Page 4

Juk

Day 7

“ I can’t believe there are more females,” Brex says. His tails wag with excitement as he packs another bundle of furs into the sled. All morning, we have been hastily putting together supplies to rescue the other women. Axyll’s mate, Ee-vee, confirmed that her people are in distress. It makes sense why she was so desperate to get back to the fallen-star-cave.

Brex looks up at me with shining eyes. He runs a hand through his close-cropped hair, the front fringe flopping into his eyes as he grins sheepishly at me. “Maybe there will be a mate for me there.”

I grunt in response. My breath puffs before me, but it is quite warm this day. The sun shines down, having just risen from its slumber. Axyll wants to reach the cave and bring the females back to the den before nightfall. As a result, Brex and I have been up since before dawn to assemble the sled, and start the preparation of supplies.

Baz scoffs as he comes up from behind me. “You want a mate with no Seeker?”

Brex shrugs. “The alpha’s mate is not so terrible to look at, is she? She seems kind enough. That is what is important to me. Vekao has presented us with this gift for a reason. If she sees one of them fit enough to mate the alpha, then who is to say that there could not be one for me? For a few of us?”

Baz rolls his eyes and shoves another roll of furs at Brex. “Always with your head in the clouds, dreaming of nonsense,” he murmurs as he turns to go shift around the corner. The alpha’s mate does not like the sight of our shifting, and he has requested we do it outside of both her eyesight and earshot.

One of many changes, perhaps, with this new alpha-mate , I wonder as I watch Baz disappear. What else will change with the arrival of more of her kind? Are we to cater to each of them as they disrupt the pack?

My Seeker flashes. It’s a vision of the female atop the cave. Her dark eyes burn into mine, yet the rest of her features are silhouetted against the sun. Her aim is impeccable as the snowball hits my muzzle. It does not hurt, but I know her arm is strong. The memory is brief, disappearing as fast as it came.

I shake my head, clearing my mind’s eye. My Seeker was blinded by the sun—nothing more , I lie to myself. If Brex knew of what my Seeker was telling me, of what I refuse to admit until I see her up close, then his delusions would overflow, and his tails would wag so fast they would break right off.

Axyll soon appears at the top of the plateau, giving the signal for me to go shift. His small mate appears beside him. Her pale face is determined, peeking out from the furs wrapped around her. It is the face of a leader determined to find her people. Perhaps she is a good mate for my alpha after all. But then I think again of the silhouetted one, the fearlessness in her voice and the force behind her throw as she warned me to stay away from the cave. Do they follow more than one leader, these people? Is the alpha’s mate actually a beta?

As the alpha and his mate make their descent down the cliff’s holdings, I walk around the corner to shift out of sight. Kalpa and Amble come round the corner in their celestial forms. They both nod their heads to me in passing. I hear the last few snaps of Baz’s bones as he completes his transformation, and I stop a few paces away from him.

I untie the scrap of leather from around my hair. The yellow strands fall to my shoulders, trailing over the tops of them as I tightly bind the wrap around my ankle. Once the scrap is secured, tied as tight as possible so it remains there once I have shifted, I get down on all fours. I spot Brex rounding the corner to come shift before my vision blurs and the transformation begins.

My limbs are the first to snap, wrists breaking as they bend to their new formation. My arms and legs elongate, as my fingers become stout and my nails thicker and longer. Fur sprouts all over my body in a rippling wave as my cheek bones crack and my snout emerges, molded out from my nose. My gums sting as my teeth elongate, and my fangs poke out from my lips.

The whole ordeal takes less than a minute. My heartsbeat ramps up during the process but calms as I stand on all four legs. My tails swish, testing the wind, feeling the air for any sign of an impending storm. My intuition tells me it will be clear. Good.

Axyll is the last to shift. I stand guard by the sled, side-eying his mate as we wait. She is tucked in next to all the furs. The fire of determination still burns in her small eyes, and she glances at me for a moment before turning her attention to the alpha. He comes back around the bend quickly, already in his celestial form. It is a gift to the alpha, to be able to shift so quickly. Relief splashes across his mate’s face quickly, and he readies himself at the pulley for the sled.

With a subtle nod, we are off.

I charge at the front of the pack. I will guide them to the fallen star, to the black shiny cave. Brex and Baz flank the alpha, while Kalpa and Amble take the rear. The omega starts off beside Amble on the right, before running out into the outer ring of our formation. He scouts it from the back to the front, and then charges off ahead of me to scout for danger. His small form is nothing but a blur when he is beside me, and then he is out of sight, blended in with the snow.

The trek is slower with the group than it was for me yesterday. With the alpha pulling the sled, we do not run at top speed. Clouds blot out the sun, but by the time I spot the shiny cave I am sure it is just past midday. I let out a howl, notifying the rest of our arrival, and pick up the pace. There is a rumble of thunder in the distance, but it is not heading our way. Our mission will not be interrupted by a storm, of this I am certain.

