The Lost Beta 8 - The Oath Beneath the Pines

The moonlight shone above them as they walked through the pines quietly so as not to be heard by anyone. Each step was heavier than the last, but it went on. They were optimistic about overcoming their present predicament, they had to keep hope alive.

Emily's wound ached as she forged ahead, and every breath she took was like a taste of damp moss and metal. Alexander was ahead of her, though tense, she was also vigilant, and didn't want to be taken unaware. He watched the shadows carefully to see if anyone was trailing him.

A branch cracked behind them. She quickly stopped, holding the silver pendant at her throat. Alexander whirled around swiftly, knife ready, yet nothing emerged from the shadows.

Her pulse was faster. Lucien was too clever to allow them to disappear. He would do the unimaginable, anything just to keep her under his control or until she was dead. 

The thought of it alone made her panicked, but she managed to hide her fears. She refused to be the girl ensnared in another's aspirations.

They found a hollow beneath an ancient pine, its roots forming a half-shelter. Alexander signaled for her to sit, his eyes had worry written all over it but she knew he’d never voice.

---

Alexander removed the blood-soaked bandage gently, his touch was tender. She hissed when the cool air touched her skin, but didn’t look away.

“You need rest,” he said quietly, voice hoarse with something she couldn’t name.

"Time is against us."

The world froze for a bit as they laid eyes on each other. His look was open, full of anxiety, longing, and something deeper in the moonlight that filtered through the pines.

"Emily." She became nervous as his thumb touched her cheek.

Before looks, touches, and words they dared not give shape, but they had shared stolen moments. But there was no more pretending now that everything had been taken away.

She pressed her hand over his. “I’m not leaving you behind.”

His breath shuddered. “And I won’t lose you. Not again.”

His lips met hers and he gave a delicate and fierce kiss, the promise of something neither of them could run from, and everything she had been too scared to dream for.

---

The night closed in once again as they parted. As definitely as she could taste her own terror, she could taste his.

"Have you ever wished we had never met?" She muttered.

His eyes softened after widening. “Never.”

“If you hadn’t”

“I would have spent my life serving a man who killed your family. Who tried to kill you. I would have believed his lies until the end.” His thumb stroked her jaw. “You saved me.”

A tear drop rolled down her eyes. She deeply inhaled. "I don’t see myself as a savior." 

"You don't have to." His forehead lingered on hers as he moved in closer. "You just need to make it through."

As she closed her eyes, she drew strength from his steady voice. She started to think that perhaps she wasn't as helpless as Lucien wanted her to feel for the first time.

She could put a stop to this conflict before it consumes everyone and everything she cared about only if she could live and if she could reclaim her ancestry.

---

Time passed slowly in careful silence. Out of nowhere came a figure man, he was lean, tall and unarmed. He glided along the rim of the hollow when the moon was at its fullest.

Alexander moved ahead of Emily as she stiffened. "Show yourself."

A woman emerged with a dark cloak obscuring her face. Her voice was low and had an accent when she talked. "If you love your life you will have to hear what I've to say."

Emily’s pulse kicked. “Who are you?”

“Someone who knows Lucien better than you ever will.” The woman's silver hair and lined face were seen when she drew back her hood. But her eyes were as keen as a knife. “I was his second once. I helped him build his army. And I have no love left for what he’s become.”

Alexander didn’t lower his knife. “Why would you help us?”

“Because he intends to use you as the symbol to unite every rogue under his rule.” Her gaze fell to the crest at Emily’s neck. “And if he does, the packs will burn.”

---

The woman bent a knee and laid out a soiled piece of parchment on a smooth rock. It was an old weathered map though torn, but unmistakable. 

Emily sensed her breath hitch. She identified the symbols, identical to those that adorned the tapestries in Lucien’s hall. 

“This,” the woman remarked, running a finger along the inked lines and elevations, “is where he conceals the evidence of what he did to your family.”

Alexander crouched beside her. “Proof?”

“Letters, ledgers, and the blade that killed your mother.” Her voice dropped. “He kept them as trophies.”

Emily felt a hard pounding in her heart. "You're just giving us this?"

The woman gave a fixed gaze. "I'm letting you kill him before he kills us all."

The silence was as heavy as snow.

"Can you do this?" Alexander asked Emily, his gaze posing the question neither of them dared to ask out loud.

Her fists were balled up over her knees. “Tell us everything.”

---

Dawn began to break as they studied the map. The woman whose name was Selene pointed to a black mark deep in the southern woods.

“That is his vault,” she said. “It’s guarded by only a handful of his most loyal. If you can get in before the full moon, you’ll have what you need to rally the rogues against him.”

Emily swallowed. “And if we fail?”

Selene’s expression was grim. "He will then advance on the Moonshadow Pack and kill all of the wolves within."

Alexander twined his fingers across Emily's hand as he reached for it. "We'll succeed."

With a look that bordered on sympathy, Selene observed them. "You must really love her," she whispered.

Alexander didn’t flinch. “More than my life.”

Selene nodded once. “Then remember this, love is the only thing he cannot twist. It’s why he fears you.”

Emily birthed hope inside of her and it began to uncoil in her chest.

With a calm voice, she looked directly at Alexander. "Then, together, we'll end this."

---

They left the hollow before dawn, avoiding the borders of overgrown trails and former logging roads. It seemed like a countdown with each step.

Emily didn't complain despite the fact that her shoulder hurt with every movement. The pain was fleeting but freedom was paramount.

Smoke fumes filled the atmosphere as they approached the ridge. Alexander stopped briefly and raised his head to take a whiff of the wind.

“That’s not a campfire.”

Emily’s chest constricted. “Lucien?”

He nodded, jaw tight. “He’s burning the old settlements. Forcing any survivors to flee to his ranks.”

Her eyes filled with tears. Numerous innocent people caught up in a battle they didn't choose.

She pressed a hand over her heart. “Then we don’t have time to rest.”

Alexander cupped her cheek. “If we rush in blind, we’ll die.”

“Then we don’t go in blind.” She swallowed her fear. “We will find someone who can guide us.”

His voice remained gruff, yet his eyes grew gentler. "You do not recognize your own courage." 

---

They arrived at the southern forests' edge by dusk. The vault was concealed beneath Lucien's stronghold, perhaps past the row of charred trees.

With fatigue like a lead weight on her shoulders, Emily fell to her knees. Alexander consoled her gently from behind as he knelt beside her.

"I'm a nobody," she muttered softly with tears welling down her eyes. “Just an orphan. A burden.”

He pressed his lips to her temple. “You’re the heart of this pack. And the heart of mine.”

Her throat closed around a sob. “I’m scared.”

“So am I,” he murmured. “But we face it together.”

A heavy storm gathered, it was dark and ready to break.

Emily looked up and stared for a moment at the sky to feel the wind tugging at her hair. The old life was gone. The girl she’d been with was buried in those ashes.

When the storm came, she would

rise to meet it.

---

As thunder rolled across the hills, a silhouette stepped from the trees ahead Lucien himself, smiling as though he’d been waiting all along.