Chapter 2
Orion rushed to the injured woman, trying to cushion her fall. He noticed she was bleeding from numerous places. There were knife marks on both wrists and ankles, and she was bleeding from her head also.
"What the hell?" Orion asked in shock.
"This could be a trap," Noctis said.
Orion turned, trying to spot the mysterious woman who had led him there. He couldn't find her, and he didn't like this situation. He turned to leave. He had just taken a step away from the bleeding woman when he heard a voice.
'If you leave her like this, she'll bleed to death.' A whisper, seemingly from the wind itself, brushed against his ear.
'Help her, Orion, son of Alaric.'
He hesitated, glancing around the silent shrine. Was it his imagination? Or something more?
"Did you hear that?" Orion asked Noctis.
"Hear what?"
"Someone speaking."
"Are you sure you're not hallucinating? We're the only ones here: you, me, and the unconscious woman," Noctis said.
Orion turned back to the woman. He was sure he had heard someone speak—a whisper in his ear.
He ignored the whisper. If this was a trap, then he wasn't going to be a part of it.
'Help her,' the voice said again, this time with a plea. 'Please help her.'
"Did you hear that?" Orion asked Noctis.
"Are you having auditory hallucinations?" Noctis asked in reply.
Orion walked back to the woman. He stared at her as if willing her to open her eyes.
"Why should I help her?" Orion asked in a whisper.
"Are you asking me?" Noctis asked, but Orion ignored him, waiting for the voice.
There was no reply from the voice. Orion turned to leave, saying he had done enough and the voice didn't want to answer him, but then the voice whispered.
'Help her, please.'
Orion clenched his jaw. He needed a reason. He wasn't one for games. He walked out of the shrine, but his heart felt heavy, especially at the thought of leaving her alone in that place to die. He walked back into the shrine.
"If I help her, then you owe me a favor. Whoever you are, deal?" Orion asked the voice.
Immediately, without a moment's delay, the voice whispered. 'Deal.'
The voice whispering reminded him of a story his father had told him when he was little, about how the whispers and voices he had heard on the battlefield had made him the warrior he was. His father had claimed it was the Moon Goddess whispering to him, guiding him, protecting him. Orion had believed that story once, when he still believed the Moon Goddess watched over his family and would protect them. He didn't believe it anymore, not after what happened to his parents, but why was he reminded of it now?
He was making a deal with someone or something he didn't even know.
Without a second thought, he scooped her up, cradling her in his arms, and set off toward the pack.
"You're taking her back?" Noctis asked.
"Nothing left to do. We can't leave her here to die," he told him.
"Is that reason enough to risk bringing her back to the pack? What if she's a spy, Orion? One sent by the Enclave?"
"Have you ever seen an Enclave spy with wounds like these?"
"Maybe she ran into some monsters?"
"Knife wounds, Noctis. This isn't from blunt weapons like the rogues around here use. This is different," Orion argued.
"And what if she is a spy then?"
Orion sighed. He didn't know what she was. But he couldn't just leave her to die.
"Only one way to find out, right?" Orion replied, his jaw tightening.
"Sometimes, I wonder why I'm bound to you. You could be bringing someone dangerous into the pack."
"But what if she's not? Are we just going to let an innocent person die?" Orion countered. "Besides, who's to say this has anything to do with the first woman?"
Noctis sighed. "How do you know the first woman?"
"You remember I got you during the disaster that befell our pack years ago?" Orion asked him.
"As if I could forget. What does that have to do with anything?" Noctis asked.
"I saw her that day. That night I was fighting for my life while shifting, and she was at a distance, just smiling eerily at me, nodding like my screams were a song to her."
"The same time you got your ability," Noctis said as if in deep thought.
"Exactly."
The disaster. He rarely thought about it, but the memory was seared into his mind. The Enclave, specifically Victoria, was the result of the disaster. Years ago, before Orion's pack had relocated, a plague had struck them. Alaric, Orion's father, had gone to the Enclave to beg for resources, for help, but they had ignored him. They later found out that there was a remedy, a plant only found in Victoria's pack. Orion, along with Brynhild and Ronan, had snuck into Victoria's territory to collect the herb.
They had resolved the plague, but then things took a darker turn when rogue wolves attacked them all of a sudden. It was later discovered that the Enclave had sent their guards, disguised as rogues, to destroy the Nightshade Pack. Orion lost his parents in the war. His friends lost people too, and till this day, he blamed himself for going into Victoria's pack. Funny how, after they settled in Nirvana, the herb was available in excess, along with other rare herbs.
"You know," Noctis began as Orion started walking toward the exit, "I was thinking… you know there's a woman who watches over us, right?"
Orion groaned. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"I'm just saying, what if the woman we saw was the Moon Goddess?" Noctis asked.
"The Moon Goddess would be injured and in need of help?" Orion scoffed.
"You know who I'm talking about. You said you saw her the day you got me, the same day you got your ability to detect lies. There must be a reason why she was there, and what happened earlier was unlike anything we've experienced. The distance between you didn't close, no matter how much you tried to run," Noctis pointed out.