NOLA“What the fuck was that?” I gasped, leaping from my uncomfortable spot on the fallen timber log where I'd been sitting with the Lycan and whipping my head back and forth over the sepia-shadowed line of trees.“Werewolves, but these are different, can’t be the rogues, the howls sound wrong, warped- Hybrid.” Hector hissed, snarling in what I thought was a possessive fashion.I felt the Lycan standing to his feet slowly, towering over me soundlessly as a shudder went through me, and I wrapped my hands over my ribs just as a pale-faced sentry jogged up the path with loud huffing breaths.“Your Highness, Intruders in the tree lines!” The man panted, pointing over his shoulder just as a bolt of lightning lit up the blue darkness of the sky-high birch trees surrounding us, their shadows appearing to shift just a little too late after the flash.I gasped, clapping my hands to my mouth in surprise and darting my eyes to the hard lines of the beast's face before the intense burn of his sil
HECTOR BAYESThe squelch of wet underbrush behind us had me barreling to an immediate stop in between the leaning towers of white birch trees.I turned to the side slowly, my wolf eyes scanning for movement between the trees and in the canopy foliage.“Stop.” I barked harshly, and the handful of footmen that had followed on our security check whipped to a stop immediately, the bulbous head of one werewolf tipping forward so that it looked like there was nothing, save for a lone branch, stopping him from plunging head-first into the bramble-covered rock of the forest floor.”Did you hear that?” I whispered, craning my neck in the stale air that now permeated the length of the forest but only the soft singing of crickets continued as we listened.I shook my head, feeling oddly uneasy.“Nothing your highness,” Gordon whispered, and I looked around at the other fur-skinned wolves before howling a long, bitter string of expletives and shifting back into my human form.This check was a bust
HECTORIt is sometime in the morning when I hear the shuffling outside the thick linen of my tent and the low whisper of conversation that blurred to an indecipherable hum.”Shit,” I groaned, stretching to a stand in the half-lit expanse of the tent. There was a low wooden stool at the center of the space which I regarded for a moment, before snatching the leather of my trench coat off the hanger and breaking through the lips of the tent flap.Some of the footmen who had been clearing the fallen logs off the dirt path bowed graciously when they saw me. “All done?” I whispered airily to the dark-haired blonde that was heaving armor back in the carriage, a sheen of perspiration coating his forehead even against the bite of cold air that I was sure had reddened the tips of my nose.“Yeah, would be faster if you lent a paw ya know?” Kalden grumbled, baring his teeth at me after he turned to see the smirk on my face as he slammed the carriage door closed.“No, you got it I'm sure, didn't
NOLAThe Lycan and the witch had been talking about me.I was almost certain that was what their rendezvous at the forest clearing had been about, huddled like they were, and with the man spotting me off the bat, it had been hard to listen in on their conversation.“Forget it, Nola,” I chided myself after I’d struck my foot on an unruly branch on my way to the line of wagons that had started to slowly move forward, the brown horses heading the maiden’s stations shuffling forward as the carriage master-a short beach all of a werewolf nodded his head to me and I managed an unconscious wave.“You're late.” Kalden’s deep baritone sent shudders through my frame as I froze, one foot poised over the railing of the carriage before I craned my neck to stare up at the thunderous face with a mousy croak.Nola, farthing's child, could you be any more pathetic?“Grab your shit, you're riding shotgun with me.” He growled, scowling like he had been forced to do babysitting duty while everyone else w
HECTOR“Halt!” I boomed, raising a clenched fist as the noise of chariots deadened to silence behind me, the only sound breaking the quiet being the whistle of the soft draft that swirled dried-up leaves across the path, and the metallic clang of the footmen's armor.A stretch of silence ensued as I peered into the fog, a lock of my waist-length gray hair flying into my face before I whipped it back, unsettled.Silence.“What's wrong?” Kalden’s frantic whisper came as his brown horse marched up beside mine, and I risked a glance at the woman he had cradled behind him, suppressing the bitter tang that barbed my chest.I raked my eyes across the landscape once more. The hills had leveled to a cluster of birch trees and intertwined foliage some while ago so that the winding dirt path was now surrounded by sticks of ash and black forest.“I could have sworn I saw...Never mind, it was probably -” I sighed, gasping and whipping my head violently to the side as a silver-tipped arrow whizzed
HECTOR“Halt!” I boomed, raising a clenched fist as the noise of chariots deadened to silence behind me, the only sound breaking the quiet being the whistle of the soft draft that swirled dried-up leaves across the path, and the metallic clang of the footmen's armor.A stretch of silence ensued as I peered into the fog, a lock of my waist-length gray hair flying into my face before I whipped it back, unsettled.Silence.“What's wrong?” Kalden’s frantic whisper came as his brown horse marched up beside mine, and I risked a glance at the woman he had cradled behind him, suppressing the bitter tang that barbed my chest.I raked my eyes across the landscape once more. The hills had leveled to a cluster of birch trees and intertwined foliage some while ago so that the winding dirt path was now surrounded by sticks of ash and black forest.“I could have sworn I saw...Never mind, it was probably -” I sighed, gasping and whipping my head violently to the side as a silver-tipped arrow whizzed
HECTOR BAYES“Nola! No!” I bellowed, leaping up to the carriage with a loud thunk to grip the woman's hand a second too late before she brought the sword down on the creature’s neck and I watched on in horror, my hands going around her waist and pulling her away a split second before I heard the loud snapping of the creature’s mouth falling closed, the sound of teeth connecting with flesh.“Nola!” I gasped as blood spurted from both extremities, one the black gooey ink of the creature’s substance, and the other was the thick viscose of werewolf blood.I felt it, the point when the chaos on the dirty path deadened to silence, and all eyes turned to face us as the creature fell to the dust path with a thundered gurgle, the slack mountain of its ashy jaws falling open to reveal the large stalagmites of yellowed canines with the hint of a stub of pale neck flesh peeking through the gaps in its teeth.The girl went rigid in my hands, before doubling over to vomit over the sill of the carri
NOLA REYNOLDSThe weight in my stomach churned almost painfully when I closed my eyes and the picture of Mary’s puckered stump of head came unbidden to rest under my eyelids until I snapped them open.I could still see that her head had been bitten through by the yellowed pikes until the balls of her eyes sagged outward.I'd done that, me.“The creature bit her head off when it went into rigor,” A sullen-looking woman came up to press a wet towel to my head sometime after the Lycan had released me to look over the prisoners.We had taken some in the clash, and I watched the contorted frame of their bodies as some of the iron nettle-armored guards poked them into the metal cage that had been fastened to the raft behind the food carriage.I nodded briefly in acknowledgment, settling on the thick bark of a fallen tree branch as she patched me up, the line of maidens beside me scooting away when I settled in, as though whatever accident disease I had was contagious. I didn't blame them o