Free A Wolf's Duty by Jennifer T. Alli

stomach
had her on the floor, curling up defensively.
    “Well what do you know?”
Emily cackled, “It seems like you were all talk and no substance.”
Kneeling down, she began to work at the bracelet’s
clasp.
    The pain began to fade as
her anger rose once again at the situation she found herself in, it
became thick and ugly as it transformed itself into a living
creature swelling within her, straining for release. She could feel
something in the back of her mind begin to splinter and shatter
under the weight of her rage. Her anger rolled though her body,
blocking out Emily’s frustrated attempts to relieve her of Tobias’
gift before the dam broke and whatever was behind it was freed. She
felt a moment of calm despite the anger, where she was detached
from her surroundings and felt completely at ease, and then the
whispers came. They were insidious creeping through her mind and
flooding it with their voices, and there were so many. She clenched
her head with her hands trying to drown them out and removing her
arm from Emily’s grasp. Their voices became louder, sharper as the
seconds ticked on.
    We’re coming.
We’ll help you.
    She groaned,
“What?”
    The voices stopped
suddenly, the silence they had left in her mind was almost
deafening after their noise, but the real world saw fit to replace
their noise with Emily’s ear piercing shrieks. The ground beneath
their feet was churning and the wind outside had picked up and was
now howling against the glass windows.
    “An earthquake,” Emily
cried.
    “Don’t be stupid,” Alex
snapped in response. “We don’t get earthquakes in England.”
Struggling to her feet, she found that the ground was indeed
trembling, almost loosing her footing to its shakes. The earth
quickly settled, but the wind seemed to have gotten
louder.
    Rising to her feet easily
now that the tremors had ceased, Emily’s eyes had once again
targeted Alex’s wrist. “Give it here.”
    “You have got to be
kidding, I can’t believe you’re still banging on about this,” she
yelled in response, screaming over the wailing winds outside. “You
get absolutely everything you want, there isn’t anything you’re
denied and when I finally get something precious of my own you
think you can take it from me! I’m through dealing with you Emily,
you hear me? This is over!”
    The last words of her
rage-induced tirade were drowned out by the sound of breaking glass
as the winds were silenced. The windowpanes that lined the hall
simultaneously shattered causing Emily to scream once more. Despite
the breaking glass, Alex felt calm, centred even as the voices
returned.
    Turning her head in the
direction of a window, she watched in detached amazement as a thick
tree branch twisted though the now empty pane and began moving in
their direction. Looking down the hallway she found that all of the
windows were now being filled with the leafy appendages, each
making their way surprisingly quickly down to where she and Emily
had now ceased bickering.
    What on
earth?
    A branch had now reached
Emily, curling its way around her ankles while she tried
frantically to remove it, pulling wildly at it while it steadily
continued its journey up her leg. She watched as another branch
moved past her before gripping Emily’s arms tightly, another snaked
between her legs before wrapping itself around Emily’s torso. Her
enemy’s screams were drowned out by the whispers and she strained
to hear what they were saying.
    I can’t hear
you! She screamed frustrated.
    The din of the
whispers momentarily increased before dying out, a lone voice now
filled her head. Want us to
hurt?
    I don’t
understand.
    Want us to
hurt? The voice repeated, the branches
holding Emily captive tightened and she shrieked in response. Her
eyes turned to take in the person she had viewed throughout so much
of her life as an enemy, she watched intently as the branches that
had studiously avoided harming her tightened even
further.
    Are you