Cloaked in Blood

by T. F. Walsh

  Show time.

  The piercing trumpet blared, and Selena took off. I lunged after her, my legs pumping furiously, snow grinding beneath my boots. The explosion of cheers and voices faded behind me. None of it mattered. Not when I had a dracwulf to hunt.

  The cold wind and snowflakes slammed against me.

  Save Selena. Save her family. Save my brother and Daciana. Save all wulfkin. Nothing like having the world on my shoulders. If not me, who else would accept the challenge and confront Father?

  I careened around an enormous tree, jumped over the roots sticking out of the snow like giants’ knees, and bolted behind Selena. No stopping. If Selena hadn’t helped me with my leg and the blood poisoning, no way would I be able to keep up this momentum. Now I had enough energy to run circles around the world.

  Paw prints dotted the soft snow around us. The dracwulves had definitely gone this way.

  We’d sprinted for at least twenty minutes when Selena finally slowed her pace, her limp worsening. Then near an embankment, overlooking the great expanse of the snow coated forest, she came to a dead stop, hands on knees and gasping for air.

  I skidded to a stop, noting the end of the prints. After retracing my steps a few paces, I found them again, but with the freshly falling snow, we were losing the tracks fast.

  Sweat rolled down my back despite the freezing air as I marched toward Selena. “Where would a dracwulf go?”

  She reached into her backpack and grabbed her water bottle, taking several gulps. “Why are you following me?”

  “To stare at your cute butt.”

  Her cheeks glowed red and sweat bubbled across her brow, but behind her eyes, a fire was blazing. The last time I’d seen her this way, I was buried deep inside her. I’d prefer to relive that moment over anything else in this life.

  “I’m guessing the dracwulves would stick together, so it only makes sense we do the same,” I said. And pets or no, I would stay to protect her any way I could.

  Selena stuffed the bottle into her bag and surveyed the terrain. “I have no idea where Klaus and Grit would go. They’ve never been in the wild.” She headed right, along the top ridge of the hill.

  I spotted white fur on a shrub and followed her. “So they’re unpredictable. Even more reason for us to band together.”

  She spun to face me, her tone sober. “Don’t waste your time. The boon is mine.”

  Despite her warped lips, my initial instinct insisted I drag her into my arms, kiss away the anger, and make her see that I wasn’t going anywhere. Whether she accepted it or not, I planned to win the boon to save her life.

  I marched alongside her and leapt over a dead log. “And how do you intend to take both dracwulves down on your own? I bet my life they’re hunting together. Of course, I’d do everything in my power to avoid killing the animals, but it all depends on how the situation plays out. Our lives come first.”

  She spun around, cutting in front of my path, and headed back the way we came.

  Okay, she had the same instincts as me—stay close to the castle. The dracwulves wouldn’t go far, especially with the way the big one had eyed her. But she showed no sign of dread, and I recalled the way she had summoned the stags during the venery. Yep, she had an upper hand all right, which explained her cockiness.

  I swung around a trunk and caught up with her. “So, you are okay with me killing one if the situation called for it?”

  She halted, and for those few seconds of silence, her quivering chin said more than words ever could. But would she finally tell me her plans?

  “Over my dead body.”

  Striding past her, I responded. “Well, if they attack me, I may have no other option. How else would I take down two wild animals and return them to the castle on my own?”

  “Barbarian.” Her hands gripped the backpack straps over her shoulders as she moved into my line of sight. “That’s not what I expected from you.”

  “And what did you expect?” Curiosity poked a hole through my chest.

  She shrugged. “For one of your pack members to meet you in the woods and to help you out.”

  “Now you’re calling me a cheater.”

  “You said it.”

  “Well, you sure are showing your true colors. Like how you never told me about the daggers.” My voice lowered, her deceit still biting me.

  Her nose pinched with a crease. “And give Levin a reason to slaughter my family if he found out?” She blocked my path and jabbed a finger to my chest. “Look, stop jabbering so much. If you plan to hunt with me, keep focused on the job and follow my direction. The first dracwulf we encounter is mine. Understand? That’s the only way we’ll hunt together.”

