— • 🔥 Emilia 🔥 • —

Awakening to the soft smell of the woodlands, I remember my mission to track down and rescue Izzy.

Instantly alert, my fox jumps around in my head, alongside my wolf that paces anxiously.

Alright guys, chill!! I'm gonna get looking, give me chance to wake up, jeez.

I don't hear anything other than the padding of paws. Shaking my head, I try focus on a scent of Isabella.

Walking up to the metal doors, I smell Isabella's scent mixed with another familiar one.

Huh?

Not quite knowing who the new scent belongs to, I follow the trail as far as I can. It slowly fades until it is fully gone and I'm left dumbfounded. Where the hell did she go?

I wander round aimlessly for a while, attempting to find any clues towards Isabella's whereabouts.

The dull pull that I could feel is now none existent, so any clues it could have given me are now diminished.

Mitzi is still dancing around in my head, the shift last night clearly exciting her. Even Brixel starts to snap at her irritating behaviour.

Too tired from the shift and the exhausts of today I allow Brixel to take control of my human form, whilst I sit in the shadows of my mind with Mitzi.

I need to calm her down because it's giving me a headache.

Although shifting into my fox form last night felt amazing and allowed me to track Isabella much faster, it drained me. Mitzi released a lot of power and it took everything in me to reign it back in and keep things under control in order to stay undetected.

The necklace can only hold so much power.

"Hey do you think we will ever find her?" Mitzi says.

I nod my head. "We will. I'm sure of it... I'm not so sure who was with Izzy though, but I recognised the smell, that's what is confusing me."

She shakes her head and I stroke her to try calm whatever just made her nervous.

"You don't think it's them do you?" She says, sounding absolutely terrified.

Continuing to stroke her, I speak, "well, if it is we are just going to have to deal with it."

"If they hurt her, I'm going to murder them, and I will not let you stop me." Mitzi murmurs quietly, shaking with anger.

"Heyyy, calm down, we don't even know for sure if it is them. And I'm sure they won't her, they were mean but they're not cruel." I soothe.

Hey Em! Do you mind if I hunt? It's been literally forever since I've tasted a good fresh rabbit. Brixel asks.

She's practically salivating at the thought so I reply with a quick yes and watch as I change forms, feeling my bones ache slightly. It doesn't hardly hurt me at all, since 50% of the shift is felt by whoever is in control and then the other 50% is felt by whoever resides in the mind, but since there are two of us, I can hardly feel it. 25% of pain is hardly anything to me.

Besides, being a trained assassin I have a high pain tolerance.

"Yeah because you were abused." Mitzi said coldly.

"Please not now Mitzi. We have other matters at hand okay? I really don't want to reminisce my amazingly wonderful childhood. Besides it's not the right frame of mind to be in, if I find them. My gut is telling me we are close to home territory so it is very likely that is who has taken Isabella. Now if you can stop it I would really appreciate it, I'm going to find my mate." I state hastily, before ordering Brixel to retreat and taking over my wolf form and closing the link between them.

Maybe I was too harsh but I really don't have time to be having flashbacks to my childhood. I need to focus on finding Isabella.

— •⚡️ Isabella ⚡️• —

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Letting out a groan, I roll over and hit my alarm multiple times in an attempt to turn it off. Eventually, I succeed and smile at my accomplishment.

Not daring to shut my eyes for fear of falling asleep, I drag myself out of bed and rummage through the pile of clothes left for me, for something slightly warmer.

Changing into a hoodie, I head over towards the window to plan my descend. There is a pipe to climb down first and then a veranda I could land on and jump down from.

After debating my descend for a while I decide to just do it, as overthinking it will only make me ditch the whole operation.

After clambering down the pipe and leaping off the veranda, I hit the ground with a hard thud. Not my most elegant moment I will admit.

You did fine, just hurry up before someone sees you.

I nod my head in agreement and dart off towards the woods located to the right of me.

Upon reaching the edge of the woods, doubt and fear creep in but I quickly shake it off. With a determined nod and inhale of breath I step into the woods, and strangely enough instantly feel calmer.

With a now quieter mind I let Athena take over for a while, I figured she might want to have a proper look around.

Sat back, I watched as she moved my human form around. It all seemed normal until she placed a hand upon the trees, causing a warm radiating energy to pass from the tree into us and reflect the same the other way. It was strange really, but maybe it had something to do with us having a powerful wolf. So I decided against questioning it.

Athena seemed to bask in the feeling that entered our human body and didn't realise that the red head from earlier, of who's name I still don't know was behind her.

"Hey." A sweet voice called out in a gentle and soothing tone. Knowing instantly who it was, Athena passed control back to me and I span us.

