Forbidded

by Adrienne Woods

  The silence between us was suffocating. With her sister, I couldn’t wait for her to stop talking so we could sit in silence for a while. With Ru, I wanted the opposite.

  “You.”

  Seven

  RU

  * * *

  It was a relief to tell Collin everything I had seen in my vision, and he listened attentively, taking it all in and asking me questions. It wasn’t all that awesome to describe his death and the way it affected his entire group, but he had asked me not to leave anything out. It had been heart-wrenching to see Greg almost losing his mind in my vision; he seemed to love Collin like a son.

  When I was done, I could see that Collin believed me. Not only did he believe me, but he took action, springing to his feet when he was certain I was okay.

  He disappeared into Greg’s tent, and I was worried that he would tell Greg about my visions. What if Greg told the entire hunting brigade? I hoped he wouldn’t reveal my secret to change the plan.

  But either way, even if Greg only shared the new intel with the hunting party, I was certain my family would surmise the truth and ship me off to the same place as Grandma Marie.

  I went back to my tent and collapsed on my bedroll, but sleep wouldn’t come. I would be exhausted tomorrow, but at least I knew I would be free from visions—they’d never happened back to back.

  Greg had been right about the pack being sadistic. They took pleasure in killing; they loved it and lived for it. I saw the thrill they took from the kill whenever they tore into someone I knew and loved.

  In my vision, Collin’s death hadn’t been fast. It was as if the wolves knew who he was, that he had grown up with a pack and was now spilling secrets to the enemy.

  I smiled when I remembered the secret he shared with me—the lock thing that happened when they met their true mate.

  It made them sound like people, not the monsters I had grown up with.

  A part of me was ecstatic that I had been able to tell someone about my vision, and the fact that Collin believed me was an immense relief.

  But whenever I closed my eyes, I heard my family screaming, saw flashes of them fighting, trying to stay alive through the carnage.

  As always, fear pinned me in place and I did nothing.

  My heart still raced and I struggled to calm myself. My nerves were like sparks of electricity flowing through me.

  Finally, I managed to relax and drift away. To my surprise, I dreamed of nothing—not the screaming, not the pain, just darkness and a vivid, happy memory.

  Grandma Marie was in my dream. She had been such a big part of my life, and I missed her dearly. Perhaps if she was still here, she would have told me about her visions when I started to get them. Perhaps she would have acted differently then.

  Maybe it would’ve been easier on her if she had someone to share her visions with.

  I woke up well before sunrise and found my father sitting in front of the fire with a cup of joe in his hands, deep in thought.

  I sat down next to him on the log, snapping him out of his trance. He pulled me close and brushed his lips over my cheek.

  “Morning, Daddy.”

  “Morning, peanut. How do you feel?”

  “Better,” I answered with a sheepish grin. “I’m a bit tired.”

  He nodded. “When we get back, I want you to see Dr. Rudolf.

  I sighed. “Dad—”

  “No, Ru. We need to find out why you are getting these headaches. You can’t deny that they’re becoming worse and more frequent.”

  I nodded reluctantly.

  “So, Dr. Rudolf it is. Even if it’s just to ease your old man’s worries.”

  “There’s nothing to worry about, Dad. Promise.” I squeezed his hand in reassurance.

  “You are my life, Ru. I don’t know what I would do if anything happened to any of you. And with these hunters, anything can happen.”

  “Liz will be okay, Dad. Even if she and Collin aren’t together anymore, he will still protect her.”

  “I know. He’s an okay guy.”

  I chuckled. Collin was more than an okay guy.

  “Dad, do think it’s true what he said yesterday about the wolves’ strength waning on the third day?”

  My dad took a sip of his coffee before answering me. “Collin sure seems to know a lot about them.”

  “It’s like sharing family secrets. It can’t be easy.” In a way, I felt sorry for Collin. It had to feel like he was betraying his own kind, even if he wasn’t a wolf.

