THIRTY-THREE | SET IN STONE

Some time later, I open my eyes. I'm aching all over, laying on my side, just a few feet from the spot I'd collapse earlier. The night sky is still hanging darkly above, my Wolven senses on automatic, the darkness a gentle day, but the sliver of moon high above gives away the late time. Carefully, I sit up, absently brushing rocks and dirt from my skin as my head continues to throb. Something sticks to my hand when I touch my cheek and I trace the slightly crusty stuff back to my nose. Blood. My blood.

I refrain from gagging. Not because I'm squeamish, I'm not. But because it's only then I remember the horrific movie and near-miss of my first human kill. I find myself viciously scrubbing the blood away, disgusted and seriously doubting my own sanity right now.

"Pull yourself together, Scarlett!" I scold myself, dragging my hands through my hair, letting the snagging snarls ground me again. *Breathe*. The instruction comes again and again, clearer each time as I breathe in and out, closing my eyes.

When I'm calmer, I get up, opening my eyes and looking around. *Where the hell am I?* Looming buildings are all around, and I smell salt in the air, but it's not as strong as it would be if I were at the beach. There aren't any signs or logos to help me, and all lights are off inside the buildings.

I groan inwardly, wishing I'd at least tried to think about where I'd been going. Now I'm exhausted, in the middle of nowhere, and starving. And maybe just a little thirsty. My mouth feels like I've been chewing rubber for five days straight. My teeth ache, jaw sore, tongue raw, even the insides of my cheek muscles hurt. I give my neck an experimental roll, stretching the sore muscles and forcing the rest of me into a standing position. *Ugh, everything hurts*.

When I look up, I see, too late, that I'm no longer alone. Two Wolven are watching me from a few yards away. I can't sense them. At all. But I recognize the taller of the two, her face as familiar to me as my own. I know if her hair was down, it'd be straight, the only other way to tell us apart. As it is right now, her blood-red hair is pulled into a high bun. The only difference between us right now is the shade of blue her eyes are. Cerulean.

And then, my own eyes drift to the marks at her jaw. The edges of the tribal tattoo lick at her pale skin, sending ice through me. We stare at each other for a moment, her eyes giving nothing away, face a mask of calm. Then I glance at the shorter Wolven, my stomach twisting as I examine her.

She's a teen, just barely. The marks of a Tracker for the elite squad scale up the side of her left jaw, her silvery hair is straight, cut in an asymmetrical sort of bob, gold highlights masking the soft red I know would be there in it's place. Her eyes, like mine, like our Grandmother's, are a deep, burning sapphire that halt my breath.

"Ivy?" I stare at the young girl before me. When I left, she was six, barely able to shift, and now... The teen sneers at me, her gaze going icy as she looks over me.

"Scarlett." She spits the name out like Ry had, hard and acidic. I cringe as her anger shudders through the bond, stinging my heart like a slap to the face. My hands ball into fists at my side as I fight the crippling tightening of her wrath. She's not a Tracker, then, but an Enforcer. A fighter, and killer.

"Focus, Ivy." Paris snaps at our youngest cousin and turns her nearly identical face to mine. "We've come to take you back, Scarlett. Grandmother wishes to give your punishment personally." She says icily, addressing me by my human name, making her words as cold and devoid of emotion as her face is. "By force if needed." She glances over my shoulder. I catch the sounds of even footsteps and three other, more clumsy pairs closing in. Dammit.

"That won't be necessary." I say quietly, so only they can hear it. I can't keep running. And I most definitely can't put my new friends in danger. I close my eyes for a second, restraining the fear inside as I take a step towards my cousins. An all-consuming wave of control ripples through the bond, gripping my body in a vice of continuous movement. I can't stop myself from taking the next step, then the the next. The fear I buried rears up and consumes me as I try to fight the control over my body, the Pack bond growing stronger by the second.

"Red, stop!" Blue yells before I can take another step. My entire body tenses at the sound of his voice, the void I was mentally stepping into closes and falls away. Ivy lets out a hiss of anger. My eyes snap open and I meet Paris' cerulean gaze. Our eyes hold for a long minute. Bewilderment is evident in her otherwise expressionless face, the control the bond of our Pack has over me is dwindling. And I know she knows why.

"Wisty?" Her voice is soft, surprised, and a little worried. And for a second, it's like I never left. Like the Pack never tried to kill me. Like we're best friends.

"I'm sorry, Parri," I breathe in response, back peddling before Ivy can react. Blue is suddenly beside me, pulling me behind him and facing off against my cousins.

"You're trespassing." He growls at the girls, his voice only just audible. Barely controlled rage is making his entire body shake and his muscled are literally shuddering under his skin. He's maybe five seconds away from shifting. I press a hand to his shoulder, trying to soothe him, but the gesture only seems to make him tenser. "Leave now."

"Or what?" Paris sneers at Blue, her lip curling up to flash him her now sharpening canines.

"You're shielding a fugitive of the Reinier Pack, Alpha. Release her into our custody immediately, or face the consequences." Ivy narrows her eyes at Blue, using a formal, yet authoritative tone that has my head aching. It's a formal request, but also a warning.

"Z, we need to go, now." Yuri's voice calls from behind us. I hear his footsteps falter and the other two beside him. I recognize the patterns, and also a different pair. The air fills with salt and I wince. So not just Paris and Ivy. It's the entire elite squad.

