The Hunted Wolf

by Ovidia Pike

  “Let’s go, Alicia,” I said without taking my eyes off of her father.

  “If you leave with him, you’re not welcome back in this house,” her father said. I saw the doubt in Alicia’s eyes as she cast a glance at her sister, then back at me.

  “Go,” she said to me in a small voice. “Go home, Jackson.”

  “He hurt you,” I said. She shook her head.

  “It’s not a big deal. Go on.”

  “And don’t come back,” her dad said, his voice a snarl. I stared at her for a long moment, wishing I could force her to come with me, to get away from someone who would treat her so roughly. I left her behind then, seething as I waited on the curb for my cab. A few moments later I was in the back of a car, looking over my shoulder at Alicia’s family’s house as we pulled away.

  Chapter 13: Alicia

  “This cannot be happening,” I said, staring down at my shaking hands, holding the pregnancy test out in front of me. “This is not happening.”

  I put the test down on the sink and decided to take another one, my fourth, knowing that the outcome wouldn’t change. The knot in my stomach twisted even tighter when a few moments later the results were repeated. I took a deep breath, holding it for a second, mind racing about what to do. I wanted to call someone up and talk it through but I had no one—not my family, no close friends, not even neighbors I was friendly with. I threw the tests away, staring at myself in the mirror as I washed my hands. My mind went to Jackson and it made me feel sick to my stomach just thinking about telling him. It had been almost two months since the last time I’d seen him, and I didn’t know how I would react if I saw him again.

  “What the hell are you going to do?” I asked myself aloud. I thought back to who already knew that I’d been with Jackson and realized that it was only Lily. She had been warm and kind, understanding and sympathetic to what had happened. It only took me a moment to decide to go back to the village to speak with her, not knowing where else to turn. I knew that I was taking the risk of seeing Jackson but hoped that if I was paying attention, I could avoid him on the roads.

  I got into my car and drove to the ranger station, fingers tapping on the steering wheel nervously. I pulled down the access road and went to the end, then got out of my car and started along the path to the village. I didn’t feel afraid as I walked, despite the fact that I knew there were things out in the woods that could and would harm me. I couldn’t feel anything above the anxiety that was threatening to choke me, and I walked faster when I thought about how desperately I needed to tell someone what was going on.

  I kept an eye out as I crossed into the village and hurried along the street to Lily and Nathaniel’s cabin. I knocked softly on the door, praying it’d be Lily who’d answer. The panic in my chest was getting worse by the second, and the moment I saw her face I started to cry.

  “Alicia, what’s wrong?” Lily asked, immediately wrapping her arms around me in a hug. I sobbed into her shoulder for a moment, whole body shaking as she rubbed my back. After a moment, I was able to breathe, and I pulled back away from her.

  “I’m pregnant,” I said, my voice sounding dull and unrecognizable.

  “Jackson?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “Come in,” she said, opening the door for me fully. She gestured toward her table and we sat down together.

  “Does he know yet?” Lily asked.

  “No. I’m not going to tell him,” I said.

  “Why not?” she asked, her voice gently coaxing out my answers, not being pushy.

  “I just—Jackson would want to have a family. He’d want to be together. And I—I saw him with the princess. Just an hour after we were together.”

  “I think you should speak to Jackson about that and let him explain,” Lily said. “Honey, he’s not going to insist that you have to be together if he finds out you’re pregnant. People do this all the time—it doesn’t require a marriage to raise a baby.”

  “I know, but—I just—my family would kill me. They would disown me if they knew. I could lose everything—my little sister, my career if anyone knew I had been with a patient. And besides,” I said. “Jackson is always in danger. His life is dedicated to Gabriel. Our baby’s will be, too. I’m not going to have a child to let him think it’s his duty to risk his life for anybody else.

  Lily nodded.

  “I understand,” she said. “So what do you want to do? Do you want to end it?”

  “No,” I said quickly. “No, I couldn’t—I can’t. I’m going to have it. I’ll have to stay away from him until it’s born. After that, I have no idea what to do. But I can’t have a baby. I can’t have Jackson’s child.”

