Page 66 of Enemy Wolf

The path that would lead me to my mate.

Chapter 24

Orson

Something was touching me. Why I was even alive enough to perceive touch, I had no idea.

My sense of smell was dulled. Either that or my nose was broken beyond repair, because I could not smell anything around me. I opened my eyes, slowly and painstakingly, and could make out shapes and colors. So was I human then?

“You took quite a beating, big brother.”

I startled at the female voice and instantly regretted it. The small movement sent pain shooting up my neck into my head.

“Hold still,” the voice chastised. She was so familiar to me and yet utterly foreign. There was a slight accent that took me too long to place.

It was the same accent I had before I was brought into Howling Death.

“Nova,” I gasped in disbelief. “What are you doing here?”

“Healing you.” The pressure of her hand moved to a different area of my torso. “I could smell your blood and hear your howls from miles away.”

I blinked and the world around me started to sharpen, details filtering in. I saw the tops of trees and the sky above them. Turning my head, I saw a small clearing and a forest floor that looked like a battle had taken place. Once I could focus up close, I saw her tending to me. My half-sister.

Nova was dressed in an outfit of rough elk hide, a fur-lined hood covering her head and the top half of her face. Her hands hovered over my left thigh, her lips tight in concentration as an open, frost-bitten wound returned to normal color and mended itself back together.

“What happened?” I demanded. “If you’re here, where’s the pack?”

“In their normal territory,” she said distractedly. “I’ve been spending time on my own lately.”

“Why?”

She shrugged, the movement barely perceptible under all the thick hides she wore. “Lately, I prefer being alone over being treated like an outsider.”

“So you still can’t shift,” I surmised. “Ever think about how dangerous it is to be alone out here when you’re barely more than a human?”

“Leave it to you to lecture me when you’re on death’s doorstep.” Nova dropped her hands and pushed back her hood, revealing her narrowed dark eyes and red, wind-chapped cheeks. “Funny how you’re part wolf, dragon, and human, and you’re still in worse shape than me.”

I shot straight up and immediately hissed at the sharp pain running up from my hip. “Ah, fuck. The dragon! Where is he? What happened? The last thing I remember, I…” I trailed off, too stunned to voice the memory. How cold I had felt on the inside, the urge to vomit. Only instead of my food, I had blasted Mokir with a stream of pure ice.

From my fucking mouth.

Like…an ice dragon? He’d said something about them, hadn’t he?

“You’re leaning on him.” Nova nodded at my shoulder.

I looked behind me and recoiled as much as was physically possible in my current state. “Fucking hell!” The school bus-sized animal was lying completely still, no breath or animation to be seen.

“He was dead when I got here,” my sister said. “Looked like he’d collapsed on top of you, so I pulled you out, but your leg looked fucked, so I didn’t want to drag you too far.” She gave me a strange look. “Looks like he’s got bad frostbite around some belly and chest wounds. I’d bet you his heart is frozen solid.”

“Well that’s a metaphor I’m too tired to interpret right now.”

She returned to prodding around my injuries. “I took care of the worst damage I could, but I’m tapped out. Your hip or pelvis is probably broken. Normally I’d suggest shifting, but that could be even worse for your bones and tissue.”

I watched her stand up and dust off her hands. “So, that’s it? You’re just leaving?”

“I’ve done all I can for you, big brother. You know how taxing the healing is on me. I have to recover.”

“You could come with me,” I suggested, and not for the first time. “Stay in Vargmore proper. Join Howling Death. They’d love to have a healer like you.”

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