Born of Blood

Chapter 26

They melted from the trees like shadows.

Their teeth bared, snapping their jaws as they crawled from the woodwork. Their glinting eyes focused on the Rogue, they growled in warning. She crossed the wrong territory, she was in the land of warriors. Each and every member of this pack was trained to kill, trained to survive, trained to protect their people. The she-wolf should have known if she challenged their Alpha, she challenged all of them, and Sendöw would not stand for it. Their lungs inflated and deflated rapidly, their hunger for her death dripping from their jowls, their claws dug into the rain-swollen earth, ready to launch them onto her emaciated body. Her scars wrapping tightly against her bones called to them in challenge, it sung to their souls in hunger: how many battles had this wolf won? How many deaths had she walked away from in her life?

Their Alpha would not be one of them, their growls rang freely through the clearing, muted from the downpour that soaked their furs. Though she could hear them, her wolf could feel their disgust ringing through their growls, she could feel their need for the hunt hang heavy in the low fog rolling through the winter-torn mountain. The freezing rain lay her pelt heavily against her flesh, her scars trembling in the frigid air, she would not bow to these creatures. She would no longer bow to anyone, she had felt and witnessed her Flesh forced to become subservient her whole life, she would free her from the burden. She would lift her soul from the ashes she had burned to, and she would start with these beasts. Her mate wrapped his large canines around the attacking wolf's neck, growling in warning until his struggling went still, whimpers low in its throat.

He released his warriors neck, snapping his teeth as he attempted to roll to a stand, Scarlets wolf took her chance. She darted to the side, clamping her teeth down on the thick scruff of the back of his neck, her claws ripping into his cat-like shoulders with a viscous grip. He snarled, bucking wildly to fling her malnourished frame through the air, though she held strong. She could feel his frustration, his pack rushing forward to defend their leader, only to have him snap at them. The message was clear: stay back. They yipped and growled their confusion, their saliva dripping with the need to sink their teeth into her flesh as she finally got jostled from her bite, landing heavily into the wet earth. Orion's beast snarled as he circled her, snapping his jaws at any other wolves that got too close to her while he slinked his way around her growling body.

She worked her way to her feet, smelling the thick blood in the air, knowing it was all his fed her beast. Her rolling snarls only stuttered as she gasped for breath, her tongue slipping between her teeth to taste his blood, she couldn't help the need to see more of it fall from his skin. She could see the black fur matted with water clump with his blood, the smell welling stronger and stronger as the rain kept it from thickening. His shoulder held open wounds, the junction of his neck, his paws ripped open and gaping from her bite while he was in his Flesh- it was not enough! The sound of her Fleshes screams as silver sliced through her muscle and tore through her flesh pushed the heat from her heart to the surface of her skin. Her hackles rose as her body lifted from the ground, ignoring the cramping in her muscles, she began to pace in the same circle as her mate. They didn't need him!

He made them weak! They would never be weak again!

They snarled evenly at each other, circling round and round, waiting for the first move, until the rage in her could no longer remain below skin level and she launched herself at the Alpha. Her claws raked down his shoulder, peeling open the wounds her teeth had previously made. The Alpha lifted his paw and slammed his claws into the shoulder of his mate, his aggressive need to dominate forcing the injury. She needed to see, she needs to understand, he was no weak pup, he would not take her volatile behavior, her challenge would not be taken seriously. She flew into the ground, his strength something she had underestimated in her rage. A wolf from the woodwork took the opportunity to launch himself forward, his teeth ready to go for the kill, only to be knocked clear from his run into the tree he had stood beside. His Alpha snarled and snapped his teeth, the warning no longer a warning but blatant violence. His Beast was fed up, his Beast would not tolerate his people interfering in something they didn't understand. He clipped the ear of the pack member, only to feel the weight of a wolf barreling into his side, ripping him from the insubordinate wolf and taking the tip of his ear with him.