DESIDERIUM

eighteen

After what feels like hours, my wolf finally starts slowing down and stops completely when we arrive at a place we haven't been to for a while.

My wolf makes himself slowly skins down to the forest floor, laying down with his head on his paws and taking in the familiar scenery in front of us.

It's a lake that he found when we were still young and he needed to let off some steam. When we didn't understand each other as we do now. He would run through the woods for hours without an end, until one day he found this place.

A small untouched lake in the middle of the woods.

His gaze follows the outline of the familiar lake in front of him, a deep breath escaping my wolf's chest when he relaxes just a little.

This place always had a calming effect on him, a thing he desperately needed. Especially when the physical abuse started happening.

My heart squeezes painfully in my chest at all the memories that come flooding back to me and my wolf lets out a small whimper, a gesture that does little to comfort me.

How much do we have to go through before it gets too much? Too much to handle? Too much to bear?

This is the only place that no one knows about. At least no one, that I know.

Not even my mates have followed me out here. They know about the rocks, about my favorite tree, about basically every other place but this, this place is all mine.

My wolf huffs in my head.

Well, mine and my wolfs.

It's the place we went to after my uncle hurt us and we needed to heal before others could see it.

It's the only place I've ever cried.

In the past I would've shifted back and jumped into the water, I'd just float there, my thoughts silenced because of the water surrounding me.

Its the only time I could find some sort of inner peace.

Today I don't. Today I let my wolf enjoy the quiet noises around us, let him watch the birds in the trees and the squirrels climbing them.

I let him enjoy the silence until there isn't any more.

There's a loud cracking sound somewhere in the forest behind us and my wolf is on high alert almost immediately.

He knows what kind of sounds a wild animal makes and what kind of sounds a human makes.

This wasn't a wild animal.

And it isn't. When he notices a dark figure standing behind a tree, not being able to decipher who it is, he starts to bare his teeth and growl warningly, threateningly. 

"Easy, wolfie."

I don't know that voice.

"When I come out, you're not going to attack me. Otherwise, you'll be laying in the same hospital as your mate, but you won't be able to wake up."

What the fuck?

My wolf just starts growling louder, more viciously, but the figure doesn't budge and starts coming towards us slowly.

My wolf tries to sniff the air, to make out who it is, but he doesn't and when the recognition washes over me because the same exact thing happened earlier today, I can finally make out his face.

The hunter.

"Don't," he warns my wolf, holding up a bow and arrow in a warning and I tell my wolf to calm down.