The Wolf's Claim (Sample)

Three: Oliver

Oliver's P.O.V.

The sun beating down on my furry body as water lapped at my legs had me stirring with a groan of pain. Every part of my body was hurting, and flashes of being attacked flittered through my mind. Leave it to rogues to not be able to even kill someone properly.

But they did. I knew they did.

I was wildly aware that my soul had left my body. What I couldn't understand was why it was back. The Goddess had been a hair's breadth away, ready to guide me onward. The sweet taste of the afterlife to feast with my fallen brothers...with my mother, was within reach and then it was torn from me.

Then she sent me away, banished me from her world, back to the Earth to suffer the pain of mortality.

I felt my wolf stir within my mind, clearly not appreciating my dramatics as he came to. I lifted my head, the dry sand from the ground beneath me coated my tongue, and I let out a wolfish cough to clear my throat.

My legs wobbled beneath me as I pulled my body upright, my left hind leg remaining limp. While I still had blood rushing in my head, blocking out most sound, I could still smell the world around me, letting me know that I was not alone.

I wanted to give up, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to. My wolf had returned to me, seeming significantly better than the heartbroken pup he was acting before, and my body would begin healing as soon as I regained some strength. If I stayed where I was, I was sure to have another run in with the creatures of the forest.

Only this time, I wasn't ready to fight them. A dark tickle in my mind motivated me to move forward as I imagined stumbling across the rogues who had killed me and ripping their beating hearts from their body. They had made a mistake in choosing me.

I had been brought back to life by the Goddess for a reason, and I sure as Hell wasn't going to let them get away to hurt other innocent beings.

My body moved forward on its own, too weak to hold my leg up and the continue pain of the limp limb brushing against the ground had me stumbling with a whimper.

There was no telling how long I was stumbling across the sand covered edges of the gorge before the walls disappeared, and I was able to move north, away from the flowing water and rocky surroundings. My wolf was pulling me forward, guiding me as I stumbled and drug myself obediently. If he said help was close, I just needed to listen to his instinct.

Then again it was the pull that had brought me to my unfaithful mate and led me to this mess to begin with.

The sweet smell of orange and vanilla gently caressed my face, and I paused to inhale the aroma on the breeze. When the wind died down, I turned toward the direction it came from and continued on.

Childish giggling echoed through the forest, making my wolf stir and the pressure on my chest lessened. It was a welcomed sound. The buzzing in my head began to clear, as if the young girl's laughter had washed my mind free of the trauma I had just endured.

My body, not so much.

A branch jutting from the ground sent me sprawling forward through the tree-line, the bottom of my chin smashing against the ground as a whimper ripped from my chest. My eyes closed as my breath caught, and I refused to move while the tremors of agony rushed through my body. Divinity be damned, it was a cruel joke to bring me back to the living in the same damaged body I had left it in.

"Mommy, look!" The young girl called out as I tried and failed to open my eyes. The sweet scent of orange and vanilla reminded me of the treats my mother would make me as a child, and the fleeting thought that maybe this was the afterlife and that my mother was here after all, skittered through my mind.