Alpha Asher and Lola novel Chapter 205

Read Alpha Asher by Jane Doe Chapter 205

I didn’t hesitate to bound into the forest, chasing the sound of Breyona’s voice, the taste of her fear ripe on my tongue.

There was something wrong, something so very wrong with the way her voice coiled around my thoughts and squeezed the life out of them. It wasn’t through mind-link that I was hearing her, I was sure of it. No matter how hard I tried to dig past her wailing, to the connection that spanned between us, I just couldn’t.

Thoughts refused to form, each and every one shattering under the grip of her pleas.

‘It hurts, Lola! It hurts so bad—so bad.’ She sobbed and screamed.

I couldn’t think, not even to figure out where the h**l I was going or whether or not I should slow down.

The forest cracked and trembled beneath my feet. Limbs like outstretched arms reached to grab me, tearing away bits of my fur and drawing blood. Even the pain was dull, like it too was smothered by Breyona’s voice.

Suddenly, she went silent.

It should’ve occurred to me that the wrongness in the air went further than Breyona begging for her life, for her best friend to come and save her, but I was too slow at recognizing it.

Beams of moonlight speared through the treetops, hitting the ground in slender rays that gave off just enough light to keep from tripping over my own two feet. Shadows writhed and danced in the spaces in between, where the moonlight could not reach. The glint of silver blended in perfectly with both shadow and light, making it far too late for me to react in time.

I felt the sudden burst of pain before I scented the blood.

There was no stopping. Not with Breyona’s life on the line, not with that deafening silence so close to s********g me whole.

At first, I thought I’d been hit by a dagger thrown through the air, but the force behind it was hard enough to slice through flesh and muscle, all the way down to bone.

A second one hit, then a third, and a fourth.

I twisted my head to the side to catch a glimpse of an arrow protruding from my back. It was accompanied by three others, each one jutting from various places around my spine like the b****y barbs of a porcupine.

When a fifth hit, this one spearing me in between my ribs, Maya and I went down.

We bounced and skidded along the forest floor, kicking up rocks and dirt as we disrupted those silvery beams of moonlight. My fur was receding, sinking back into my body as my bones shrunk and contorted, bringing on another wave of fear. There was too much silver in my body to keep up my wolf form. It took one last desperate thought to make my clothing reappear as I landed in a broken, b****y heap of torn flesh and exposed bone.

With every breath my lungs rattled like they were full of liquid. I tasted blood, thick and dark, and instantly knew that this was not good. Every square inch of my flesh felt raw, like it had been through a paper shredder before being crudely put back together.

I reached out with my mind and felt nothing.

Maya was deep asleep, taking with her my connection to Asher and the rest of the pack. I was alone, without any way of contacting the others for help. Even my odd attachment to Breyona felt just out of reach, so close that I could graze it with blood coated fingertips, but not close enough.

There was no way I could stay here. Bleeding, with arrows still lodged in my body that scalded my flesh and sapped my strength, I forced myself onto my hands. My arms trembled painfully, wobbling so much that I had to grind my teeth together to keep from collapsing.

In and out, I breathed. Each time picturing Asher, using his face as an anchor to keep me from blacking out. I had to get out of here before the witch that shot me caught up.

The world went blurry when I made it to my knees. A dull bite of pain gnawed at them when stone and earth dug into my flesh, but it was nothing compared to the feel of hot blood trickling down my spine.

One moment I’d been blinking away sweat and tears, and the next I was surrounded.

There were seven of them, perhaps more but it was hard to tell considering everything began to double and triple. Tree’s multiplied, then died off, vanishing so quickly it made my head spin.

One witch stepped forward. Her upturned nose and confident stance struck me as being someone in charge. Wisps of dark hair peeked out beneath the hooded cloak she wore, but it did nothing to hide her face. Every single one of her features was hard, sharpened as though cruelty was the only expression she was ever destined to use.

The witch tossed something to the dirt in front of me and said nothing as I squinted and waited for my vision to stop swirling.

It was a crossbow, loaded with an arrow tipped in silver.

Faster than the realization that spawned on my face, the witch sneered. She curled her thin lips back and b***d her teeth, lowering herself to the dirt floor like she was greeting a wild animal.

“You got the upper hand on my pupils twice now, and twice they’ve been punished for their failure. Tessa and Ember are talented for their ages, but we cannot allow failure this far along. Can we, Lola?”

I could barely understand what the h**l she was saying. Something about training and those two witches, the ones that had chased us through the forest and nearly k****d Dina.

Blood drizzled from my mouth, seeping into my clothes, and running down my chest. Splotches of darkness, far colder than the shadows, began to fill my vision. They grew and multiplied, each one draining what little strength I had left.

It was a miracle I managed to stay upright, still knelt in the dirt like a prisoner of war—which I had a feeling I’d soon become. Even on the verge of passing out, fear struck far swifter than the arrows that pierced my flesh.