She definitely did not know where. Did not care. Anywhere but there...
The sting on her cheek was nothing compared to the fire in her chest. The slap was nothing actually.It was the anger that hurt!
The raw, clawing fury that made her legs move faster and made her fists clench tighter. The forest blurred around her, branches whipping at her arms, her face, but she barely felt them. She was going far far away from the Blackmoon pack and that’s what mattered.
"Idiot. Stupid!!! Fucking pathetic idiot."
She swiped at her face angrily, but the tears kept coming. She hated them. Hated that she could not stop them. Hated that he had reduced her to this. And hated herself that she allowed it... in some ways, she did.
Her foot caught on a root, and she stumbled, barely catching herself before she faceplanted into the dirt. A scream tore from her throat. Angry!
She grabbed the nearest branch,thicker than her thighs and snapped it clean in half with a sharp twist. The sound was satisfying, but not enough. She hurled the broken pieces into the trees, then kicked a rotting log so hard it splintered apart.
" Damn you Kieran! You fucking sucker!!And fuck me for going all goo gaa... fuck! That’s why you never put your guard down... never... there’s nobody but you Autumn! You are your own back up! You idiot! The fuck you let him do that to you... you soft pink! "
But she knew why. Because she had seen something in Kieran’s eyes...something soft, something she thought might be real and she had been foolish enough to think it meant...something. Or perhaps it was just the stupid fucking mate bond messing with her head!
"I let myself feel again," she whispered. "Just once in my life I thought I could...depend. I should have stayed invisible," she whispered. "It was safer that way.Stupid. So damn stupid of me."
She grabbed the nearest plant in reflex, not even thinking,yanked it from the earth with a vicious pull. Dirt sprayed, roots tore, and she flung it aside like trash.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, her hands trembling...not from exhaustion, but from the storm inside her.
She wanted to scream again. Wanted to tear the whole forest apart. Wanted to march back to that damned hall and...And what? Slap him back? Demand an apology?
A bitter laugh escaped her.Was she still thinking about going back?
As if Kieran Blackmoon would ever apologize. As if he even regretted what he did in the first place.
The way he had looked at her... like she had offended the universe... some unforgivable sin.
She had disobeyed him because she was actually worried about him. The fuck she was.
She had followed him because she was curious, no doubt, but she also hoped she might be able to help him if things got out of hand. She had heard notorious things about the Bloodfangs! They were known for their mischief.
"Never again! Kieran Blackmoon can go to hell!"
She wiped her face roughly, smearing dirt and tears together. No more trusting anybody. No more stupid, naive assumptions. If Kieran wanted a mate who cowered and obeyed, he had picked the wrong damn wolf. She would wait for his rejection when it came.
The wind suddenly howled through the trees, carrying the distant scent of rain storms coming that way,along with something else.
Some sound in the distance.
Autumn stilled, her instincts flaring. The anger in her veins sharpened into something colder... alert. Her survival instincts flared.
The first bout of rain and the storm came down in thick, icy sheets, soaking Autumn to the bone within seconds.
Her hair clung to her face, her clothes heavy with water.Thunder rolled low across the sky as fatter droplets of rain began to pour, pattering against the leaves and soaking into Autumn’s already damp clothes.
She stood still for a moment, catching her breath.Adjusting her vision and hearing.
Her head jerked up.There were footsteps. Many of them. Moving fast and coordinated.Like troops? Not quite!
Her nostrils flared. The metallic scent pierced sharper through the damp air.
" So much blood?" she muttered. "What the hell..." The defiance in her chest roared louder than reason.She surged forward, stomping through the underbrush just to spite herself. She could have easily gone the other way or called for help... but well, that was Autumn. So, figures!
She pried closer but the moment her eyes caught movement in the clearing down below, everything inside her froze.
The wide valley opened up beyond the trees, mist rising in wisps from the soaked ground. Figures moved steadily through it...rows of people, dozens, maybe more. The rain blurred some of the view, but the shapes were unmistakable.