"Blue, you guys need to go." I warn Blue softly, squeezing his shoulder. He wraps an arm around me, keeping me behind him, secured at his side.

"Not without you." He growls.

"Alright, it seems you don't want to cooperate." Paris says, shaking her head. "Squad, plan B." It's all the warning we get before they spring at us. Both girls stay in human forms, but by their fluidity and coordination of their movements, I know what's coming next. I pull away from Blue, leaving him to fight Ivy while breaking Paris' focus and forcing the more experienced of the two to follow me.

"Red-" Smack. Blue get's a punch to his gut for his trouble, but quickly returns his attention to my younger cousin and blocks her next strikes. Yuri growls somewhere behind me and to the left. Quick footsteps follow after his heavier ones, fast and self-assured, but with a slight falter. Ryker.

"Z, we need to go, now." Yuri calls again over the next succession of thuds and shuffling. My attention is quickly drawn back to my own fighter as pain explodes across my right side and the air's knocked from my lungs. I only just avoid the next blow, aimed at my face. My arm aches as the power behind her kick ricochets through me. I grit my teeth and feel my knees begin to buckle.

"Focus, Scarlett." Paris sneers at me, then switches her expression back to a blank slate before righting herself. In a blur of movement, too fast for me to follow, she's there, then gone. My body gets thrown against the nearest wall, head connecting against something solid. "Mommy never taught you to fight, did she?" Paris' form blurs as I look up at her, my ears ringing. "What a shame." She pulls her arm back, about to deliver another blow, when she's thrown back.

"Get away from her," Blue is suddenly facing off with Paris. I blink, almost missing the speed a which the two dive at each other, murder in their eyes. In terms of strength, Paris is at a disadvantage, but Blue isn't as fast as my mirror image of a cousin. I do notice he avoids hitting her face, though. Huh.

"Yuri!" Misha's voice suddenly cries out in fear, directing my eyes over to the teen fighting with a dark figure. Her face is a mask of terror, a heap of a body lays behind her, face bloodied and glasses cracked on his young face. He's out cold, barely breathing if the uneven rasping sounds he's making can be described as breathing.

The man she's facing off with has his sandy-blonde hair tied up in a pony tail at the base of his skull, scars visible all over his skin. Various marks trail up and down his arms in thick ink, they merge into the mark of the Pack's Trackers, scraping up his jaw and merging with his five o'clock shadow. Ice trickles through my veins at the too-wide smile stretching his lips into a terrifying Cheshire-cat grin. His cerulean eyes are empty, too wide, too cold to be human as he delivers blow after blow. Craven.

Misha is only just keeping up with him. That's what it looks like, but I know different. Craven is toying with her. Each strike she blocks exposes more and more of her other side. As if to prove my point, Craven suddenly jerks back and moves like smoke before reappearing at Misha's exposed right side. Bright red blooms in three long gashes from her hip to shoulder.

"Misha!" I can't seem to scream loud enough as the sweet girl falls to her knees, her eyes wide and glassy. I struggle to get up, trying to get to the two Azures now at the complete mercy of my deranged cousin. "Craven, don't you dare!" I scream as the man grabs both bleeding Azure by their necks, holding them like chickens about to be slaughtered.

"Tut-tut, cousin," He looks down at me, the glee of his smile even more terrifying than it was the first time I saw it. "If only you didn't put up such a fight, we could have avoided all this." I think quickly, seeing the two struggling to breathe, even as their other wounds are sluggishly healing. They'll live if I can just give them some time. An idea sparks in my head.

"Craven, you psycho-" I hiss, getting to my feet only to be thrown back again. This time, Craven's hand is wrapped around my throat.

"Psycho, huh?" He grins at me, his eyes brighter, nearly glowing an eerie electric color. I fight the shudder coursing down my spine. "Is that the best you got?" His grin widens, stretching his mouth so grotesquely it could be comical...if his eye weren't screaming murder.

"Craven, I see your Grandmother hasn't put you down yet." Hale says coolly beside my insane cousin. His eyes are an icy, yet acidic evergreen shade that makes my head throb. Craven pales, actually blanches, before releasing me and turning to face the man.

"You disgusting creature," Craven hisses at Hale, backing up a whole foot. Mr. Hale gives him an icy smile.

"You three should leave before my subordinate gets here. Although, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you again." He tells him, taking a slow, even step towards him. A muscle in Craven's face twitches and I swear, for a split second, I actually see fear in his cerulean eyes.

"We're here for the pup and we're not leaving without her." Craven regains some of the composure he'd lost, his smile reappearing. Hale frowns, narrowing his eyes at my cousin before putting himself between us.

"Can you stand?" Hale asks me, keeping his eyes on Craven. I nod, not sure I can make a sound. "Gather the others, Ritska will be along shortly to help me take care of this situation. But you need to get the pups back to their territory before they loose too much blood." He warns and allows me a quick glance. His eyes search mine for a brief moment, and again, I'm struck with a sense of familiarity. "Go quickly." Craven's form shudders in place.

"Hale!" I try to warn him, but Craven moves like lightning. Hale's head whips to the side, jerking at an awkward angle. I let out a scream of horror as my father's eyes go wide, then glaze over. He falls to the ground, Craven behind him. My demented cousin's eyes are triumphant, his too-wide smile showing off his pointed teeth.