𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬. sam uley

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞

❧

"Leah?"

It could not be true. The grey wolf in front of her was a mirage, and the ripples of betrayal swirling in Elis's ember eyes were a falsification. Her shadows must have conjured this up. Sage must have become so parched, so hungry, that her mind completely lost itself to the hysteria of starvation. Sage was probably already dead. Her neck was off of her body, and it was burning. She had to be in that state-of-mind where she believed anything, where she allowed any optimism to direct her. That was the only reasonable explanation.

But no. It was devastatingly real. Elis's shattered voice, the glass in his eyes--it was real.

"What in the hell, Leah?!" The waver in Elis's voice was gone as he pushed towards the two of them, stomping so hard that Sage could feel the vibrations beneath her own feet. "What have you done?!"

The wolf snorted then snarled when Elis huffed at it. Sage stood behind it, terrified but light with something she couldn't name.

"Don't. Do not fucking snarl at me. Fucking talk to me and tell me why you stopped me from doing what everyone else wanted me to do!"

His voice echoed off the forest walls, bounced through the trees and scared birds away from their nests. Squalls pierced Sage's ear, but her eyes were burned into the changing form of the wolf in front of her.

Grey shifted into sand brown, molding into smooth skin rather than soft fur. The enormous size of the wolf minimized until Sage was gaping at a slender, nude female, her hair chopped and black. Sage could only see the backside of her, for the woman was staring at Elis, and her stance was rigid, bordering on snappish.

Behind her, she could hear Emmett coughing and could faintly hear the rustle of the other wolf as it shifted in the leaves. When Sage spared a glance backward, she could see it turning in the other direction, back facing them as it sat.

"Oh, how nice of you to join us, Oh Great One!" Elis snapped, his voice heavy with the same amount of sarcasm Felix held for Jane. "Now, tell me why the fuck you think you're so entitled as to act like the knight in shining armor for someone you don't even like?"

The Leah girl sighed as though she knew what Elis was going to say before he parted his lips. "Entitled? Elis, you're kidding me, right? You really can't see what a dumbass you're being right now?"

"Leah. . ."

"Oh, please, Elis. We all know why you're doing this!" Leah shouted, hand on her hip.

Elis grimaced. Irritation still contorted his face, but now he seemed more uncomfortable than anything. "That has nothing--"

"It has everything to do with it," Leah stated. "It has everything to do with him."