  “Yeah.” My father slung his arm around me and squeezed. As if the gesture were punctuation, our conversation fizzled. He and I could sit together in silence for hours without getting awkward.

  Liz was the complete opposite. She loved to talk. She was well versed in different topics, which made her easy to talk to.

  I was still a bit upset with her. I understand that her heart was broken, but it was so unlike her to say something so hurtful to me.

  I sighed.

  I shouldn’t be hard on her. I had no idea what it felt like to have your heart broken by someone like Collin.

  But still, to assume that I had nothing to worry about… She didn’t have to deal with seeing the deaths of the people she loved countless times, didn’t have to deal with the devastation.

  People didn’t have the right to judge other people just by what they saw.

  The rest of the camp stirred with wakefulness. The silence my father and I were enjoying was interrupted when Liz plopped her grumpy ass down next to me.

  She still wasn’t herself. Heartbreak didn’t suit her.

  She kept glancing over at Collin’s tent, her face a mixture of sadness and anger.

  I wished she could get over him. So what if he didn’t feel the same way? It couldn’t be easy, but I couldn’t stand her bitchiness anymore.

  She didn’t need Collin in her life. Liz was better than him, and soon another guy would come along and sweep her off her feet.

  I chuckled to myself. Collin had said Liz was too perfect for him, but how on earth was that a negative?

  The day dragged. I hated it. The seconds felt like minutes and the minutes felt like hours.

  I felt like I had aged ten years when Greg finally called us together.

  I clutched at my father’s arm, nervous energy coursing through me as I waited for Greg to drop the bomb. I don’t know what I would do if he announced I could see the future.

  But he didn’t mention my visions; he stuck to the new pack numbers, which no one seemed to take lightly.

  Everyone voiced concerns, but Greg’s group was well prepared. Greg had overhauled the entire plan according to my vision, and he explained where the pack would strike, and how they would kill.

  My eyes briefly caught Collin’s, and the look on his face shocked me. After he had been so understanding last night, I hadn’t expected him to look at me as if I had a disease.

  I told myself to shake it off. Who cared what he thought?

  After the meeting, we geared up, ready for the hunt.

  My father handed me my red vest and I shrugged it on as he collected our family for his stupid pep talk. They always sounded more like goodbye than anything else.

  “Liz, Ru,” he said but he looked at all of us in turn. “I know we haven’t hunted in a while, but you have to be on high alert tonight. Listen to your senses, stay close to one another, and whatever happens tonight, know that I love you with my entire heart.”

  I didn’t like it when he talked like this.

  “Dad,” Liz whined.

  “No, Liz. You heard what Greg and Collin said about this pack. They are sadistic. They will stop at nothing. With the knowledge they were springing on us, I had to admit, I wanted to leave. But what sort of hunter would I be if I ran away? These people need all the help they can get to take down this pack. We could have easily run into this pack on our own, without Greg and Collin’s intel and technology. So that’s why we need to stay and help. Liz.” He pulled her in his embra
ce. “Stay close to Ru. If she gets another headache tonight, I need to know that you are there.”

  She nodded and my father placed his hand behind my neck. Tears glistened in his eyes and my heart clenched.

  “Ru, if you feel a headache coming on, get as high into a tree as you can. That’s all I’ve been able to come up with, sweetheart.”

  I nodded as he let me and Liz out of his embrace.

  “Theo, keep your eyes sharp and aim true.” He touched Theo’s cheek. “Will, take care of your cousin, and Theo, you do the same. Fernus—”

  “Stop this shit, Huck. I’ve been next to you from the moment we started hunting these fuckers. I won’t leave now. We get out of this alive, or we don’t. I’m not saying goodbye.” Uncle Fernus stormed off.

  “That’s our Fernus. Take care of each other. I’ll see you afterward.”

  We were quiet as Dad pulled us in for a group hug.

  Flashes of last night’s vision flipped through my mind. That couldn’t happen tonight. I would never survive the loss of my family. That much I knew.

