Gabriel [Alpha of Wolves]

CHAPTER SIX |MARKED|

☀

I gritted my teeth, ignoring their intense stares, the hushed whispers. I hated it. The feeling of being watched made me feel like a caged animal. I rolled my neck, feeling an itch I couldn't scratch. Summer was speed walking, her fists clenched, her eyes full of fear. I could feel it radiating from her in waves. Fear, an emotion I had never allowed myself to feel for the very reason Summer was practically sprinting to whoever lay ahead. To live like that was something I promised myself I never would, but something tells me I'm not going to able to avoid it. This place, these people, are going to change me. I could already feel it. I was worried, worried for whoever Summer was fearing for. The feeling was foreign, unwanted, but impossible to think away. 

We moved through the pack house, out into the backyard. The air is crisp, moist. I look up to the sky in hopes to ease my nerves, ease the violent emotions running through me. Only it doesn't and the fresh scent of blood floods my senses. Immediately violent images fill my head, guns, bullets, the stench of death. It was like I was seeing it happen right before my eyes, visions of a blonde girl running as fast as she could through the forest, her long hair flowing behind her. My canines extended, a shiver running through my body. It felt real - it was real. 

Someone was hurt - bad.  

He was there, covered in blood, her blood. Our eyes met and I saw fury, pure fury in those green orbs. I felt frozen in place, lost in his gaze. That fury was directed at me, I could just feel it. I looked around, my eyes finding where the blood was coming from. A body. I listened closely, a heartbeat faint. I moved forward, whispers pushing me to get a closer look. Blood, so much blood. I closed my eyes, the powerful smell of wolfsbane burning my nostrils. I beautiful golden girl lay, dying. Her blonde hair spread out behind her like a halo. She was real. 

"Don't touch her," he growled, power emitting from his words. I felt compelled to listen, but I resisted it, ignoring the tingling feeling that came with it. I kneeled down, finding the source of the blood. A bullet wound. A hunter had done this. She was infected, with a hybrid form of wolfsbane. This form was rare, wasn't used often because it took long periods of time to make and the smallest amount possible. She had minutes if I didn't act. But what do I do?There was no cure for the infection raging through her body. The wolfsbane attacks every aspect of her body. Her muscles, her blood, her organs. I hovered a hand over her, tremors raging through me. I had to save her, I had to fix this. The second my hand came into contact with her skin, pure electricity spewed from fingertips. I couldn't stop myself. The heat, the fire. It was brilliant, it was all knowing. The contact simmered before an explosion of heat left my fingertips and into the girl. The flash of red was bright, intense. I watched the heat travel through her skin, running through her veins, burning her from the inside out. She cried out, gasping, her eyes flashing the intense yellow of her wolf. She fell back her breathing steadying, the fire leaving her body. 

"What did you do." 

I sat up, stunned. I looked at my hands, in perfect condition, even though the fire had literally erupted from my fingertips. The burning sensation fading, ebbing away. I clenched my fists, terrified. What was that? How had I done that? I had heard of aggressive practices of burning wolfsbane out the body, but not a case this advanced, not the way it was raging through her veins. It defied the laws of physics, of nature. I had felt the fire, I had felt the power, but I couldn't have been prepared to have the real thing inside me. It was impossible. I looked around, taking in the shocked, angered faces. What had I done? 

What am I?  

Summer knelt down examing the girl. The girl opened her eyes, blue as the sky and shining with tears. "What happened? Where am I?"