Battle Wounds || Jasper Hale {2}

Chapter 24

“Ellie!”

The forest was dense, the trees not giving much leeway to light, but the bright, familiar voice calling her name caused her to frantically whip her head back and forth, searching for the alto tones of her best friend. 

“Ellie!” the voice called again, this time further away.

“Allison?” her own alto tones sputtered out as she ran through the darkened forest, trying desperately not to trip over the gnarled branches jutting up from the ground. The crunching of the dead leaves on the forest floor fueling her forward in her search. 

The forest was only getting darker by the moment, the leaves on the trees becoming nonexistent, but the blonde emissary never gave up. She kept running toward the voice beckoning her deeper into the cold darkness.

“Ellie!”

She could see her breath beginning to cloud around her, and no matter how much her eyes had adjusted, her vision was beginning to give out. The darkness was overwhelming, choking her with its thick ice. A pained cry escaped from her pale lips. She was going to die if she remained in the dark hold of the forest around her. 

“Ellie.”

Allison’s voice was a mere whisper, a warmth in the ice of the night, and so close, beckoning her to continue her search. Ellie whipped her body around, following the voice, leading her sight to the brightest golden glow that she had ever seen. 

"Allison?" she muttered, lifting a hand to shield her eyes from the light. 

The raven haired beauty was sitting on top of a large, gray rock. The sun beamed down on her as her eyes twinkled with mirth and the largest smile stretched across her lips. She reached a hand toward the blonde, beckoning her to join her. 

Ellie’s lungs constricted as tears blurred her vision. She took a tentative step toward her best friend, desperate to reach her, but terrified of the prospect. 

“Don’t.”

Whispers of the lone word surrounded her, echoing along the desolate forest and bouncing back. A warm presence enveloped her right side, pulling her eyes away from the raven haired werewolf to a slender brunette. 

A golden glow emitted from her pale skin, illuminating her entire being, and Ellie couldn’t help, but feel that she was familiar in more ways that one. 

Ellie swallowed the growing lump in her throat. “Why not?”

She turned her onyx eyes to the blonde, a solemn look upon her face, “It’s not your time. You have much more to do before you join us.”

Ellie studied the woman, the nagging feeling that she knew her tugging at her insides. “Do I know you?”

“I would certainly hope so,” the woman said, amusement beginning to dance in her eyes. “I would hope they would have told you of the woman who birthed you.”

Ellie’s eyes widened. It couldn’t be. Her mother—“If you’re my mother, then that means…”

“You’ve nearly let a man kill you,” her mother said, her lips drawing taut. “Tethers are dangerous, Eleanor. Especially when it comes to the Cartwright family. You’re safer within close distance to them.”

“He left me,” she replied, bitterness seeping into her words. 

“And you did nothing about it,” her mother retorted, crossing her arms over her body as she turned to fully face her daughter. “You didn’t even try to go after him.”