Dark Swan 2

by Yumoyori Wilson

  Each time he moved or swiveled in any direction, he would wince. The veins in his neck would bulge and he would cry out to the moon with agony. His yellow, razor-sharp teeth glistened and looked as if they could pierce even the most durable metal.

  I shuddered, gulped, and continued to inspect him, wondering what was wrong. I could get aggressive, but I had never experienced this type of behavior in my shifted state.

  My eyes panned the area, scoping it for threats. I noticed a Master standing a few yards away from the werewolf. He had a fire glowing to illuminate the darkness. The Master was roaring with laughter. I glared at him with spite, knowing that he was the puppet master behind this ordeal.

  As I studied the situation, I began to realize exactly what was happening. The werewolf shifter in excruciating pain was being controlled by another shifter. That shifter appeared to be under the direction and power of the Master.

  “You aren’t doing it hard enough.” The Master kicked the shifter in the back.

  The shifter wailed and rubbed the tender area of his back that had just received the blunt force of the master’s boot.

  “Make him squirm.” The Master’s eyes were wild and rambunctious as he stared at the werewolf. He pointed a sharp knife at the shifter’s back.

  It was clear to me now the shifter was being forced to use his magic to bring suffering and agony to the werewolf.

  I couldn’t stomach watching it. Anger boiled the blood in my veins. I wished there was something I could do to save both of the shifters. I tried to brainstorm a course of action that didn’t end with me getting captured.

  The shifter performing the magic on the werewolf looked utterly miserable. His eyes were droopy with grief and guilt. I cracked my knuckles, ready to kill the Master. I knew it would be difficult, if not completely impossible. Wherever there was a Master, guards were never far away.

  The trio began to walk away from the contained fire. I attempted to trail them as closely as I could, but then something happened. I made a crucial mistake. I couldn’t turn back the hands of time, I couldn’t undo it. I just had to live through it. Sometimes the only way out was through. I had heard that saying multiple times in my life growing up.

  My mother loved to say it. She had to live with a herd of rowdy boys and men who liked to drink beer and break things. We were unruly by nature, and yet here I was as a werewolf shifter. The irony was almost too much to bear. It made me chuckle and burned me up at the same time.

  My mistake might cost me, but I would be ready to fight until the death if that’s what it came to. My padded paws had crunched over some dry twigs, making a snapping sound. The Master heard it immediately.

  He whipped around, distracted enough by the noise to release the pressure on the magic shifter.

  I did what came naturally.

  Run!

  That’s what my instinct told me, and the impulse was loud inside my head. I bolted as quickly as I could, flooring it back down the same path in the same direction that I had just come from.

  I prayed to any gods who would listen that the Master had only heard the noise in the night and not actually laid eyes on me. If he did, he would have a solid idea of where I was going, too close for comfort to the rebellion camp.

  If the Master did see me, it wouldn’t be long before he ordered his guards to follow me and they would be on my heels quicker than I cared to admit.

  Panic pounded in my heart.

  You can protect yourself, my brain reminded me. You are a werewolf.

  That didn’t help, because the werewolf behind me was under the power of the Master. They were too controlling for their own good and the supremacy of their influence was the very torture of the soul of this broken world we lived in.

  I kept going, even when my thighs ached in protest and the cold air burned in my throat. If I became outnumbered by guards with weapons, it would all be over. Sophia’s face flashed in front of my eyes.

  I had to stay alive for her. That’s why it was extremely important for me to outrun the guards. She kept me going. She was a fighter too, motivating me to never give up, even when the odds seemed impossible. Her energy was like a phantom coaxing me on even though she wasn’t physically with me. I ran and ran, as fast as my legs would carry me.

  17

  Sophia

  I peered through the open flap of the tent, then looked back at Ayden and Blaze. My heart was worried and my stomach churned with anxiety. There was general unease floating through the tent walls, but most of it originated from me.

