Repeal

Chapter 11

Warmth burns through Kiera’s muscles, bunching and releasing with every even, prefect stride. The snow sinks benefiter her paws, swallowing the darkness in a blanket, only to be thrown into the air as she rips her paws away. Cold air stings her lung, and her nose feels like an ice cube on her face.

Her mind wonders through her vault of thoughts, sorting through everything. They click to her mother, the pale skin against the pale snow, the purple shirt a splash against the white snow and crimson splatters, fingers reaching for Hunters, as he lay still in the snow.  A shot of grief flashes through her body, but she jerks her thoughts away, slamming the lid on the vault. Burning anger flares to life in place of the misery.

It has been a week since she’d sprinted back to the house and fallen beside her family. Her brain hadn’t been able to focus on the blood, hadn’t put two and two together, not until others passed, found her and the two still bodies. Only then did she realize that she needed to do something.

Only a week, and yet, the pain was still in her, alive and bleeding.

She shoves it away all together.

Her eyes scan the wall, flicking up to the top where everything was bare and plain. She slows her pace to a slow run, the cold threatening to cool her muscles stiff. A white cloud puffs in front of her face, swirling around her as she runs.

Warmth envelopes Kiera hind; pressing through the cold weather to melt into her skin; warming everything from flesh to bone. Chase lets out a soft whimper.

Kiera forces herself to slow to a stop, letting her strides shorten until she’s at a halt. She turns to watch the breathless wolf behind her, biting back the huff of annoyance. She owed Chase to say nothing. The day after the attack, Kiera had begged Jordan for more shifts, needing to keep her mind off her mother and brother. He’d refused at first, saying it was unfair for her partner, but she didn’t care who she ran with. She’d run with another group if need be.

So far that hasn’t been needed. Chase has run by her side without complaining at all.

But the constant exercise was getting to him. The muscles constantly shake under his fur, and several times she’s seen his legs nearly buckle. Sweat slicks his fur to his body; his breaths are short and hard. But he still doesn’t complain.

Kiera knows she looks just as bad: sweaty, cold, shaking. But she feels none of it, just the fire burning through her veins and the flare of thirst every time she thinks of Revokers. She wants to rip them apart, taste their hot blood, spill it on the snow and feel the satisfaction as they scream.

Despite the endless attacks on the Alcrests land, however, she hasn’t even gotten her teeth on one of them yet. Sometimes it seemed only a few hours would go past before more Revokers were spotted again.

Of course, Kiera had never been close enough to get there in time.

It was irking her up the wall. She way always too late.

But on the upside, she wasn’t the only wolf to be darted. As days past, more and more wolves had been shot full of tranquilizers. It was unsurprising that the Revokes kept getting close to the Alcrests house now. Any wolf the Revokers stumbled across would either be found dead or asleep minutes before or after the Revokers were forced over the walls again.