The cave is buried in snow. Mounds of the cold white fluff are piled against its sides. Its clear wall is barely visible, and if not for the black speck peeking out on top, it could easily be mistaken for a boulder. The sun shines through the clouds at this moment, reflecting off the clear wall exposed at the top. It reminds me of my shining Seeker from yesterday, and something in my stomach flips.

Axyll pulls up beside me. Before he even stops, his mate rips off the furs around her and jumps into the snow. It nearly swallows her up to her hips. The alpha yips a quick command at us to stay with the sled while the two of them move forward.

They disappear around to the back of the cave. Axyll’s bones snap as he shifts back into his ancestral form, and Brex shoots me a querying look. He tilts his head to the side, and lets out a small huff.

Should we follow?

I start to shake my head but then pause as I remember the red glow from the cave’s entrance. I forgot to warn the alpha about it. His mate may know what it means, but he does not. I listen to my intuition, wondering if perhaps this is a Stygian trap after all. It senses no danger, but I always err on the side of caution. I nod to Brex, and lead the way.

As I round the corner to the entrance, I pause. The red glow is no longer there. Instead, it has been replaced with a blue one. The colour is soft and inviting, the same colouring as many of the Snowscape Celetans. I hesitate, wary of its change. It could be a trap, a falsity luring us into the cave. I then see that my alpha has crossed through the wall and stands in the cave. His back is to us, his tails twitching momentarily as he stands next to his mate.

An unfamiliar female voice suddenly speaks, and every strand of my fur goes on edge. It is not out of fear, but a jittery apprehension. My Seeker blinds me momentarily as I try to peer around my alpha and his mate to look at the female. My hearts beat so wildly I worry they will seize and fail.

She stands in front of the alpha’s mate and looks over her shoulder. Our eyes meet and a jolt of lightning fires through me. It strikes me to my core and my Seeker is blinded. My hearts beat faster as her dark eyes meet mine. I must shift to meet her.

Without hesitation, I bear down to shift. With the first crack of my bones, however, I notice the female flinches. It is a brief reaction, and she is quick to hide it, but the message is clear to me. The sounds of the process are disturbing to her. I do not want to make her uncomfortable. A surge of protectiveness courses through me as I finish shifting as fast as possible. The females in the cave continue to talk, and soon they are walking further inside, Axyll following.

“Go shift outside of earshot of the females,” I instruct to the others once I am in my ancestral form. Brex nods and leads the others out of sight around the back of the cave. I will not have the sounds of their shifts disturb the dark-haired female that makes my pulse light with fire. I throw on a breechcloth, as my alpha wears one. His mate is shy around the naked form, and I assume these other females may be the same.

Without trepidation, I pass through the blue wall and into the cave. My knuckles scrape the top of the cave as I pull my hair up and out of my face. The cave is small and the metallic smell reeks everywhere. The scent of feces and urine wafts out from behind a wall.

The females talk excitedly in another part of the cave. There is a light-haired one who gestures towards the alpha, but I barely notice her. My eyes go to the petite dark-haired one. There is a frown on her face, but as her eyes flicker to me and meet mine, my breath stops. She is beautiful. Her skin is tawny, different from the pale colour of the other three. Her eyes are different too, beautiful in their angular shape and dark brown colour.

Axyll’s mate is introducing them to one another. I stumble over his mate’s name in my head, but remind myself to make it a habit to use her name and not just think of her as “the alpha’s mate.”

Ee-vee , I remind myself.

“ Leesa ,” the female with the burning eyes says. It flows off her tongue eloquently, just as fluid as the rest of their strange language. It is a beautiful name that the alpha butchers, but I am determined not to.

“ Leesa ,” I say with confidence the first time. Her eyes snap to me, surprised, and Ee-vee shoots me a smile. I miss the others’ names, my eyes focused on Leesa. My pulse quickens every time she looks at me, and my tails twitch. The smooth plane on her forehead furrows together when she catches me looking at her, and I turn away. I do not want to scare her.

Suddenly, there is a screeching sound and a spear descends from the ceiling. A growl escapes my lips before I can stop it as I watch the spindly thing come out from the ceiling’s rock. It’s thin, thinner than one of the bone sewing needles Hexa uses for her embroidery designs. On its end is a red, rounded bump. And it points directly at my alpha.

Ee-vee starts to gesture at the spear and then to Axyll. Words spill quickly from her mouth, excitement radiating off her. I don’t understand what she is saying, but she keeps gesturing to the spear. She then says something to the lighter-haired one, and I search my intuition for if this situation is about to turn sour. My Seeker studies the spear, but cannot determine if it is a threat.

It is a spear—of course it is a threat , I think to myself. And it points right to my alpha.

“It will teach us their speech,” Axyll whispers suddenly. His head whips back up to the spear, his gaze torn from his mate.

I bristle next to him and follow his eye to the thing. “How?”

Ee-vee nods with excitement again, and gestures towards the spear. She taps the side of her head. An unsettling chill runs through my body as the meaning dawns on me, and my alpha speaks. “It will put it into our head.”

