Virgin Sacrifice to the Last Lycan - Chapter 50: Chapter 50

Helen POV
We sleep in the car for most of the trip, driving until we will inevitably run out of gas. We have nothing left from our lost luggage and the missing trinket of my necklace and rings still brings tears to my eyes.
I stroke my neck, starving and exhausted.
“Maybe you were right,” I said, speaking to the stars that fly over our heads. “At least with Juden at Lone Wolf Estate, we had a shower and warm meals.” I toyed with my torn jacket, the only clothing I had at this point. “And clothes sufficient for the cold wind.”
The car Justin hijacked was topless and the chilly air had done little to calm my unsettled nerves.
I wept into my palms, starving, thirsty and full of anger.
“Hey now,” Justin purred, pulling the car over to the side of the wooded road. He came around to open my door, allowing me to throw myself into his arms. “It’s okay, Helen. We’re going to be okay.”
“And what if we’re not?!”
He patted my head into the crane of his warm neck. “We will be. We always are. You were right. We can’t go back to my father’s pack. The collar being real only assures me that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill you to get at me.”
I nodded, terrified at the thought of dying, but not as much as I would fear Justin’s reaction to it.
He would level the world if I were to die. I can’t allow him to be that monster everyone expects him to be. We need each other like the Earth needs the sun. It spins constantly with the sun in a never-ending dance, knowing if it were to ever lose the sun; everything would fall into an infinite darkness.
“So where do we go now? We have no money, no shelter,” I panted, clinging to my pathetically cold frame. “We have nothing, Justin.”
“We have each other,” he shot back, his lips finding mine. I could only lean back, his pressure overwhelming, his Lycan desperate, and my mind fogged. “Always each other.”
His hand tapped at my knee, begging for it to part, but he stopped abruptly.
“Do you hear that?”
I perked up, my wolf senses muted but even I could hear the steps in the woods.
Justin turned, keeping me at his back as he faced the wall of woods beside us. “Who is there? Show yourself now!”
A small figure stepped out of the forest, a child of some kind, followed by an older gentleman in warm robes. I envied his attire, even if it is only fall time, but I could feel the icicles in my blood.
He pulled the child beside him, eyeing us carefully before releasing a groaning sigh.
“Wolves?”
Justin nodded, not interested in correcting the man’s assumption. “Yeah. What are you?”
“Wizard,” he said, looking at my shivering, battered state. “You two are rogues?’
“N—”
“Yes,” Justin barked, cutting me off. “We’re not dangerous, though. My mate is wounded and cold. We’ve been attacked by other wolf packs and even filthy vampires.”
The man made an audible noise, rolling his eyes at the mention of the bloodsuckers. “You didn’t lead them this way, did you?”
“No, we lost them in Nevada.”
Although surprised, the man looked to his little child. She beamed in curiosity at the sight of us. He seemed to take that as a good sign of some kind, waving us forward towards the trees.
“Bring your mate. We have food and shelter you can have for the night but you can’t stay here long.”
“Passing through,” Justin said in a relieved sigh. “We won’t be any trouble. I swear.”
The man waited for us to follow but when I stood up, my legs collapsed under my weight. I gasped and cried in the numb ache that overwhelmed my body in that moment, but Justin didn’t hesitate to react.
He held me to his chest, breathing hot and steady breaths into my hairline. Chills spread over me in response and I sunk into his arms, watching the wizard and his little one prance back through the woods.
I haven’t met a wizard before but I knew they were naturally very nice creatures. Vampires live among mortals for easy access to blood but wizards and healers don’t need that kind of environment. I wasn’t sure what to expect until we stood in the middle of the thick brush forest, looking for any sign of homes or villages.
Nothing was out here.
The wizard looked up and Justin and I did the same, jumping back as a rope ladder fell from the heavens. The little one went first, her climbing speed unmatched by the older man. Justin pressed me over his shoulder and climbed the ladder with ease.
I prayed to the moon goddess my strength, and my wolf, would return to me soon.
I couldn’t be this constant burden on my mate.
Justin knelt on the wood planks in the treetops, both of us shocked into silence at the sight of this place. It was treehouses built through the branches, far off the ground and connected with rope lines and plank bridges.
Torches were lit all over, minding the decaying leaves and the use of lumber that makes their homes up. The wizard who led us over here waves for the crowd to relax, seeing beautiful people approach us while wearing colorful, lavish robes and dresses.
They were too stunning to even look at directly. I ducked my head in a mock bow, unsure what else to do to appear harmless and submissive. Justin held a protective arm around me, watching the Wizards curiously.
“They are in trouble, Fae Russo. The female is in bad shape. Let me heal them, feed them. They’re just passing through, trying to run from the packs and the vampires.”
The older wizard who found us nodded toward another man, the Fae, and I shuddered at the sight of his large, vibrant wings. I couldn’t help but gawk.
I’ve never even heard that Fae’s were this large, just like us in mortal form, but the wings caught me so off guard that my breath hitched at the sight of them.
“Please,” Justin groaned, not keen on asking for help but he looked at me pitifully. “She’s my fated mate. She needs food and rest. Her wolf has gone silent from a poisoning.”
Fae Russo looked at us through long, dark eyelashes. “You two have been through a lot of trouble. Why? I know the wolves let most rogues go, unless they’ve done something worth being hunted for.”
Justin’s head fell. “I am a Lycan. The last of my kind. They want to control me by hurting my mate, by tormenting us into submission.”
The Fae’s eyes widen at his claim. He smiled gently.
“I know what it is like to be the last of your kind,” he whispered, something sad in his warm tone. “You both can stay with Wizard Olu and his daughter Penelope.”
I released a hefty sigh at his permission, falling onto the wood planks on my side in utter exasperation. At least for tonight, we will not have to keep running. After that? I’m not so sure.