  “So adoption,” Lily said. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat but it wouldn’t go down.

  “I guess,” I said. “But giving it up—never seeing my baby again, I just—”

  “Nathaniel and I will take it,” Lily said. I paused for a moment, looking at her in confusion.

  “What?”

  “If you stay here, you hide your pregnancy and have the baby, Nathaniel and I will take it. We can pretend that it’s my niece or nephew. Nobody has to know. You can see it whenever you want.”

  “Lily, that’s so much to ask of you. That’s too much to ask.”

  “I want a baby,” Lily said. “We’ve been talking about it, anyway.”

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said. “Both of us want kids.”

  “What if Nathaniel doesn’t want to do this?”

  “I’ll explain it to him. He’ll understand.”

  “If he says no—”

  “I promise I won’t let him say no,” she said with a small smile. “So how does that sound?”

  “I stay here at the village. I have the baby, you take it,” I said. She nodded.

  “What if Jackson finds out?”

  “We’ll deal with that as it happens. I don’t want you to stress,” Lily said. “Just stay away from him and he won’t notice.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Okay. Yes.”

  “Good,” Lily said, placing her hand over mine. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”

  “Thank you, Lily,” I said to her. “If you change your mind—”

  “I won’t. I’m excited,” she said. “I love babies.”

  “I do, too,” I said.

  “You can see it whenever you want. Seriously. Come by in the middle of the night if you feel like it,” Lily said. “I will never keep you away.”

  “Thank you,” I said again.

  “You’d better talk to Gabriel,” Lily said. “Just let him know that you plan to stay.”

  “What if he says no?”

  “Then we’ll ask Sophie to make him say yes,” Lily said, and I laughed.

  “Okay,” I said, feeling better now that we’d worked on a plan. I stood up and so did she, hugging me again before I left. I headed to Gabriel’s hut feeling lighter but still nervous, knowing that he hadn’t been happy when he found out that Lily was staying with Nathaniel. I knocked and he answered.

  “You’re back,” he said.

  “I am. I...want to stay,” I said to him. “I mean, live in the village.”

  “No,” he said shortly. “No more humans.”

  “You need a doctor,” I said. “Long-term. Where else are you going to get someone who specializes in shifters?”

  “This village is not for humans, doctor. It’s unsafe enough for you to be here.”

  “Mr. Alarick, I have nowhere else to go,” I said to him. The hard look on his face didn’t change, but I did see something shift behind his gaze.

  “I’m sending the other doctors home today,” he said. “You will be the only one who stays. I want them gone.”

  “That’s fine, I don’t really need them anymore,” I said to him. “I’m just here to take care of your people.”

  “Are you here to stay with Jackson?”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t want that at
all.”

  He shooed me away with his hand.

  “Get to work,” he said, then shut the door in my face. I turned around feeling satisfied that I didn’t have to bother Sophie with it. I didn’t want to see anyone else today, so I headed to the medical hut where my room was waiting for me.

  “Alicia,” came Jackson’s voice behind me. I froze, not looking at him.

  “What?” I asked. He jogged up to me.

  “I need to talk to you,” he said. “I’ve been dying to talk to you.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” I said, starting to walk again. He stepped in front of me, stopping me in my tracks.

  “Please,” he said, staring into my eyes with a pleading gaze. I couldn’t look away from him, and I couldn’t tell him no.

  “Okay,” I whispered. He looked relieved, glancing around us.

  “Can we go back to my hut? It should be private.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I said to him.

  “I won’t touch you,” he said. “I promise. It’s just...for privacy.”

  “Okay,” I agreed begrudgingly, following him back to his hut. I brushed past him on the way inside and regretted it when every inch of my body responded to his touch. I crossed the room quickly, putting the bed between us.

  “What do you have to say?” I asked him.

  “That kiss, Alicia. It wasn’t what it looked like. I swear—”

  “It wasn’t what it looked like? Are you kidding me?”