My tails twitch. I eye the spear again, desperate to know if it is harmful or not. But my intuition is silent, for once. I feel uncomfortable as I argue against my alpha. It goes against everything a Celetan is, and my stomach twists. “Absurd. It is a spear, Alpha. A weapon—not something of knowledge. How do we know they speak the truth? How do we know it is not a trap?”

I inhale deeply, trying again to catch any trace of Stygian scent. But there is nothing. Yet they point a spear at my alpha’s head and claim it to hold knowledge. It is just as absurd as worshipping the stars.

The alpha is not concerned. He trusts his mate and her people. There is no trace of a Stygian trap inside this odd, metallic star, and my intuition tells me there is no danger. But it still worries me. I look at the spear, uncertain as my alpha tries to reassure me.

“I will go first, Alpha,” I decide. I square my shoulders, standing as tall as possible. If this is a trap, these females would be unwise to try to take down a Celetan as big as me. “Once we determine it is safe, then you may face the language-spear. Until then, it is my duty to keep you safe. For the pack.”

Axyll sighs next to me and relents. As he steps aside and I take his place, he explains to the females that I will go first. They understand his gestures, and the light-haired one nods at me to step into place.

The spear is just above my head. It looks harmless, like one of the thin bones of a drakyr’s wing. They are good for picking meat out between my fangs, and I want to chuckle at the comparison. I could snap this spear with one hand. And yet...

Apprehension eats away inside me as Ee-vee adjusts my position. Her hands are small, tiny on my arms as she turns me, so the spear points to the side of my head. Now I cannot face it head on, and the uncertainty knotting in my stomach becomes worse. My hearts beat loudly, drumming inside my chest as clear as the Celestial Moon Bonfire’s drums, but I keep my face calm. I will not show fear.

The light-haired one says something unintelligible in their language. There is a brief, hot sting to the side of my head, and suddenly everything goes black.

My head aches, as though someone has smashed a boulder over it. I let out a groan as its pangs are felt throughout my entire body. My limbs tremble everywhere, and there are soft voices somewhere above me.

“Slowly, Juk,” Axyll says. I feel his hands slip under me, helping me to sit upright.

As my eyes slowly open, the first thing they lock onto is Leesa. Her dark eyes watch me carefully. She sits close to me on my right side, and her scent overpowers me. It is sweet and foreign, a mixture of minerals I am unfamiliar with and an underlying floral I cannot place. It is intoxicating, and it takes all my control not to lean over and breathe in a deep whiff. I want it to replace the air that I breathe. I want to bathe in it.

“How do you feel?” Axyll asks.

“Dizzy,” I say. I feel my temple where the light spear was pointed. It is tender, but not painful. It stings like a light scratch, but the feeling fades quickly. I start to tell my alpha as such, when I pause and turn towards the females.

There are words in my head that I suddenly know. Another language mixed in there along with my native tongue, but I am too stunned to start the conversation. Too much in disbelief that this is real, that a spindly spear from inside a rock placed the knowledge there.

“Hi Juk,” Ee-vee says in her fluid words. Fluid words I now understand. My tails swish and my hearts beat with excitement. It worked. “Can you understand me?”

“Yes, I can. It worked,” I respond. I can’t comprehend how I know the words that I speak now, only that I do. They come as naturally as my own language, and I can feel the excitement radiating off Axyll as I speak the new language.

Soon, my alpha and the others all take the language-spear. Each one collapses after it zaps into their head, but they are not out long.

But the new language is not the most surprising thing from the trip to the fallen star. There are other females— Teerans they call their people—scattered across the territories. Three groups it seems. One is in Snowscape territory, but her star on the map is no longer accurate. But the other eight are in Stygian territory.

“The Stygians ,” I explain through grit teeth when Ee-vee asks what it means, “are an abomination.”

My alpha is more eloquent with his words, telling the females they are nothing more than a rival pack to the north. “They are never to be trusted.”

I tune out the rest of his explanation as I try to calm my pulse as I look at the star on the map. One for sure is in Stygian territory. She is a lost cause, in my eyes. The Stygians will rip her apart, if they have not already. But the other seven... it is unclear. They are together as a group, the females explain, in another cave much like this one. Their star lies right on the border of Snowscape and Stygian territory.

The sullen one, a female with a sour face and long dark hair, argues with me about what is so wrong with the Stygians. They are Celetans too, but they are horrible. She does not understand that their faith in the stars is an abomination against Vekao and everything it means to be Celetan. There is no point in arguing with someone who cannot understand.

My alpha decides we should go find the woman who is already in Snowscape territory. But Leesa is firm in her words.

“No,” she interrupts my alpha. I bristle at her rudeness, but it also sends a thrill through me. She is so strong. The Teerans claim to have no alpha, no leader, but Leesa possesses the qualities of one. Every time her eyes meet mine, there is something fierce in them. And it makes fire run through my veins.

“We go here first,” she continues and points to the star on the territory line. “This is the top priority. The others can wait.”

Axyll bristles as Leesa continues to argue, with both him and Ee-vee. I stay silent and watch. The females at this star are very important to her. Perhaps not all of these Teerans come from the same pack. And that will spell even more trouble than I first imagined.