6.

The walk to the northern border took Farryn longer than she was hoping but with two broken arms, it was hard not to move either one and anytime she did she had to bring herself to a stop to keep from falling over. If she thought she was defenseless before she was really screwed now. However, she could tell from the searing pain that the muscles that had been ripped by the jagged ends of the bone were slowly stitching themselves back together.

Her footsteps slowed once she could see the five humans on the border. None of them were armed from what she could see, and humans weren’t typically the brightest species, so she felt safe in assuming that there were only the five and none in hiding. Farryn cleared her throat loudly, the humans jumped in fright at the sudden noise, each one craning their necks to spot her. She kept herself about five tree lengths away, far enough for them to see her, and far enough for her to be able to run if a weapon was pulled on her. “Who are you?” She demanded. It was best that she questions them first so they didn’t feel they had the upper hand.

The humans looked among each other, trying to decide who would be responsible for speaking for the group. They must not have thought this far ahead when they arrived, probably thinking she wouldn’t show herself. “No one who is a threat.” The voice came from one of the older male humans. He separated himself from the group with a few steps towards her, no more than two, but he made sure to raise his hands for her to see them and even went so far as to lower his head slightly. A motion that brought her eyebrows up with surprise, they must have observed a wolf pack at some point.

Had it been possible, Farryn would have crossed her arms over her chest, something about this male felt familiar, and not in a good way. Seeing her unmoved face he uneasily cleared his throat and glanced at a female behind him who ushered him to continue. “We had heard about what happened to the people of this town, we wanted to see if it was true. Obviously, it is so…um well we want to make a truce with you…guys.” Her eyes narrowed sharply.

“And what makes you think we want to?” His fingers twitched as he resisted the urge to ball them into fists. This wasn’t his idea obviously.

“Because we know not all of you are bloodthirsty killers.” Another older man spoke from behind his companion but Farryn didn’t dare draw her eyes away. Her lips twisted into a crude smile.

“Oh? And what makes you say that?” The human who had done the majority of the talking so far swallowed hard. Farryn could see his Adam’s apple bob even from her distance.

“Because you had a chance to kill me years ago and you didn’t.” Time seemed to freeze as Farryn’s blood turned cold. She could see it now in his body form. He was older, grey peppered his hair and there were age lines on his face but the way he held his body. He was the same man who had shot and killed her sister. The breath seemed to have escaped Farryn as they held each other’s gaze. She wasn’t the only one holding her breath. None of the humans dared to move an inch, afraid that doing so would launch her into a frenzy.

“It would be wise for you to get out of my sight right now.” Her voice was as cold as her body felt. She suppressed the urge to shake, she didn’t want to show any sort of sign that she was affected in anyway by the revelation he made. They had come to her because they thought she had shown him mercy when she was younger. They didn’t realize the truth behind the situation, that she had simply valued her own life over revenge at the time. “Please.” His voice was a whisper, but she heard it just fine.

Despite her instincts screaming at her, she closed her eyes as she inhaled slowly. “All of you, leave, don’t ever come back or I swear my pack will not hesitate to rip every single one of you to shreds. If we have to hunt you down, we will do so.” As her eyes opened, she drew herself closer to them, the adrenaline coursing through her body dulled the pain enough to allow her to move her arms again. She lifted a hand to point to each human in turn.

“I will grant you a mercy your kind hasn’t bothered to show us, not once! So, go back to your pathetic lives and think about who the real bloodthirsty killers are. If I ever hear a word of a human at our borders again, we won’t stop until every human around us is dead. We may even borrow some tactics that your kind has used on us. I don’t care if they are random travelers or not, I will hold you personally responsible.” In the blink of an eye, Farryn was at the human’s nose.

His body trembled as the other four backed away quickly. “Consider this your second chance human and your last.” She couldn’t quite tell if he had nodded his head or his trembling had grown borderline seizure-like, but he turned quickly, tripping over his clumsy feet and running with the other four in tow. Farryn exhaled sharply once they were out of sight, her shoulders tightening as she dropped her arms to her side slowly.

Being around the Storm pack had begun to bring out that territorial animalistic side of her that had vanished. She was falling back into old habits and patterns she had created with her own pack and that thought was terrifying. She had even called the Storm pack hers, despite being told she couldn’t go back. Despite the way she had been brought in she was considering them a new family without even realizing it. Turning away from the border Farryn slowly reached into her mind, into the dark cold corner that used to be filled with so much life, where Namia used to reside. But there was no one there, no one waiting for her to welcome her back if she even was. Her green eyes lifted to the sky; the autumn colored leaves had darkened with the slow pinking of the sky. The sun was setting, predators would be out soon, and she needed to find herself a new shelter.

Lifting her head high she began to set off, east, not towards the pack but not towards the humans either. At least if she were to be alone for the rest of her life than she would know she had done some sort of good by helping them. “Farryn!” The young woman looked over her shoulder to find the same young male who had fetched her before running towards her. His hair was disheveled from his run. Her eyes quickly scanned his face, begging her mind to bring a name to her.

“Ian?” She questioned, unsure if the name was right or not. He nodded as he gulped down air. “Farryn we need you at the town.” Her brows furrowed together with confusion before he looked away, he was fidgeting a lot, nervous to look at her, or nervous to deliver his news. “Chandler is not fit to be our Alpha, I saw the two of you, I saw the way he listened to you. I…I might have let it slip to some of the others.” Farryn inhaled sharply through her nose. “Ian what did you do?”

Finally, the finicky male lifted his gaze to her own. “We are going to remove Chandler from his position. We need someone strong, who can truly lead us, someone who is a true Alpha. That’s you Farryn.”