  “He’s never been gone this long before,” I reminded them, referring to Cameron.

  It was early afternoon. Cameron always re-emerged at dawn after a werewolf shift in the woods. It was extremely out of character for him to be missing in action this late in the day.

  “Something is wrong.” I shook my head.

  “He will resurface, I promise you that.” Blaze’s voice was low and comforting.

  “He knows what he’s doing out there,” Ayden added. “He can fend for himself. There’s no need to agonize over his absence.”

  I frowned, trying my best to take their advice to heart, but I still just didn’t feel right inside. To me, it wasn’t trivial that he was still out there and hadn’t come back to us. He wouldn’t do that without letting us know in advance that he would be late in arriving back at the rebellion camp.

  Ayden stroked my hair. He gently breathed onto my neck, planting a few tingly kisses on my skin. I sighed as he continued to pacify me, but it wasn’t enough. Until I knew where Cameron was, there was little that Blaze or Ayden could do to appease me.

  I felt like my mind needed a tranquilizer. I was in a frenzy inside my own head, and the noise of anxiety was growing increasingly louder by the minute.

  “Keep doing that, it’s helping,” I said to Ayden as he continued to rake his hands through my hair.

  The movements were rhythmic and precise and aided in my comfort, the more I allowed myself to yield to the pleasure.

  I closed my eyes and tried to think back. Was Cameron behaving differently than normal right before he left? Was there anything about his demeanor last night that would be cause for concern? I didn’t remember any alarm bells going off in my mind. There was nothing that stood out to me.

  Blaze was sitting at the edge of the tent, rubbing my feet. I smiled at him and Ayden. “You guys sure know how to make a girl feel nurtured.

  “We can see how stressed out you are,” Blaze said and shot me an empathetic smile. “I can read it all over your face.”

  “I just wish I knew where he went,” I said.

  “I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation,” Ayden said. “We will soon be able to put this worry on the backburner.”

  I hoped that he was right. I kept waiting for Cameron to pop out from behind the tent and give me a gleaming smile. I wanted to see his unruly hair and drag my fingers through his scratchy five o’clock shadow, relishing in how it tickled the sensitive skin between my legs.

  “I’m sorry,” I said and blew out a puff of frustrated air, feeling the strife leave me with the slow exhale. “I should be thanking my lucky stars that I have you both here to comfort me when I’m upset.”

  “Our goal is to snatch that fear away from you,” Blaze said, massaging my sore calf muscles.

  “I would carry that burden, no question.” Ayden nodded in agreement, looking gallant and proud.

  “I appreciate your efforts to console me,” I admitted.

  “Is the massage helping at all?” Blaze looked hopefully expectant.

  I cast him a grateful smile. “Tremendously.”

  I sat there in silence with them for several minutes while Blaze rubbed my legs and Ayden stroked my back and brushed his fingers through my hair. Their gentle touches were welcomed and savored, but every time I closed my eyes, I pictured Cameron in trouble.

  “What if he’s hurt?” My eyes bolted opened as I envisioned him being tortured, gagged and bound by a Master a
nd belligerent guards. “What if he needs us?” I looked to Blaze and Ayden for answers. “There’s no real way for him to contact us if he’s been captured.”

  Ayden and Blaze exchanged a wary look and then shot me an even more apprehensive one.

  “Let’s just hope that’s not the case,” Ayden said, as if that were the case, then there would be nothing in the world we could do to help him.

  I wouldn’t stand for it. I shook my head and stood up. “We need to go looking for him.”

  Ayden and Blaze both stared at me, unblinking as if I had just lost my mind and ordered them to leave the tent or something. They remained seated, waiting for me to elaborate.

  When I was satisfied that they weren’t going to protest, but frustrated that they weren’t willing to spring into action with me, I continued.

  “Cameron is one of your best friends, is that not the truth?” I asked of both of them.

  “Yes.” Ayden nodded.

