me dead.

At this point even the heavens and everything in it could not stop my execution.

Running was all I had left.

The forest was unfamiliar, some felt wrong... different. The trees were taller, their trunks gnarled and twisted like they had grown around old wounds. Moonlight filtered down in fractured beams, silver and pale, casting long shadows that seemed to move when I wasn't looking directly at them. The air smelled damp and old, like moss and rot and something faintly metallic underneath.

As the bikes roared closer, panic slammed into me so hard I cried out. And then the wind changed. It wasn't gradual or natural.

One moment, the air was still and heavy, pressing down on me like a suffocating blanket. The next, a sharp gust whipped past my face, tearing through my hair and clothes, cold and forceful enough to steal my breath.

Branches cracked loudly to my left. A tree groaned, bending unnaturally as its limbs swung down, blocking one of the narrow paths behind me.

I heard one of the riders behind me scream "what the hell!" He was angry, startled... followed by the screech of brakes and the crash of metal against bark. Thud

I skidded to a halt, my chest was heaving vigorously. My eyes darted around wildly, filled with confusion, curiosity and fear.

"What is ha...?" I whispered, my voice trembling.

The wind didn't stop. It circled me, tugging at my skin, brushing against my arms and neck like unseen fingers. Leaves lifted off the ground, spinning slowly before scattering ahead of me, clearing a path through the undergrowth.

I didn't think, I ran.

My body moved differently, I felt different...lighter, faster.

My legs no longer dragged. I leapt over fallen logs without thinking, twisted sharply between trees that should have caught my shoulders but didn't. My reflexes were razor-sharp, every sound amplified, every scent painfully clear.

I could hear the warriors shouting behind me, frustration edging into their voices.

"How is she...?" One warrior barked. "She's too fast..." Their frustration was obvious  and it gave me the faintest spark of hope deep down.

I didn't know. I myself didn't even understand what was happening to me or how I was doing it.

All I knew was that when fear clawed up my spine, my heart raced harder and my thoughts screamed, the forest answered.

The ground beneath my feet softened suddenly, no longer hard and punishing. Where roots should have tripped me, they shifted, lifting just enough for my foot to clear them. Where rocks should have sent me sprawling, the earth dipped, cushioning my steps like damp clay.

I laughed... a broken, hysterical sound that startled even me.

"What exactly is happening?" I gasped between breaths, my voice shaking. "Is something wrong with the earth... or has the Moon Goddess finally shown mercy on the innocent?"

The question felt foolish the moment it left my lips. Because mercy didn't feel like this. This felt wild. I couldn't control whatever was happening. I didn't even know if it was me, all I knew was that it was weird and dangerous.

Another gust of wind tore through the trees, stronger this time, howling like a living thing. It shoved against my back, propelling me forward, while branches ahead snapped and fell away, opening a narrow corridor through the forest.

The bikes struggled to follow. I heard engines stall, tires spinning uselessly in softened ground, metal scraping against roots that had risen like grasping hands, wrapping the warriors.

A chill crept down my spine. This wasn't luck and there was no way in hell this was a coincidence, something strange was indeed happening.

I glanced down at my hands as I ran, half-expecting to see them glowing, burning, changing or something at least. But they looked the same, they were still scraped, dirty and trembling.

But something thrummed beneath my skin, a deep vibration that felt scary, a stinging sensation on my neck, as though an insect had bitten me.

Fear twisted in my chest, and it was not of the warriors anymore, but I was scared of myself or whatever was happening to me.

What if this wasn't the kind of help I was hoping for? What if this power didn't belong to me? For all I know it could be some witch in the forest manipulating me or worse the moon goddess leading me to my own doom.

The forest loomed thicker ahead, darker, its shadows swallowing the moonlight whole. I could feel it watching me now, the air heavy with tension, the ground warm and vibrating beneath my feet like a living pulse.

I ran straight into it anyway.

