“Get out of here. Get away, and the wargs will find you. They don’t come into the cities, so you need to get into the woods. They’ll take you to Ronan or somewhere that’s safe.”
Rem stopped before she got onto the wagon, her lips parting as she exhaled. “I am not leaving you.”
Nia squirmed to gain some control, but her bound arms and legs made it nearly impossible. Rem looked at the silver bindings, grabbing at them to see if there was an easy solution—they were locked. Rem pulled at one of the chains and tried to work on breaking them with her bare hands. The metal barely budged.
"Run," Nia quietly stated, her eyes turning amber.
"I'm not leaving you—"
Rem smelled another's presence. She looked over her shoulder as a male approached their wagon in his human form, an injured Jola in the background guarding the other Silvers as Shia swiped at one.
This is all happening too fast. I can't think straight. I acted too quickly. Oh, gods… I ruined it all.
"We apparently need to set examples. Listen here, ladies," the shifter said as he looked at Rem and Nia, running a hand over his braided, black hair, his blue eyes standing out against his dirty face. "Get back in your carriage, sit there like a good girl, and don’t move until we say so. Or else wewillmaim you.”
Rem didn't even think about it. She stood in front of Nia and lunged at the male with her silver dagger, crying out as he dug his claws right into her thigh, her muscle ripping, dropping her dagger. There was a hot, searing pressure in her outer thigh; itburned,and moving only made the pain increase. She looked at him through blurred vision while Nia shouted. Rem groaned with agony.
"You've a penchant for drama," he stated, but Rem barely heard it. "You're not the hero today, bitch, so stop trying to be."
The shifter pulled out his claws, and she shuddered with pain. He went to strike her again, just like Jackson had done.
As Rem went to counterattack, ready to bite his face if she had to, the sound of a large wolf behind Rem made her pause as Nia hadshifted, her ankles and wrists crunching within her confines, unable to break through. Nevertheless, she lunged forward with the one chance she had and bit him hard in the shoulder.
It saved Rem from being slashed in the face.
Rem picked up the dagger and stabbed him in the gut as he reached for his bleeding shoulder and neck. Drunk from adrenaline and pain, Rem could only back away once her dagger struck true, aware of the warmth from her hemorrhaging wounds.
Nia fell forward, unable to keep herself standing as she transformed back into a human. Rem noticed the transformation was uglier this time, joints sticking out in awkward ways as she cried out. Nia grimaced as she rose her arms to look at her mangled wrists—the silver unmarred—with the male shifter’s blood on her face.
The male placed a hand on his shoulder, red liquid squirting out, his black hair getting in his eyes as his forehead glistened with sweat. He looked down at his stomach, pulling the silver dagger out with an ugly grimace. The other Silvers fought off their own attackers, a few bloodied themselves.
Rem staggered on her feet, staring down the injured male before her. "You're either killing me or leaving me, as I amnotgoing with you," Rem spat.
She hoped that the wargs would come into the city.
That was their only hope now.
I should have waited.
Nonetheless, she decided that she couldn't go, even if that meant dying here. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t become a hound, not with how Ronan described it. It also felt like betraying her dignity to just ride away without fighting back,again.
She had accepted death more than once, and she now understood the power in choosing where she breathed her last breath.
Goddess, if you're real, now would be a great chance to show it. Or at least watch over Oliver for me. I am sorry for being hasty… I—I panicked. Please care for my brother.
The shifter, despite his grievous wounds, seemed to echo the sentiment of dying on his own terms as he sprang towards Rem, grabbing her in the injured leg. Fighting was completely novel to her, and she had no idea how to read an attack or counter one.
She screamed out in pain, falling to her knees. He then kicked her in the collarbone, her breath taken away as agony radiated through her shoulder and back. She collapsed into a supine position with her mouth open in a silent cry of dread, staring up the wall of a building that she lay next to.
She wasnotused to this kind of pain.How did Ronan do this?
The shifter came over to Rem; Nia cried out, although Rem could barely understand what she was saying. Her mind was gone, adrenaline working hard to numb the searing pain. She stared up the wall at the shuttered windows, wishingsomeonewould help.
He stood over Rem, both feet on either side of her waist, his blood dripping onto her as he gave her a matching injury on her other thigh, stabbing his claws into her muscle and flesh once more. She shouted in agony, the veins in her head feeling like they'd burst.
How much more of this could she handle?
The cry reached beyond the area, and if she were more coherent, she could hear it echo through the streets like a howl.
