Alpha Asher by Jane

Read Alpha Asher by Jane Doe Chapter 205

I didn’t hesitate to bound into the forest, chasing the sound of Breyona’s voice, the taste of her fear ripe on my tongue.

There was something wrong, something so very wrong with the way her voice coiled around my thoughts and squeezed the life out of them. It wasn’t through mind-link that I was hearing her, I was sure of it. No matter how hard I tried to dig past her wailing, to the connection that spanned between us, I just couldn’t.

Thoughts refused to form, each and every one shattering under the grip of her pleas.

‘It hurts, Lola! It hurts so bad—so bad.’ She sobbed and screamed.

I couldn’t think, not even to figure out where the h**l I was going or whether or not I should slow down.

The forest cracked and trembled beneath my feet. Limbs like outstretched arms reached to grab me, tearing away bits of my fur and drawing blood. Even the pain was dull, like it too was smothered by Breyona’s voice.

Suddenly, she went silent.

It should’ve occurred to me that the wrongness in the air went further than Breyona begging for her life, for her best friend to come and save her, but I was too slow at recognizing it.

Beams of moonlight speared through the treetops, hitting the ground in slender rays that gave off just enough light to keep from tripping over my own two feet. Shadows writhed and danced in the spaces in between, where the moonlight could not reach. The glint of silver blended in perfectly with both shadow and light, making it far too late for me to react in time.

I felt the sudden burst of pain before I scented the blood.

There was no stopping. Not with Breyona’s life on the line, not with that deafening silence so close to s********g me whole.

At first, I thought I’d been hit by a dagger thrown through the air, but the force behind it was hard enough to slice through flesh and muscle, all the way down to bone.

A second one hit, then a third, and a fourth.

I twisted my head to the side to catch a glimpse of an arrow protruding from my back. It was accompanied by three others, each one jutting from various places around my spine like the b****y barbs of a porcupine.

When a fifth hit, this one spearing me in between my ribs, Maya and I went down.

We bounced and skidded along the forest floor, kicking up rocks and dirt as we disrupted those silvery beams of moonlight. My fur was receding, sinking back into my body as my bones shrunk and contorted, bringing on another wave of fear. There was too much silver in my body to keep up my wolf form. It took one last desperate thought to make my clothing reappear as I landed in a broken, b****y heap of torn flesh and exposed bone.

I tasted blood, thick and dark, and instantly knew that this was not good. Every square inch of my flesh felt raw, like it

my

others for help. Even my odd attachment to Breyona felt

could stay here. Bleeding, with arrows still lodged in my body that scalded my flesh and sapped my strength, I forced myself onto my hands. My arms

me from

went blurry when I made it to my knees. A dull bite of pain gnawed at them when stone

been blinking away sweat and tears, and the next I was

to double and triple. Tree’s multiplied, then died off, vanishing so quickly it made my head

wore, but it did nothing to hide her face. Every

and said nothing as I squinted and waited for my vision to stop

loaded with an arrow

my face, the witch sneered. She curled her thin lips back and b***d her teeth, lowering herself to the dirt floor like

got the upper hand on my pupils twice now, and twice they’ve been punished for their failure. Tessa and Ember are talented for their ages,

training and those two witches, the ones that had chased us through the forest and nearly

colder than the shadows, began to fill my vision. They grew and multiplied, each one draining what little

prisoner of war—which I had a feeling I’d soon become. Even on the verge of

witches would take me. I’d be gone, lost a second time and Asher would be the one to suffer

mind. He’d storm this entire forest, uproot every single tree, and leave no stone unturned as he searched and searched like a

and tried to reign him back in. It wouldn’t work, though. I knew this

That left one option.

not let them take

let my limbs grow numb as I fell to the cool earth. There

thrashed and writhed in the darkness, watching all of this unfold with heady interest, whispering in voices so fast I couldn’t make

blood as I coughed

this done

to survive and evade capture. I was a wolf, a

roar in my mind, the ragged sound he’d make when he found all the blood and realized I’d

said you wouldn’t leave,

my shoulder as he watched me bleed and bleed and bleed. I

ruin my life? The families they’ve shattered were wounds that went even deeper than the ones on