Hot, searing pain tears into my shoulder.
I open my mouth to scream but can't find my voice.
I squeeze my eyes shut.
This is the end. This is the end.
A fifty-tonne rogue is about to tear my throat out.
He clamps down on my shoulder even harder and this time my scream is loud enough to wake the dead. I imagine flocks of birds fleeing the trees as I howl in agony.
Then just as suddenly, the pain is gone. The weight is lifted from me.
I take a deep breath as the realization dawns on me. The rogue is no longer chomping on my collar bone.
Tentatively I open my eyes and instantly begin to scrabble backward.
Across the path from me, the rogue is wrestling with another wolf.
They're fighting, snapping at each other's necks, rolling over each other trying to claim the higher ground.
It's hard to make out the other wolf in the melee. But he's large, muscular, with a night-black coat. He's fast too.
I back up against the trunk of a tree, unable to stand just yet, and watch as they fight. They're both fierce warriors, total beast-masters! I wince as they ram into each other again and again.
Dagger-like claws rip through the air attempting to gouge out eyes, fangs are exposed and dig into flesh.
They're evenly matched, but the black wolf––whoever he is––is fighting with a steely determination the rogue can't contend with.
Finally, the black wolf strikes the rogue, sending it flying across the forest. It hits the ground hard and rolls to a stop, he takes a labored breath.
But the black wolf isn't done. He leaps from where he stands and lands directly on top of the rogue, biting deep into its shoulder––the same spot the rogue bit me––and tears his arm from its socket. I flinch at the snapping sound.
The rogue lies still, wheezing in pain and unable to stand, as the black wolf turns to me. Panic suddenly rises in my chest. My throat constricts like I have a nut allergy and just ate a Snickers bar.
I have no idea who this wolf is. No idea if he is a friend or a more terrifying foe than the last.
I press my back against the tree, there's no way for me to escape.
The wolf continues to approach, his lips curled back to expose his fangs, a low growl rumbling from his chest.
"Max!" I turn to my left at the sound of Katie's voice. She's running toward me, with her arms outstretched. Just behind her is Olivia, accompanied by two more wolves.
Katie kneels beside me and pulls me into the best best-friend hug I could ask for.
"Ah!" I say when I remember my wound.
"Oh sorry," Katie says, sitting back. "Are you hurt?"
"It got my shoulder…" Katie leans forward, pulling the collar of my t-shirt away and looking at what I assume is a perfect indent of the rogue's teeth.
"It only just broke the skin," she says, "you should be healed in a few hours."
Thank the Moon Gods for speedy wolf healing.
"Who is…that?" I ask, looking back at the big black wolf who is no longer staring in my direction. Instead, he's barking and grunting in a circle with the other two wolves.
In a second the wolf pair spring off into the woods and disappear.
Maybe checking the area for more rogues.
Olivia approaches the black wolf, swinging a backpack off one shoulder, and passing it to the animal who takes it in his jaw and saunters off behind some shrubbery.
Katie and I wait as the bone-crunching, muscle-fusing sounds of shifting ring out behind the bushes. Before I know it, Jasper is stepping out from behind a tree, wearing gym shorts and trainers.
"Him…?!"
Jasper?! Jasper was the wolf who rescued me?
He shoots me a dark, rage-filled look.
"It was lucky," Katie says. "I ran into Jasper and Olivia on my way back to camp and told them you were in trouble. Jasper shifted right on the spot and we struggled to keep up; he was running so fast."
My mind is doing backflips trying to put the pieces together. Jasper, the jerk, heard that I was in trouble and came running. He fought bitterly to save me. He tore that rogue's arm off!
I realize I'm staring––maybe because I'm shocked that Jasper is the one who came to my rescue or maybe because he isn't wearing a shirt––and dart my gaze to the ground.
"What were you thinking?!" he yells, stomping in my direction.
"I...I…" "You could have been killed!"
"It's my fault," Katie says. "I came out here this morning and Max came to get me."
"That's no excuse," Jasper rages, his face is flushed, his eyes focussed like he has death-star-style lasers in them and he's powering up.
"You should have told me! You should never have come out here alone!"
"Jasper, back off," Olivia says, holding out a t-shirt. "He's just a kid."
"He's not just a kid," Jasper says, snatching the shirt and pulling it over his head. I'm a little sad to say goodbye to his abs, but I'm even more upset that he doesn't seem finished handing me my ass.
"I am responsible for every member of this pack. Everyone at this festival is in my care. The least I expect is some respect in return. Do you know what would have happened if we hadn't found you when we did?"
I glance over at the now unconscious rogue just a few feet away and think about how close I came to being eaten alive.