Because stopping meant death. And somewhere deep inside me, beneath the terror and exhaustion, a terrible realization struck me, the forest wasn't just sheltering me.

It was responding to me. And I didn't know whether that meant I was being saved... Or claimed.

The sounds of the engines finally seized. My heartbeat reverberated loudly in my ear and then I heard something different, footfalls drawing nearer loud and raging towards me.

CHAPTER 7 -The Road That Led Nowhere

Carolyn

I burst out of the forest like a wounded animal fleeing its own shadow.

The sudden openness shocked me so badly that I nearly fell flat on my face.

Trees gave way to emptiness, and under my feet was no longer soft earth or forgiving roots. It was cold, unyielding tar. A narrow, lonely road stretched ahead of me, covered by darkness in both directions, flanked by looming silhouettes of trees that pressed inward.

The night air hit my lungs sharply.

I gasped, choking on it, bending forward as my chest convulsed violently. My breath came in broken, panicked bursts, they were too fast, too shallow, each inhale scraping my throat raw. My heart slammed against my ribs like it wanted to break free, like it was trying to escape my body the way I was trying to escape my fate.

This was it. This was my nightmare, no even worse than my nightmare because this was real.

The moon hung low above the road, huge and pale, its light strangely distorted, pulsing faintly like a living thing. It washed the tarred surface in silver, making the cracks shimmer, my eyes were dizzy and my head banging, making the world feel unreal, like I had stepped into a vision I wasn't meant to survive.

My feet hit the road hard.

Slap. Slap. Slap.

The sound echoed obscenely loud in the silence, each strike of my heels against the tar reverberating through the night. I winced with every step, flinching at the noise, my heart leaping into my throat as panic screamed through my veins.

I'm too loud. They'll hear me. They'll get me.

But I didn't stop. I couldn't, I just kept running.

Pain screamed up my legs with every step, my bruised feet protesting violently against the rough surface. My calves burned, my thighs trembled, my knees threatened to buckle beneath me. Sweat soaked through my torn clothes, chilling instantly against my skin in the night air.

My vision blurred further, my tears mixing with sweat, stinging like acid. My mind spun wildly, my thoughts were crashing into one another without order.

Where am I going? How long have I been running? Why won't my body just give up already? Was it because giving up meant dying or was it something else. One thing everyone fears the most us death, the very end.

Somewhere behind me, too close, I felt them. I didn't need to hear them to know.

But I did anyway. The night resonated their sound.

The pounding of paws against the ground, heavy and relentless. The low, feral growls and loud scary howls. They had shifted forms, wolves. So many of them.

This was it, my pack was now the enemy, my home was now my doom.

The realization struck deeper than any blade.

My chest tightened painfully as voices cut through the darkness, sharp, dripping like viper's venom, tearing at me with every word.

"Catch her!"

"Don't let her get away!"

"Don't let the killer escape!"

The word hit me like a physical blow. Killer. How do you go from being the future Luna to being a hunted killer, this was something you could only see in fantasy books, not something that happens in real life.

My breath hitched violently, my vision blurring as hot tears spilled down my cheeks. I stumbled, barely managing to keep my balance as sobs clawed their way up my throat.

"Killer?" I gasped hoarsely, my voice lost to the night. "You think I'm a killer?" Someone please wake me from this nightmare because this can't be real.

The road stretched endlessly ahead of me, empty and hopeless. No houses. No lights. No refuge. Just darkness, hope devouring darkness, there was no light at the end of the tunnel here, just death, darkness and judgement.

Just the echo of my pack's hatred snapping at my heels.

My heart broke open with soundless screams.

Did they really believe it? Did all of Silvermoon believe that I had murdered Alpha Alexander, the man who had blessed me with his own hands, whose voice had been warm and approving, whose eyes had looked at me with kindness? I remember how he smiled at me and how his face brightened as he tasted my moonspice tea, before everything turned sour.

