Korinne POV

  Outside the den…

  The area is pitch black. If it weren’t for my weird new eyesight, I would have been lost by now. I trailed the snaked cat off the trail by the shore deep into the forest. A prick at my heart reminds me that Felicity is likely back at the motel panicking because I haven’t come back yet. As soon as I stumbled on the viper cat from my dream, I knew I couldn’t leave the forest. Something was calling me in the darkest parts of the forest to continue. The trees and plants around me looked sick like they were being drained of life. All the green colors were dulled and choked by the vines entrapping the plants. There was a heavy warning feeling hanging over the area that was trying to scare me away. It was so quiet that my footsteps echoed through the clearings. No animals lived in this dark place. This area had been abandoned.

  The moonlight pistol shined brightly in my arm as I cradled it against me. This weapon handed to me by Grandma Jan was my only line of defense in these dark woods. Out here, I felt vulnerable, raw, frightened, and a little excited by the possibilities of what could happen. Since I met Selene, I found myself slowly changing. My anxiety and paranoia were calmed or heightened by my heightened senses, but I didn’t dread my anxiety anymore. It feels more like a tool or warning system with a purpose. My emotions were still volatile, yet everything was driven by instinct, making it easier to understand and suppress when needed. It all sounds so backward, but I am wondering if I have been missing part of me my whole life. Will my spirit wolf truly balance me as Selene had promised? It was hard to know for sure, but all of my new problems seemed to make the trauma of my old problems bearable.

  Growls and howls filled the emptiness of the forest. A loud hissing noise drew me toward a new clearing where the Mishipeshu was locked in battle with a wolf. I crouched on my knees behind a large dead tree. My heart pounded and my birthmark burned brightly through my shirt. My body was reacting to something in this clearing beside the viper cat. Could it be the wolf? I watched the fight unfolding in front of me attentively. The viper cat whipped around on its scaly belly chasing the dark wolf. Its claws dug into the dried dirt as it pounced about following the wolf’s moves. Hissing and growling followed the clash of beasts in front of me. The dark wolf snapped onto the arm of the viper cat long enough to make it bleed. The cat’s other paw knocked the wolf away with blood dripping between the two bodies.

  The dark wolf didn’t miss a beat, biting into the scaly belly of the viper cat. The Mishipeshu slammed its body down on top of the wolf, but the snake slithered backward quickly. A loud groan from the cat rang out into the night. I could make out a different kind of wound on the belly of the snake, unlike the bite of a wolf. The smell of burnt scales rubbed at my nose the wrong way as I tried to hold back a sneeze. How did the wolf not get crushed by the Mishipeshu, and what burned the Mishipeshu? I saw the dark figure of the wolf stand tall in front of the snake with a white, glowing crescent moon on its shoulder. It’s her, my spirit wolf was facing off with the Mishipeshu by herself.

  In the blink of an eye, I watched the wolf tear off scales from the snake until the Mishipeshu swatted the wolf away. My spirit wolf smacked into the base of a nearby tree whining from pain. The bloodied belly didn’t stop the Mishipeshu from closing in on the dazed wolf in its sights. The moonlight gun glowed hot in my grasp. Was this a sign to shoot the beast? The Mishipeshu drooled with poison dripping from its canines. Murderous rage was shining in the viper cat’s red eyes. It was now or never. I lined up the shot of where I thought the heart might be with the glowing pistol. A single breath clutched in my chest for a moment then my finger released the trigger as I released my breath. It felt like muscle memory from my time on the gun range with the Moshlys.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  A bullet of moonlight zipped through the clearing like a beam of light, piercing through the viper cat. The bloody lynx serpent spat out blood as it looked back toward me. A guttural bellow shook the trees from the bleeding beast. The blood splattered all over the clearing sprinkling over my clothes. I watched the snake heave as it searched the clearing for me. Why wasn’t it falling over? A vague memory of Grandma Jan’s voice whispered into my mind. Two shots to kill the lynx serpent. I only shot one bullet at the viper cat. The beast must have noticed me because it rampaged toward me like an angry bull.

  I abandoned the log as the Mishipeshu snapped back into action chasing after me. I hear its long body zipping through the forest as I try to outrun the beast. Part of me knows how impossible it will be to escape, but I have to try. This werewolf vision helps me see the roots and pitfalls awaiting me in the dark. I can hear howling in the distance, and I can only hope my spirit wolf managed to get away. The snake cat darts in front of me, forcing me to crash into its brown scaly body.

  All the air is knocked out of me as I tumble to the ground. I try to shake myself out of shock, but I am too late. Mishipeshu coils itself around me with a heinous hiss. I don’t have to mindlink the beast to know how pissed it is. Hell, blood is still dripping from the bullet hole in its belly. A huge lynx paw whacks my face, and I can’t stop the yelp that escapes my mouth. Fortunately, my eyes remain unharmed from the hit. The beast locks eyes with me as blood pours down my face from the gashes left behind on my cheek. My mind is fuzzy, but a link is still formed between Mishipeshu and me.

  Ungrateful moon brat! Its cat eyes narrow on me. Suffer.

  The snake tail wrapped around me tightens, squeezing any remaining breath out of my lungs. No sounds come out as I gasp, trying to breathe. I feel dizzy and disconnected from my body. If only I had fired the pistol twice. I can hardly feel the heat of the moonlight pistol grinding into my skin. It was stupid of me to come out here alone, reckless of me to get between this beast and its prey, and pitiful of me not to shoot this beast twice. All of this supernatural crap just to die at twenty-two in a forest in the middle of nowhere. My vision fades although I hear snarling in the distance.

  Mutt!

  Light returns to my vision as air finally fills my desperate lungs. Gasping loudly, I feel the dirt beneath my body as I try to get my bearings. Coughing hard, I blink a bunch until I see her. My black wolf counterpart is tearing the guts out of the Mishipeshu’s gut. When did she get here? I watch the lynx swipe and claw at the wolf as she fiercely pulls apart the snake’s flesh. Can she finish it? Maybe. My brain remains foggy, but I look around for the one thing that I know will kill the beast.

  The ground has become muddy from the copious pools of blood from all three of us. We were no longer in a clearing as the half-dead trees crowded the area around me. I hear thuds and branches snapping from the brawl between the wolf and the viper cat. Ignoring the desire to watch, I run my hands over roots, thorns, and muddy rock until I feel the heat radiating off the moonlight pistol. I grab it tightly in my hands as I crawl toward the base of a tree. My right leg won’t move, but I won’t let it stop me.

  Leaning against the prickly trunk, I aimed at the hissing cat with the gun. Five shots remained, but I didn’t want to waste a single bullet. My vision wasn’t entirely clear, but the back of the lynx’s head was only fifteen feet from me. I do my best to keep a steady grip on the pistol. “Please hit…” I whisper into the air. The wolf finally moves away for a second and I take the shot.

  Crunch.

  A branch breaks under the weight of the Mishipeshu falling forward. I did it. Relief floods me as tears stream down my cheeks. I almost lost everything again. The fear that held me still broke and all the pain in my body overwhelmed me. My body wants to shut down, but in a forest like this, that’s asking for death. I must force myself to stay awake. The tears dried on my skin as I kept looking around for something to help me.

  The one thing I was surprised to see was the black wolf limping toward me. My spirit wolf. Her crescent moon mark was glowing hot like mine, and just like that, I felt numb again. The wolf’s eyes locked onto mine, and a link formed. This link felt like something clicked into place. The weight of the link was almost overwhelming as we just stared at each other. Everything was still.

  Can you hear me?