A Kiss in the Shadows

A Kiss in the Shadows: Chapter twelve

Hey guys! Here's chapter twelve, sorry i didn't upload it sooner, but it was a busy week. It's a little short but i'm putting up the next one tomorrow to make up for it! Please vote/Comment/Fan/ and add to your library! Means alot ;) Love you guys

-N.L

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☽Chapter Twelve☾

                You could smell it in the air. Something was almost off about it. I didn’t know if it was in the breeze, or just the feelings of the others around me. I was rigged and my claws nervously dug themselves into the frozen soil. Theodore was next to me; his teeth were bared slightly in agitation, the muscles in his fore legs taught.  We were told to change into our wolf form before the elders showed up. Reasons unknown.

There was a rustle to the left and as one the pack’s heads shot in the direction. It was the crunching sound of dead underbrush below multiple heavy treading feet. But it stopped after a moment, and only Carlisle stepped out of the shadows. His sharp features seemed disturbed under the torches’ flames outlining the circle.

                His eyes glinting against the low light, my jaw tensed at the expression on his face. It was a wicked expression. One that fit his face all too well. The other wolves were shock still, waiting. Waiting for his instruction.  Carlisle took a breath and wet his lips. As if he was savoring the words in his mouth before the rest were able to hear.

                “Tonight.” Carlisle’s voice calls out to us, his words ringing throughout the forest. “Is where your real training begins.” I pause and cock my head to the side, my ears flicking slightly in confusion. “This is where you truly are one.” Carlisle bellows, for a second I can almost see a smirk playing on the edge of his lips.

                “Your minds together, fighting for one thing. One goal. One thought.” He starts looking at the each of us individually. I pause, my instincts growing stronger, taking the front of my mind. Wanting to know of such a thing. A soft breeze passes us, and my eyes grow wide at the scent. My maw snapping just slightly. Carlisle’s eyes met mine and a wide smile fell upon his face, so large I thought his lips would split.

                Thoughts raced in my mind and wonder if it really could have been, I glance over and notice Mason’s slightly crouched form. His teeth already bared in the direction Carlisle emerged from.

                “This task will prove to me if you all can work as a real pack would.” My eyes narrow at the word ‘real’ the sound of the way he said it made me feel mocked. We wait for a moment and I see Carlisle glancing into the shadows, talking to someone. Only not using words.

                From the shadows come three elders, each holding securely onto another person the scene slightly reminding me of the one I had seen with James’ brother.  His eyes look wild and he glares at each of us individually. My theories are proven when another wave of his scent washes over us. This time everyone registers it and a chorus of growls and snapping of jaws echoes around me. It’s a rogue.

                A rogue in our nation is something vile. Something that is horribly frowned upon. A rogue is a lycan who had done something so treasonous, that they were disconnected from their pack. Forever to wander alone throughout the forests shunned from their pack.

 The scent of a rogue is something bitter; it is the scent of isolation. When you have been cut from your pack, your scent leaves as well; your scent is your being, your individuality. I glance at the rogue and he’s growling and snapping at the elders holding him in place. I heard that once you are banished from your pack. You go insane.

                The rogue’s eyes lock onto mine and an odd smile twists against his lips. His ragged copper hair and shocking blue eyes contrasting greatly from his pale skin. Something about the way his eyes look at me makes me shock still. Something along the eyes of madness keeps his eyes trained on me. A low fire of anger building inside me at this creature.

                Philip lets out a snarl from the left, his eyes glued to the rogue, something along the lines of hate residing in them.  I finally break away from the rogues eyes; I glance at the large metal collar hanging around this throat, no doubt in my mind that the collar is laced with wolf’s bane. It doesn’t hurt; it just keeps us from transforming. I’m curious as to what lies in store tonight.

“He was found wandering in this very forest. Passing into our territory, our very land.” Carlisle says calmly but a tone of disgust underlying his words. His terms only make us more on edge, it’s the only thing I can do to stay put, wanting to rip away at the dirty rogue.

Have my incisors sink into his skin and flesh, letting my sharp teeth grace his bones. I’m tense, wanting to spring through the air and ravage him until he’s a corpse. Carlisle looks over to the rogue again and a new excitement is in his eyes, one that terrifies me. Yet at the same time I wonder if mine mirror his own.

“Let him run.” Carlisle’s voice sounds simple and unruffled. The elders pull the rogue into a standing position, one of them produces a short dagger and cuts his hands free of a bind they had on them. The rogue turns to us for a moment and his eyes scan over us a second, calculating his chances. He bolts into the forest. My breathing has risen with such a need inside me, one that I am not quite comfortable with, but has to be fed.

                I almost feel as if I could explode with the tension building up in us, I know that if Carlisle keeps us here any longer we will just act on our own. I almost feel like screaming, but I can’t since I’m in wolf form. My claws dig into the dirt in aggravation, anticipation, inpatients, the list goes on.

Carlisle gives a few of us a knowing smile, me included. My teeth are bared along with others and are glistening in the moonlight; I feel something bubble to my throat. Something large and angry, and a snarl rips through me.

                It rings in my ears at the power and need that resided in it. A couple of wolves pause and look at me in shock, at the tone and power of it. I crouch down to the ground ignoring the stares, wanting to catch my prey. To hunt with my pack, and punish the rogue from crossing onto our land.

 I glance at Carlisle to see if this is ok, he looks pleased with me and gives a curt nod. Like a trigger I shoot forward, barley feeling the ground below me. The trees fly past and I follow the rogues scent, the sound of other’s speeding a few moments after my descent filling my ears.

                A powerful ache builds in my teeth as I catch more of the rogue in my nostrils. Tenseness in my mussels only growing as I get closer. To my left I can see Mason and Philip gaining, being pack leaders, guiding there group. That is when I see it.

                Just the faint glance of a body rounding past a tree, I can’t even feel the movement in my body any longer. Only instinct. Always instinct. I felt the others at my sides now, a group of us. Gaining closer to the rogue. We, as a pack. I felt included with them, not an outsider.

                One simple thought resided through all of us: To kill

                The rouge was finally in our sights working as one and acting almost as if it was planed. I reach forward first and my teeth sink into his hamstring, savoring his scream. Before the rouge fell Philip pounced onto him just as Mason’s jaws gripped into the rouges side. He landed on his stomach another scream sounding in the forest. The others reached us just as we started tearing.