RED

I stared in wonder at the woman left in the wake of that monstrous wyvern. She seemed so small in contrast, but as I stepped closer, I realised that couldn't be further from the truth. She was at least a head taller than me, those long arms and legs packed with compact muscle, filling out the scaled leather armour that covered all her vital organs. Smooth, bronze skin was left exposed in strategic places to ensure mobility, and her dark blue hair was bound back by a leather headband, keeping the wispy strands out of her face.

I reached out to touch the hand clutching her mangled shoulder, but hesitated at the last second. There was still blood leaking through her fingers, and I was loathe to jostle the girl after what we'd already put her through.

"I should have known," I mused, "that wyverns were shifters too." It made sense that lycans weren't the only humans in the Wylds, though Brollo had certainly never made mention of any in his stories. I wondered if anyone at the village knew the creatures they feared and resented were just like them.

The Wraith of the Wylds whined, nosing the back of my shoulder. When I turned to him, he looked pointedly at the Grey Fist Mountains, though his ears were pricked back in the direction we'd come from.

"What is it, boy?" I asked, laying a hand on his shoulder. I'd only recently hazarded a guess that he was male, given that he was almost the same size as Hunter in wolf form. Though I had to admit the Wraith was leaner, with a whip-chord strength that attested to years of eking out a living in the unforgiving Wylds.

The Wraith merely nudged me again, this time with enough force to push me forward a step. Away from whatever danger he sensed behind us, but also away from the girl sprawled in the mud.

"I can't just leave her there," I complained, offended that he'd think that of me. "If the stories are true, her people reside in the mountains, along with the Kirin I'm trying to find on Eddy's behalf. She'll likely need their help if she's going to survive."

I got the sense he would have tried to argue, if he had a mouth to argue with. But when I crouched down to haul the girl over my shoulder, he simply hunched over his forelegs, looking pointedly at his back.

I almost wept from relief at the offer of help, but knew that capitalising on it would rely on my strength first. I felt a flicker of trepidation as I crouched down, trying to assess the easiest way to lift the dead weight the girl had become. I'd never really trusted in my body; trusted that it would support my own weight, let alone someone else's. There was a time, not too long ago, when lifting a simple soup cauldron had almost brought me to my knees.

But my body had carried me this far, and my heart was a stubborn thing, that continued to beat no matter what the world threw at it. Setting aside my doubts, I grabbed the girl's arm and used it to haul her over my shoulder, the way Hunter had picked me up when I collapsed in his arms. It took a couple of tries to distribute her weight correctly, to prevent her from sliding off and tumbling to the ground, but eventually I managed to stand under both of our combined weights.

The effort had me panting, sweat stinging in my burns as it slid down the back of my neck, but I managed to slide her face-forward onto the Wraith's back.

Keeping her there, however, was another matter entirely.

"Come on Lady Midnight," I growled, arms shaking with the effort of keeping her upright. "I need a little help from you while I climb up. We don't have all night."

One of those dark, starry eyes opened a slit. She glared at me, but those bloodied fingers slowly curled into the Wraith's ruff.

It was enough for me to clamber up behind her and wrap an arm around her waist. I grabbed the fur on the back of the Wraith's neck to hold us both in place and told him I was ready, once I saw that Eddy was primed to follow. If my tight hold pinched, the Wraith showed no indication.

Lady Midnight mumbled something as the Wraith set forth at a slow walk, testing his new burden. When I leaned forward to hear her better, she turned her cheek and whispered right into my ear: "I'm going to kill you."

I chuckled. "You'll have to get in line," I said, but it was too late - she was already limp in the circle of my arms, passed out from the pain.

As the Wraith picked up the pace, bounding through ash and wind with a Kirin foal at his side, I wondered what exactly we were running from.

We travelled until the sky lightened, my lids dragging with every inch the sun rose. I fought my exhaustion with the same resolution I'd fought Lady Midnight in her wyvern skin, but when I found myself sliding off the Wraith's back with no memory of falling asleep, I knew my watch was over.

The Wraith slowed to a walk as my feet dragged in the ashen sand, granting me the small dignity of not landing on my ass. I set about the gruelling process of hoisting the still-unconscious Lady Midnight off the Wraith's back, my arms shaking like skeletal branches in a gale force wind. It was all I could manage to keep her from face-planting the ground as I lay her down, rolling her onto her side, just in case she vomited in her sleep. For once I was thankful I'd spent enough time in the healing hut to pick up a few tricks of the trade, just from looking and listening.

