CHAPTER SIX: MY WOLVES

Jessa POV

I was frozen to the spot, unable to even open my mouth to scream or beg for my life. It laughed, a hissing sound that made the short hairs on my arms stand on end. It stepped forward, reaching out its clawed hand. As soon as it touched me, pain ripped through my body. I twisted away, screaming with pain. It laughed louder, grabbing my arms. Its hold burned like the deepest frostbite.

No, no, no! I wasn’t going to go out like this.

I was dead. That much I knew. It was going to kill me, and I wasn’t strong enough to fight it off. It was going to drain me, consume me, and it was going to be slow. It was going to be painful. But I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. I screamed again as I lashed out with my feet. They connected with the spirit’s chest, shoving it backward. Its claws tore through my arms as it stumbled backward.

My hands closed on a fallen branch. I staggered to my feet, shaking with pain and cold as I gripped the branch. The spirit’s tail moved faster, its eyes narrowing in excitement as its lips pulled back over its sharp teeth into a grimacing smile.

I backed away, keeping an eye on it as I felt around me, looking for a tree I could put my back to. If it got behind me, I was done for. It could slash through my throat before I could stop it. My nostrils flared as I sucked in deep breaths, fighting to keep my wits about me.

“What do you want from me?” I rasped. If I could get it talking, then maybe I could find a way out of this.

I wouldn’t. But it was worth a shot.

The spirit moved to one side, its footsteps slow, predator-like. It moved to the other side, its gaze never leaving me. Its mouth opened wider, and it laughed. “Blood.”

Blood? “Why?”

The spirit crouched, ready to attack. “Thiiiiirsty.”

My grip tightened on the branch. In a flash, everything I wanted but never got moved through my mind. A family who cared. Friends who were actual friends, rather than people who would just tolerate me occasionally. A mate. Sex. To have children. What was the point of my life? I did nothing, got nothing. My mother was right. I would have been better off never to have been born.

Tears slipped down my cheeks, and the spirit laughed, lunging. I struck out with my branch, and it jumped back, still laughing. It was toying with me, I knew that.

I also knew begging would do no good. But my willpower cracked, and I whispered, “Please. Please don’t do this.”

“So thirsty,” the spirit purred, creeping toward me.

I swung the branch, and it grabbed it. It yanked me closer, and its clawed hand wrapped around my throat. I cried out, punching at its hard skin, but my blows did nothing. Its long tongue flicked out, tracing the line of my tears. I shuddered in revulsion.

“Please,” I cried.

It threw me away. I hit a tree, the air driven from my lungs. My vision blurred, and I clawed at the ground, fighting for the strength to stand, to fight. What was the point? Why had I been born if I was just going to die like this? I found another branch, but the spirit pounced as my hand wrapped around it. Its sickle claws tore through my shirt and skin. Pain ripped through me, and I screamed.

A howl broke through the night.

The pain eased. I gasped, unable to fill my lungs, as tears poured down my face. The spirit backed off, its head cocking from one side to the other. Its tongue licked over its lips as its tail moved faster. What happened? I dragged myself to the tree, trying to shelter between its roots.

Three wolves burst through the thick surrounding forest. The spirit slipped backward, hiding itself in the shadows. The wolves shifted to human form. At first, I thought I was seeing things. That my brain had decided to make up a new narrative, because this couldn’t be possible.

Alpha Jarek Holden, Alpha Cassian Varrick, and Alpha Denric Wystan all stood over me.

Alpha Jarek knelt next to me, his face in shadow. “What happened?” he demanded.

I shrank back from him. The relief I’d had at seeing wolves show up and interrupt the spirit disappeared instantly. What would Denric be here for, if not to cause me more pain? None of these Alphas ever treated me well. The best among them was Jarek, and only because he ignored me.

Denric especially took particular delight in tormenting me all through middle and high school, until he graduated.

“Don’t touch me,” I gasped, my voice shaking from the sheer pain I was in. “Don’t.”

What were they even here for? I was sent into the dark woods to die. Why had they come after me? It didn’t make sense. If they wanted to hurt me, why not just leave me in the woods? And now, Denric and Cassian stood shoulder-to-shoulder, back to me and facing the spirit.

My heart was hammered. “Can you see it?”

“Hush,” Denric snapped over his shoulder.

Jarek put an arm around my shoulder. I cringed at first, but he was so warm. And they were between me and the spirit. An impossibility blossomed in my mind as Jarek pulled me to my feet, his arm tight, firm, and warm around me. Had they… had they come to help me?

Had they come to save me?