Chapter 9: Not Alone

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The werewolf led Amber to a hovel in the forest. The meager cabin lay in a wreath of dead trees and jagged thorn bushes. Five other werewolves stood in front of the structure. They remained in their monstrous half-wolf forms. Chained to a stake outside the hovel lay Theresa. Her face was a battered mass of bruises. As they approached, Theresa looked up and smiled.


“My lady survives.”


“Is that all I am to you? Just your lady?”


“You are everything to me.”


Amber felt her stomach lurch as she stared at Theresa. 


“I love you.”


“I know, my lady.”


The werewolf with Amber smiled a horrible smile back at Theresa, “Your lady is one of us.”


“Not yet. I know the signs. She still has an hour or two before the transformation is permanent.”


“You think you can do in an hour what you could not do in the days before this?”


“I was alone before.” Theresa said. 


“You are alone now.”


Theresa locked eyes with Amber, “No. I don’t think that I am.”


Amber nodded and shifted her weight. Her stomach settled, and a certainty entered her. She knew that she wasn’t a match for any of the werewolves. But she also knew that she was no longer a liability that would hold Theresa back. She could feel her strength growing. Her senses sharpened. Her reflexes quickened. Amber raked her claws across the throat of the surprised werewolf beside her. And then, hesitating only a moment, she charged. She reached the stake holding Theresa. Bracing, she gripped the log with her claws and wrenched. The werewolves lunged, and tore at Amber. But she ignored the pain and drew the stake up out of the ground. 


The chains holding Theresa fell to the ground and the stake came free. 


Theresa flicked her wrist and a silvered dagger released from its concealed sheath. The weapon slid into her hand and she rammed the blade into the throat of the nearest werewolf. She kicked another Werewolf in the gut with the silver spiked toe of her boot. Amber swung the stake like a club and knocked a werewolf flying. The remaining two werewolves pulled back. 


Theresa used the pause to draw out a potion. It was the adrenaline potion, Amber realized. Theresa down the contents. Her face flushed and she coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then her stance faltered. Theresa was dying, Amber realized. Amber was turning, and Theresa was dying. If the werewolves had any purification potions, Amber and Theresa needed them now. 


Read Chapter 10


Read more in "Daughters of the Digital Empire," Available soon! Check me out on AO3 https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddwardiswriting Check me out on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ddwardiswriting

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