Forbidden

|27|

Eden

A full day passed after Larry and Waydi joined our little ragtag group and we still lingered around the sparse woods surrounding the vagabond encampment, unable to decide where we should go. Currently we were all sitting around a bonfire near the pond that cooked some salmon that was caught for dinner and the sky was blanketed in pitch black with a slight glimmer from the stars.

"So are you still not going to answer the question of why you are here Larry?" Mason asked for the third time today, his suspicion at an all time high as his eyes roamed the immediate area, he was constantly on lookout for some reason. I couldn't really blame him though with everything that's been going on. Larry leaned his back on a nearby spruce tree and closed his eyes.

"Hell if I know, something deep inside is screaming at me to follow you two. What it is? I don't know but I can't ignore it, so here I am." Larry replied with an air of indifference to his tone. I watched the caramel glazed man with fascination, perhaps he was hearing the voice I heard before as well?

Waydi stood up from the spot he was perched on and walked away into a cove that we made between a spattering of trees, the dirt was padded down with four bear pelts laid in different directions for us to use as personal sleeping bags of sorts. He rested his body on the one to the far right and just distanced himself from the rest of us.

The smell of cooked fish wafted in the air, indicating that our dinner was done and I grabbed one for me and one for Waydi, determined to find out what the older man knew. Making my way over to the pelt closer to his, I sat down in a crossed legged position and held the salmon out for him to take.

"Here Waydi, don't want the person who actually did all the work of catching dinner to go without right?" I said with a slight smile on my face, hoping to ease my way into the conversation I truly wanted to have. One eye opened and Waydi just stared at me, an expressionless and immovable look setting on his face but he still did not move to take the offered food.

"Somethings not right y'know. I'm not talking about with just Laurent, but with all of Artemis shifters. I don't know what it is, but somethings just.... Weird. Do you not feel it Eden?" Waydi suddenly asked with a sound in his voice that was weirdly primal, now both eyes open and pinning me with an intense gaze that made me want to squirm underneath it.

"I don't know... I was always confined inside of the wolves of Raiven camps, hidden from the world and I just don't know if things are off." I averted my eyes from Waydi's, feeling quite saddened by the sudden memories that entered my mind. "We could ask the Elders but they are both in Raiven and I'm not completely sure that they will shed any light on what you feel because of the hatred I'm sure they feel for me and Mason." I mumbled and twiddled my thumbs together in a attempt to soothe my increasing anxiety.

"Do you think it's worth a shot? If you do, I'll follow and if you don't, I'll still follow. It's up to you lovely." Something in Waydi's tone snaked my attention and I snapped my head towards his direction, and there it was. In the his dark coffee depths now lay an emotion I was all to familiar with doing myself, submissive following.

Why?

Only Alphas were ever shown such loyalty, so why was I being given it?

Before I could question Waydi on his rash decision of switching Alphas, a shriek of anguish broke out in the direction of where Mason and Larry sat. Scrambling to our feet, Waydi and I rushed over to the dimming bonfire to see Larry's and Mason's wolf forms hovering over a creature of sorts. Edging my way forward, I caught enough of a glimpse to identify the creature as a hagraven, a distorted hybrid figure of hag and bird.