Greatest Curse (Book 2)

Mystery Wolf

(Jaxon)

The rain was falling heavily. Bullets of ice water pelting down upon us like a punishment from the gods above.

The forest floor was turning a murky, muddy colour, thickly pooling around my feet. I could feel something warm running down my cheeks and mixing with the rainwater that drenched me from head to toe. It tasted salty and warm, blurring my vision as I glanced down, my heart in my throat as I stared down at my hands.

They were covered in blood...

"Jaxon..." someone called my name; the familiar voice made my heartbeat skyrocket as an overwhelming feeling of fear consumed me.

"Jaxon!" another voice called out to me, lost somewhere in the distance and swept away with the howl of the roaring winds. I couldn't tell to whom it belonged, or if it belonged to a man or a woman, but each time the voice called out to me, I felt a vicious crack in my chest.

"Jaxon..." the familiar voice called again, making my eyes snap from my bloodied hands to the person lying a few feet ahead of me. "...go!" he said. His voice was strained, and my vision blurred even more as I stumbled forward, falling to my knees, my feet now covered in mud.

Bennett lay a few feet away from me, blood pooling around him. The hilt of a knife was protruding from his stomach, his body shivering violently from cold and pain as he clutched at the handle with bloodied hands, his clothes soaked with rainwater and his blood.

Did I...?

"...axon..." Bennett called, and I forced myself to look him in the eyes; bright blue eyes slowly fading away as his life-force left him. I couldn't believe it. I had failed him too. "...he needs you...go...run..." he was saying while reaching out to me. Bennett pushed on my shoulder making me stumble back.

"But..." I started, eyes glued to the weapon's hilt until he pinned me with a firm glare.

"Forget about me!" he whispered sharply, lifting a bloodied hand and pointing left. "...he'll die..."

Before I could say or do anything to help him, the scene shifted and suddenly I was standing on the shore of a stream. The water was stagnant, black and thick like ink so there was no telling just how deep it went. So dark, it mirrored the pregnant sky above.

The sky overhead was a deep gray, the clouds ready to burst at any moment. Moving my gaze from the swollen sky, my gaze landed on two figures on the opposite side of the stream. I could not see their faces, but they seemed familiar. I knew them, I know I did. But they were just silhouettes; black figures flickering in the wind that picked up from nowhere.

The wind created light ripples in the inky water, and my eyes followed the movement before a menacing growl reached my ears. I glanced up in time to see that one of the two figures had now morphed from a man, to a wolf; the same black wolf I had seen outside the house.

Its pelt was thick, full and a shiny, healthy black, menacing steel orbs glowering at me. The creature stalked forward, its powerful build crouching low as if it were getting ready to pounce, and no more than a second later, the creature did, easily leaping over the water.

I gasped, dodging out of the way just as the creature gracefully landed beside me, and it quickly took off in a sprint. I spun around only to see this menacing beast tackle another silhouetted figure standing near the trees. I could hear the figure screaming out but whether it belonged to a man or a woman, I didn't know.

It sounded like both.

The creature clamped its powerful jaws down onto the figure's shoulder, viciously biting and moving its head in a side-to-side manner, ripping bone and flesh as the figure screamed out in agony, blood spurting and flying everywhere. In one swift move, the wolf clamped its jaws down onto the figure's throat, crushing it in one powerful snap.