Page 104 of Untamed

I shift so that I can dig faster. Dirt flies under my paws. I'm thankful that the lake monster grabbed a back leg, leaving my front paws free to churn at the ground. I was already filthy, but now my forelegs are solid brown, not a speck of yellow left to my fur. I hit bones first. Then I see the... eye.

The Dead Tree female. The one who went missing. She's curled herself under some ancient bones to keep the dirt from burying her completely. She dug a hole for breathing around her face. It's a miracle that she's still alive.

I dig around her body until she can help me free herself, albeit weakly. My she-wolf whines softly, nudging her face. Red splotches decorate her neck and around her eyes. She is breathing erratically as she pushes off more dirt and grabs my fur to haul herself free.

As I pull and she comes free, the skeleton carcass shifts and crashes to fill in the hole. I freeze. The noise clatters through the trees, and I know we need to move, to leave this cabin before some wolf comes to investigate. Shifting back, I wrap my arm around her, and we limp into the treeline again.

"Water?" she rasps hoarsely.

I shake my head. The well is empty, and there is no way that I'm going back to the lake. One-eye will have to wait until I find the Abbi female. I'm sure there's water wherever that female is.

"Luna?" the whisper is both relieved and horrified.

I hush her, looking around a bit frantically. There is no way that One-eye is strong enough to climb into the trees and clamber around up there with me. The trees led me to her, but now how will I find the Abbi wolf?

One-eye leans on me, her head on my shoulder as tears leak out of her eyes... eye. Should she be crying? While the tears are cleaning out her eye, she can't afford to lose water.

"Where... are we... going?" she says with incredible difficulty as we carefully pick our way through the underbrush.

"I owe a blood-price to Rooster. I must save the Abbi-wolf. " I tell her, keeping my voice nearly soundless.

One-eye picks her head up and looks at me incredulously. Shock and confusion reign in her eye as she softly repeats, "Abbi? A blood-price." Determination comes over her face. "Alright, Luna. I... can help you."

Shecan helpme? Not likely, given her state of weakness and the... um... well, one eye that is missing. Still, I take her hand and tug her along. This she-wolf is the one Mactiir was looking for. It's my responsibility to return her to him so that he can stop worryingandmy responsibility to save this Abbi-wolf. It's nice that One-eye wants to help, I guess, but as we walk along, I have my doubts about her abilities, and they only grow. The closer we get to Rooster's sister, the more wolves there are. The fifth time I yank One-Eye behind a tree, I can't keep the frustrated growl inside.

"I'm trying," she whispers.

No, I mouth to her. "Like this," I say in the softest tone. Father taught me to talk almost soundlessly, with just the undertones of sound.

A whisper is too noisy, idiot female

I caught a lot of cuffs to the side of my head before that lesson sunk in.

One-Eye purses her lips. A puff of air escapes letting me know just how aggravated she is with my constant corrections of her. But, doesn't sheknow? Can't she move quietly without walking right into an enemy's arms?

To be fair, maybe she can't. She only has one eye.

"Abbi is staying with the Beta family," One-Eye says, still too loudly, in my opinion. One-Eye points to a large house with so many windows that I wonder if the wolves who live there know that everyone can see their business all the time? It has entire walls of glass that reflect the lake shimmering in the early morning sun.

Ugh. The lake. This glass house is on the edge of the lake. I came in a goddess-darn circle.

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32 - Mauja Blood

Willa

"Just in there," One-Eye points towards a window high above the ground. It leads to the room that Rooster and his sister, the Abbi-wolf, are staying. I look at the house. It's...elegant; stylish, graceful, lovely. So much glass and white wood, with those unending windows that wrap around corners and reach into the sky. With lots and lots of...mullions. I like those. Mama and I both wanted mullions on our window in the cabin. We didn't have them, of course. I don't even know if you could call our windowglass. It always had the tint of amber and the thickness of honey. Even in the summer, the window cast autumn into our home. Now that I've seen the windows that other wolves have, I'm thinking maybe we had something very different.

Anyway, the windows are pretty, but I need to break at least one.

"There are no trees near the house," I say absently to One-Eye. "No wolves, either." It is deathly quiet.

"Their patrols have been pulled to face-off with... well, with the Alphason," One-Eye whispers. She is still too noisy.

"With my Mactiir?" I ask her. I will have to break the window. Lucky that the enemy wolves aren't around. The noise from the glass breaking can't be helped. Hopefully, Abbi-wolf is inside that room.

I wrinkle up my nose at a new thought. Hopefully, Rooster isn't inside, too.

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