(VAL POV):
We were closer to Rosaura now than we had probably ever been before. Liam seemed calmer than usual. For once, he had actually stopped worrying. He was focused and smooth and composed in a way that made him look older. Like the journey and all the violence we committed had aged him. As we got closer to her I had started to get my own kind of restlessness that wouldn't yield.
I had started to forget what her face looked like. In my dreams Rosaura was screaming for me, begging me to save her. Only I couldn't tell if the voice was hers. I would run towards her screaming. Down dark sets of stairs and corridors, as fast as my wolf could carry our body. I would try to locate her scent and the screaming would hollow out and become shaking and terrified.
Then I would reach the frail body of my older sister and desperately try to reach out to grab her. She would turn to me- some disfigured version of herself with a black spiral where her face should be. Right as I went to take hold of her in my arms she melted to dust and I would start screaming.
The nightmare rattled me from my sleep- the same story with the same ending and I sat up gasping. The heave of my deep breathing made my wound ache and I tried to calm myself. I snatched at my throat in the dark of my tent, trying to remind my muscles how to take the air in.
Even as this nightmare had repeated nearly every night for two and a half years now, I never got used to it. It never got easier to see her that way. To realise my mind was slowly forgetting what my sister looked like. The thin locks of snowy white hair were hers.
My usual routine of panic was interrupted by the sight of two silvery grey eyes hovering above me. The scent of ocean air and coconuts cut through my panic. She was speaking to me, trying to ask me something and it took me a moment to recognise it was Liana.
In her worry about my state, she didn't seem to notice that she had crawled into my bed. She was scanning my face and holding my shoulders firmly. I met her eyes lustily and she realised that my panic was subsiding.
"Are you okay? Val?"
She cupped my face and furrowed her brows.
"Vallory?"
My hand found a resting place on her thigh and I blinked up at her, suddenly completely calm. She must have jumped out of her own tent instinctively and run straight towards me- judging from the way her tanktop was slipping down her shoulder on one side and her soft hair was frizzy around the ends. My eyes traced the busty curve of her waist where she sat half-stradling me and she started to blush furiously.
Liana went to jump up from her position and I took her hand gently, frowning.
"Wait, don't go."
She averted her eyes from the heat of my stare and started to stammer a complaint. I held her hand and squeezed it, feeling my heart ache at the thought of her leaving so quickly. I needed her to stay, for my own sake and sanity.
"You don't have to stay like this, just don't leave yet."
She met my eyes sadly and I whispered, pleading.
"Please."
Liana sighed and nodded, cheeks still a cute and vibrant red. When she realised my hand was still resting on her thigh she glanced down at it, throat bobbing as she swallowed. I loved to see her so nervous around me, eyes wide like a doe. She was innocent, but not stupid. She was intelligent and observant and probably the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
Maple colored hair is uncommon in the south. I took some of it in my hand, feeling the frizz and smiling to myself. She must've had to comb it down every day to keep it straight. Liana was quiet for some time, allowing me to rest my hand on her thigh and content to stay sitting on top of me.
"When did you cut your hair?"
Her voice was sleepy as she stared at the mop of curls on my head. I could tell from the twitch of her fingers that she wanted to touch it. I let her own hair slip from my fingers and moved the flop of bangs away from my head to look more closely at her.
"Right after I left. I just didn't want to keep messing with it- curly hair is impossible to manage."
Liana laughed and overcame her hesitation. She reached her slender fingers out and ran them through the mess of waves curiously. I bit back the sound threatening to leave me and relished in the intimacy of having her beside me. This was the closest we had been to being comfortable with one another so far, and I wanted to savor it.
The animalistic side of me had more impure intentions. My wolf was berating me endlessly inside for not taking this opportunity to mate with her. I almost rolled my eyes at him, sating his disapproval only with the internal promise that there would be time for that later because Liana wasn't going anywhere.
"What was the nightmare about?"
"Rosaura."
My answer had been immediate and her eyes had widened. She had a way of existing like she both wanted to avoid danger and dive into it. Afterall, if she were truly as cautious as she wanted to be she would have never come so close to Sleeping Hollow. But she did, because she was worried about me.
My chest lavished an unstoppable high from it- from her. I would have emptied my deepest secrets into the palm of her hand for even a moment of closeness with her if she asked, but she hesitated anyways.
"Do you have them often?"
I nodded and she opened her mouth and then closed it.
"Liana."
She met my eyes, her hands were still toying with bits of my hair. I made sure she was looking at me, absorbing my words fully.
