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.

breath my lungs rattled like they were full of liquid. I tasted blood, thick and dark, and instantly knew that this was not

out with my mind and

for help. Even my

arrows still lodged in my body that scalded my flesh and sapped my strength, I forced myself onto my hands. My arms trembled painfully, wobbling so much that I had

anchor to keep me from blacking out. I had to get out

A dull bite of pain gnawed at them when stone

sweat and tears, and the next

of them, perhaps more but it was hard to tell considering everything began to double and triple. Tree’s multiplied, then died off,

struck me as being someone in charge. Wisps of dark hair peeked out beneath the hooded cloak she wore, but it did nothing to hide her face. Every single one of her features was hard, sharpened as though cruelty was the only

me and said nothing as I

with

witch sneered. She curled her thin lips back and b***d her teeth, lowering herself to the dirt floor like

upper 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

the h**l she was saying. Something about training and those

clothes, and running down my chest. Splotches of darkness, far colder than

still knelt in the dirt like a prisoner of war—which I had a feeling I’d soon become. Even on the verge of passing out, fear

witches would take me. I’d be gone, lost a second time and Asher would be the

and speckled with shadows, his face came to mind. He’d storm this entire forest, uproot every single tree, and leave no stone unturned as he searched and searched like

loved surrounded him and tried to reign him back in. It wouldn’t work, though. I knew this because it hadn’t worked the first

That left one option.

not let

numb as I fell to the cool earth. There would be no pain, no worries, or fears. Everything

unfold with heady interest, whispering in voices so fast I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Only a croak left my lips, a wet one that was chased by a

blood as I coughed and spat, unable

out. The sooner we get back, the faster we can get this done with.”

this point that reason left my head, replaced by the animalistic urge to live, to survive and evade capture. I was a wolf, a beast, and huntress in my own right, but now—now I was

I heard Asher’s roar in my mind, the ragged sound he’d make when he found all the blood and realized I’d been

said you wouldn’t leave, Lola.

were standing right here, hovering over my shoulder as he watched me bleed and bleed and

they destroy my hard work, k**l my people, and ruin my life? The families they’ve shattered were wounds that went even deeper than the ones on my body. They’d never stop, not until