Navy Wolf

Chapter 11

Wisdom, a silent companion to the wolf, guides the journey through the unknown.

☾

Fangs.

Big, white and four of them, sparkling in the dim light of the cars headlights while he's struggling to breath.

I always thought this was only possible in movies. Those fantasy blockbusters that captivated your entire attention in the cinema when everything had been staged so professionally that you couldn't differentiate between real and fiction. The blood and gore, the ear piercing screams and realistic fur.

Maybe a little too realistic.

The jarring ringing in my ear isolated me from my surroundings in a way that I couldn't tell if I was dreaming or if this - this nightmare - was in fact my reality.

I must have hit my head so hard I started hallucinating. My imagination is playing mind games with me and I am in the middle of a mental breakdown.

What the hell was happening.

Suddenly I recognized the dashboard again. Heard heavy huffs. Felt the stinging on my head and the burning sensation in my lungs every time I drew in a breath.

Before I came back to my senses, I must haven frozen in place, because I don't remember anything until the very moment, I heard my name being called multiple times.

River... River!

River...!

Then I saw Kaven hovering over me, his unusual warm hands burning my skin. I watched him in a daze as a wave of relief overcame him, when he realized I gained back my consciousness.

„River...," he uttered under his breath lowering his head. „You okay?"
When I just gawked he wheezed, standing there at the door of the passengers seat, supporting himself against the frame.

„Kaven?," I responded sleepily.

„Goddamn, River," he whispered. „I thought you went into a coma or something, after your head trauma and all."

My trembling hands covered my face as I was coming around trying to sit straight.

The memories flooded over me like a tsunami and I cringed immediately scrutinized his entire being. „You...," I gasped accusatorily pointing my finger at him. „What are you!?"

The last part almost came out in a yell. The words had roughened my throat as they formed and I swallowed multiple times to ease the dryness.

This could not be true. The response I hoped for and the response I was afraid of were totally different in every possible way. But I never thought that there would be a third option.

Kavens face expressed a mixture of regret and sadness. As if he would delete everything that I had just witnessed, if he could. He cleared his throat, before lifting his gaze from the ground to my face and my heart stopped in that second.

„How much of it did you see?," he asked hesitantly when I was struck by lightning.

Wh-... WHAT?!

If I hadn't bumped my head against the rock-hard window, hadn't been scared to death by some freaking monster trying to crush us alive while we were sitting in the car and to top it all - had not seen Kaven's blood-smeared shirt in combination with his fucking long ass fangs - it probably would have sunk in earlier.

I blankly stared at his copper-colored face in the dim red break lights of the car shining from the back, before my mouth was able to translate what my mind was thinking.