"There is nothing that you can't ask me. Nothing, ever."
My voice existed to please her. I hadn't truly believed in the Moon Goddess until I laid eyes on her- and ever since my every moment with her was a prayer. I wanted to devour her. I wanted to worship her. I had settled my mind on doing both in equal parts until my body died and rotted to nothing.
Her eyes were daring then, the shine of rebellion dancing in them as she furrowed her strong brows at me. As if she wanted to make me say it again. I bit into her silent bait.
"I'm serious, nothing."
Liana's tongue was quick then as she dropped her hand from my hair.
"Why do you hate Jesse Turner?"
I might have laughed loudly if not for the seriousness in her eyes. I rubbed the dreariness from my eyes and sighed, trying to decide how to tell this kind of story without eliciting pain in her.
"Jesse Turner is just such an asshole."
Liana chuckled and nodded her head in agreement. Some darker part of me wanted to erase all thoughts of him from her mind. Instead, she pushed me further.
"He said it was over a girl."
I cringed internally remembering the specifics of it and then caught myself. My mate had heard the first mention of me with another girl and was questioning me about it. She looked impossibly tempting and I had to remind myself to actually answer her question.
"Liam's best friend is a girl named Vittoria. She's the Gamma's second oldest daughter and she had a fling some years back with Jesse-goddamn-Turner. You wouldn't possibly know this because you've only been with our pack for a few months now- but he has a certain reputation."
She raised a confused brow and then both in recognition.
"Oh like with girls?"
"And men."
Her face dripped with shock and her mouth dropped open. I wanted to tease her for it but kept myself serious. I had moved my other hand to rest on her thigh too, savoring the shiver down her spine and the way she averted her eyes from me.
"Well anyways he dated Vittoria and then discarded her for someone else some months later and because she was young and thought she was in love, she was completely devastated. Her father wanted to beat the shit out of Jesse, but because he is a member of the pack I had to get involved. Vittoria is a nice girl- and Liam was pissed. It was a huge headache and ever since I can only see him as a huge pain."
Liana hummed in response and I noticed she had been distracted for most of my answer.
"What is that sound?"
The faint wailing in the distance had become regular background ambience for me at this point- I had almost forgotten such wailing was abnormal until I was faced with the horrified look on her face.
"Sleeping Hollow."
My answer shook her and she started to peer back at the door of my tent with shivers down both of her arms. The eerie human-like wailing was a disturbing fact about the hollow, most everyone in these parts knew not to pay too much attention to.
"Hey, it's okay. The woods are just like that this time of night."
She turned back to me, face a little paler than usual and she shook her head.
"That's actually like fucking terrible. I didn't realise- we don't have to think about Sleeping Hollow where I lived before."
Liana shifted on top of me, sliding both of her thighs forward a little bit. An involuntary sound left my lips and she froze in her tracks. I noticed the redness of her chest and breathless state as her voice started to stare down at my lips.
"Sorry, I just-"
The sound of a genuine human scream cut through the black of night and both of our eyes shot to the entrance of the tent immediately. I grabbed her by the thighs and lifted her off of me quickly, moving her to the other side of my bed and throwing the blankets away. Liana watched me as I moved towards the wooden tactical board where my knives were.
"Val what was that?"
"Stay there, don't move."
I grabbed both of my blades and unsheathed them, moving carefully towards the edge of my tent and peering out into the undecipherable darkness. The candle light from my table made it hard for my eyes to adjust at first. The scream had come from the woods- making it hard to tell the true direction. I stared back at where Liana sat on top of my bed, face drenched in an instinctual and guttural fear.
I moved to her in the darkness immediately and pressed one of my blades into ehr hands. She stared down at the object with her shiny doe eyes and shook her head.
"Wait, I can't I've never-"
I pressed a hand over her mouth gently and shook my head. Liana froze. I took her hands and folded them around the handle without a word. I whispered for her to take it and be very quiet. She nodded, taking the blade despite her horror.
I feathered a quick kiss onto the top of her head and made for the door. It was one thing to hear wailing from the woods- but that scream had been far too human for banshees. At the entrance of my tent I was met with a steely eyed Liam. His eyes landed behind me and then back to my face. Neither of us had to speak, we had experienced mortal danger together a sufficient amount of times.
"West."
I scanned his face and read his lips, trying not to look fearful. West was the direction I had been impaled by witches the last time. I turned back to Liana and absorbed the image of her face, committing it to memory. Then I followed my brother west as some other soldiers joined at our back and sides.