Wolf Bound

Vincent - Little Pig + Let Me In

The tickle in my throat was hard to ignore as Genesis and I scavenged through the woods together. Nonetheless, I forced it down and plowed through the discomfort. "Genesis, try not to fall behind. It's very easy to get lost along this path. So, just keep close to me, okay? I can't promise I'd be able to find you in time if anything were to happen." Goddammit.

Even the mere act of talking felt rubble rubbing against my fucking throat.

"Oh? Is that kindness I hear? Wow. I may need to clean my ears out," she retorted.

"No. What you're hearing is a warning," I stated, calmly.

"That sounded pretty kind to me . . . and for the most part, out of character coming from you," she muttered, kicking the pebbles ahead of our path.

I shot her a narrowed-eyed look over my shoulder. But all I received was a shrug in reply. I rolled my eyes and turned my head forward again, the silence falling over us like tidal waves. I heard a deep sigh, then the feeling of Genesis' eyes plagued me. It was a feeling I was growing used to—as if I was a rubix cube she desperately wanted to figure out. But I wouldn't allow her to get that close, nor would I allow myself to succumb to her charisma.

As we continued walking, she muttered something faint under her breath. I paused, my eyebrows knitting together. "What are you mumbling about now?"

"Uh, I was just wondering how far from the main road we were going to walk. We're pretty far now and we've been walking for a while," she said, shrugging. If I had enough energy, I'd point out how awful of a liar she was. But I didn't. So, I brushed it off and played along.

"Just a few more feet ahead," I said, walking forward.

"Hey wait! Those legs of yours move fast as hell," she huffed and trotted forward on my tip-toes in an attempt to catch up to me.

"Here." I stopped abruptly, closing my eyes and sniffing the air.

Bingo, this was it.

"This is where we left off on our search." After dragging myself towards one of the nearest trees to lean against it, I said, "Okay, you got what you wanted. We're here. Now what?"

Not now, I repeated that thought as I felt the subtle obnoxious twitch in my fingers. Shit, this couldn't have been an even worse time for my body to fail me. There was a battle for air within my chest. But I tried my best to hide it by hunching my spine. Perhaps if I did that long enough, I'd be able to hold out for just a little longer. Oh, who the hell was I kidding? I fucking felt weak. I was sure I looked weak too. Like I was on the verge of passing out.

What the hell was wrong with me?

Genesis frowned.

Could she tell something was wrong? Fuck, she probably could. The last thing I needed was her noticing and worrying about me.

"Um, well . . . I wanted to take a look around," she said.

"The floor is all yours." Clearing my throat, I gestured around the trees. Genesis took her time strolling around the patches of grass littered across the ground. She clenched her hands into a tight fist as if she was fighting something. I frowned but said nothing.

"You said Amaury was handling some alpha business that night, right?" she asked.

"Correct," I said.

"Okay then, he had to come from somewhere, right? Whatever direction he was heading from, led him to me."

"That would be a plausible thought if we hadn't considered that already. Unfortunately for you, the odds don't work in your favor"—I needed to look her in the eyes, needed her to see there was a reason I couldn't let go of my suspicions so easily—"when we tried to backtrack on his whereabouts, his blood trail was useless. It only trailed through where everything went down between you two."