Moon Bound

17

Beyond Blood
~
Accalia
~

Trespassers will be shot at.

Cadence jolted pass the warning sign and carried on the dodgy, dirt road. The window slid down and towering, thin gum trees flew past them.

Accalia could smell the blossoming and promising nature as spring quickly approached. The bush trails they drove on either side of unearthed wildflowers, coming alive with colour and life.

Cadence lounged her arm out the window and she leant her head back as her eyes evaded the setting sun. "It will be warming up soon,"

Accalia bristled up, brushing her hands along her arms.

"Our scents will be easier to find," Accalia replied with tension in her voice.

At least with autumn and winter, there was the cold that chilled everything in the night, leaving a slight frost in the morning. The sheen fog that covered the woodland, the quivering chills and the rain to cleanse anything in its downpour. A scent could be expelled from the nose of a lycan.

In the spring and summer, the sun was out, nature and animals sprung to life. The wind could pick up the layer of sweat and odour that cling to one's body, tracks imprinted in the dirt could be harder to cover and who didn't love the dusk breeze on a hot summer night?

Accalia could still fill the lingering chill of being in the Fenris pack. It felt colder there. With the trees caging you in, locking in the cool air. That was enough to take any thread of warmth away.

"Not if we cover them," Cadence countered swiftly.

Accalia pointed ahead, to where the roof of a cabin stuck out amidst the bushes and trees. "They could track us here,"

"Nah, they won't cross that sign back there." Cadence said with a straight face and stuck her thumb over her shoulder. "If they know what's good for them."

She side-eyed Accalia with a sickening gleam in her dark eyes. Cadence wanted them to come and put up a fight.

Accalia scoffed at her. "You really want the worst things for yourself, Cadence."

Cadence frowned pensively at that, but quickly brushed it off with a dismissive wave of the hand. "Look, you're stressing about nothing. We're safe here."

Accalia couldn't contain her urge to look over her shoulder. "I wouldn't put it past them. Any of them,"

"I want them to come," Cadence admitted and gave a careless half-shrug. Her nonchalance carried a heavy weight that crushed upon Accalia's shoulders. "They can get what's coming to them."

Accalia shifted uncomfortably in her seat and reared her head at Cadence, trying to read her face. "Even Gabriel? Even Nina? They helped us."

She only hoped it didn't cost the lycan couple in return. It still surprised Accalia. Two lycans, her enemies, stuck their necks out to secure her safety. To secure her cousin's well-being.

They were rare findings in a pack of lycans and beasts.

Cadence wouldn't give them any credit.

"I would have gotten us out. Your mate ruined everything. He stalled us, took our chance and it's his fault!" Cadence tried to lower her voice, trying to silence her rising temperament that seethed with rage.

"It is his fault." Accalia agreed and clapped Cadence's shoulder securely. "He doesn't know how to leave well enough alone, does he? I'm sorry."

Cadence kept her gaze deadlocked on the road ahead. "Don't apologise. It's not your fault."