Savior of the Wolves

Aiden’s POV

Josh and I were chained to the walls in a musty old cell. I never even knew this place existed. I loved my brother, but right now, the least dad could do is chain us in separate cells. I was furious with him. He looked upon Jess. He saw her...all of her. My anger grew the longer he was in my sight.

I saw her and that beautiful soft skin. Her hair was falling, now black from being soaking wet, dripping over her shoulders. She had chill bumps covering her skin and it was slightly red from the ice bath. I wanted to tear off my clothes and wrap her up with me, feel her entire body against mine. I wanted to warm her, then I wanted to taste her and fill every part of her body with mine.

But there Josh stood, staring at her. I knew he had a pull to her too. That almost made me want to forgive him...almost.

God, she was beautiful, and she froze, staring at me. Like no one else in the room existed. Josh didn’t exist. Did I really have that effect on her? I knew that she did on me. But I couldn’t imagine that she felt the same. But as she stared at me, her arms at her side, every single inch of me heated up to the point of overheating.

I didn’t want another person looking at her. Ever! My wolf attacked him before I could think.

“Mine,” was all I heard before I lunged for him.

I couldn’t sit, even though the chains were long enough to allow it. I felt something was wrong. I don’t know why, but it had never felt like this before. Like the fates were telling me to be ready for something.

I heard noises that weren’t human and certainly weren’t wolves and I knew something horrible was heading toward our cell. And we were chained against the wall.

When the scourges entered the cell, all hatred for my brother vanished as he nodded. We both instantly turned into our wolves.

Two scourges leapt on me. I was able to get my mouth around the first one and finished him with a rage I never felt before. The second one was slicing my arms as I lunged outward toward him, my back legs still shackled to the wall.

Josh tried to reach me, but dad had kept us far enough apart so that we couldn’t kill each other. Now, he couldn’t help me either.

Josh began to howl over and over as I growled out in rage, having been sliced again by this fucking bottom feeder. That was the only way one of these pussies would ever lay a blow on me. I killed his buddy while chained to the wall, all I had to do was stay alive long enough to kill this one too...I would heal quickly. I always do.

My eyes almost burned with the hatred I had as the scourge sliced his teeth like a saw at me, trying to rip through my arm. I swung lower, striking its chin and sending it flying backward as I finally saw my pack enter the cell.

Two attacked the scourge and ripped him to pieces as the other turned back to human and found cloth and began ripping it into long pieces. He knelt by me and began tightly applying them to my open tears.

Josh was finally freed and knelt beside me. His expression looked puzzling.

“I can’t move,” I groaned.

Josh growled and kept staring at me. He let out a loud huff and immediately turned human.

“You weren’t answering me,” he yelled.

He and I were both talking to one another, but neither could hear the other wolf. I had suspected something like this.

It was true…the scourges were interfering with our links.

I couldn’t turn back to human yet. I may not heal in time to help the fight.

“He knew what he was doing. He sliced right through your tendons,” he said, looking down at my front legs.

I nodded.

I nudged him to leave, and he understood enough.

Josh got the extra key from the wall and unlocked my chains and laid the key in front of me.

I stared at him and hissed at the agony of having to wait. I couldn’t run to the fight. I couldn’t run to her.

“I’ll make sure she’s okay,” he said, staring at me and closing the heavy metal door behind him.

I could hear my friends and brother racing down the hallway, outside of my door.

***

I growled over and over. Not that it was helping at all, but my wolf was pissed. He kept trying to stand on the legs that wouldn’t cooperate. I had plenty of injuries in my time and knew tissue, tendons, muscles were much quicker to heal than bones, but it had to have been over ten minutes.

I felt a burning begin to diminish in my right leg and tried again. I could stand. It burned under my weight, but it felt injured now instead of sliced in two. Maybe it would heal even more as I got out of here.

I looked through the bars to an empty hallway. I unlocked the door and limped down the hall. My legs were weak, and I often found the wall to be kind in its support as my balance was faulty. I also found that the longer I walked, the more my tendons seemed to stretch and cooperate.

Before I knew it, I had limped down two halls and was almost running down the third before I reached the outer door of the holding cells.

