His Little One (Book 1)

23 A Black Marked Soul

My ankles dig into the mud. The hair tie holding my hair together was lost to a branch a few hours ago. My teeth are tight together. I can't chance them being able to hear my labored breaths. I've experienced death before, but this... this is hell on earth. Another lake comes into my view. With care I shift my focus running for it to dunk myself in the water. Scents are a weakness, one I've almost succumbed to when I was lazy. Chas and I had to break up, our footsteps together were too much of a calling card, one wolf coming so close to snag her hair. Thankfully a panther was able to get silver between their brows before it did anything worse.

Groans catch my ear, a horrid noise of a male begging for help. From my tree I stick my head around to see the familiar tattoos of a bear swirling over his skin. The tattoos aren't moving as quick as they should, and they are slowly becoming a permanent fixture, he's dying. I rush at him throwing myself to my knees. My entire body is scrapping, ached to the point of no return, but if I'm able to save them it's all worth it, "My name is Eos. I'm here to help." I whisper against his ear holding his head against my own. The first thing I do is check for breathing with a mirror, and once I've confirmed life, I look at the gash in his chest.

No. Not a gash, a hole, "E-Eos. You need to run." He looks up to me, tears slipping down his cheeks. I've never seen a male bear cry, especially not one I've never met, "I was begging for a wolf to kill me, there's no saving this."

My emotions are a wild explosion. I've been holding it in for the six hours I've been running, but he's the first dead one. At least, the first one I've found. Find a river, clean yourself, then run. Wolves love the blood. There's a heavy chance that this man is bait for some other bear, and I've fallen right into the trap, "You're going to be just fine." You're a horrible liar, Eos. I grab his shoulders to steady myself while I examine over his naked form. His tattoos come to a stop, his breathing slowing to a hushed whisper. I stare into the gaping hole, it's well done. I can see the bloodied grass peaking up through his injury, "Everything's going to be just okay." I know I'm not making sense while the tears stream down my face. The man lets his head fall to one side, our eyes meeting. The gold rings become nothing with only his human brown left.

"It was worth it." His whispers into the sunrise just as it breaks over the trees. I shake his shoulders trying to convince him to wake back up, but I know that he's gone. His chest drops, eyes rolling back, and all the subtle things I never noticed in a live body leave. Without the tension of mind keeping him in check everything sags to a lifeless nothing in my arms. While I might know death, I've never held it. With every ounce of my gathered energy, I shove him over to where he's on his front, then take his name down mentally. It's scratched across his arm as Brian P.

With his body cared for as much as I can do, I rush to the lake dropping my blood covered skin into the water. Stripping is essential. I use the rocks to scrub out the blood, then cover the clothing in mud and lake greens. I'll smell like a dead fish, but at least I'll be a live human. The gun that sat on my hip lays on the end of the dry land, mocking me with its uselessness against a dead bear. I peak around trying to find something safe to track, anything that gets me to a covered location. It wasn't until I landed my eyes on severed head of a wolf staring directly at me from the woods that I broke character and screamed my head off.

It's sunken eyes and cracked teeth send terrors I've never thought possible through me. I've never pulled myself from a lake so quickly, the gun quickly pulled between my shaking fingers. Something heard me. I must go. My thoughts are pure turmoil. I'm almost useless against the solid weights metaphorically holding me at the ankles. The shirts and pants get tugged on, soaking, over my mud-stained skin, and with the last amount of energy I can find, I break for the tree line.