  She stormed away.

  I sucked in the refreshing cold air, needing to keep my head in the game, to ignore her betrayal before it clouded my fighting ability.

  Then she came to a standstill and turned around. “Did you tell your father about the daggers?”

  “If I had, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

  The tendons in her neck flexed. She didn’t believe me.

  “I would never put you in harm’s way. Can’t you see that, especially after everything we’ve been through?”

  She dropped her gaze momentarily. “Just figured it explained your father’s foul mood and sudden rule changes.”

  “He’s like that every day. An unpredictable dick. You get used to it after a while.”

  “I’d kill him before I accepted it.”

  “Quickest way to get yourself killed then,” I said, and we continued our trek into the woods.

  “Well, you’ve got more patience than me. I would have sliced his heart out in his sleep.” No sarcasm layered her words.

  “Everyone who’s ever met him has had the same idea. Including me, at least once a day, but I couldn’t bring myself to stoop that low, or I’d be no better than him.”

  We hiked, no words, and no sign of the dracwulves either. No footprints, fur on shrubs, no howls. We had nearly circled the castle when a twig snapped off to our right.

  I froze and grabbed Selena’s wrist, then waved toward the sound.

  We listened. Waited.

  Another crunch, this time closer, and coming from behind an oversized cluster of undergrowth, easily reaching my hip. A dracwulf?

  My gut was yelling to charge, to attack the wolf and get this done already. Take the dracwulf down now, claim the boon. End this.

  I slipped the backpack off and plucked the knife out. Adrenaline fueled each of my precise steps.

  Selena approached from a few paces away, no blade in her hand. She glanced over to my weapon for a smidgen of a second.

  The closer we got, the louder my pulse thumped in my ears. I’d practiced for years in my human form. What difference did it make if I didn’t have my wolf? The strength still came from within me. But this was a dracwulf! An animal I’d never fought.

  More crunching. Louder this time.

  Why wasn’t it attacking?

  Up ahead, the cluster of trees and shrubs created a halo of shadows, easily concealing the animal. Time to act.

  A quick nod to Selena and we fanned out on either side of the spot. We leapt out behind the trunks, our knives poised, and my heart galloping.

  A wild pig snorted and squealed, backing itself against a set of tangled roots, its eyes huge.

  “Fuckin’ shit,” I blurted.

  • • •

  Night draped across the landscape of our first day. Two days left to catch the dracwulves and return to the castle.

  Selena and I sat around a fire beneath a rock ridge that protected us from the snow. I salivated from the sweet smells of the roast pig on our makeshift spit.

  “I don’t get it.” Selena bent her knees, hugging them. “Where can they be?”

  “They could have simply bolted for the nearest town. But with our little piggy here, let’s hope it draws them in our direction.”

  She glanced over to me, shadows dancing beneath her gr
een eyes. Keeping a distance was her specialty today. Nothing I said got her to open up. Maybe that was for the best because we weren’t at summer camp.

  I swept a gaze across the dark curtain staring back at us from the woods. “After dinner, I’ll take first turn standing guard.”

  I withdrew my blade from my boot and set it down beside me.

  “Not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight. I’m happy to take first watch.” She didn’t even look my way as she spoke.

  A laugh pressed hard on my throat. If she suspected me of backstabbing her, then that was perfectly fine because I wasn’t so sure I trusted her either.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Selena

  The cold froze my flesh, digging its claws in like an oversized paw. I shifted in bed, pressing myself against the warmth at my back, calling for sleep to sweep me away.

  But when a hand squeezed around my waist, my eyes snapped open to a fizzling fire, its smoke a wisp, twirling on the breeze. Snowflakes drifted across the morning landscape, covering everything in its white dress. I wasn’t in my bed. Oh, yeah. Wilderness.

