Chapter seven: Shadows of the past.

Kieran POV

The tug of looking for Evans kept throbbing at the back of my ribcage. Not this very moment. But when the scout kept sprawling on the ground below me, his breath running escaping gasps as his eyes rippled with panic, I knew for sure that all wasn't alright.

“Beta. Beta….” His words caught in his throat.

“What is it? Calm down and talk to me,” I exclaimed, trying to hide the panic that had already started growing deep inside me.

“Beta Kieran,” he rasped, bending over to hold the remaining breath in his lungs. “We found something near the western border.”

The words sent a shot of jolt down my spine, making me uneasy. I wiped the already forming sweat on my forehead and nodded sharply, signalling for him to continue.

“The route to the Nightclaw pack,” he said. “Deep, large footprints. Fresh. And something that doesn't look like rogues. There's something eerie about them.”

The thought of Alpha Chris’s paralysis flashed through my mind. Our strong and fierce Alpha who became paralyzed during the last patrol against strange creatures till date we couldn't yet fathom their origin.

A cold lump formed in my throat. The western border has been heavily guarded for the past two months now–warriors patrolling twice as much as any other pack. If something wrong was currently happening, it was an effect of two causes: either they were too powerful and smart or the warriors had turned lacadastic and careless.

“You can rise.” I said to the scout, turning to the warriors at my back. “Ayyyeee!!!!” I shrieked.

“Ayyyyeeee!!!” The cacophonous echo of the warriors responded.

“Warriors, get ready. For what we are about to face demands our blood and fullness to the heritage of the Darkmoon pack,” I ordered. “We're moving immediately.”

As I scrambled to the training yard to get ready, my mind darted to Evans. She had been around the training ground a few hours ago, expressing herself in confidence with a defiant glare she had kept just for me. I could still hear her voice resonating deep inside my mind. *You already are.*

F^ck her for being aware of where to penetrate me. 

I had no time for any low valued thought. If something was out there as my scout had said earlier on, then I needed to be highly riveted.

We moved hesitantly because of the flickering fear that rippled deep inside of us, the rustling sounds from the parched leaves, the crunching sound of crawling insects beneath our boots. The breeze filled with damp earth and something uncanny—something we could yet fathom. It kept my wolf at edge, in between shifting and remaining still.

When we approached the site, the scout cringed, pointing his fingers to direct us forward. “It's there,” his tone quivering.

“And where do you think you are going to?” I asked, tightening my grip on his arm. “You will be in front till we get there.”

When we got to the spot, the scout pointed to the ground. “Here.”

I bent down, taking a closer look at the tracks. They were big, almost as thrice as a normal wolf or rogue, with deep, sharp claws that marked raw power. The distance between each step was unusual which made their precision deliberate and primal.

“Did you see the figure?” I asked the scout.

“No, Beta Kieran.” the scout replied, his hands still trembling with fear. “What I saw was the shadow.”

“And what was it like?” I asked, expecting an immediate reply.

“It was very large, with four horns.” He said.

A murmur surged through the warriors as they too observed the strange imprints and the words from the mouth of the scout. I pressed my palms to the ground, feeling the faint energy that rippled through the earth.

It's magic. Ancient magic.

I scoffed under my breath. “It's certain from the markings, these aren't rogues.”

The epiphany made my chest churn. If magic was part of it, it reflected the fact that we were about confronting something far worse than a mere pack infringement. It meant that something was watching. Something testing us.

I struggled to get to my feet, not wanting to show the fear that ravaged my being to the warriors, my eyes darting through the tall oak trees of the forest. “Spread out. Carefully search the area for any strange thing, whether living or dead.” I instructed.

The warriors obliged without hesitation, moving in groups of four to patrol the environment. I remained still, trying to fathom what really was happening. Who had invaded us. Listening. Waiting.

Then it hit my senses. A strange texture of the air.

A godly presence.  

