freedom

Liberty POV

The deep booming thunder rumbles overhead and a static charge lingers in the air around me. Rain punishingly beats down on my raw exposed skin, stinging my torn flesh, every droplet sending ripples of pain through me. At least the pain will end soon. Another ominous rumble fills the sky. I lift my heavy eyes open to take one last look at the world before death sweeps me away. Two of the same face, blurred by the heavy rain, illuminated by the light of an electric blue lightning bolt, float in front of me. He has come back, come back to make sure I’m dead, to make sure nobody will find out the powerful Alpha Kendrick was refused by an insignificant orphaned she wolf.

“I’ve got you little one, I've got you.” The ground falls from beneath me and two thick, warm arms lift my aching body from the dirt. Just let me die here, please, let the pain end. Darkness engulfs me before the words can escape and I wait for the only freedom I’ll ever know.

Christian POV

“My best guess is her first shift was only hours before you found her. Her bones had just started healing but she took a severe beating before losing consciousness. She has lacerations covering eighty percent of her body, most likely from a silver whip, they aren’t healing as quickly as we might expect.” Dr Wood’s words fill the room, but all I can hear are the slow, steady breaths of the little she wolf in the bed. I probably should have left Zand to speak to the doctor, he is far better at reining in his wolf than I.

“When will she wake up?” I demand, my eyes watching her chest rise and fall. I can see him out of the corner of my eye, nervously looking from me to the floor.

“I don’t... know that she... will, Alpha. The damage is extensive and there is still a high concentration of silver in her blood.” He holds his breath and braces himself. My wolf howls inside my head. When we get our hands on whoever did this they will pay with their life. His anger almost bubbles to the surface, threatening to take control, to tear the place apart with grief. It should have definitely been Zander here instead of me.

“Leave now, all of you.” I growl at the doctor and his staff whilst pushing my wolf down, fighting to keep control. The door clicks shut after everyone exists in a flurry of white coats.

I sit back in the chair my brother and I have occupied for the last 4 days, and watch, it’s all I’ve been able to do. Watch her chest move with every breath, waiting for her to open her eyes. She doesn’t have the scent of a rogue. No rogue would be stupid enough to stray so far into our territory. They know the guards would kill them without question, our zero tolerance policy is non negotiable.

When we found her laying in the mud out in the forest we thought she was dead. I caught the sweet scent of jasmine and honey and Zand and I split from the rest of the patrol to investigate. Her naked body was bloody and beaten, claw marks and bruises littered her thighs, long slices whipped into her back and chest. Her lip was split, both eyes swollen and bruised and her fragile little body was limp and lifeless when I held her to me. The memory makes my blood run cold. You see, as soon as Zander and I looked into her eyes, for just that brief moment, we knew. She is our mate. We had only just found her and she was about to be taken from us. Little mate is strong my wolf, Max, tells me, I don’t know if he is trying to convince me, or himself.

“Zand, you need to come and sit with her, I need to go for a run.” I reach out to my twin over the mind link.

“I’ll be right there.” Whenever one of us sits with her, the other is never far. We have spent the days since finding her out there, trying to find out who she is, where she is from, but we don’t have a single lead.