"Hi." I reply. Trying to avoid an awkward silence and also curious, I finally asked her, her name.

"My name is Claire." She said, "and yours?"

I give a smile at the mention of her name, it suited her well. "My name is Isabelle." I respond.

After a brief pause I continue. "But I figured they would have told you my name when they requested that you make me welcome? Or is that not courtesy at your pack?" I ask, not really trying to throw shade but a little hurt that after abducting me, they didn't even have the courtesy to tell my name.

She smiles at my name, as I did with hers. "You have a lovely name." She says happily before biting her lip nervously and asking "so... are you ready to tell me why you think you were kidnapped?"

I nod my head. "It's more of a show you why, but yeah I'm ready." I say before stepping away from her.

She watches as I very easily slip into my wolf form. Maybe it's a bad idea revealing I'm a wolf shifter, especially when I went to the trouble of getting the necklace, but having an ally in this place might not be the worst thing I've done.

There's a gasp as I finish the transformation and Claire takes in the complete view of my wolf form.

"You're a- " she whispers.

"Yes I'm a wolf." I say. My voice radiating from my wolf, as my wolf stands patiently, tongue hanging out of its mouth imma relaxed nature. Of course my wolf loves feels safe under the attention and stares of a stranger.

"And you wanna see something cool?" I ask.

Receiving a nod, I continue.

"I can do this." Mind linking her.

Shocked by the voice invading her head, that is usually filled with the commands of wolves above her, she gives me a shocked and somewhat terrified look.

"How?!" She exclaims.

I let a laugh escape through the link. "I don't quite know to be honest." I say aloud.

"Can I touch your wolf?" She questions.

Nodding my head I step towards her and she falls to her knees, which I thought was intended but turns out it wasn't.

Ignoring the strange sensation that sent Claire to her knees she outstretched a hand and begin to stroke my fur. My wolf purred with content.

God our wolf acts like a cat.

Leave her be, you don't let her out often, let her enjoy this.

Agreeing with Athena, I decide to just let my wolf do her thing.

"Hey Claire?"

She looks me in the eyes and replies. "Yeah?"

"Wanna go on a run?" I say, my wolf dancing in excitement, knocking Claire on the floor, who was resting against me.

"Sure just let me get up first." She laughs.

Picking herself up of the ground, she shifts into her wolf, with quite a bit of difficulty might I add, and eventually turns into her wolf.

A painful yelp and body shake later and I view her brown and auburn wolf  in all her glory.

Her wolf resembles her actual human features which I think is beautiful and unique. Most people have a wolf that doesn't really resemble them. Saying that, I've only seen Emilia's wolf and those members that abducted me.

Shaking my head free of thoughts of Emilia, before I get upset. I let out an excited yip and jump around.

Claire seemed to be in pain still so I refrained from running ahead.

"You okay?" I linked.

She nodded and replied, which was a shock. I knew I could mind link those not in my pack but I never expected a different pack member to link me. So far only Emilia has, but she's a rogue like me so it made sense.

"Yeah I'm okay, it's just been a while since I've shifted. They don't let me out much." She links back and then gasps, much like me, shocked the link actually worked.

"What does this mean?" She questions. "Do you think anyone can hear us?"

I shake my head no, "the link is only between me and you." I say.

She seems happy enough with that so we dart off deeper into the woods. We chased rabbits, played tag and hide and seek. Eventually, both very clearly exhausted we took rest by a small stream.

Drifting asleep to the sound of the running water, Claire startles me awake. I let out a panicked and annoyed bark and Claire instantly slinks back.

"Sorry, it's just that it's starting to get light so we need to head back before they notice we're missing." She says gently.

"But I could leave?" I say. My head telling me to run, I'm already free, surely if I ran far enough they would get bored of chasing me. My in my heart knowing I need to stay, at least for now. The reason I don't know, but something deep down inside was telling me to stay, so I did.

Before Claire can reply I link "never mind, I'm coming with you. Besides if you get in trouble, you'll have me as an alibi." and wink. Which looks kind of weird in wolf form but it is what it is.

This information must have been music to her ears because she lets a toothy grin spread across her face and yips in happiness before shifting back into human form, much quicker and with less difficultly than last night.

Shifting back myself, we head back to the pack house.

"How come it doesn't hurt you to shift? And have you ever thought about why you can shift?" Claire asked.

Pondering the question, I was about to respond when she spoke again. "Maybe you're-" but was interrupted by a pack member we didn't notice at first.

"Hey, what are you guys doing out here?!" He demands aggressively.

Claire shakes beneath his glare, clearly about to crumble beneath his glare and power over her.

