Trinity (A Werewolf Novel) ✔

Chapter Thirteen

The forest was a roar of sounds around me, wave after wave crashing through me as I stumbled through the path before me. My heart ached within me, demanding that I turn back the direction I came; back to him. But the further I moved away, the more that crawling sensation and unnatural deforming of my flesh simmered back into something familiar and safe.

I wasn't sure how long I had ran for before my legs finally had slowed down, but within that time howls had only grown among the night in magnitude. At first, I hadn't noticed them, but now that my panic had begun to subside if only a tiny bit, I paused to listen to the symphony within the night.

My senses were so much more amplified, more so than I could understand. I didn't know what I was anymore, but I knew I definitely wasn't human. Humans didn't grow claws and fangs like I had only moments before. Humans couldn't listen to the sound of animals crying into the night and understand the meaning behind them.

Something had changed. There were howls of despair and also of utter joy; anger and ecstasy. The wildlife within the trees responded, awakened, aware, and agitated by the change in the environment. I felt a sudden tug within me, a whisper of Roman beginning to step towards my direction, and I bolted in the opposite direction in reaction.

I stepped over a collection of rocks and limbs, turned a corner, and stopped sharply. In the small clearing, a form stood looking at the full moon unmoving. Her blood red hair made it easy for me to identify her, but the sight of tears in her eyes unnerved and silenced me. She turned at my presence, lifting her hand to wipe the tears away quickly.

"I saw you at the bonfire," Cate stated quietly, obviously trying to cover any emotion she had been revealing when thought alone, "I thought tonight the Crone would be taking you." I was struck by the idea that Cate was declaring the reason for her tears was for me. We barely knew each other.

"I'm okay, I think," I tried to reassure her, looking down at my own hands uncertainly. I lifted my touch to my neck where Roman's mark had somehow healed into a rather sensitive scar than the previous raw wound from before. "Yes. I think I'm okay."

Cate tilted her head in response to my dazed comment.

"You sound as though you're in shock. Did you shift?" I shook my head quickly, looking down at my hands quickly as though they would form into claws at any moment once again. I felt that tug again, the one that reminded me that Roman was in this forest with me and that he could no doubt feel me as clearly as I could feel him. I immediately responded by aiming to run away, but Cate abruptly blocked my path and gripped my upper arms curiously.

"I'm okay, I think," I told her again.

"You're panicking," Cate confirmed shortly. She lifted my hair from the mark on my neck briefly before nodding with understanding. "You marked him. You shifted, at least a little bit."

"I'm not a wolf," I shook my head firmly, over and over and over. But then I added in whispers, "I'm not human. I'm not human."

Cate abruptly pinched my arms roughly, making me yelp with sudden pain. I ripped myself from her grip and glared at her.

"What's wrong with you?" I demanded in anger.

"Nothing. I'm pretty much flawless," Cate teased, shrugging and suddenly at ease with herself. I stared at her with suspicion, recalling all the spooky things the wolves were saying about her before the match. I looked around briefly for her lance and found it leaning against a nearby tree.

"Before the match, people were saying...," I began slowly.

Cate swiftly interrupted, "I wouldn't take any gossip here seriously especially now that you'll be the Queen Luna. People like to talk."