  “Uh-huh,” Blaze confirmed.

  “So?” I shrugged. “What are we still doing here then? What if he’s hurt?”

  Ayden scoffed and waved his hand dismissively. I knew he was trying to make me feel better by lightening the situation, but his response stung a little anyway.

  “He’s not hurt. He’s a werewolf shifter and he’s been through those woods a thousand times.”

  “That doesn’t mean he’s immune to danger,” I argued, my frustration about to boil over.

  “We can’t just go out there looking for him,” Blaze said. He looked torn, on the fence between being practical and keeping me happy.

  “I agree,” Ayden said with an apologetic wince in my direction. “The problem is, hunting for him out there will be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.”

  “Maybe he just fell asleep after being awake all night and he’s tired, just trying to recover from a long night so that he won’t be so groggy when he comes back to you,” Blaze suggested.

  I pondered it briefly, wondering what the odds were.

  I shook my head again, quizzing them further. “Would he not do the same for you? What if one of you hadn’t come home? Wouldn’t Cameron be one of the first ones to jump at the idea of going out to search for you?”

  Ayden and Blaze exchanged a guilty look.

  “I suppose when you look at it that way…” Blaze trailed off and looked out the open flap of the tent, currently blowing in the gentle breeze.

  He looked pensive about something, perhaps even maybe a little nostalgic. He was handsome and dark, brooding even. I knew that he wanted to help me find Cameron. I could see the flicker in his eyes.

  He must have noticed that my gaze had been locked on him for quite a while. He turned his head and smiled at me. His arms were propped up, resting on his elbows. His dark hair looked clean even though he hadn’t had a proper bath since the caves.

  “I will go and look for him,” he said, finally caving.

  I reached over and roped my arms around his neck. I pulled him closer to me, clinging on to him with gratitude swelling from my heart and outpouring onto him.

  “Thank you,” I whispered in his ear. “That means the world to me.”

  Seeing my delighted reaction at Blaze agreeing to go hunt down Cameron’s whereabouts, Ayden stood up too.

  “I’ll go with him,” he said and nudged his chin in Blaze’s direction. “If that’s what it takes to ease your mind. We will do what makes you happy.”

  “I want you to do it for Cameron too,” I said. “If we find him and he is hurt, God forbid, then I want him to rest assured that we didn’t hesitate to go out there and rescue him.”

  Ayden took my hand and gently squeezed it. “You are a wonderful woman and I admire you.”

  I gave him a kindhearted smile in response. “I’m just trying to do what I know is right. We fight for the good ones, don’t we?”

  Blaze and Ayden nodded. “Absolutely we do.”

  Ayden glanced at Blaze. “We should go find James. I think I saw him at the food station right before we came into the tent. We could enlist him for help in the hunt.”

  “Great idea,” Blaze noted. “Three sets of eyes are most definitely better than one, or even two, for that matter.”

  “Wait,” I said. “If this is going to be a group affair, then I might as well go with you.”

  I was met with immediate protest.

  “No.” Ayden shook his head. “I’m not trying to control you and I’m sorry if it is coming across that way, but you need to stay here.”

  “Agreed,” Blaze said and gave me a chagrined look. “It’s not safe out there for you. You are too valuable to ever be put at risk like that.”

  “I’m not just some broken, frail girl,” I said. I knew I probably sounded defensive, but I didn’t care.

  I resented their instant assumption that I wouldn’t be capable of joining them. Had I not proved myself in the travels and trials we had endured ever since the rebellion raid in Ayden’s home village?

  I wished there was a way we could rewind time and go back to the purity of the erotic night we had shared in that romantic hotel room. It seemed like it had been years ago, and we had all mentally aged a substantial amount since then.

  Ayden and Blaze each took one of my hands and cradled them in between their own. I felt their love. I felt their passion pouring into me with one simple touch. I clung to their rugged masculinity and their callused, gritty fingers.