Unfortunately, the Lady didn't look so good. The bleeding had come to a trickling halt, but her shoulder was puffy and inflamed, and the fluid welling up in her gashes had the beginnings of an offensive odour. I briefly considered washing the wounds out with what remained of the tonic in my canteen, but decided it wasn't worth the risk. The herbs that helped me might have an adverse effect on her condition.

Sleep - a deep, restorative sleep was all I could offer her, for now. There was no water in sight, nothing to build a fire or shelter from, and though the treeline was much closer than it had been at the start of the night, it would probably take at least another half day's travel. I marvelled at how far the Wraith had carried us; how quietly and gracefully he'd endured our extra weight. He had to be exhausted, if he'd been awake as long as I had.

The thought reminded me of how desperately I needed to sleep myself. Eddy was already asleep standing up, so I lay down next to Lady Midnight, using my body as a shield against the whipping winds.

"I can take the second watch," I said to the Wraith, rubbing my arms against the cold. "If you're worried about something following us."

The Wraith merely turned a circle around us, the movement sleek as a stream wending around a rock. Then he curled around our huddled forms, protecting us from the elements on all sides. His head came to rest on my hip, sealing the bubble and trapping our body heat inside. I took a deep breath, sinking into the soft lining of his stomach, relaxing for what felt like the first time in days. Or perhaps it was months, or years; I'd never had someone to warm my back and watch over me before. Tears welled up in my eyes, only to squeeze through my lashes when I closed them.

"Thank you," I whispered, right before tumbling off the edge of consciousness. I could have sworn the Wraith's chest rumbled in reply.

SEBASTIAN

A howl echoed across the ashen plains, cutting clean through the fraying chords of Sebastian's dreams. He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but the rhythm of that girl's deep, even breathing had lulled him. It was shame as much as urgency that drove him to his feet.

He was on all fours before the reply sounded, exposing his charges to the wind as he scanned the terrain. The sudden drop in temperature was enough to make the golden-haired girl stir, and it wasn't long before she was standing vigil beside him, twining her fingers through the fur at his shoulder.

It took a concentrated effort not to arch into that touch, like a cat starved for affection. He had known the touch of women throughout the years, but those had been brief, savage couplings, a mutual release for the pent-up energy of a rogue lycan and whichever forest nymph or travelling merchant happened to find his brooding appealing, for whatever reason.

But he had never slept beside a women. Had never felt safe enough to do so. And this... Her hand, on his shoulder, was a touch unlike anything he'd ever experienced. It was possessive, certainly, the way she wound her fingers through his fur, but there was also something trusting in it. Like she wanted to be close to him, just for the sake of it; to lean on his strength and share in his warmth, because it brought her comfort.

Sebastian snuck a glance at the girl out of the corner of his eye. He didn't even know her name, but he was relieved to see that the Wylds, of all things, seemed to have done her some good. There was a spring in her step, and a clarity in those hazel eyes that had been lacking when she first climbed over the ashwood wall. Since then, long days of trekking through the woods and across the ashen plains had toned her muscles, and the sun had burnished her skin and mousy blonde hair, bringing out a subtle hint of red that made it shift in the light. How quickly these changes transpired defied his understanding, but he could not bring himself to begrudge them.

A third howl sounded: they'd found the aftermath of the wyvern battle, then.

The girl's face crumpled, and he was surprised to realise she could hear them from this distance, too. "They sent someone after me," she whispered, clutching the arrow-head around her neck. His arrow-head, which he'd sent flying for the heart of her Alpha. "I... I didn't think they cared."

Something wrenched in his chest at her anguish, the brimming tears that lined her eyes with silver. Not for the first time, Sebastian wished he could shift, so that he could communicate with her; convince her to flee from the approaching hunters, because it was so obvious that she hadn't been happy with the Blood Moon Pack, Rogan's ominous plans for her aside.

But it was her choice to make. Sebastian had a feeling enough had been taken from her, in this life. And there was also the niggling fact that he didn't have any clothes to change into. He didn't want to spook her.

Liar, he admonished himself. You just don't want to embarrass yourself in front of a pretty girl.

The girl looked behind her, to the Kirin foal and the dark-skinned woman whose throat he'd almost torn out. Then she turned those glittering eyes on him, and he found himself looking into the canopy all over again, despite the lack of trees in this barren wasteland.

"I made a promise, to help them get home. I can't just leave them to fend for themselves. Not that you can understand that," she added with a low laugh, and for a split second, Sebastian thought she'd seen the very core of him. Flayed it open with her words. But then she added: "You can't understand anything I'm saying. You're just a wolf."

Sebastian only stared back, willing himself to shift, to speak, to explain himself. But she was already turning.

Already walking away from him.