  I was running.

  The rattling from the werewolves echoed through the night, surrounding me. You’d think you would get used to it, but it was a sound that struck terror into the hearts of anyone who heard it. Collin was right. Their speed wasn’t the speed of the wolf we had caught on our first hunt with them.

  I ran up the tree and pushed off it, doing a backflip over the wolf so I landed right behind it.

  I ran forward and slid underneath it, stabbing my dagger into the monster’s vulnerable abdomen.

  It yelped and growled and my grip faltered, the blade sliding against the thick, shielded part of its body.

  As the wolf fell flat on the ground, I unsheathed my sword. I slashed at it, but a part of me hesitated to kill it, even though it wouldn’t think twice about killing me.

  It snapped its teeth as it advanced toward me, fighting to stay alive. From behind, Liz delivered the final blow and the wolf fell, changing back to its human form with its last breath.

  Liz pulled me to my feet, and then she was gone, on to the next wolf, helping wherever she could.

  I looked to where the wolf had fallen, and a tiny, seemingly fragile woman lay in its place. She was dirty and naked, her innards spread around her.

  “Ru get your ass moving!” my sister yelled.

  Without warning, blinding pain seared into my skull. My head felt like it was going to explode.

  Not now, not now.

  I tried with all my might to stay in the present, but the pull of the vision was irresistible.

  Fighting raged around me, wolves growling and rattling, combatants screaming. Then the vision flashed me to the tomb.

  I pushed against my mind, forcing myself back to reality as I stumbled forward. It continued like that, the headache pounding against my skull as I flashed back into the vision.

  As I resisted, more yells and screams filled my ears. But I realized the screams were my own.

  I was making myself an easy target.

  The deranged sound of my name being shouted echoed through the night air, but it wasn’t my father or brother screaming.

  The vision wrenched me back to the path toward the tomb at breakneck speed.

  Abruptly, I was back in the hunt. More growling, rattling, slashing, screaming my name. Back to the vision.

  The whiplash in my mind was making me dizzy and queasy and the ache in my head unbearable. Tonight was the night for me to die.

  * * *

  COLLIN.

  * * *

  Two she-wolves were going berserk because they could smell what we were. Luckily, they couldn’t speak English in their wolf forms because they had refused my gift. They loved the kill too much.

  “Ru!” Liz screamed.

  My head snapped in Liz’s direction and I saw her struggling with a wolf. Huck turned and ran the second Liz screamed Ru’s name. My eyes tracked him until I found her, her bright red gilet a shining beacon.

  My insides froze when I realized what was happening.

  She was trying to fight off a vision.

  The wolves knew what she was, and they were all aiming for her.

  Shots from afar narrowly missed one of the wolves and it saw its chance to advance on Ru.

  Huck was busy fighting off the wolf closest to Ru, begging her to snap out of it, as the other wolf moved swiftly toward her.

  “Collin, go!” Greg yelled.

  “Tommy,” I called and he ran over to help Greg deal with the two she-wolves.

  The wolf blurred through the crowd toward Ru. I ran faster, yelling Ru’s name desperately.

  She shouldn’t be fighting the vision. It could kill her.

  I collided with the wolf, his scent proclaiming he was the Alpha of the pack.

  “Let me be, traitor. She is wolf and you know it,” the wolf growled at me in Mahur.

  “Not this one.”

  I grabbed my dagger and stabbed it between its scales and horns. The place right behind its belly, a vulnerable spot

  “You will burn for this,” he growled.

  “You should’ve accepted the offer,” I hissed

  He snarled, baring his teeth as he tried to tear into my flesh. I tried to evade him, but he was too quick for me and pinned me on the ground, his paws pressing so hard that I felt my ribs fissuring. I groaned before a scream of pain left my mouth.

  Ru’s war scream erupted, and she drove a sword through the wolf’s back before he could react.

