HECTOR BAYESI pulled heavily on the horse’s reins, barreling to a stop just as the first dollops of rain slapped heavily into the mass of my hair and the village girl turned to give me a surprised look. “Did you hear it too?” Nola whispered, her green eyes appearing darker in the sepia blackness.”Don’t move.” I seethed, pressing the reins into her open palm and nodding when the girl shook her head violently.The noise of the carriage wheels barreling to a stop behind us had her looking back again before I swung one leg over the horse’s pale, white rump to leap down to the dirt-covered path, keeping my eye on the shadowed line of the jagged rocks that loomed on both sides of the dirt path.“What the hell is going on?” I hissed at the footman who had been peering into the shadowed window of the carriage, damn near breaking his neck in his attempt to snap away when he heard the rivulets of my baritone behind him.“Sir, I-” He stammered, his downturned eyes roaming the walkway confused
HECTORShit, what had I done?“Nola-” I started, moving to pacify the woman who had her hands crossed at odd angles over her chest before she snapped her head away, starting at the black reams of the sky, and an interrupting pat on the back from someone behind me.“We going to camp or what?” Kalden’s voice was playful again, the easy smile on his face falling a little as I turned to glare at him.“Whatever you did out there Kalden, don't do it again,” I warned, growling menacingly so that he nodded dutifully, looking contrite as I brushed past him to calm my horse that had started neighing when Sarah tried to put her hands over his nose.The thing hadn’t taken to her, not as it had to Nola.“Apologies, I went ahead to scout for camp, and found a decent clearing not too far off, we should make it in time before the heavens break,” Kalden murmured, nodding to the line of thinly-leafed twisting trees off to the side as I mounted the horse, extending a hand so that the maiden could climb
NOLAI felt my eyes damn near exploding out of their sockets when the Lycan apologized to me as the timber I'd been sitting on sucked in more of my ass, flattening the bump of skin almost painfully.I remembered it had been the same in the thickly matted gold seats of the carriage after the Lycan had banished me from the horses.It could have been dramatic to everyone else, but I was certain Layla and the rest of the girls were turning up their noses at me the whole ride...It was stifling.“Well look what the cat dragged in,” Dennis had muttered as I settled on the empty end of the white leather seats inside the high ceiling of the carriage, griping my midriff when the thing went over a particularly bumpy stretch.”More like what the Werewolf dragged in.” Layla cackled and I reigned what would have been a long gasp as the trio hee-hawed like a brood of ovulating chickens.“I know you're sure as hell not talking to me,” I chuckled derisively, matching Dennis’ black-eyed stare until Lay
NOLA“What the fuck was that?” I gasped, leaping from my uncomfortable spot on the fallen timber log where I'd been sitting with the Lycan and whipping my head back and forth over the sepia-shadowed line of trees.“Werewolves, but these are different, can’t be the rogues, the howls sound wrong, warped- Hybrid.” Hector hissed, snarling in what I thought was a possessive fashion.I felt the Lycan standing to his feet slowly, towering over me soundlessly as a shudder went through me, and I wrapped my hands over my ribs just as a pale-faced sentry jogged up the path with loud huffing breaths.“Your Highness, Intruders in the tree lines!” The man panted, pointing over his shoulder just as a bolt of lightning lit up the blue darkness of the sky-high birch trees surrounding us, their shadows appearing to shift just a little too late after the flash.I gasped, clapping my hands to my mouth in surprise and darting my eyes to the hard lines of the beast's face before the intense burn of his sil
HECTOR BAYESThe squelch of wet underbrush behind us had me barreling to an immediate stop in between the leaning towers of white birch trees.I turned to the side slowly, my wolf eyes scanning for movement between the trees and in the canopy foliage.“Stop.” I barked harshly, and the handful of footmen that had followed on our security check whipped to a stop immediately, the bulbous head of one werewolf tipping forward so that it looked like there was nothing, save for a lone branch, stopping him from plunging head-first into the bramble-covered rock of the forest floor.”Did you hear that?” I whispered, craning my neck in the stale air that now permeated the length of the forest but only the soft singing of crickets continued as we listened.I shook my head, feeling oddly uneasy.“Nothing your highness,” Gordon whispered, and I looked around at the other fur-skinned wolves before howling a long, bitter string of expletives and shifting back into my human form.This check was a bust
HECTORIt is sometime in the morning when I hear the shuffling outside the thick linen of my tent and the low whisper of conversation that blurred to an indecipherable hum.”Shit,” I groaned, stretching to a stand in the half-lit expanse of the tent. There was a low wooden stool at the center of the space which I regarded for a moment, before snatching the leather of my trench coat off the hanger and breaking through the lips of the tent flap.Some of the footmen who had been clearing the fallen logs off the dirt path bowed graciously when they saw me. “All done?” I whispered airily to the dark-haired blonde that was heaving armor back in the carriage, a sheen of perspiration coating his forehead even against the bite of cold air that I was sure had reddened the tips of my nose.“Yeah, would be faster if you lent a paw ya know?” Kalden grumbled, baring his teeth at me after he turned to see the smirk on my face as he slammed the carriage door closed.“No, you got it I'm sure, didn't
NOLAThe Lycan and the witch had been talking about me.I was almost certain that was what their rendezvous at the forest clearing had been about, huddled like they were, and with the man spotting me off the bat, it had been hard to listen in on their conversation.“Forget it, Nola,” I chided myself after I’d struck my foot on an unruly branch on my way to the line of wagons that had started to slowly move forward, the brown horses heading the maiden’s stations shuffling forward as the carriage master-a short beach all of a werewolf nodded his head to me and I managed an unconscious wave.“You're late.” Kalden’s deep baritone sent shudders through my frame as I froze, one foot poised over the railing of the carriage before I craned my neck to stare up at the thunderous face with a mousy croak.Nola, farthing's child, could you be any more pathetic?“Grab your shit, you're riding shotgun with me.” He growled, scowling like he had been forced to do babysitting duty while everyone else w
HECTOR“Halt!” I boomed, raising a clenched fist as the noise of chariots deadened to silence behind me, the only sound breaking the quiet being the whistle of the soft draft that swirled dried-up leaves across the path, and the metallic clang of the footmen's armor.A stretch of silence ensued as I peered into the fog, a lock of my waist-length gray hair flying into my face before I whipped it back, unsettled.Silence.“What's wrong?” Kalden’s frantic whisper came as his brown horse marched up beside mine, and I risked a glance at the woman he had cradled behind him, suppressing the bitter tang that barbed my chest.I raked my eyes across the landscape once more. The hills had leveled to a cluster of birch trees and intertwined foliage some while ago so that the winding dirt path was now surrounded by sticks of ash and black forest.“I could have sworn I saw...Never mind, it was probably -” I sighed, gasping and whipping my head violently to the side as a silver-tipped arrow whizzed