The father of my chosen mate. The man I loved. The man I would have followed anywhere. Peter. I could never do such a thing to him, how was this even up for debate.

The thought of his name sent a sharp, twisting pain through my chest. My throat tightened so badly it hurt to breathe.

Peter, how could you believe this?

What could I possibly gain from Alexander's death? Status? I hadn't even had time to become Luna. Like make it make sense, what could my motive possibly be.

Even if I was going to kill the alpha I wouldn't do it so stupidly, making myself the obvious prime suspect.

I had barely tasted happiness before it was ripped away from me, stained with blood that wasn't mine. Tears streamed freely now, blinding me as I ran.

My surroundings blurred into streaks of silver and black, the road melting beneath my feet as my vision swam.

The moonlight pulsed again, brighter this time, like a strobe that made my head throb.

I blinked hard, shaking my head as a strange sensation rippled through me. The air around me seemed to hum, vibrating faintly, like a distant chant carried on the wind.

Carolyn...

I froze mid-step, my heart pounding violently.

"What?" I whispered, my voice shaking.

The road was empty. The night was silent, too silent. Then the whisper came again, softer this time, curling around my mind instead of my ears. Run...

My head throbbed painfully. My neck stinged like hot coal was placed on it. I pressed a trembling hand to my temple, my breath hitching.

"I am running," I sobbed. "I never stopped."

The moon flared suddenly, its light brightening unnaturally. Silver flooded the road, crawling up my legs, washing over my skin like cold fire. For a heartbeat, a single split second, I saw things that weren't there. Or maybe had always been there.

Shadows moved where no bodies stood. The road beneath my feet seemed to ripple, like water disturbed by unseen hands. Symbols and runes, faint and glowing, flashed briefly along the tar before vanishing.

I cried out in panic.

"No, no, no...please..." I shook my head violently. "I can't be losing my mind now." But the whispers didn't stop.

They amplified.

Fragments of voices brushed against my thoughts, too many to understand, layered and overlapping, neither male nor female, neither kind nor cruel.

"Innocent...Marked...Chosen." They were like whispers but they were so distinct I could hear them clearly.

"Stop it!" I screamed, clutching my head as tears blurred everything. "Just stop!"

My foot caught on a crack in the road. I went down hard and pain exploded through my knees and palms as my body slammed against the hard tar. The impact knocked the breath clean out of me, leaving me gasping soundlessly as stars burst across my vision.

I rolled onto my side, curling instinctively inward as a sob tore from my chest. My entire body shook uncontrollably, exhaustion crashing over me in a suffocating wave.

I couldn't run anymore. I couldn't even move or stand. I had nothing left. My limbs felt like lead, my muscles screaming in protest as I tried to push myself up and failed.

My vision dimmed at the edges, the moonlight blurring and fracturing above me. The pounding grew louder. Closer.

Footfalls echoed against the road, no longer restrained by the forest. I felt the vibrations through the ground before I heard the snarls, the hot breath, they were boiling with fury.

I turned weakly onto my back, tears sliding down my temples as I stared up at the moon.

"So this is it," I whispered hoarsely. "This is how I die."

A shadow loomed over me. Then another. And another.

Warriors emerged from the darkness, massive and terrifying.

Fear rooted me in place. Was this the end? What was going to happen to me? Was this how I would die, alone and cold. I couldn't even scream, just quiet sobs as tears streamed down my face. A sudden force slammed into my side.

I cried out as I was grabbed roughly, claws digging painfully into my arms as I was hauled upright only to be thrown back down onto the road. My body skidded across the tar, my skin tore, the pain burned through every nerve.

"Got her!" one of the warriors barked triumphantly.

I landed hard, the impact rattling my bones. I curled instinctively, coughing violently as the taste of blood filled my mouth. Boots surrounded me.

A rough hand grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back so hard tears sprang instantly to my eyes.

"There you are," a voice sneered above me. "Thought you could outrun justice?"