heart's desire • randall carpio

01

It was a cold winter night so everyone was sitting round the fire...

"Hey, Dylan any progress with the newly turned guys yet?" One of my friends, Sadie, asked as I sat down at the campfire.

"Yeah Ben finally managed to keep his transformation for 5 minutes!" I nodded pleased with the result.

"Yes! That means he can come on hunts with the pack." Sadie squealed making me flinch at the high pitched noise.

She always gets overly excited when the younger wolves get to join us on the hunt.

"When....." Sadie began but was cut of by an old tree collapsing into the fire.

Now this wouldn't of caught my attention if it was just a sapling but it was, in fact, a large tree that had no reason to fall.

"What the fuck!" Sadie jumped to her feet.

I tried to stand up but immediately dropped to the ground again after a sharp pain shot through my leg.

"What, what's wrong?" Sadie knelt beside me.

"Fuck! The trees...on my-my leg!" I screamed loudly causing all the birds to fly out of the trees.

"Sir what happened?" Sadie asked, as the alpha of the pack joined us.

"It's okay, Sadie, it's just nature taking its course." The alpha answered.

"But what if it isn't?" She asked, keeping her voice low so the others couldn't hear.

"Listen up! I want a group of you to clear the tree out of the fire. Everyone else check for further damage!" The alpha shouted to the pack.

"I'm sure it's nothing." He said turning to face Sadie.

Once the tree had been lifted I was able to see my injury from where the tree landed.

"Ah fuck!" My leg was covered in blood and it was turning a shade of purple, I lifted my leg off of the fire pit and checked the bottom, it was covered in 3rd degree burns from the fire.

"Dylan, come here!" The alpha called out.

With Sadie's help I managed to hobble my way over to his hut.

"Take a seat." He gestured to a seat near the centre of the room.

Sadie left the room to help the others search for any damage.

"Let me see your leg." He spoke, sitting across from me.

I lifted my leg, allowing him to check over it.

The alpha looked at my leg then looked off into the woods, staying silent.

"What's wrong?" I asked, looking into the woods but finding nothing but darkness.

"How did they find us?" The alpha muttered to himself.

"You don't mean..." I started, pushing myself to my feet, while gripping the chair for support.

"The Order" He nodded, turning back to look at me.

"How do you know for sure that it's them?" I asked looking into the woods again.

"That purple hue on your leg is created by the affects of The Order's magic tricks." He explained, walking over to the door of his hut.

A million thoughts began to race through my mind.

"The pack! Some of them are out there. If The Order find them, they'll kill them." I told him as a couple branches snapped not far off from our campsite.

"Shit!" He started to make his way to the edge of the camp but stopped suddenly.

"What?" I limped my way over to him.

A large knife stuck out from his chest, purple colouring spreading across his skin.

"Run!" He croaked out before collapsing to the floor.

"Get out of here!" I shouted to the pack, in hopes of them heading before it was too late.

I knelt down to try and help the alpha.

"No, leave me, I won't make it." He shook his head, pushing me away.

"No, I..." I began to protest before being interrupted by another knife landing a centimetre from my foot.

"Go" He instructed, holding my head in his hand and wiping away tears I didn't know had fallen.

He was the only family she had left after The Order had murdered her mother.

But he was right, if I died then I wouldn't be able to help the pack, I had to keep their best interest in mind; to survive.

I got up and took one last look at the dying alpha then started to run away in the other direction.

After running through the woods until sunrise my legs were becoming weak and I was struggling to stay upright.

As I rested against a tree a knife came soaring through the air, scraping my cheek and embedding its self into the wood beside me.

"Fuck." I muttered, pushing myself off the tree and taking off running again.