  But I wasn’t buying their cause for now.

  “We just want to protect you, that’s all,” Blaze said.

  Ayden nodded tenderly. “Yeah. We don’t consider you a broken or frail girl in the slightest.”

  “Not at all,” Blaze added for good measure.

  “It was my idea in the first place,” I said. I pointed outside the tent walls where everything else alive existed. I wanted to be in the thick of the action. “It was me who brought up the idea of going to search for Cameron. Why shouldn’t I have a part in it?”

  “You do have a part in it,” Ayden said.

  I scoffed. “It doesn’t seem that way.”

  I hated to sound like a bratty child, sullenly whining when she didn’t get her way, but I was passionate about being involved in Cameron’s search and rescue. After all, it was my idea and I had to stand by that.

  “You should stay here in case he comes back,” Blaze mentioned, brightening with a smile as if that was the cleverest idea he had ever come up with.

  I paused and stared at him before calculating a retort. “I’ll have my new friend be on the lookout for him in case he returns.”

  “What friend?” Ayden’s eyebrows knitted with confusion.

  “The crystal woman…” I trailed off, pointing abstractly over my shoulder. I knew full well that Ayden wouldn’t approve, but he didn’t own me. No one did. Not anymore.

  I stared at him, prepared to stand my ground.

  Much to my surprise, Ayden sighed and rubbed his temples. He shot Blaze a glance as if he were throwing in the towel and didn’t want to argue with me anymore.

  “Fine. We can see if she’ll be a lookout for him,” Ayden said, liberating me of that worry.

  “Great.” I smiled and looked at Blaze. “You guys can go ahead and fetch James while I go and ask my friend for assistance in the Cameron Quest.

  Ayden chuckled. “Cameron Quest? Is that what we are calling it now?”

  I shrugged. “Sure, why not?” Every team needed a name for their adventures.

  They slipped out of the tent and I went to find the crystal woman. She agreed to help keep an eye out for Cameron, and she also agreed to notify him of where we had gone if he returned before we did.

  Once Ayden and Blaze had found James, we all met back at the base of the camp, ready to go looking for one of our beloved, one of our own.

  “We should shift,” James said, glancing around the group.

  Blaze looked uncomfortable as he adjusted the weight on each leg. “You guys go ahead. I’ll follow
along beside you.”

  He gave me a sheepish look. I knew that he had the tendency to become more aggressive than the others when he was in his bear form.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said and stroked his back gently. I wanted him to know that I would never judge him. “I understand.”

  Blaze looked relieved as both Ayden and James shifted. I climbed onto James’s back, excited for the thrilling experience of riding on a fast jaguar through the forest, whipping through the trees and feeling the wind at my back.

  I didn’t want Blaze to feel inadequate, so I shot him another loving smile. “Are you ready for this?”

  He returned my smile with one that made him look more handsome than ever. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  “Come on,” I said and tugged on James’s fur. “Let’s go get Cameron back.”

  The four of us headed into the woods together, right where we’d first started.

  18

  Sophia

  Even though it was afternoon, the blanket of trees created a shroud of chilly air that clung to the surface of the forest floor where we continued to trek along, searching for Cameron. The sun was hidden behind the shadows of the leaves.

  We were surrounded by trees and only small bands of warm whiteish, yellow light streamed down through the openings in the towering branches.

  I was still riding on James’s back, but I could feel that his posture was starting to drag. I saw my breath in front of my face. I wrapped my cardigan closer around my chest and shivered, feeling the tingle of prickly goose bumps across the surface of my skin.

  “I’m going to give you a break now,” I whispered softly to James, stroking the fur on the back of his neck.

  I squeezed my inner thighs against his back. He glanced over his shoulder and huffed air out of his snout, blinking twice for yes as a nonverbal response to my statement.

  Ayden glanced over at us, listening to the plan. He shifted back while Blaze helped me climb off of James.