Thorn (Werewolf) ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five

I'm not going to make it in time. I can hear their thunderous movements as they charge throughout the woods. An entire army of Thorns with all the same senses—but they are in their wolf forms and he isn't.

I'm confused. Why have they turned but not him? I remember Thorn telling me something about it once, about an occurrence that renders them different. It was why he used the cave eighty years ago. He didn't tell me to go there because they'd be able to trace his scent there but he showed me the waterfall cave from a far distance so it should be safe.

I don't know where he is. I'm scared to look. I keep running forwards as fast as I can. This is what he's been training me for. Our long morning runs are finally paying off. I just always assumed it would be the hunters that I'd be running from and not supernatural creatures.

I climb the steep trail to higher ground, my feet arriving at the edge of a small cliff. Without even trying, I see him. The darkness isn't even a factor, my mind can just pinpoint exactly where he is. Like a sixth sense. He crouches at the top of one of the biggest trees, dangling the gun in his fingertips as he stares at me. He points his other hand across the clifftop.

Oh. Right. There's a weapon here. . . somewhere. He showed me this merely two days ago and I have no freaking idea which tree it was. I look towards the trees behind me nervously before looking back and shrugging. He slaps his head. He starts counting on his fingers, holding up eight.

Eight what? Eight inches? Trees? Metres? Miles?

He throws his hand through the air aggressively, telling me to go. I snarl my teeth at him. I spin back around and I panic as I look at the line of trees. I decide to walk to the one closest to me and I bend down, patting away the leaf pile at the bottom.

It was Thorn's idea to bury the hunters' guns away from the camp. He didn't like the thought of them all being in the same place in case we were too far from the camp to go back. He might be paranoid but I can't fault his planning.

I breathe out with relief when I feel the gun underneath the dirt. It was the right tree. Eight steps away.

I hold it in my hand as I run across the cliff. I stick to the middle so I'm not seen. The sun is still blocked and I'm hoping that this will all end when the eclipse does. I just have to survive until then. I think back to when I studied this years ago—I'm pretty sure that they don't last long. Ten minutes at most. It must have been ten minutes by now. Why isn't the eclipse stopping?

I twist myself around the trees as I hear the sound of dropping water in the distance from the waterfall. I stop abruptly as I catch the sight of a group of men slowly creeping through the darkness.

My back slams against a tree and I keep a hand tight to my mouth until my breathless panting is under control. I peer around the tree. There's four or five of them. I can't tell if they're looking for me or if they're normal hunters.

I flinch as one of them shoots something. Crap. If Thorn can hear vibrations for miles then I'm assuming that the other werewolves can too. I tuck the gun into the back of my pants and I stare up at the tree above me. I jump up towards the lowest branch, firmly gripping it just enough so that I can swing my legs against the trunk. I reach out for a broken branch stump and I balance my feet as I try to wiggle myself upwards.

I hear the thunder again. The ground trembles as something big runs this way. I'm out of time. I can't climb any higher without making noise so I settle myself onto a large hanging branch, just high enough to hopefully not be seen.

It makes no difference if they can smell me but would they know it's me or would they think it's another human?

The hunters seem to be celebrating a kill. They are oblivious to what is coming and though I want to warn them, I can't risk it. They might be hired by my father. They still have to eat out here.