Families. Women clutching bundles.Dozens no, hundreds of people trudged through the mud in a ragged line.Old men. Young lads. Guards on horseback, their weapons drawn but not raised, scanning the trees as if expecting an attack.
Autumn’s heart hammered.
They were shouting instructions, checking packs, helping those who stumbled.
And then she saw the crest on one of the guards’ cloaks...dark green with a black hound embroidered across the back.
Her heart stopped this time.
"No way in hell..." she whispered.
It was the Curzon Pack!
Her old pack.Her father’s pack!
"What are they doing here?" she breathed, ducking lower behind a tree trunk. Her pulse thundered in her ears. "they are not even supposed to be anywhere near here. That place is ... that is halfway across the damn lake! "
Without a second thought, she dropped to her knees and began covering herself in mud, smearing it across her arms, neck, and hair to mask her scent. The rain made it easier to cover, camouflage, a cloak.
Why would the Curzons come here?Not just soldiers. Civilians. It was bizarre!
Creeping forward on silent feet, she ducked low behind a moss covered log and strained to listen.
"Keep moving! We stop at the ridge!"
"That wagon’s stuck.Sir please help him, damn it!"
"We have lost two more...bitten. They are not going to make it past tonight."
"We need to get them to safety.Blackmoon owes us protection, Beta said so!"
"They are not going to ... trespassing or not."
Autumn’s eyes narrowed. "Bitten? What...what happened to them?" And Blackmoon? They were going to Blackmoon?
Her body tensed.Then a woman’s voice broke through the murmur, brittle and shaking.
"We should not have trusted the council... They left us for dead!"
Her stomach twisted. She edged closer, ducking behind a fallen log as a group of warriors passed nearby, their voices low but urgent.
" ...whatever,just keep moving."
"The children can’t keep this pace, Roran."
"They will die if they don’t."
Autumn’s fingers dug into the wet bark. Die?
Another woman nearby stumbled, her legs giving out. A man,her mate, maybe,caught her before she hit the ground. "Just a little farther," he murmured, though his own voice was hoarse with exhaustion. "We will rest soon."
"They will find us," the woman whispered, her eyes darting wildly.
Who? Autumn’s mind raced. Who were they running from?
At the back of the caravan, a group of warriors carried stretchers. Bodies wrapped in bloodied cloth. Too many to count.
Her throat tightened.
They weren’t just migrating. They were fleeing some massacre.
A child’s whimper snapped her attention to the left. A little girl, no older than five, clutched a tattered doll, her face streaked with mud and tears. "Mama, I am scared," she whispered.
Her mother did not answer. She was staring ahead, hollow eyed, as if she had already given up.
Autumn’s chest ached.She started calculating. Did they all walk the whole distance? What was going on?
She had not thought about Curzon in years.Well, not as a place she might associate with home. She remembered their house...the land... her mother... that trip... their last trip they enjoyed together.
The gigantic lake that stretched from the farthest borders of the Blackmoon territories, was their nearest fresh water source. The other side of the lake was several hours drive from the actual Curzon border. Yet they would send troops everyday. Because there was no other alternate available. Autumn and Lyla has snuck out behind one such troop to enjoy a boat ride together... that fatal night... that changed everything. Nothing was the same ever again.
Autumn wiped some more tears. She thought she was done crying over her sister. But her memories never failed to send her down the abyss of shame and guilt, all over again. Her father was right about her... she was nothing but bad luck... and disappointment.
" Going to the Blackmoons is suicide! Alpha Kieran is the devil reincarnate! We heard rumours,he had been using black magic... "
"We have lost the territory. Everything is gone.The old treaty with Blackmoon might still hold. If not... we are as good as hunted.We might try our luck! "
That voice...Her breath hitched. Was that Jeffrey? Her father’s second in command?Uncle Jeffrey?