04. Josh

Josh POV

I’d never seen someone tumble like that before. Her dress was all tangled up, and she looked like a giant burgundy ball of fluff rolling down the hill. The way she’d been stomping, with her nose in the air, made her fall all the more satisfying. And made it hard to hold in my laughter.

There was an audible thud and a whimper of pain, then silence. She must have come to a stop. I moved closer to the edge and looked over, and my heart beat faster in my chest. Shit. It was a lot steeper towards the bottom than I’d thought. 

It was dark and I could barely make out her figure. She was lying on the ground, her dress still caught all around her, and she wasn’t moving.

“Alina? Are you ok?”

The fabric rustled, and some weird muffled noise came out. I let out a breath. Phew, she’s alive. Looks like I’d have to go rescue her, though.

I attempted to slide down the hill as though I was surfing. It worked until the halfway point when my foot caught on a tree root and sent me tumbling forward. I tucked my shoulder as I rolled the rest of the way. She had just started to sit up as I came barrelling towards her, and let out a sharp screech as I knocked her back to the ground.

Standing and brushing the dust and dirt from my clothes, I looked up and saw the swirling jade green clouds and realised exactly where we were. Fuck.

“Are you ok?” I asked again, kneeling down next to her.

“Everything hurts,” she replied, wrestling with the tangled fabric of her dress to free herself.

Reaching out, I pulled the dress from under her so she could sit up properly. Her arm was covered in scratches and a few minor cuts, and the way she held it made it seem as though it might be badly injured. Without a wolf, her healing would be a lot slower. I gently held her arm to examine it, but she yanked it away.

“Don’t touch me. I’m fine,” she snapped. She had a scowl on her face that quickly morphed into a wince. Her wrist was definitely injured.

“Why don’t we use whatever this sleeve cape thing is as a bandage or a sling?” I offered, tugging at the material. What was that thing, anyway? I’d never understood women’s fashion.

“I said I’m fine. I don’t need your help,” she replied, pushing my hand away.

She was injured, and sitting on the floor of the Jade Willow Forest, yet she wouldn’t drop the princess attitude and accept help.

“Suit yourself,” I said with a shrug of my shoulders.

‘We need to get out of here,’ my wolf, Aster, warned in my mind. He was growing more uncomfortable with each moment spent within the forest’s border.

‘Yeah, yeah. I’m working on it,’ I replied to him.

The embankment looked much steeper now I was at the bottom. I had no idea how I was going to get back up, let alone get ‘little miss independent’ out, too. I couldn’t exactly leave without her, as tempting as it was right now.

The dirt beneath my feet was sandy and slippery. Each time I took a run and tried to scale the wall, it just crumbled beneath me and I slid back down. I paused at the bottom, wiping the sweat from my forehead and walked back for another attempt, this time with a longer run up.

“What makes you think it’s going to work this time?” asked Alina. Her tone was high-pitched and haughty, and it grated on my quickly fraying nerves.

“I don’t see you coming up with a better solution, Princess.” I saw her pull a face as I used that word again. She really did hate it. “Last I checked, we’re not going to get out of here sitting on our butts. We’re in the Jade Willow Forest, you know? Have you ever heard of anyone getting out of here alive?”

She cast her eyes down, and I noticed her breathing got faster. She was scared, but trying to hide it from me.

“I’m going to shift, and then you’re going to climb on Aster’s back, and we’re going to get out of here,” I said firmly. She opened her mouth to argue. It could have been to speak, but I knew it would be to argue, so I added, “whether you like it or not.”

In the darkness, I could see the whites of her eyes shrink as she glared. I called Aster forward and prepared to shift. I’d turned eighteen a month ago and had been shifting ever since, but the memory of the pain of my first time still lingered slightly, making me brace myself.

This time, nothing came.

‘Aster, come on,’ I said in my mind.

‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ he replied. ‘I can’t come forward. I can’t even partially shift. I’m stuck.’

Alina looked up at me. “Well, what are you waiting for?”

