My mum doesn’t even glance at him. “Lilith, go. We don’t have long.”
Blood pounds in my head and I shake it in disbelief. “The chain—”
“Go without me!”
I flinch at the volume of her tone but keep shaking my head. “N-no, I can’t. I’m not leaving you here, Mum!”
As I rush over to her side, my dad continues muttering about how the alpha will kill us—him—once he wakes up. He really is a coward. I’m glad he’s not my real dad. Once I reach my mum and look down at the chain cutting into her skin, the tears I’ve been struggling to hold back finally fall from my lashes. She follows my gaze, and instead of being scared or upset, she just smiles at me. Slowly, she tucks my hair behind my ear and pats my head like she’s done since I was a kid.
“Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll be right behind you.” And with that, she pushes me towards the front door, her chain scraping the table. “Take the backpack hanging by the door and go. Don’t turn back. I love you, baby.”
A sob bursts from my trembling lips. “I love you, too, Mum.”
I quickly hug her, grab the bag, and then I’m taking off through the front door without so much as a glance at my dad.
My boots barely hit the ground when I shift into my wolf, take the bag into my mouth, and run. I never feel the cold, but right now I’m as cold as the snow crunching beneath my paws. My breath streams out in harsh, rapid puffs but I head into the trees as fast I’ve ever ran in my life, not even bothering to bring my clothes. I keep going until a deafening howl cuts through the air in the distance and my fur instantly stands on end.
Rizer.
His burning-leaves scent carries on the downwind, and my stomach roils with a mixture of fear and anger. I pause by a frozen creek and stare down at my reflection on the icy surface. My wolf looks as dejected as I feel. Did my mum even make it like she said she would? A small part of me hopes she did and that I’ll see her soon, that she will catch up with me. But the rest of me, no matter how much I want to refute it, shatters as if I knew all along: my mum was never getting out of that house alive.
A sick, twisted piece of me hopes my dad never made it out. He’d been perfectly willing to hand me over to the alpha like a bit of discarded meat. My mum had been nothing but terrified from the moment I entered the kitchen. My eyes water at the thought of her, but I quickly push them aside and continue. There will be time to mourn for her later. I need to get out of here before the alpha catches up with me.
With this shadowing over me, I run faster through the forest. It’s a little ironic that I’ve spent my childhood exploring these woods. I know every tree, every creek and clearing, and yet I don’t know where to go. I could go back to the party and get Aurelia, then come up with a plan. But I don’t want to drag her into this. My best option would be to seek refuge in the academy. That means going east.
Another howl echoes in the near distance, followed by another. Their cadence is so different to what I’m used to hearing amongst Caeli wolves, which means these ones aren’t part of my pack. They must be from Stormfire. Damn it! They’ve blocked out the academy. West will just take me to Aurelia, and I don’t want to endanger her. All I can do is head north in hopes that I find a place good enough to hide.
After hours of running, my limbs ache from exertion, and I have no choice but to stop to rest. The Stormfire howls stopped about a mile back. I’m not stupid enough to think they’ve given up hunting me. Leaning against a tree, I glance up at the bloodstained moon, and a powerful urge to howl at her fullness consumes me. My mum used to say that the Crescent Mother was more likely to bless her wolves on the night of a full moon. It’s a slim chance, but right now, I’ll do anything to get out of here.
I need your help. Please tell me where I should go. Give me a sign. Please. Something. Crescent Mother, help me.
In answer to my prayer is the cloying smell of more burning leaves, and the low grumble of a howl rumbling in the back of a wolf’s throat. I whip my head around in search of the wolf. Through the shadowy trees, I’m able to decipher an enormous red wolf surrounded in tendrils of smoke. The medallion around its powerful neck gleams in the moonlight.
Uhh, Crescent Mother… This isn’t what I quite had in mind.
Rizer snaps his bloody jaw at me and takes a step. The blood on his lips carries my mum’s scent. A low whimper escapes me, and I instinctively back away from him. I lower my head and press my tail tightly between my hind legs. More howls resonate close by. There’s no way I’ll be able to fight off Rizer let alone the others.
In the corner of my eye, a light flickers in the darkness around me. The bright glow pulls me towards it like gravity. I turn my head ever so slightly, and relief washes over me. A huge staircase stands proudly on the forest floor, and right at the top is a bright orange light.
A portal.
I don’t even stop to question where it might lead me.
I charge up the stairs and dive head-first into the blinding, beautiful light.
Chapter 4
Lilith Thornblood
I really hate portals.
I stumble through the light, my stomach feeling like a thousand bees are bouncing around in it, and smack hard into the stairs on the other side. I stand, my wolf shaking our head, just as the edge of the old, cracked steps to the portal gives way under my feet.
My wolf whines as we fall down the steps, right off a damn cliff of all things. My body smacks across the rock side, sharp pebbles digging into my calves. My wolf tries to dig its claws into the cliffside to stop us. Roots and branches snag in my fur and against my legs as I keep falling, unable to find anything to stop us. I briefly see everything is red and burning right before I crash into something that instantly burns my back.
Standing quickly, I move off the tiny pool of lava under me, letting my wolf heal the brief burns. Breathlessly, I take a second to glance around me and I freeze. My blood runs cold when I realise exactly where I am.
The Stormfire pack.
Also known as—Hell itself.
What the hell? I’m not even on Earth anymore.
In my horror, I look up at the portal on top of the mountain, wondering why the alpha isn’t right on my heels. He should be able to follow me.
This is his frigging pack, after all.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
My brother once told me Hell was a really beautiful place, but I never quite believed him. How could a place where demons and wolves live be beautiful? Until this second when I’m staring at all of Hell right in front of me, I never once imagined it was like this. A giant tree has grown from below the city and its entangled roots stretched everywhere they could. I remember the tree being called The Tree of Ignis. The tree has made winding paths that swirl around the main trunk, lit up with red fire on its edges. Pack homes are also woven into the branches and roots, almost like they are part of the tree. Sharp and steep rocky mountain walls make a circle around the outskirts of the city, one of them I’ve just fallen down, which must have one of many portals to Hell on it.
No wonder that hurt like a bitch. The fall must be about thirty feet.
I didn’t even know there was a portal to Stormfire near my home. In fact, it should be impossible for that portal to even exist. Problem for another time. The Stormfire city surrounds the major part of the ancient and wondrous tree. The looping roots and gnarled vines hold much of the city together. There are tall towers of apartments wrapped in vines and red flowers, that are like flames, on the edges of the city. Closer to the middle are large stone buildings that seem untouched by the tree themselves, and perhaps newer.