With the moon on my face and the cool breeze drifting through my fur, I had a renewed energy. I knew I couldn’t run but I could hear and sense them. I knew where the scourges were.

But as my legs began to stretch outward, I was hit as though someone reached inside of my chest. I fell to the ground and looked around. Nothing had hit me. Was that dark magic?

No, it was Jess! She was hurt badly.

In my torment, I no longer felt any pain and ran straight to the fight. I ripped the throats out of two in passing but didn’t stop. I had her scent and it lit up my way in the dark like a spotlight. My path was clear...to her.

That’s when I saw her. She was laying on the ground. Josh was over her.

He was imprinting on her! His stare held hers and I ached for the life without her. But I would rather her be with him and alive than what I just felt...like I was losing her.

So, why am I being pulled to her, more now than ever? I didn’t want to just protect her forever, I wanted to love her forever.

I was obsessed with getting to her and nearly crashed into her at that speed I couldn’t control. I placed my face against hers and breathed her in. I pulled back to see her weak eyes open to look at me. They seemed to hold me.

My panic set in and I grew crazed. I had been staring at her face, but finally looked down to see Josh’s hands wrapped around her neck. Blood was oozing out between his fingers. The witch was chanting something over her.

I could hear the fighting still going on around us and I was consumed by only her.

Then I heard her say, “I love you.”

“I love you too,” I whimpered. I wanted to turn human, to help her in some way until the healing could kick in but suddenly, I felt a jolt that dropped me to the ground. I saw every moment that she looked at me. I saw the way the wind touched her hair and I wanted it to be me. I saw how she held her breath sometimes while I was around. I saw those pale green eyes as they touched my soul. I saw the bruised girl that I saved in the woods and knew that I had loved her from the second I saw her.

The imprint was completed.

I found my mate.

She was a female noble? How could that be?

I wanted to grab her, hold her, celebrate finding one another but something in me grew sickening instead. I felt a stab in my heart as though I might die and I knew.

“Do something!” I begged, looking at Odia.

“She’s slipping,” I heard her cry.

I melted onto her...begging her not to leave me. Telling her that I couldn’t live without her. My howls pierced my own ears.

Then I heard her whisper, “I will love you forever.”

“I love you. I love y…” and my words fell off, engulfed by a silence that tore a hole into my existence. My world stopped at that moment...because her heart did too.

My wolf cried out for the first time. A long, excruciating howl filled the air. The tears burned my eyes and I turned away from her face. I looked at the demons still fighting behind me...fighting my family and my entire inside lit on fire. I knew then that I would kill every last one of them. I no longer cared if I died. I already knew I couldn’t live in a world without her.

Rage sent me soaring into the clashes of teeth. I felt a burning in my heart, then my chest and my throat seared as a burst of flame torched out onto the closest scourge, collapsing him to a pile of ash.

I could hear Josh behind me, I could smell him, I could feel his anger too. He had only let go of Jess’s injuries when I joined the fight. He was coming in to protect me. But he couldn’t keep up with me.

I found the next scourge...then the next until the woods were full of mounds of their ashes.

I collapsed, holding my throat. It was on fire. I could still hear the roaring of the flame as it had lunged out of my mouth and killed those monsters just seconds ago. My body seemed to be buzzing from the residual power.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to see my dad standing there. He had a look of pride, but I could feel his torment for his son. His son who lost his mate as soon as he found her.

As he shifted to human, a beta immediately gave him clothing and I knew it was safe. I had killed all the threats.

But the threat to my life wasn’t over. I felt death pulling at my insides. I wanted to succumb to it. I wanted to join her.

I collapsed on the floor as my father dropped by my side to comfort me. But I didn’t want it.

I longed for the life I would give her. The happiness I would fill every single day of her life with. I wanted to show her that she was worshiped, and the only tear she would ever know again would be pure happiness. She would never know sadness again. I wanted to give her what she deserved.

My howl filled the and I froze. The howl stopped. My breath held.

The pain I wanted to feel. The burning in my chest and throat that felt like they had melted from the flames…was gone.

I suddenly realized that the ache in my heart was gone too.

I was instantly to my feet running to her.