  Behind me, Marcin’s breath wafted through my hair. I must have fallen asleep during my guard, and now we cuddled like lovebirds, instead of keeping watch for Klaus and Grit.

  Time to get moving. Father had made it clear that Marcin wasn’t to discover the syringe he’d slipped into my pocket after the guards had patted me down. The antidote would help reduce a dracwulf’s aggression, and that meant getting to a dracwulf first. My eyes stung each time I thought about the anguish Father must have faced in deciding to give up our pets for our protection. I wouldn’t let his actions be in vain.

  I shimmied away in slow motion, but Marcin’s arm slid across my shoulders, tightening his hold, drawing me closer. His forearm was inches below my mouth. My lips tingled with the temptation to lean back and kiss him. Madness. Goddess, any other time, and I’d gladly curl in his embrace, maybe even greet him a special morning hello, but that was me dreaming, and I had to stop fooling myself about anything happening between us.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” His sexy voice had my heart breaking into a sprint. My earlier determination to leave his side dissolved into a mess of melted snow.

  After tracking down my voice, I managed to respond. “Time to hunt.”

  “I’d rather stay here a while longer.” His hold wasn’t loosening, and one of his legs shifted across mine, trapping them, our bodies plastered together, along with his morning hardness nestled against my butt. Any last strands of strength I had to push him away evaporated. Our time back in the cave flooded me with emotion and sweet memories. A tingle zipped down my belly and much lower.

  “Just want to keep you warm.”

  His voice had that deep undertone that sent pin prickles across my skin and swelled my libido to a point of no return. “Y ... you sure that’s all it is?”

  “I’ll make it anything you want.” His slightly hoarse whisper danced across my cheek.

  Couldn’t we be anywhere but in the woods hunting dracwulves? I peeled away his arm, much to my desperate ache to stay there, shuffled my legs free from his bind, and climbed to my feet.

  Marcin hadn’t shifted from his lounging position, lying there like a god, with dreamy bedroom eyes calling me back to his lips, to his embrace.

  But he got to his feet, brushing the foliage from his pants, and zipped up his snow jacket. “If you keep staring at me like that, you won’t be on your legs for much longer.”

  My cheeks were probably an explosion of red, and I reached for the water bottle. What was going on with me? My wolf wasn’t inside me or pestering me that Marcin was ours, yet I craved him intensely. These feelings were mine—raw and animalistic. But with Levin threatening to kill us, me winning the boon was priority. Not my emotions for Marcin. Especially after I saw the hurt in his eyes yesterday when he mentioned the daggers.

  He stuffed the blanket into his backpack, then proceeded to kick snow over the burnt-out fire. If there was ever a wulfkin I’d take as my soul wolf, Marcin was it. My beating heart agreed. His tenacity to confront Levin when the rest of the wulfkin in this pack said nothing made him a hero in my books. But maybe too much shit had gone down between us to ever move forward.

  “Ready?” Marcin asked.

  I brushed my hair back and grabbed my bag. “Yeah, let’s do this.” Before my resolve weakened.

  • • •

  Half the day whizzed past without a sign of either dracwulf, so we now tracked through the woods on the west wing of the castle, heading down a steep slope. My feet slipped over the white powder, but I used the trees to hold myself upright.

  My gaze locked on fresh marks in the snow. “Paw prints.” We hurried closer, and I dropped to my knees alongside the indents with four toes and claws. Maybe a wolf, but they were too large.

  Marcin stood near a skeletal bush, bare of leaves, and plucked white fur strands free. We exchanged hopeful glances.

  “Grit.”

  “We keep moving.” Marcin retrieved his blade.

  Once I was back on my feet, we skulked along in slow motion. The wind blustered around us, shaking branches, their grating spiking my nerves. Every creak and snap had me flinching. How in the world did Levin think this would be a fair fight? Now I wished Father had given me two syringes, but I’d use my ability where I could ... if I could.

  Marcin halted, his arm jolting against my stomach. “Do you smell that?”