I owe Jasper my life, sure, but I'd rather be rogue kibble than have to listen to him chew me out any longer.
"I'm sorry," I say, clenching my teeth, trying to keep myself from crying. "I wanted to protect my friend."
"But who has to protect you?! Don't you get that? Your actions have consequences. You put Katie and yourself in real danger."
"I was just trying to…" "Not everything is about you, Max!"
"What is that supposed to mean?" I shoot back. I may have messed up and gotten myself in trouble but, of course, Jasper has found a way to turn this situation around to insult me. To make me look like a jerk and not him.
"You know what? I was wrong," he says, placing his hands on his hips and looking at me sideways. "You are just a kid. An idiotic little kid who wanted to play hero and nearly got himself killed."
As angry as I am I can't stop the tears from falling. I lower my head so he can't see me cry.
"I said I was sorry," I mutter. Katie places a hand on my leg.
"Just...get back to camp. Olivia and I will clean up this mess."
He's talking about the one-armed rogue.
"Come on," Katie says, helping me up.
"What a jerk!" I say, wincing as Katie applies disinfectant to my shoulder. Katie grabbed the first aid kit she said her mother made her pack, and we came to find a place to cool down. We're sitting behind the cabins, on a patch of grass with a view of the lake.
"Stay still," she chides.
"I just don't get why he thinks he can act so superior to everyone.
He's not that special."
"I dunno," Katie laughs. "I saw him with his shirt off, he's pretty special."
"Stupid abs," I say under my breath, resenting my lack of abdominal definition and also wishing I could get the sight of them off my mind.
Still not sure what that's all about.
"He just acts like the whole world is on his shoulders when other people have problems too."
"All done," Katie says, balling up the used cotton buds.
I pull my shirt collar back over my shoulder.
"How bad is it?" I ask.
"It'll be fine before the bonfire."
I groan internally at the thought of the bonfire tonight. The big sacrificial pyre that signifies the start of the Mating Run.
I had hoped that with all the day's drama the run would be canceled but word has already spread through camp that the run is going ahead.
I guess they figured out the rogue was alone and, now that it's captured, the camp is safe.
Is it tacky to wish I'd been injured just a little worse so I could get out of participating?
"You know if Jasper hadn't been so fast your shoulder could look a lot worse."
"I guess," I say and even I know how sulky I sound.
"In some ways, Jasper does have the world on his shoulders," Katie says, packing up her first aid kit. "If you'd been hurt worse people would think it was his fault. It's nice, you know, that he cares so much."
I don't say anything. I know Katie's right, as per. Jasper was hard on me, hell, he came down on me like Dorothy dropping her house on the wicked witch.
But he was also right. I should have gone to him first. I acted rashly.
"I don't want to think about what might have happened if I hadn't run into them at all."
"Yeah, it was pretty lucky," I say.
Across the river, the sun is just beginning to set. A grapefruit glow has just started to hit the tops of the trees, and reflect on the water's surface.
Every minute we sit here is one minute closer to the rest of our lives.
"I'm sorry," I say, turning to her. "If I hadn't been acting like such a dick you would never have been in those woods in the first place."
"It's fine," she replies. "How could you have known today was the day a rogue would show up craving the taste of flesh?"
I chuckle but only for a moment.
"Seriously though, I'm sorry. I took you for granted and I shouldn't do that. I'm the luckiest wolf alive to have you as a friend...a best friend."
"Max, stop, you'll make me blush."
"No really, Katie. You're the only person I want to be sitting next to today, tomorrow, and every day in the future."
Katie wraps her arms around me.
"You big dummy," she says and I can hear her smile. "All I want is for you to be happy. Besides, I know I've been acting kind of strange too."
"This blue moon is messing with us," I say and Katie sighs.
"Yeah, but I think maybe it has something to do with my parents as well."
"What do you mean?"
"I guess after they split up I started questioning everything I thought I knew about mates. I didn't know you could even stop being mates with someone. Then dad left and…" Katie's sniffs and I pull her closer to me.
"...I just didn't know what to believe anymore. I guess I didn't want to lose you too."
"Hey," I say, leaning back so I can look into Katie's eyes. "That's never going to happen."
We squeeze each other like we're squeezing our favorite person in the world...because we are.
"I know we might have had our wires crossed the last few days," I say. "But if I do wind up finding my mate tonight, I hope it's you."
"No you don't," she says, laughing and wiping under her eyes. "But that's okay."
We turn to look up at the increasingly-mauve sky.
"I guess we should go get ready," Katie says. "It'll be dark soon."
"Yep." We stand and wipe the dirt from our butts. "There's just one thing I need to do first…" "What's that?" Katie asks.
"I need to apologize...to Jasper."