Instinct

Chapter #20

Fear slowly but surely trickled in my veins. Every minute closer to the cottage had me more on the edge than the previous. I struggled as I desperately tried recalling any information that could help me put two and two together. 

I shook my head with every dead end I came to, and Raiden glanced at me nervously, "What is it?" he asked in a hard tone. 

I dismissed his question with a shake of the head. The Alpha seemed upset that I couldn't open up to him. 

Perhaps this was something I had to do more? I asked myself as I stared blankly at the dirt road feeding into the car's bright headlights. We suddenly hit a large stone and I went flying in my seat despite my seatbelt. Raiden apologised under his breath, and while I wish he could have shown more emotion than the anger pulling at the features of his face, I accepted it without much complaint. 

He yanked the steering wheel as he came in hot into the next curve and I gasped and held onto my seat. Raiden dismissed my reaction with a glance while I struggled to keep my composure. 

"Tania you stink of fear," he muttered as he veered to the left at the next junction.  

I immediately growled at him, "Well if you wouldn't drive like a maniac, perhaps I'd smell like a bouquet of pansies and a cool spring breeze, or whatever concept you want me to smell like."

Raiden exhaled deeply through his flaring nostrils, "I'm only saying tha-"

"I can't smell Raiden!" I yelled and saw him immediately tense up at my tone, "It might come as a surprise to you, but I still don't have my wolf, you do." I seethed. 

He raised his fingers from the smooth leather steering wheel in surrender, "That's not what I meant, I'm just saying that Alpha Theo might use it against you..." 

Oh... I realised I reacted too quickly and hadn't thought that he might just be protecting me. 

I was about to apologise, but we had already arrived at the cottage, and Raiden came to a very slow stop. He shifted into first and let the car roll without pressing the accelerator. Ahead of us, two rows of superficially dormant Hollows lined each side of the rocky beige dirt road that led to the cottage. 

"Don't make a sound..." My Chooser said under his breath. I grew tenser with every revolution made by the car's wheels as the engine slowly drove us between the sleeping soldiers. Each Hollow looked different, but also looked the same. The first that caught my attention was a Hollow with a lopsided jaw. It breathed labourously, black goo oozed out of the slits it had sliced on its sides. Its head jerked to look at me with its empty eye-sockets and my breath caught in my throat as we locked gazes. It looked like it could see straight through me, and when I turned in my seat to look at it longer, it tilted its decaying neck as if to look at me from a different angle. A part of me was afraid its head would pop off its hunched position and rotting joints. 

Time seemed to have frozen because the rows of Hollows never ended until we reached the cottage where a clearing had be encircled by more decaying werewolves. 

The curse wouldn't be lifted until Raiden found the right mate, but how could it be me when I don't even have my wolf anymore...?

Raiden cleared his throat and I snapped out of my thoughts, "Stay here..." he bristled, and when I looked at the cottage's white painted porch I noticed the familiar leather jacket that had bumped into me earlier tonight. It was Alpha Theo. The last time I had seen him, I didn't wake up for weeks, all thanks to his pet, Iris... 

Without having much time to protest, the Alpha King left me in his car. From the corner of my eye, I saw the Hollows leaning in as if they also tried listening in on the words the alphas were to exchange with one another. Suddenly, something flashed by and I bumped my forehead against the glass as I tried following its movements.