Embers: Beastly Curses by Sky Sommers

Author:Sky Sommers [Sommers, Sky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Sommesrby OÜ
Published: 2023-07-08T23:00:00+00:00

19. The Pup

Peter

The next morning, the black wolf emerged from the ferns near the house and darted back only to reappear seconds later.

‘Hello, you!’ Peter smiled at the beast. ‘Up and about so early?’

The wolf charged and pulled him toward the woods by the leg of his trousers.

‘You want us to have a nice romp in the woods, darling? How many vials should I bring?’

The wolf snorted and yanked on Peter’s trousers, making him sway.

‘Lets. Go.’

‘Hold on. You’re not playing around? Did something happen?’ the huntsman asked. Receiving a nod, he hurried inside to get his rifle and headed after the wolf into the forest.

‘Where are we going?’ Peter asked Grace.

She only growled and coughed, urging him on. The wolf stopped on the edge of a field of wheat. Then she whined.

The huntsman approached. A small fur ball lay at the female wolf ’s feet, curled up, with one mangled paw in a huge trap. By the markings, Peter recognized it was one of his traps, but he didn’t remember setting it here. He also recognized the pup - it was one of the alphas’ litter. Peter scanned the forest edge and the fields for any humans.

‘Who would take one of my traps and set it near a field?’ Peter wondered aloud, kneeling at the pup’s lifeless body. ‘Did you call for help as soon as he got caught up?’

The wolf shook her head. ‘Mis-sing.’

‘The pup went missing? So, it wandered off and got trapped and that’s how you found him?’

The female wolf howled and the man shushed her. ‘Not now. Not safe.’

The huntsman started disentangling the young wolf from the trap, which was crusted over with blood. Then he noticed the angle of the pup’s head. There was hardly any blood on his paw. Yet, the trap had crusted blood all over it. Could this be from previous times? Any huntsman knew to clean his traps after removing the prey, but per- haps the villagers were not as knowledgeable?

Had the pup really sprung the trap and before it could bleed to death, had someone broken its neck out of mercy? This could only have happened after the young wolf had struggled himself tired.

There should have been more blood.

The huntsman inspected the pup’s head.

Bite marks.

The pup’s neck had been broken alright.

By another animal.

Just after the pup had gotten caught in the trap.

Could this have been a mercy kill by his own kind?

But where was the benefactor?

Two things were certain.

The pup had been here a while. And appearances were deceiving.

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