  He went limp and collapsed on top of me.

  “Collin,” Ru whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

  “You don’t need to be sorry, Ru. You can’t control it,” I said, breathing heavily.

  “Did he bite you?”

  With the Alpha dead, the others would be turning back to human. I needed to get to them before they outed me and my pack. But then I realized there were no others left. The fallen were strewn over the hunting area, all in human forms.

  I grunted. Some of the fallen were members of our pack.

  “Collin.” Greg’s voice was growing agitated.

  I needed to get up and show him I was alive, but with the wolf on top of me, it was a bit difficult.

  “I’m sorry,” Ru repeated, her voice shaky, her eyes shining with tears.

  “Stop apologizing, Ru.”

  The wolf on top of me finally morphed into its human form. He was big and bald.

  Greg shoved him off as he reached me.

  “Tommy, get the truck. We need to get Collin to the hospital, now!” Greg ordered.

  I would heal fast, but Greg was right. I needed to blend in. I groaned inwardly. This was going to be so boring.

  Ru continued apologizing while Greg and Tommy gingerly lifted me and brought me to the truck.

  “Collin!” Liz screamed in devastation.

  “Dammit, Ru,” Theo yelled. “What the hell was that? Why didn’t you move?”

  Within seconds, the entire group was arguing amongst themselves.

  Another agonizing scream tore from my throat.

  “It’ll be okay, Collin,” Greg said.

  What was this?

  Fiery pain flowed through my arteries, setting my blood on fire. I was on the brink of melting, exploding, burning to a cinder. I wanted to grab my head, but the pain was too overwhelming to lift my arms.

  “Doctor, now!” Greg yelled and I could feel the rumble to life and drive off. “Dammit, Collin, it can’t be that bad, man.”

  “It’s not that, Greg. It’s Ru,” I managed to grunt out.

  “You didn’t kiss her, did you?”

  “No, but I fucking saved her life. That counts as act, too, doesn’t it?”

  “Shit.” He sighed. “Well, there’s no turning back now, Collin. The pain will be over soon.”

  It felt like I was being crushed by some invisible force, shattering each individual bone. I cried out, my throat raw a continuous stream of yells wrenched through me.

  Wh
at was this lockpass doing? This couldn’t be normal.

  The only thing I knew was that when I woke up from this, I wouldn’t be just Collin Freeman anymore.

  Ru would be a part of me.

  Eight

  RU

  * * *

  We waited at the hospital for news on Collin.

  My father leaned against the wall, talking to Uncle Fernus in a low voice.

  Theo was mad as hell. He’d seen everything through his rifle’s scope, but he had been out of range. He had thought he was going to watch me die.

  Liz had also gone off on me, screaming like a banshee, but now she was quiet, her worry over Collin trumping everything else.

  I’d seen his death. Now he was still fated to die—just in a different way.

  I was in shock. I kept feeling like a bystander, not a participant. I’d never had visions so close together, one right after another.

  Something was gravely wrong, and I didn’t blame my father for worrying. I’d been close to death tonight. Now Collin was in the hospital because of me.

  I could feel my sister’s glare boring into me as I gazed down at my feet. If anything happened to Collin, if he died, she would hate me.

  I couldn’t blame her. He was here because he saved me.

  I’d heard his bones cracking as the wolf pinned Collin. His lungs could have easily been punctured, not to mention that he was probably bleeding internally.

  No human could survive injuries so extensive.

  I now realized that it had been his voice I had heard while I fought my vision, I couldn’t understand why he’d sounded so deranged.

  I didn’t like it.

  I hunched over and rested my head on my arms, the silence tense in the waiting area.

  Finally, the doctor came in walked straight to Greg.

  My head popped up so I could listen to what they said.

  “We’re doing everything we can. We’re only about halfway through the surgery. If everything goes according to plan, he will need time to recuperate.”

  Greg nodded.

  “Stay strong, and I’ll be back to update you soon.”