Quickly thinking of an excuse I speak up, "we were just going on a walk." I lie, hoping it's good enough. "I needed to get out of the pack house and didn't know anyone or who I was supposed to contact so I found Claire. She welcomed me yesterday so I'm familiar with her, I hope that's okay." I add, trying to make it sound more believable.

The man grunted a response and glanced at Claire who still shivered under his glare. Figuring that he was trying to gauge if I was lying Linking her arm, I give her a smile which seems to calm her down and reaffirm my support.

Claire gave him a nod before adding, "I know I should have told someone where I went or got someone to accompany us, but I didn't want to wake any of you."

Giving her a low growl in response, he snaps "yeah you should have, don't do it again mutt."

She visibly flinches at the word mutt and cowers slightly.

I can feel the anger bubbling up inside me but know that I need to keep a hold on it.

"I could have run you know, but I didn't, you want to know why?" I say, trying to hold back my emotions. "It's because I could tell she was a genuine person, the way she presents herself showed me she could be trusted. She is a value member of your pack and thanks to the positive qualities I saw, I realised not everyone in this pack is an egotistical asshole. I'm sorry that I can't say the same for some of you." And give him the dirtiest look I could muster.

First, I saw a look of surprise cross his eyes, then anger and then amusement. Really he finds it funny?

"What's so funny? Were you laughing at the fact I forgot to list a few other features of you and your pack?" I quip.

Giving me a smirk, he says, "they told me you had attitude but I didn't know it would be hot attitude."

I gag, trying to hold back the bile that rises in my throat. There are so many things wrong with the guys in this place. Let's hope the girls aren't all the same.

"I'm going back to my room, if I stay here with this." I say, looking him up and down, "I'm going to be sick."

I stalk away but turn back after a few steps, "Claire, you coming?" I say before adding through the link. "I don't like or trust him, come on let's go do something fun together."

She excuses herself and joins my side. Walking into the building together we decided on going to my room and watching a film, after checking her rota and seeing she had 2 hours free.

On the way up the main stairs towards my room, Claire stops and freezes in her tracks. Following her gaze, I lock eyes with a blonde.

Averting my gaze back to Claire I see her stiffen up as she intently watches the blonde make her way towards us.

"Hey, I'm here it's okay." I say. When she doesn't respond I link her. "Claire, snap out of it, I'm here to back you up remember."

She jumps and gives me an apologetic smile. Hoping the jump synced with what I actually said, so it didn't look suspicious or strange, I turn my attention to the blonde who is now about 7 steps ahead of us.

Approaching us, she gives me a smile and then turns to Claire and gives her the dirtiest look I have ever seen. "I know you grassed on me, you scruffy bitch." She snarls.

You can talk.

Claire struggles for words. Wanting to help but knowing I can't really intervene because I don't know the context behind the accusation, I just show support.

"You've got this girl. I'm here remember." I link her.

She nods her head as a signal to me but doesn't link which is probably a good idea, as blondie over here is close so it might mess the link channel up for Claire.

"Why you nodding your head? You freak." Blonde questioned.

Claire clapped back with attitude. "That was me trying to come to terms with the bullshit that spews out of your mouth."

Blondie seemed really offended by this and gasped, doing the whole cover-your-mouth-with-your-hand-thing. Then it was like a light was flicked, she suddenly seethed, bristling with fury.

"Who the fuck do you think you're talking to, do you need me to remind you your place in this pack?" She spat.

"I'm talking to a fake ass blonde bitch that doesn't deserve even a second of my time. I don't owe you anything Veronica." Claire replied.

Damnnn this girl got fire, and here I was thinking she was shy and awkward.

She is.

Then why is she so confident?

I gave her a helping hand.

Damnn well go Athena.

I only showed her how to be confident even if she feels like she's on the verge of breaking. This is just everything she's never said but wanted to.

Turning my attention back to the scene in front of me, I see a confident and badass red head and a blonde that is actually offended. I think this is the most truthful anyone has ever been to her, judging my her face.

Proving my point, she starts shifting, only slightly, claws extended and teeth elongated. Damn this bitch is out for blood, I might have to fight if this gets out of hand. But wait, that's bad, I'm keeping my wolf a secret for a reason right? But it would be worth it for Claire, she's a good person, saying that though she is a wolf, she could probably hold her own.

Urgh my brain hurts.

"What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" She seethes. Her voice cracking as she tries to hold back her wolf.

Claire who doesn't even flinch repeats her previous statement. "I called you a fake ass blonde bitch. The truth hurts doesn't it Veronica." She says in a fierce tone. Before mocking her, "Aww are you upset that someone finally called you out on what you are?"

