Cold Moon (Book 2 - Moon Series Trilogy)

Chapter 4

Chapter four

I see my breath floating in front of me. During the time I'm running, I already defeated two more Kitaling. I suppose most of them are unconscious by now. Only a few meters left and we'll reach the gate. Our exit. We'll finally be gone from this awful place.

"Wait." Shakey utters. I stop and look behind me. I see that he's touching the left side of his stomach. I notice that there's a red spot beneath his hand. He winces. I gently shake him off my back. He blinks his eyes to me. I lift his shirt up with my paw until I see the wound. Then I bring my tongue close to it and lick it.

"It tickles." He giggles softly, "I'll be fine, don't worry."

He gets on my back again and I speed up.

~

Tessa leads the way through the hallways. She knows the exact way towards the freedom they seek. Leonie guesses that there are almost forty Mahubies with them. Perhaps many were already murdered. These people are still young. She shakes her head. Their kind goes through the most horrible hardships. Why are they hated so much? They manage to get to the inner courtyard. They see the wounded Kitaling lying on the ground.

"This way." Tessa grumbles, guiding everyone. They follow, ignoring the hurt men along the road.

~

I rush through the gates. I have knocked down the last Kitaling. The snow melts immediately when my paws touch it. I go back to the snow scooters that we've hidden before. He sits down on mine. Then he takes my clothes out of my mouth. I stare into his eyes. Through the days, they had become colder, but the more time he's spending with me, the more I notice how they start to change back. He shivers. In spite of being part human, part wolf due to my transformation, he doesn't seem to be scared. It's more comfortable to walk on four paws, but I lean back on my last two. I try my best to walk behind him and I wrap my hairy arms around him to share my body temperature with him.

"Thank you," He mumbles, laying his head on my fur. We stay like that for a while until my body tenses up. I hear someone running through the snow. I give Shakey a short growl and disappear in the treetops. Within a minute Jaël shows up, stops and catches her breath.

"Here are your belongings." She finally says after some pants. She hands them over. He accepts and thanks her.

"Where is Jolyne?" Jaël suddenly asks.

"Uh. She went to look for you. I suppose she'll be back in a minute." Shakey lies.

"Oh. She'd better watch out. On my way here I saw big animal tracks."

"Actually..."

I shake my head. Perhaps it's the best if I told her my secret. If she freaks out, Shakey can calm her. Before he can explain the truth, I jump down and land in front of her. She lets out a scream. It takes some time until Jaël realizes what just occurred. I can see that she's terrified. Her mouth is open, but she's unable to speak. She stares at me with her scared eyes. She backs away, step by step.

"S-Shakey! W-what is that?" she stutters. He already got up, raises his hands and assures: "Calm down. It's alright. That's Jolyne."

Jaël is astonished. "Jolyne?" She echoes.

Both Shakey and I nod.

"W-why? How come?" She's still shocked.

"She didn't want to tell you her biggest secret. Before you joined us, we figured that she's a werewolf. A human that's bound to transform into half a wolf. I suppose that she was afraid to explain it to you since she wasn't sure if you'd accept it that easily." Shakey tells her smoothly.