Second Fate

27

Vine's POV

It had taken some time, but when Valentine had ripped the throat of Kyle's brother wide open, leaving little more than ribbons of red and white, we'd gotten rid of the last of them. As the light in his hateful eyes faded, a deep exhale left my throat in a guttural sound.

We'd survived today.

Now my cousin was looking down on himself, his almost bright beige fur covered in blood which had started to clot it together. With a wince, he fell to the ground and started to change before Neal had even given the command.

The alpha gave me a short nod and I followed suit.

My beaten body was turning grudgingly, but I felt better already, as my knees touched the dirt in human form. The changes would've emptied out my body's healing reserves though, and I knew I wouldn't be feeling peachy the next morning. For now, however, I could barely feel anything other than the relief of a fight gone well.

Neal's voice was swallowed by the forest around us as he shouted: "How are we doing?"

My shoulder was pounding where Gideon had sunken his teeth in, but the blood flow had already ebbed off; just as it should.

"I'm alright", I stated as I moved the arm demonstratively. The stabbing pain would be an annoyance for the next few days, but it would be healed over soon.

Valentine was brushing the blood off his body, while he muttered something about being totally fine, just gooey.

"Not too bad then", said the alpha as he let his ice-blue eyes wander over the bodies strewn across the forest floor. The make-shift tents rustled in the upcoming breeze. "We got lucky since they've split up to patrol for hunters. Just as we expected."

After their first back-up had joined the fight, no other wolves had made an entrance. We had to assume they had been out there with Rhett, patrolling, when Freya and the others had confronted them. Hopefully they'd been as successful as us.

Unsurprisingly, I saw Valentine looking at his phone. He must be checking up on her, I thought, and the image of Nina appeared in front of my eyes. Her brown eyes were directed towards me with a warm glow while her mouth was half-open, ready to tell anyone who bothered her to fuck off.

Even if they were three times her size and owned a set of sharp fangs.

She's fine, she's in the city amongst humans, I told myself empathically. The only threat she'd had to face from my world, was deep in the woods with me. But there was a discomfort deep in my bones which was resistant to any reassurances I made.

"Where's Meredith", I heard myself mumble. I had to find out if she was what threatened Nina – or if she'd been honest, and her pack had gone rogue on her. "Is she...?"

"She's alive", barked Valentine, whose head snapped up from his phone. There was a displeasure in his tone which conveyed his sentiments about it.

But he showed me to where the woman leaned heavily against an old tree, her hands pushed unto the wound on one side of her torso. Blood was trickling from under the sun-kissed and scarred fingers.

She didn't attempt to lift herself into a more sophisticated position as we neared – but soon I noticed that it wasn't her choice: my cousin or Neal must've used some tent's rope to tie the alpha to the tree like a wet straw puppet.

Since I didn't think our alpha would be threatened by a bloody and exhausted enemy, I shot Valentine a quick look and received a half-smirk in return. Of course it had been him.

"What do you want now", she mumbled, pressing down on her side harder as if speaking made the blood escape quicker.

"There's one thing I need to know: Did you order your pack to hunt down Nina?" My eyes narrowed as the words spilled over my tongue like burned ash. "To maim – no, to kill her?"