“My wolf can’t shift,” I replied, completely confused. This had never happened before. Why now?

“I guess now we’re even. Neither of us have wolves.”

“I have a wolf!” I argued, raising my voice.

Alina looked away, surveying our surroundings, before returning her gaze to me.

“The border isn’t this high all the way around. The path into the forest near the packhouse is flat ground. We should follow the border and exit from there.”

Damn. Why didn’t I think of that?

‘You were too busy running up a wall,’ said Aster.

Of course, there’s no way I’d tell her it was a good plan. I was also going to ignore my smart arse wolf.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s try it your way, Princess.”

She tried to get up from the ground, but as soon as she pushed up off her hand, her wrist gave way. I held out my hands to help her up, but she ignored me and tried again, failing once more.

“For fuck’s sake, stop being so stubborn and just let me help you up.” I couldn’t understand why she was being like this. I was right there offering to help, all she had to do was take my hand. Instead, I had to stand there and watch her awkwardly shuffle herself into a standing position.

We set off through the bushes and dense growth. I was trying not to think of all the creepy crawly animals and bugs we were likely stepping over. As werewolves, we’re apex predators. Even in human form, other animals are wary and keep their distance, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with them. As a pup, I was bitten by a snake and I’ll never forget the feeling of its fangs sinking into my ankle. Ugh, I shuddered every time I thought about it.

It was like walking with Bambi. She was stumbling and tripping over everything, but I didn’t dare to offer help again. Every time I did, it was met with a glare and a huff.

“How much further do you think it is?” she asked, whining. It was definitely whining.

“I don’t know. It’s your pack Princess, you tell me.” Another glare. I was getting good at this.

“Are you telling me that as a guard, you don’t know the pack border intimately?” she challenged.

“You going to fire me?”

“I’m seriously considering it.”

The nerve of her.

“In case you bumped your head too hard on your little tumble down the border, you’re the one who got us into this mess, not me.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!”

“No, but you still did it. All because you were too stuck-up to take the quickest way up the mountain.”

Her attitude managed to get under my skin in a way that no one else did. I stalked ahead and could hear her struggling to keep up in those stupid shoes she was wearing. Another thing about women I’d never understand. Squeezing their feet into uncomfortable torture devices just to look nice. Her dress goes all the way to the floor, no one would even see her shoes anyway. And she thinks I’m the idiot.

“Finally!” she exclaimed, relief in her voice.

Looking up, I saw the cobbled path ahead that led to the forest exit, and I joined in her sigh of relief. We both quickened our pace, eager to be out of the forest, her shoes clicking on the path as we almost ran with nervous energy.

She suddenly let out a startled yelp and froze. Following her line of sight, I also stopped in my tracks. Standing up ahead on the path was a pale woman dressed all in black. Her long, dark hair was billowing in the breeze behind her.

It was hard to tell if she was young or old. She looked like both at the same time. It was her eyes that made my body lock up and gave me the feeling of ice water running through my veins. They were haunting, hollowed… fucking terrifying, if I’m being honest.

“It’s a banshee,” whispered Alina.

“What’s that?”

“Didn’t you learn about them at school? Supernatural studies?”

If only she knew how little attention I paid in school.

“Now’s not the best time for a lesson. Does it want to kill me or not? Because it looks like it wants to kill me.”

“It predicts death.”

“It’s looking right at me!” I whisper-shouted as a chill ran down the length of my spine.

The banshee opened its mouth and a sound I’d never heard in my life–and never wanted to again–exploded from her. The wailing shriek was ear-piercing, sorrowful, and full of so much pain and anguish I could feel it rattle through my own body. 

Alina gripped onto my arm and I glanced down and saw an equally traumatised look on her face. The banshee’s wail continued, seemingly unending. When she took a step towards us, then another, my fight-or-flight reflex kicked in, and so did Alina’s.

With fear coursing through our bodies, we turned and ran as fast as we could. 

Straight into the forest.