Unbroken (Untouched #2)

Chapter 1

ELLEN pulled the jacket tighter around her and felt her boots sink into the blanket of snow as she paused to gather her erratic thoughts.

Her cheeks were stinging and her skin pink and raw. Her face was aching from the heavy breathing but more-so from the frigidness of the air.

She peered around at the forest but all that she was surrounded with was white powder and peeking patches of wooden-brown. The trees towered over her like swaying giants. They made her feel like a mere insignificant speck and in the scheme of things, maybe she was. Still, she remained in the centre of the wilderness and listened to the mesmerizing song of the dancing canopy.

Breaking from the hypnotic trance, she noticed that the blanket on the ground was smooth; a bit too smooth for what she was searching for. It betrayed no signs of ever having been treaded on. And, admittedly so, she would have been none the wiser if it hadn't been for the information passed down from the eminence herself; someone who she had come to trust and ultimately now owed her life to: Claudia.

That was not to say that she Hans Grey was significant; of course he wasn't. He was vital too. But it was Claudia that kept them safe and was the figurehead of her kind, and it was Claudia who was instrumental in taking their biggest threat down just a little while ago.

What am I doing here? The last sighting was from around here somewhere, she told herself. I can't go back empty handed. They trusted me to do this. I can't let them down and fail.

A twin stream shot from her nose as she expelled a deep lungful of air. It did nothing to alleviate the doubting voice that nagged within.

She continued to peer through the thicket of trees but there was nothing there which she hadn't seen already. When there were so many of the things for such long stretches, they all looked exactly the same. It was as if someone had just copied and pasted the same tree thousands of times and called it a day.

But the truth was – why she had volunteered for this job, she didn't know. When the opportunity came up, every inch of her body instantly vied for the chance to help in any way she could. The words left her mouth before she even had the time to think through the ramifications.

Was it to prove her worth? To show that she was worthy of being one of them; that putting their lives on the line was for not for mere nothing?

She swallowed to silence the sinking feeling which swelled in her stomach. Now was not the time dwell on the past and the what-ifs. Now was not the time to let her own self-doubt cripple and blind her from the present. She still felt terrible for jeopardizing her mentor's safety by being so foolish, but she knew that it was that exact same thing that would land her on deaths door once more if she wasn't careful.

Pushing the voices of denial to the back of her mind, she gazed overhead and drew in the fresh smell of pine. It brought her back to reality an-

Ellen jumped.

Her heart was racing and her muscles went rigid as she heard something nearby rustle. She couldn't unlock her body. It remained ceased and she was left to her own demise, unable to move in the snow.

There was still much she had to learn about relaxing her body, about regaining control during times like this very moment. She tried desperately to break the paralysing spell but it didn't weaken.

The leaves and branches rustled again, dumping snow in a piled on the ground. It was obvious where the noise from coming from – there was now a crude patch of exposed vivid-green leaves.

Fuelled on adrenaline and feeling her senses awaken deep within, she remained in her position and let her heightened state flood through her body. It didn't take her long to find the zone, the sweet spot. All of a sudden, everything was a lot more clearer and she knew exactly what she had to do. She closed her eyes and cast a sensory field around her. She let a second tick by, followed by another.