The Alpha Female

TWENTY-THREE: FIRE AND ICE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: FIRE AND ICE

            “We should reach the river by mid noon tomorrow.” Blyn stated as he took a seat beside me.  I nodded, hugging my knees closer to my chest, the hood of the red sweatshirt hiding my face.  We had ended up passing the red sweatshirt on our way out of town nearly three days earlier, it had been crumpled, trampled and muddied, but I had picked it up anyways.  Now I was glad that I had.

            The trek to the den shouldn’t have taken more than two days in itself, but with Mason and therefore the inability to shift, it was becoming quite the journey on foot. 

            Mason brought his arm up to his face, coughing loudly.  All of the shifters in the clearing tensed, looking over at him with wary eyes.  It was as if they thought the coughing was a distraction, that he would somehow pull out a weapon and slay them all.  Their reactions would have been seen as comical by me if I wasn’t so worried.  Mason had been coughing like that for the last day and a half and it didn’t show signs of lightening up.  He would start shaking, and I wasn’t allowed to touch him to help him stop, he would trip, stumble around in the snow as he tried to regain footing only to be shoved on by Ahote or another member of the party.  He wasn’t allowed to talk to me, to look at me, to be by me. 

            I hugged myself a bit tighter as I watched him.  Mason’s back was to a tree over ten meters from me.  I could see his red nose and purple lips clearly.  Humans weren’t meant to live in this cold. 

            “The alpha will tell us what to do with it.” He continued, gesturing towards Mason.  Mason pulled the sleeves of his shirt over his hands as he hugged himself, his bare toes curled up in the snow.

            I nodded, my heart going out to him.  As much as I wanted to claim dominant and go over to him, I knew that it wouldn’t fly.  The pack would be suspicious, they wouldn’t let it go.  Me cuddling up to a human, surely it would be a cause for an uprising.  I couldn’t take a challenge because of that, not now, and neither could my father. 

            Mason coughed again and Blyn stiffened, Taima shifted awkwardly beside me.

            “And if it doesn’t make it?” Taima asked lowly, looking over to me and then back to Mason.  I chewed my lip, we were all thinking it.  That cough didn’t sound good at all.  Shifters got sick, but never had I heard one sounding so bad.

            “It’ll make it.” Blyn stated.  “Just long enough for the alpha to decide.” He pushed off on his knees, standing up and stretching.  “I’m going to gather the men, we should get moving.”  I nodded and watched him leave, my eyes falling back to Mason.

            “I’m sorry Suka.” Taima started lightly.  I lifted my head, slightly taken aback by what he had said.  “About the human,” he added quickly, looking over at Mason.  “Blyn’s intentions are there, he’s just trying to step up and do what he thinks is right.” I rested my head back on my knees.  “You like this human…don’t you?”  I opened my mouth to speak, but was quickly cut off.

            “A word,” Ahote snapped from behind.  I rose to my feet before I could answer, turning to glare at him.  He gestured for me to follow and I did as he led me out deeper in the woods and out of earshot from Taima.  It wasn’t like we couldn’t still hear Mason’s coughing.

            “Ahote-”

            “So it’s true.” He purred.