85: Run, Aife, run!
**Aife pov**
“Wh-what?” I whispered, my own voice breaking as I tried to process what that one word meant.
Deep down, I knew who Clove was talking about, but I still hoped against hope that I was wrong and Bane, or the monster Bane, hadn’t found us here.
“Clove, I need you to tell me who is ‘him’ you just mentioned. Tell me. Now,” I forced the words through gritted teeth.
She whimpered again and started clawing at the barrier in my mind. Keeping her down was becoming nearly impossible as her panic bled into me.
“Don’t,” I hissed and forced my hands into tight fists, pressing them against the floor. “Don’t you fucking dare try to shift! You know the shift might harm the baby and if you force it on me, it’ll be ten times worse! Don’t you even think of it!”
“Aife,” Clove whimpered but finally stopped clawing at the barrier. “We need to leave, we must go now.”
I took a deep breath and slowly forced myself back upright. “You can’t tell me you want me to leave when a moment ago, as soon as I tried to open the door, you screamed so loud, you nearly paralyzed me. Seriously, what do we do - leave the cabin or hide inside? I need an answer and I need it now.”
I could feel the moment Clove started pacing in my mind, as if she tried to weigh the options. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted, her voice low and quiet. “I don’t know.” She repeated.
Running a hand through my hair, I closed my eyes and let out a heavy breath, trying to calm my raging nerves and force my senses down. This wasn’t the moment to let the panic overrule logical thinking.
“We don’t have time to waste, so we need to make the decision,” I finally said, my own voice sounding weak, almost pleading.
If I had any idea where the rest were, I could try to find them and warn them about possible danger, but running through the snowy forest without any idea in which direction they went would be absolute insanity.
“And you need to tell me what has you on such high alert. What scared you, Clove?” I added, making sure my voice was soft and didn’t drip any accusations.
At the end of the day, Clove and I were a team and we had to stay as one. Having baseless arguments was unnecessary and I wanted my wolf to trust me as much as I trusted her.
The moment I reached my hand closer to the door handle, Clove screamed again. This time, the scream wasn’t as soul-shattering, it sounded more startled than anything.
Slowly, I pulled my hand back again and whispered, “you saw something, didn’t you?”
Goddess, when Clove swallowed, I could hear the sound echo in my mind and that very moment, I knew I was right - she did see something and that something was awful enough for her not to want to tell me.
“Please,” I whispered weakly. “Please tell me what you saw. Clove, I’m begging you.”
“Aife,” Clove tried to speak, but her voice got caught in her throat. She tried and tried, but all that came out were mere whimpers and sounds of choking. “I can’t-”
“Yes, you can,” I cut her off and insisted. “If not for yourself or me, you need to tell me for our pup. That’s all that matters right now - the safety of the life we carry. Clove, if you keep stalling, it might be too late by the time you finally speak up and we might find ourselves in a deathly situation.”
“I-” she tried to talk, but instantly cut herself off. Somehow, I could feel how her fur stood up in alert and could picture the rigid posture Clove took along with bared canines.
“Clove?” I called out in a whisper, feeling my heartbeat spike up again. “Clove, talk to me please.”
Before she could answer, I jumped and screamed - a tree, or something heavier, fell somewhere outside, pretty far from the cabin and startled me.
Clove sucked in a sharp breath and screamed, “it’s him! Run, Aife, run!”
The smart thing would be to grab something, at least boots and take off, but the desperate thing was exactly what I did - I grabbed the door handle, swung the door open and stepped out in the cold.
I gave myself maybe a second or two to look around and check if I could see footprints, but since I couldn’t notice any right away - I did what my instincts told me to do, I took off.
There wasn’t even a single fiber within my being that cared that I ran barefoot and without a jacket, all I knew was that I had to keep running until I could find a place safer than that cabin.
“He’s following, Aife, the monster is following us!” Clove screamed from the back of my mind. “He can feel you, he won’t stop!”
I didn’t bother to answer her words and instead, pushed myself forward, focusing only on the thought of keeping the baby safe and away from whatever it was.
“I can see him,” Clove cried out. “He’s in my head,” she added, sounding more panicked than previously.
Again, I didn’t ask her to specify anything or to share more details. I knew that having a monstrous image in her mind couldn’t be pleasant, but I really had none of it. For as long as I could run, I would, all to keep my baby away from it.
Maybe I was paranoid, but something was telling me that this monstrous creature didn’t want to catch me - it was after me to kill. I doubted it had any idea I was carrying a new life under my heart, but if I had any say in it, I knew that I would make sure neither the monster or Bane found out about the pregnancy.
And if I had to, I would stop running after I gave birth. I would gladly give myself up and let the monster rip me to pieces if it meant my child would live.
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