Oscars POV
I woke up to the sound of a gunshot, followed by a blur of shouting and movement. Elm was tugging on my arm, shouting things I couldn't make out. That was strange; I should have been able to hear her. But no, a bullet whipped past my head, grazing my hair. Immediately, I was up and alert. I picked Elm up and swung her unto my shoulder, just like I had the day we first met, and I made my way across the camp to the border. I looked back, and set Elm down on the ground so I could steady myself on a tree next to me. A group of people were rounding up members of the pack, and tying them to posts all across the meadow. They all wore a red bandanna around their necks, and after watching them for a while longer, I noticed that each and every one of them had a tattoo on the left side of their face, a human cross wolf hybrid, intertwined in a crescent moon. Must be some sort of a sick joke, I thought to myself, they all reeked of Shifter.
The hairs stood up on the back of my neck, and I stole a glance at Elm, who was huddling behind a bush, staring in horror at the scene that was unfolding before us. The breath caught in my throat as I felt a hand grab hold of my shirt, and yank me back behind a tree. "Elm!" She turned to look at me and gasped, but instead of coming to my aid (not that I wanted her to, I was perfectly capable of looking after myself) she stumbled back further into the bushes, her hands creeping their way up to cover her mouth from a silent scream. I was fuming, I couldn't turn around because of the position I was being held in, and a sickening smell was making me cough and gag. "Hello Martinez." I gasped, it couldn't be, it just couldn't! "I'm awfully sorry to say, that your little game of hide and seek is over." The hand released me, and I whipped around to face Kaiis. Traitor.
I snarled, and lunged for him, but he was too quick. My arm cracked against a tree, and I howled in pain, fire tearing it's way through my shoulder. I faced Kaiis once again, and spotted Elm behind him. "Oh, don't worry about her." Said Kaiis, as though reading my mind "She won't be in any trouble if she lets us get on with our little task." He turned to face her, and leered "You won't do anything to distract me and my friends now, will you?" The way he said it was menacing, and sent a cold shiver down my spine. Something was off here, Kaiis may not have been the most trustworthy shifter, but he was certainly not a traitor. I looked Elm right in the eye, hard, and shook my head. Telling her not to go against the boy. Elm's eyes filled up with tears, she understood, it was either me or her that had to go. And I wasn't going to let it be her. She turned to face Kaiis again, and after a long pause of silent calculation, she spoke; "You won't get away with this Kaiis. I'll make sure of that, but for now, I wish you good luck with your 'little task'". She put so much venom into those last words, that even I flinched, but once she had finished speaking, she turned and ran off into the woods, almost completely silent. Kaiis turned to me again. "Well she's a feisty one." He said. That's when the screams began.
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Note From E.J.
Please tell me what you think of the book so far, make suggestions for the next chapter, and give any constructive criticism possible! Oscars in a tight spot right now, so I think the next chapter might be from Elm's POV, not making any promises though.
PEACE OUT
E.J.White