A low guttural growl erupted from my gut, my wolf claws already erupting from my fingers. I turned with fluidity, my gaze caught on a strange, dark shadow that ran very fast between the tall trees.

But before I shrieked for a retreat, a sharp cry resonated through the forest.

A group of the warriors.

“Warriors! Retreat!” I shrieked with the panic that surged through my nerves.

I didn't hold on. My heels fast in its lane as I skittered towards the sound, ignoring the past foliage, my skin flooded in adrenaline. When I got to the clearing, my heart skipped for a while before reeling to the present I was.

The warriors high in an iroko tree, legs hung to a rope, their heads upside down. Blood streaming down their heads, flooding the ground below them. But what sent me to fright wasn't the streams of blood that suffused their body.

It had a pungent scent. 

Roasted lavender. The aroma of something deadly and ancient, something uncommon.

“What happened to you guys?” I screamed to their hearing, expecting an immediate reply from the agony that filled their lips.

They breath ran in escape gasps, but one of them responded with the last ounce of strength he still had. “It. It. It. It….”

“It what?” I shrieked in anger, my jaw clenched in ferality and panic. “I'm sorry for my manners, but can you please say something.” I continued, kneeling beside him. 

“It–it lunged from nowhere. Huge. Dark eyes. Like….” The incomplete words hung on his lips as he gave up his ghost.

A rustling in the trees cut the tension, sending fear rippling through my spine.

I hurriedly darted my eyes through the forest, nerves spiking in speed. But there was nothing. Only thick silence.

Too much silence. 

A chill ran up my spine. Whatever this figure was had been gone. They seem to be many but they are gone for now, and have left a mark. And if it had come in stealth actions, then it was something very dangerous. Something that could ruin all of us at one snap.

I clenched my fist, foisting the stability of my pulse.

We needed answers.

And I knew exactly where to find them.

My expression turned serious, I turned to the rest of the warriors. “Get them down and send them to the cemetery for burial. And tell the Alpha of us needing more allies along the western border. Immediately.”

As the warriors left, I let out a cold, assuring gasp, wiping the sweat that suffused on my face.

Then, without another word, I made my way toward Briony's hut.

********

The moment I arrived at Briony's doorway, the thoughts were filled in a million directions. I pushed the creaking door open to find Briony on her usual stool, grinding her roots and herbs to prepare medicinal mixtures, her expression unreadable. 

But my eyes immediately darted towards Evans. She stood at the back of the door, her eyes rested on mine in surprise.

“What are you doing here?” She asked. “Have you come to waste the leftover fragments of my feelings?” She exclaimed.

“I'm not ready for all these children's play right now.” I said, giving her a sneering look.

“You call it children's play.” Evans said.

“Just stop it!” I yelled. “I came here for serious business.”

Her hands clenched at her gown. “But what really happened out there?” She asked, closing the distance between us.

“Now you seem to make sense.” I said, my pale eyes locked into hers.

I hesitated for a while before letting out my first words. “Four warriors were killed at the western border minutes ago. What surprises me is the unnaturality of the injury. And there was something strange about it.”

Evans’s brow furrowed in concern. “Then what do you think it is?” She asked.

“I think it's magic.” I said, my hands on both flanks of my waist.

“Are you sure of what you are saying?”she said.

I nodded. “I am very sure. Very certain.”

A flick of something strange flashed on her face. Something I couldn't yet fathom.

Briony laid down the pestle and mortar she was holding, taking a struggled movement up the stool. “This land is an ancient one, Kieran. Older than every one of us. There are things long forgotten by us. But forgetting never seemed to be something extinct.”

Her words sent a shiver down my spine. "What do you mean?"

Evans darted her eyes between us, then resting it on me. “She meant that what lurked at the border wasn't just a mere threat, but rather to send all of us on extinction.”

The weight of her words pressed down on me heavily. I clenched my jaw, holding myself from maintaining balance. 

I came here to find answers. But rather, It was a pool for more questions.

And the worst part? 

The feeling surging through my being–that what had begun tonight was very far from over.