With those words spoken, Veronica doesn't hold back and lunges for Claire who ducks out of the way and shifts, just as Veronica does. Claire's brown and Auburn wolf looks beautiful compared to Veronica dull dusty brown colour. She's probably jealous of Claire because her own wolf looks like the frickin' Sahara desert.

Not really knowing whether to intervene or stay put, I watch the scene unfold. Both Veronica and Claire have their wolf's on each other, scrapping and rolling around on the floor. Veronica used her larger wolf to pin down Claire but Claire made her body go limp so Veronica let off a little, prepared to wrap her jaws round her neck and declare victory.

Claire kicked up just enough to roll out from under Veronica and dart a little away. Veronica noticed this and tailed her but Claire just jumped up and landed on her back. Veronica crashed into vases and walls trying to get the smaller wolf off her, but it was to no avail.

Eventually, she laid down and rolled over, which caused Claire to let go for her own safety. Veronica took this as an opportunity to lunge at her neck, but only succeeded at snapping the air where her neck should be. Frustrated, she bit down on Claire's leg hard, until a yelp was heard and blood was drawn. Now limping Claire tried to get away, knowing she had little to no chance of winning now.

Deciding I need to do something, I ran over to Claire and took my top off to wrap around her leg. Focused on the task at hand, I didn't notice Veronica creeping up behind me. She shoved me out of the way and was about to clamp her jaw around Claire's scruff.

"Veronica, don't you dare." I commanded, well Athena did. Bringing Athena to the surface was safe with the necklace, besides, blondie over here hadn't heard my voice yet, so she didn't know it was Athena's voice coming out of my mouth.

She turned her head to me, her wolf confused at the urge to surrender to a human command.

This was all Claire needed, she shot forwards, and clamped her teeth around Veronicas neck until she submit. But damn did that bitch wriggle.

They both shifted back, and just as Veronica was about to high tail out of there, Nathan walked in.

Before I even had time to question why the hell Nathan was here, he was already rushing to Claire's side. Concern flooded his face and he checked her over to make sure she was okay.

Noticing her bleeding leg he mutters something and darts off. In literally 5 seconds, he was back with the Alpha and a tall brunette woman.

"What happened here?" The Alpha asked.

"Claire and a girl called Veronica had a fight." I said, and all heads turned to me as if they were only just noticing me.

I mean that's exactly what happened but you know. There was a pause so I added, "Claire won."

This got Claire an approving look from Nathan and a scowl from the Alpha, I'm guessing he wasn't too happy with the fact an omega bet whatever ranking she was.

The Alpha takes off his top and chucks it to me. "You shouldn't be wearing just a bra when there are males around." He says before adding "My pack is made up of horny males."

My first thought hadn't even been that. It's more of the sports bra type but I suppose with the way these men act they'd probably try to have their way with me and then I've have to kick their arse and honestly I just can't be bothered with that today.

Turning my attention to the Alpha I notice how frickin' good looking he is. Wolf genetics make hot men. "T...thank you Alpha." I say before putting the shirt on.

It's a little big but I suppose it will do for now. "It looks good on you." I hear him say extremely quietly. If I wasn't a wolf, I wouldn't have heard so I pretended not to. Blushing, I put my head down and focus my attention to Claire, asking if I can help.

Eventually, everything was sorted, Nathan got her cleaned up and the woman went to get Veronica.

The Alpha sent me back to my room by which I happily obliged, only asking that once Claire was seen to if she could come up. He agreed and I went up to my room happy.

Once in my room, I got comfortable and found a film to watch. After a while there was a knock at my door. Expecting it to be Claire, I swung the door open wide happily, but instead I was met with Nathan.

I'm still mad about this. He's definitely a spy. I mean he came to my camp when he literally lives in another pack. His arrival was never announced and he left before anyone saw.

I just don't know why he would spy on me? I mean it makes sense for the Alpha to have sent him. But why? Why does the Alpha want me of all people?

Nathan had Claire in his arms asleep so I didn't have an option but to let him inside. Placing Claire on the bed he left without saying a word.

He didn't even get me chance to ask how she was. After throwing Claire a glance to check she's still asleep after being put down, I dash out of the door and down the corridor only to be met with silence.

Great. I sigh.

Defeated I head back to my room. I mean I could have kept looking for him but Claire is more important now. She's just been in fight.

Claire doesn't wake up, so I end up watching the movie alone, with multiple questions on my mind.

Word count [4110]

So many words 😱
What did you guys think to this chapter?

I'm not too sure on the description of the fight but yolo right? I've written 3 chapters in the space of 2 weeks which I think is pretty good for me, when my updates are usually like 3 months apart.

See you all in the next chapter :)
- Bri xox