  I inhaled the crispness of the earthy forest, pines, before taking another deep inhale. I caught it—the muddy, dog fur scent of a dracwulf.

  This was real.

  No matter what it took, I had to claim the boon. Even if it meant stealing the prize away from Marcin. He wasn’t a wulfkin used to losing, though.

  I cut a quick glance his way as he focused on the path amid the dense trees, his footsteps slow and precise.

  Ignoring the darkness in my mind and in my chest, I pushed every other concern away and homed in on capturing a dracwulf.

  Once we reached the valley, the sky darkened, and we both stopped, listening to a faint rumble of thunder reverberating in the distance. Ahead, I found indents in the snow and rushed to examine them. More paw prints. The dracwulf smell flittered on the wind, making it difficult to narrow down a specific location without my wolf abilities.

  Fast steps, weaving amid trees, only revealed additional prints and fur tagged on brush, but no dracwulf.

  Something red caught my attention from the corner of my eye. I moved closer, Marcin on my heels. At the base of a tree were the remains of animals, maybe a deer, several deer in fact, and even a boar. Bones, fur, skin, and blood were piled into a heap. Either this mess was their dumping ground or a snack for later.

  A terrifying whisper trickled down my spine to my toes.

  Retrieving the syringe played on my mind, but not here, not now. Maybe distance from Marcin was the answer.

  “Let’s split up,” I suggested and retreated back toward the valley. “We might cover more area.”

  “Not a good idea. This is the dracwulf’s stomping ground. We stick together and watch each other’s backs.” He headed farther along the valley, his gaze sweeping the woodlands.

  Fine, we’d do this together, but one way or another, I’d get the first dracwulf. Klaus cascaded into my thoughts, along with the way he’d always stood by my side, guarded me. I remembered the time he was a tiny pup and slept on my chest. He and Grit had been inseparable as pups. In the wild, wolves hunted together, though the prints belonged to one animal.

  Farther ahead, a sheer rock wall jutted out of the ground, while the valley swung upward to the right. Around us, the entire forest seemed to sway. I was on edge.

  A twig snapped behind us.

  I jerked around. Lofty pines were draped in snow. Shadows shifted beneath them. A light dusting of white flakes drifted down around us, and the chill in my bones had zero to do with the weather.

  “It’s here,” I
whispered.

  Another crunch. Louder. Closer. The distinct grunt I’d become all too accustomed to from Grit.

  Marcin’s gaze locked onto the woods behind me. He’d heard it too. “Stay close.” He crept toward the sound, and I took that moment to reach inside the bag for my secret weapon. We’d finish this without hurting Grit too much. Or ourselves.

  Movement to my left. A white blur charged me.

  I recoiled, a yelp falling from my mouth.

  Grit crashed into me, head first into my stomach.

  I was flung back. My chest squeezed, and my hands grasped for leverage but found none. I hit the ground with a thud, knocking the wind out of me when my hip landed on a rock. An explosion of pulsing pain lanced through me.

  Fear took over where determination had been only a moment before.

  Grit was there, inches from me. His incisors on show. Blood matted the side of his face, and half an ear had been ripped off.

  Marcin rushed toward us, brandishing a blade.

  “Grit, it’s me.” As much as I tried to calm my voice, it shook. In slow motion, I dragged myself backward on my butt, the cold of the snow leaching through my clothes. My first attempt at a calm humming song came out as a growl, eliciting a threatening one from Grit.

  He jerked his head around to Marcin, snarled and angled himself to my side, farther from the looming threat.

  I broke into a hum, forcing a simple tune.

  Grit’s attention snapped to me, his eyes softening at once, pupils rolling back. I lifted a hand toward Marcin to stop moving. With my other hand, I still gripped the syringe and twisted myself on my side to rip the lid off with as little noise as possible. Every nerve was strained. My moment to tag a dracwulf and claim my boon.

  A sudden crack of thunder erupted overhead, shaking the ground beneath us, roaring across the heavens.