Wild and Free

Chapter 8: Open Wounds

(Mason's POV)

"Would you be gentle? I'd like to have skin when we're done here," I snapped at Kenzie who was cleaning off the fresh cuts on my face.

"Sorry," she said, throwing away a blood soaked cotton pad in the bin beside my bed. "I still can't believe this. They're not healing. Why are they not healing?"

"Don't you think I'd tell you if I knew?"

She rolled her eyes and purposefully pressed on the wound, making me wince and swat her arm.

"What kind of werewolf does this?" she asked, glancing over at Riley who was sitting on the edge of my bed, holding his head in his hands. I had to help him back to the pack house because he was in rough shape after the encounter with the black wolf.

I shook my head, "I have no idea but she didn't listen to me at all. And then she fights with us? There's someone here that needs to be put in their place."

"It was a female?" Kenzie snickered, "You guys got your asses handed to you by a girl?"

"Yes but I've never seen a werewolf like that," Riley replied.

"What was so different about her?" she asked.

"She fought differently, not how we were trained at least. It was all very unexpected and spontaneous, neither of us knew what was coming."

I stood up from my desk chair and went over to the large mirror hanging on the wall, studying the cuts. Four sharp, slightly curved lines. They seemed almost too perfectly executed. Then I gingerly lifted the hem of my shirt to reveal the four puncture holes just below my ribs, also not healed yet. They bleed through my shirt, leaving very questionable stains of dried blood on its clean white fabric. I made a mental note to burn it later.

I'd been so tempted to use my ability in the fight but knew I couldn't in front of someone I obviously couldn't trust.

"And she was the darkest black color I've ever seen," he went on, letting Kenzie clean his head off as well.

"Black? All over?"

The two of us nodded.

"You didn't see any of this in a vision or anything?" I asked, looking up at her hopefully.

She winced guiltily, "I saw a vision of some sort of black wolf in the woods but it didn't show you guys. I just assumed it was a tracker returning from a mission or something. I never would've guessed. Was there anything else about her that might give us a clue as who she is?"

"She had blue eyes I think but I didn't really get the chance to see them while was being kicked into a rock and concussed," Riley spat.

"At least in a few hours it'll be nothing more than a headache," I countered, and pointed to my sliced cheekbone, "This hasn't healed even the slightest in the past hour and a half and it still burns. Whoever we were fighting has some crazy skills for fighting."

"What are you saying, you think that they could teach us some things about fighting?"

I half nodded, "Well if we ever find the bitch-"

"Hey watch your mouth," Kenzie snapped, glaring at me, "don't forget that you guys started the fight and the wolf that you fought with wouldn't have done it without a reason. What was yours?"

"She was eavesdropping on our conversation! I told her to reveal herself and she didn't. She disobeyed an Alpha's order," I defended myself.

"So you fought with her? You have some serious anger management issues. I'm just glad they're not genetic. Not even a week here and you are already getting in a fight," Kenzie muttered.