Becoming the Alpha Queen

Chapter 20

Cynthia POV

We spent days walking through the forest. Somehow, no matter how far we walked, we didn't reach a town or a city. Days became weeks, and weeks became a month, until I finally stopped keeping track. I'll admit, I was pleased with myself. I hadn't died of hunger or dehydration and I felt more fit now than I did when this whole adventure started. I was able to hunt on my own when Phantom was resting, which I started to do more and more often, since she seemed to be more and more exhausted each day no matter how often we stopped and rested. I assumed it was just exhaustion and stress of not finding her brother that was getting to her.

When she did have energy, however, was when there was big game in the area, like deer. She would instantly perk up and want to hunt. Since I knew this was the only thing that humored her now, I useually conceded. The first time we found deer, she hunted on her own, just to show me what it was like. The next few times, she tried and involve me in the hunt, since taking out a deer on her own was exhausting. Once we had a technique down, it was easy to track down the deer and hunt, to the point where I started to enjoy it as well. I had learned to read Phantoms body language and she mine, so we had stopped communicating verbally when we were on the move to save energy.

Today however, Phantom was resting at camp again and I was scouting for small animals or plants that were edible. I already had a handful of wild thyme and had found a rabbit caught in a hunters trap that was weak, so I had put it out of its suffering and taken it with me. I reached a small creek and took a spot on a rock, washing my face and hands before rinsing the herbs. The rabbit I placed in a leather pack I was carrying on my back, a crude imitation of a bag from the first deer me and Phantom had killed together, and then put the thyme on top of it. I decided to rest a while before heading back to camp.

I must have dozed off, because when I came too, the sun was setting on the horizon. I sighed and stood up. Phantom must be worried. I tried sending her a mind link, but it was something difficult for me, since me and her weren't bonded yet. When we were trying to figure out why weeks ago, I had tried sending a link to my pack. But there was nothing there. It was like static noise. Phantom had joked that I was broken, and I had laughed along as well, until I realized that it was probably a side effect of the silver running through my system. If I couldn't contact my pack, there was no way they would be able to find me, even if they thought I was still alive.

I got a sudden wave of homesickness. Who knows how long it had been since I had seen my family, my friends. I had managed to spend most of our trip not worrying about them because I always had the hope that I would be able to see them. A month and a half later, I was nowhere closer to finding them, or Phantoms brother. I sighed, remembering all the good times I had with them, and thinking that I may never get to have those again. With a heavy heart, I started walking back to where I had left Phantom.

By the time I reached the clearing where we had made camp, it was already dark and I could barely see in front of me. I had to rely on my sense of direction to be able to tell where I was. At one point, I almost crashed into a tree because of the darkness. I walked into the clearing and let out a small whine, the signal that we had come up with to not give away out location with my shouting. A soft howl responded and I let the sound guide me to the spot where Phantom lay, curled up underneath some tree roots. I crawled under the root system and sat down, taking the pack and opening it up. I handed her the rabbit and she thanked me silently, her tail thumping against the ground. Then she proceeded to eat it. I placed the thyme on a rock near me, deciding to let them dry out and use them as seasoning once we managed to get a fire going. I lay back and relaxed, tired after a day of walking. A small whine from Phantom drew my attention and I saw her pushing a leg of a rabbit towards me and I understood her meaning. Eat.

I shook my head. A few nights ago we had caught a small deer and that morning we had eaten the last of it, I could go without eating for a night. Besides, she needed the meat more than I did. Wolves needed more protein than humans. I huffed at her and pushed it back. She let out a small growl and snapped her jaws at me. I replied with a growl of my own. She cocked her head to one side and the moonlight that filtered through the trees shone off the silver fur, giving her an ethereal kind of beauty. I could feel her staring at me and I kept my eye contact with her, reminding her that we were both Alphas in our own right, and wouldn't submit to the other.

Finally, tired of staring, I placed my hand on her chest and gently pushed her backwards. She flinched a little and pulled away, but not before I realized something was very wrong. When I had pressed against her, I had managed to feel the bones in her chest. I scooted closer to her and ran my hand down her side and was shocked to be able to feel all of her ribs. Putting my hand on her back, I shivered at the horrible way her spine was raised against her thick fur.

"Jesus, Phantom." I said, my voice dry and hoarse from lack of use. "What is happening to you?"

Her only response was a low whine, filled with pain. Her tail thudded gently against the ground. I tried to reach my mind out to her hoping she would let me feel some of her pain but it was like grabbing at air. The link wasn't there. There was a pain in my chest I couldn't really describe, like a sense of anxiety mixed with fear. I reached my hand out to her and she pressed her head against my palm as if she wanted comfort. That's when I realized I knew all along what was happening, I just didn't want to admit it to myself because I was too scared.

Phantom was dying.

And there was nothing I could do about it.

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Hey peoples!!! Sorry its been taking so long to update these chapters, but its the middle of summer and I don't have WiFi at my place. Lol. shout out to my best friend for letting me use his WiFi almost every day . Anyway, I'll be going back to school soon so hopefully by then I'll be updating more often. Besides, I'm only taking 12 units this semester, so hopefully ill do better this year! :) Everything has been so stressful lately with all the loans and things i have to take out for school. Well i hope you are all doing well. Remember to tell me what you think about this chapter or if you have any ideas for what should happen in the next chapters! Vote, Comment or Message me! Oh and we passed 2K followers !! :D thanks guys!

I love you!

~AngelOfTheStorm