Shadow
Chapter Twenty

Raedwulf Dolph

“Uncle Ragnvald,” I yell as I run toward the beloved man. Mother had taken me down to the shores to see his boat arrive from his latest adventure.

“My little Rae,” he all but jumped off the boat at my voice, landing in the shallow water before running to my side. Hella and Hertha were attached to my Mother’s side as her belly rounded with my next sibling. There were only the three of us for now, myself having five years and the twins having three each.

Uncle Ragnvald picked me up and spun me with ease. He carried me back to Mother before greeting her with a small bow. The air between them had always been less than comfortable during her pregnancies. Though I assume it is hard to see your elder brother have so much and you not even having a mate.

“Beloved Khanea, you are with pup again?” he gave a small smile at her before she nodded the slightest nod.

“It is a blessing indeed,” Mother states. Uncle put me down to feel her stomach, something I had only seen the Madams and maids do. Father never touched her stomach in such a way.

“Where were you this time, Uncle?” I asked, tugging at his leather coat.

“Minxa,” he tells me. “Well, north of Minxa.”

“Theris?” I tilt my head in confusion. If he meant Theris he should have said Theris.

His next word echanted me more than anything else, “Iiesha.”

“The shadowlands?” Hertha asked, abandoning out mother to grab onto Uncle. Hella joining her soon and he swooped up both in his arms.

“Exactly that.”

“See a shadowbeast?” Hertha asked next, grabbing onto his scarf and pulling hard.

“No one sees shadowbeasts, its too dark in Iiesha. However, I heard them, I smelt them, and I even killed one.”

“You killed a shadowbeast, you’re so strong, Uncle Ragnvald," I mused.

"I think this topic of conversation is too much for the pups, especially the twins," Mother scolded, crossing her arms over her protruding stomach.

"Calm yourself, Rika," Ragnvald laughed. "It is just a story."

It hadn't been three months later that mother gave birth to her forth child. I had been so excited when my Nan told Rikki and me it had been a boy. I only had my little sisters, and a brother excited me so much. Late at night, I snuck from my room to my mother's birthing bed. The door had been left propped open and I could see the light of a candle shinning in the crack.

"He has not been presented yet, not even the pups have seen him."

"But Kol has," it was my Uncle. What right did he have seeing my brother before me?

"Kol is his father."

"Rika, we both know that is not true."

I had never been blind before. Even in the dark of night, sneeking around our castle, my glowing red eyes of my beast helped me see. But this was not the castle, there is no moonlight, no low burning candle, no guards, no maids, and no Nan.

This is just darkness.

My hand reaches out, almost immediately after we step into it. A fire ignites under my fingers as I feel Idonia's arm. Her hand grips mine as she moves closer, the warm radiating off her like it never had before.

"Right here," she whispered. Both her hands grab my arm and she holds me close to her. I can hear her better, feel her better, now that I can't see. She takes a deep breath, and I match it. Her scent overwhelms me, but so does the stench of death.

"How do we find a nest?" Danal asks us. He takes a step and I can practically feel him standing behind me.

"Follow the smell fo rot," she states. One of her hand leaves me before she startes moving. I think it is east, but it could very well be farther north. "Shadowbeasts take their kills back to their nest."

"That smell is their last meal."

"And it smells fresh," Danal states after me.

"Only a few days old," Idonia's voice softens, if that is even possible. We kept walking toward the smell. It was almostly completely silent, unlike it had been last night. A slight breeze blows across the land, carrying the smell of death with a hint of something else. A musk that hung in the air heavier than that of death. Something older, something larger.

My foot catches on something and I trip. "Rae?"

"I'm fine," I assure her before reaching down to grab the metal object. By the feeling of it, it had been a sword, but the weight was all wrong, it is too light to be a proper blade. I put the hilt against my leg, trying to feel the length of the blade against my thigh. There is nothing, not really anyways. The blade had been a longsword by the feel of the hilt, but the weapon itself was broken.

I toss the object, hearing is clank and clatter against the ground.

"Rae?" Danal speaks next, his voice full of concern. I turn to give him my attention, but then I realize my foolishness as he can't see me nor I him.

"I just tripped, Danal. I'm fine."

The Idonia hit us both on the arm. "Quiet," she commands us both, making me alert to my surroundings. I listen, swilleling my head to the sound of crunching ground.

Another Viker?

Another noise, in a different direction. This one a low rumble, a truely gutteral sounds that is like no lycan I have ever heard. It is hard to tell exactly where the sounds are coming from, but I continusly look for the source, not that I can see anything. It was more an instinct, facing the beast that is threatening me.

I take a few steps out, trying to track the shadowbeast that is hunting us. It is a few growls later that the worst noise of all comes to ring in my ears.

The sound of a yell, a scream that is not beast-like at all, but rather coming from my mate.

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