Bound Trilogy: Bound: A Supernatural Story (WLW)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Pen watched from the shoreline as chaos ensued.

Bast ran into the mob of fighting and growled and fought alongside her First Vixen, never leaving her side. Wolves surrounded them at every side and Glenn was being backed up into the woods behind himself as he fired arrows at them all. There were so many. How could they possibly--

Rocks shifted from behind Pen and she spun around, her heart beating out of her chest. A wolf was progressing on her, but it was smaller than the rest. Still, even with it being so small there was no way she could fight it. It was Yumi.

Pen backed up toward the water where she felt safe, yet knew it would do her no good. Not with an inland river. Fresh water didn't respond to her and she was already losing her stamina. It had been too long since her last soaking and she needed to get back to town. Pen checked her sides and her canteen was nowhere to be found. With one last look back at the snarls and growls that echoed behind herself from her pack's battle, she squared off against Yumi, trembling from the images of what would possibly transpire next, worried it may only grow worse. Still, she was steadfast in what she knew was right. She was now a part of the Lis, after all, and of the First Vixen's inner circle.

"I'm not running and I'd rather die than let you use me against them, cub." Pen spat out as she looked deeply into Yumi's deep brown eyes. "Whatever you have planned isn't going to work. Just stop."

Yumi crouched down and shifted back to her human form. She smirked as she stood, saying, "I didn't tell them to leave you for last because I actually wanted that. I just knew that Bastet would either try to get you away from the fight so she and I could speak on more private terrain, or that it was the best way to save you for myself." Pen bent down and grabbed a stone, hurling it at her. Yumi side-stepped it and chuckled. "Again with the rocks? How could my daughter have fallen for such a pathetic--"

Pen threw another rock at her and it hit her in the forehead, silencing her in an instant as her face grew a deep crimson red that glowed under the light of the moon. Hah! My aim's getting better, bitch!

Yumi growled at her. "Can't I finish one damn sentence?"

She leapt at her and, on instinct, Pen cried out. It was more like the chord of a song, though. Like something serenading over a plain just as dusk surged through the sky. Just as the clouds fell and that songbird cried toward the heavens in one last burst of life.

Yumi froze and tilted her head to the side like a pup hearing an odd sound. She backed away and quivered from head-to-toe. Was that my...?

Yumi smiled and chuckled for a moment. "Just kidding. Didn't your mother ever teach you? Your siren calls are pretty weak until you are bound to your mate. Have you and Bastet even shared your second bond? She doesn't seem like the type. Even with your royal, pure blood, I doubt you'll be much of a challenge. All you pure bloods are the same anyways." She leapt forward and latched onto Pen's throat with one of her small hands. Pen gasped and tried to push herself away, but it was to no avail. "That's why I made Bastet. You really should've stayed in the ocean, little fish."

This time, Pen went for her wrist and pulled at it with all her strength, trying to pry herself free from Yumi's grip, but she just couldn't budge her grasp an inch in any direction. She felt herself being backed up toward the water as Yumi tightened her hold and she gasped for much needed air.

"What do you think happens to one of you flippers when you haven't been in your beloved saltwater in a while? You start to become even weaker than you already are. You really are the most pathetic shifters, don't you know?" Pen felt the water beginning to surround her legs and wheezed as she writhed around in Yua's grasp fighting for air. "Trust me, I took out a lot of you back in my jaguar days. I could reminisce about them, but then I wouldn't get the chance to snuff you out and show you first hand. Like I have now." She pushed Pen even further into the water and it was now up to both of their chests. "What do you think it will feel like to drown in water that won't let you breathe? To feel yourself forcing your gills to emerge, knowing full well they never will? I bet it's one of your greatest fears, isn't it? Drowning in foreign waters? Let's see what happens."

With her last word, Yumi snickered and sank Pen's head into the water. She tried to force her gills to surface just as Yumi said, but they didn't cooperate. She couldn't get them to work right, not in fresh water like this. A fish couldn't change its scales after all.

She was going to die.

Pen was going to die before she could officially join the pack that had so quickly become her family. She was going to die before she could be bound to Bastet. Before she ever really lived.

The water flooded into her lungs and she scraped her nails at Yumi's hands and arms, but it barely left a mark, her muscles pulsed so hard. The water burned in her eyes as she strived to keep her in her sight. It wasn't what Pen was used to and it was all wrong. Everything was WRONG!

Something billowed in Pen's chest and her body began to vibrate. Her muscles came to life and she shuddered with its weight. Then, something from deep within herself, something foreign, yet so right took her by such a force, she felt as if she was someone trapped in another's flesh. A tourist in a far off country. A surveyor meant to enjoy each and every sensation on their journey.

Pen let out a long cry and the hands on her loosened. She pulled herself free from them and leapt out of the water, coughing up her burning lungs that threatened to explode as she scrambled to her feet. Yumi was still frozen in place as if a statue with roving eyes, and from the side, Bastet leapt onto her and tore into her jugular. She ripped it away with the twist of her head and backed up toward Pen as Yumi gasped for air, sputtering up blood.

"Bas... Bastet-t...?" Yumi garbled and Bast stood in front of Pen, then snarled at her.

Xenia pranced over and stood beside Bast, joining her in her growls. Then, Pen felt a hand on her back. She glanced behind herself and found Glenn was standing beside her. His forearm arm was ripped to hell and he had a gash across his forehead, but he was alive.

Pen glanced toward the other wolves. Many of them lay on the ground either dead or injured while others stared at the scene before them frozen just like Yumi's rigid form. What did I just do...? Pen thought, but the wolves all slumped as if finally released from their out of sight tethers, falling to the ground, but keeping their eyes on their alpha. Pen turned her gaze back toward her and found Yumi's body finally unwinding as if a spell cast upon her was slowly wearing off. She fell into the water and coughed once more before she began to drift away, her body growing limp. Xenia turned her fox toward the other wolves and that strong, loud cry she made earlier at her ceremony was back as she slammed her front paws along the water in front of herself as if baiting them over.

The wolves retreated with haste, leaving behind their fallen warriors as the injured struggled to ultimately follow. Xenia turned toward Bast and growled, but Bast turned her face away in submission. With that, Xenia's fox seemed sated and she licked at Bast's cheek that was well grazed in her fight as it began to close. She threw her head back and howled into the sky, Bast joining her with a series of barks.