Hunted

Chapter 23-Unknown Being

Are you guys losing interest in this story? Cuz I noticed how last chapter didn't have nearly as many reads as normal :/

Chapter 23-Azula's POV

It felt like poison was running through my veins. Every breath, every movement, was excruciating. My whole being was focused on the pain, on the empty hole that was slowly consuming me. I hadn’t realised how big a part of me my pack tie with Dad actually was. Now that it was gone, I was lost, an empty shell of the girl who was once good enough to be called Manu’s daughter. Who was once good enough to be part of the Saito pack.

                I missed Dad. What I wouldn’t give to see his smiling face as he told me some lame, cheesy joke. To hug him one last time and tell him I loved him. To tell him how sorry I was and how I wished things were different. But of course that would never happen. I’d made sure of that. I swallowed the bile that rose in my throat.

                Anger rose within me, its ugly head rising suddenly and without warning. Its fire burned away the ice covering my heart, scolding me in the process. Shivers racked my body.

                Why did this shit have to happen to me? I didn’t ask for any of this! I didn’t ask to survive that stupid disease. It probably would have been better for everyone if I’d just died along with the rest of them. Then I wouldn’t be hurting the person I loved most in the world.

                What made the anger morph to fury was that I knew I had no one to blame but myself. I’d practically dug my grave, despite Dad’s attempt at stopping me. Now I guess I had to lay in it.

                “You don’t deserve to live,” a voice whispered in my head. No matter my attempts to drown out its evil words, they echoed around my skull like the buzzing of a bee.

                “Why should you live when all the other women died? What makes you so special?”

                “The Moon Goddess must have willed me to live,” I argued back, although not aloud. My attempt was weak even to my own ears. “I’m not anything special, but who am I to argue with fate?”

                “Fate? Oh please. You should just end it now. There’d be no more pain. No more suffering. You would never hurt anyone ever again. It would be better for everyone if you didn’t exist.”

My fur bristled, my hackles rising. “I’m no coward.”

                “Honestly, giving yourself up would be the bravest thing you'd ever do.”

                The phrase repeated over and over again until it became the only thing I could hear. Would it really be the most courageous thing? Then again, did I really have anything left to lose? Everything that had ever meant anything to me, my Dad, my innocence, my mate, had either been ripped away from me or turned out to be some sick joke.

                “Need to pee, need to pee,” a voice muttered from beside me.

                I jumped at the sound as it penetrated the layers of fog clouding my dazed mind. My eyes searched for its source, focusing on the silhouette of a man jumping around. I quickly realised that it was Dobry, not knowing any other wolf in the pack to be capable of such ridiculous actions.

                I watched, amused, as he gazed desperately towards the mouth of the cave.

                “Stay,” he commanded me, holding his palm out in a stop motion before he sprinted out of the cave, muttering, “Need to pee,” under his breath.