Chapter 076
HANNAH
A woman with torn and tattered clothes ran into the training ground.
"My baby," she screamed, throwing her hands up in the air and then throwing herself on the ground. "It has taken my baby."
People began to run to her, but Cade got there first. Everyone gathered around to ask her the same question: What had happened?
"Look at me," Cade said in a low voice. “Talk to me.”
Responding to the authority in his tone, she turned her wild and terrified eyes to him.
"Tell me what took your child," he continued.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she forced out the words, "It was a bone coyote. It came and took her into the woods, and I couldn't do anything to stop it."
She dissolved into tears.
Everyone let out a hiss. Bone coyotes were notorious for stealing children.
Cade immediately began barking out orders. "You heard her. Everyone split up! Fan out into the woods. Find that baby and kill the creature."
He bent to give the woman's arm a reassuring squeeze. Then, he was off after the others, running into the woods adjoining the training ground.
I hesitated for just a moment, then took off after them, hoping desperately that the coyote wouldn't hurt the child until it was found.
Logan was in front of me, running so fast he was almost a blur.
"Ace, Nox, move to the west," I heard someone to my left yell.
Soon, I couldn't see any of the others anymore. I started to lose my breath. I couldn't keep up anymore.
"Please, please. Give me a little more strength," I gasped, pleading with my wolf on the off chance she was listening at all.
Just as I said the words, there was a sudden sharp, ringing sound. I looked around for the source before I realized it was coming from inside me. Then it hit me like a strong wave, ringing loudly inside my head.
I stumbled and fell to the forest floor, clapping my hands to my ears. My screams were lost in the ringing sound that drowned out everything else. Just when I thought it would split my head open, I heard another sound- a crack, then a snap.
"Wh- what?" I stuttered.
Before my very eyes, my bones were breaking and resetting themselves. I was conscious of the pain on some level, but it was numbed by the shock of what was happening.
'Let me out,' a part of me I immediately recognized as my wolf begged. 'Let me out.'
It was happening!
I was shifting.
I stopped fighting it and let my wolf take control.
The snapping sounds increased. So did the pain. I shrieked at the agony. A few seconds more, and my shrieks became howls. Then I smelled it- the coyote.
I leapt to my feet, registering almost immediately that I was now standing on paws, not legs. I didn't have time to look over my new form.
I shot off after the scent. I didn't have far to go. Close to a large tree, the coyote crouched, its fangs out, dribbling saliva, and its long, slender body ready to spring at the child, who was screaming at the top of its lungs.
I dug my paws into the dirt and launched myself at the coyote, throwing it against a tree. With a growl, it came at me, its sharp teeth snapping, aimed at my throat. It bit my shoulder.
The rage in me felt like molten lava burning me from the inside out. I charged at the coyote, grabbed it's mouth with my front paws.
Its howls of fury soon changed to howls of pain as I tore apart its mouth. I didn't stop until it was completely torn into two. The beast lay dead but twitching at my feet.
Throwing my head back, I let out a loud howl of triumph. The woods were strangely silent. Then I remembered- the child.
I ran up to it. Shock and fear had made her pass out, but she looked unhurt. Gently, I picked her up.
I heard them crashing through the woods before I saw them—the guards and warriors. Their reactions were the same the moment they saw me.
They stopped, froze, and stared at me in surprise and awe—even Logan, Cade, Jace, and Chase. Soon, there was quite a small crowd around me, though everyone kept a respectful distance. You could have cut the sudden silence with a knife.
I didn't understand it.
Yes, it was my first time shifting but it shouldn't be this much of a surprise. It was what I was being trained for after all.
A movement to the right caught my attention. In shocked surprise, I saw first Logan and then the triplets fall to their knees. Everyone else followed. They all bowed, their heads lowered with respect.
But to who? Me? Why would they show me the respect equivalent to an Alpha just because I shifted? Could it be something else?
For the first time, I looked down at myself, at my paws. Then I understood.
My wolf was a blinding white colour.
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