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.

and dark, and instantly knew that this was not good. Every square inch of my flesh felt raw, like it had been through a paper shredder before

reached out with my mind and felt

way of contacting the others for help. Even my odd attachment to Breyona felt just out of reach, so close that I could graze it

scalded my flesh and sapped my strength, I forced myself onto my hands. My arms

as an anchor to keep me from blacking out. I had to get out of here before the witch that shot me caught

I made it to my knees. A dull bite of pain gnawed at them when stone and earth dug into

away sweat and

tell considering everything began to double and triple. Tree’s multiplied, then died off, vanishing so quickly it

hooded cloak she wore, but it did nothing to hide her face.

witch tossed something to the dirt in front of me and said nothing as I squinted and waited for my

a crossbow, loaded with an arrow tipped

back and b***d her teeth, lowering herself to the dirt floor like she was greeting

hand on my pupils twice now, and twice they’ve been punished for their failure. Tessa and Ember are talented for their ages, but we cannot allow failure this far along. Can we,

understand what the h**l she was saying. Something about training and those two witches, the ones that had chased us through the

my clothes, and running down my chest. Splotches of darkness, far colder than the shadows, began to fill my vision. They

knelt in the dirt like a prisoner of war—which I had a feeling I’d soon become.

witches would take me. I’d be gone,

to mind. He’d storm this entire forest, uproot every single tree, and leave no stone unturned

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

That left one option.

not let

the cool earth.

interest, whispering in voices so fast

I coughed and spat,

can head out. The sooner we get back, the faster we can get this done with.” The witch snapped. “And someone get a healer. If she dies

survive and evade

and again, I heard Asher’s roar in my mind, the ragged sound he’d make when he

you wouldn’t leave, Lola. You

as though he were standing right here, hovering over my shoulder as he watched me bleed and bleed and bleed. I could feel his fractured heart like it were my own, and the

life? The families they’ve shattered were wounds that went even deeper than the ones on my body. They’d never stop, not until