  “The royals have powers. They have the influence. It’s like hypnosis, but...it didn’t work on me. Not after I saw how hurt you were. Not after that first kiss. I didn’t lay a hand on her and I never would.”

  “Jackson, this sounds like bullshit.”

  “It’s not. I swear it’s not,” he said, and I could tell that he meant it by the look in his eyes.

  “So you didn’t want to kiss her?”

  “God, no. After spending the evening with you? I don’t want to touch another woman ever again.”

  “Oh,” I said.

  “Please tell me you believe me, doc,” he said.

  “I believe you,” I said. “I do, but—I still don’t want to—I mean, we can’t...be together.”

  “That’s okay,” he said, though a heavy sadness welled up in his eyes. “I just needed you to know.”

  “Thank you for telling me,” I said.

  “Are you back for good?” he asked.

  “Gabriel is letting me stay. I’m going to be the only doctor left,” I said.

  “Good, I’m glad you’ll be around.”

  “I don’t want to see you, Jackson,” I said to him, feeling more crushed with each word. Looking into his eyes made me feel warm all over, made me remember the way it’d felt to be with him, to feel him inside of me. He hesitated a moment, absorbing what I’d told him as he watched me, searching my face.

  “If that’s what you want, I can give you that,” he said, sounding exhausted with the conversation. “I’m sorry for...everything.”

  “You don’t have to be sorry,” I said. “It’s not your fault, I just—”

  “Don’t want to be with an animal?” he asked.

  “No, it’s not that. You’re not an animal to me. I’m so sorry I said that, Jackson, I just—it’s something I’ve heard my whole life. It slipped out. But that’s not what this is about.”

  “What is it about then?” he asked.

  “I’m just not feeling anything,” I said to him. “I’m not interested.”

  “I see,” he said. “Okay.”

  “Yeah,” I said awkwardly, not allowing myself to cry the way I wanted to. I knew that he could tell I was lying, but also realized there was nothing he could do about it.

  “I’m sorry,” I said again, and he didn’t respond. A thick silence followed me out of his hut, and as I walked back to mine, I was filled with nothing but regret.

  Chapter 14: Jackson

  I walked in the forest alone in wolf form before the sun came up, hunting, always hunting. I didn’t even know what I was looking for most of the time—one day it would be the faceless man, the next, stray witches who hadn’t left the forest. Sometimes I just wandered, trying to keep my mind blank instead of thinking about what I’d lost. Every time I caught a glimpse of Alicia I felt electricity course through me, but it was always in passing and never personal.

  “Jackson,” came a deep voice behind me. I turned around to see Gabriel there, a cold look on his face, the sharpness of his features accented by the new scars that led from above his eyebrow and down his nose to his cheekbone. I shifted into human form, standing up.

  “You have to stop this,” he said. “No more wandering around. No more moping. Snap out of it.”

  “I’m sorry?” I asked him, feeling irritation creep through my chest.

  “You’re hurt, I get it. But this has gone on for months. All you do is wander around the forest like you’ve lost your fucking mind,” he said. “I’ve given you plenty of opportunities to pull yourself together, yet you continue to do nothing but pity yourself all day. It’s unacceptable.”

  I felt my fists tighten at my sides, all of the anger that had been brewing in the previous months coiling up in my stomach, threatening to strike. He met my eye and held it, not wavering for a second.

  “Do you want to hit me, Jackson?” he asked in a soft, dangerous voice, as if challenging me already.

  “No, sir,” I said through gritted teeth. “But I thought you wanted someone out in the forest. You were going with Sophie yourself.”

  “With a partner. Sophie is an experienced ranger with arms training. She can be just as useful as any wolf I could bring with me.”

  “I don’t need someone out here bothering me,” I said, staring him down, refusing to back down from him.

  “I’m not asking you to take someone out here with you,” he said. “Nor am I asking you to stop pouting like a child. Those are orders.”

  I didn’t speak but drew closer to him, drawing myself tall. In that moment, I had never felt so angry, so filled with bitterness and rage. He looked up at me with those dark, piercing eyes, daring me to throw a punch, and before I knew it, I was swinging at his face with one fist, striking him hard in the jaw. He took a couple of steps back and his eyes narrowed, the threatening look on his face enough to shake me to my core as I watched his lip start to bleed. I felt a stab of real fear then, and didn’t have time to react before he’d reached out and grabbed me by my throat, lifting me off my feet and slamming my back against a tree so hard it knocked the wind out of me and I gasped for breath. He squeezed my throat, leaning in close to me, his face inches away.

  “Those were orders,” he repeated. “Do you understand?”

  “Yes,” I choked out. He let me go then and I fell to the ground, coughing and inhaling as deeply as I could.

  “Are you done?” he asked, looking down at me.

  “Yes, sir,” I said to him. He reached down and offered me his hand, helping me stand. I could already feel the bruises forming on my back.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to him. He gave me an expressionless look.

  “The only reason you’re surviving this is because I know exactly how it feels to have a natural mate and not even be able to fucking touch her.”

  “Sophie is your natural mate?”

  He gave me a dark look and didn’t answer.

  “Are you good?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “Yeah, I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t try it again,” he said, and started to walk back toward the village. I walked alongside him until he paused, putting his hand on my chest to stop me.

  “Hold on,” he said, taking a small step forward. “You see that?”

  “It’s a body,” I said, looking down at the ground.

  “Another body,” he said, bending down, flipping the man over to see that there were no marks on his body. Gabriel rubbed his hand over his face and stood up.

  “We’
ll bury him,” he said. “Without notifying the guards. I don’t want anyone to know that the bodies are going missing. Are you willing to spend one more night out in the woods? I need you to watch the burial site to find out if these bodies are going anywhere and how.”

  “I can do that,” I said to him.

  “Good,” he said, looking me over. “After that, you need to start checking in with me every day. I want to see you out and active. I will give you a job each day to keep you occupied.”

  “Thank you, sir,” I said to him, all of the anger drained out of me. We passed into the village and he went back to his hut. I went back into the woods, carrying a shovel with me, and found the body there. It took me close to an hour to dig the grave, and when it was done, I covered it back up with dirt and took a step back, looking around for somewhere I could linger in the shadows for the rest of the day. I sat down a few feet away, behind a thick tree, giving me a line of sight to the area where I had buried the body. I waited all day in the same spot until it grew dark, and then I shifted, crouching in the shadows.

  I waited for a long time, keeping alert, not even close to falling asleep even though it was well past midnight. I had barely slept in months, only a few hours each night, before I was up and wandering restlessly, unable to be still with my thoughts. I heard a noise then and peered into the darkness, saw something had disturbed the dirt on the grave. There was something moving on top of it, writhing and trying to dig at the dirt. I crept closer to see that it was a hand. It was soon joined by the other one, and I watched in horror as it dug its way out, the corpse climbing out of the hole, pale and dead-eyed. I took a step back, growling, and watched as the man shifted to wolf form and took a step toward me. The way he walked was strange and wobbly, but he moved faster than I expected and was on me in a moment. He sank his teeth into my shoulder, making no noise, quiet but fierce as he tore at the skin. I knocked him away from me, afraid to bite him back. I glanced around and then shifted into human form, moving as quickly as I could to grab a heavy branch just as the wolf dove at me again, impaling itself on the end of the stick.

  I dropped the stick but the body still moved, trying to get away from it, still completely silent in a way that was terrifying to me. I grabbed the stick and yanked it out of him, then slammed it down on his skull twice before it broke open and the wolf stopped moving. I caught my breath and realized that I felt dizzy and suddenly nauseated. I stumbled backward, catching myself just in time on a tree. I looked at my body to see that it was covered in blood from where I’d been bitten, and the jagged edges of the mark appeared swollen and inflamed. I started to walk toward the medical hut, stumbling as I went, feeling hot and cold at the same time. I started to shiver as I walked through the town, collapsing on my knees when I couldn’t make it any further.