Eli's eyes closed slowly as she said Atlas' name.
"Shit." He whispered.
"Atlas, you fucking idiot!" Venus fumed. "And you! Why did you have to bring it up?" She pressed him closer against the wall. Eli winced as her boney arm pressed into his wrists.
"I needed someone else to know. I can't keep a secret from you anyway. Atlas should've known that."
"How long have you known?" Her face was red, very red.
Eli pressed his lips tightly together and refused to open them.
She shoved him against the wall again and pinned her leg between his.
"How long have you known." She said slower but just as demanding this time.
"Since they found the body. Well since Atlas and I inspected it. His scent was still barely on the corpse." Eli winced and pleaded with his brute of a wife. "Please let me go."
Venus retreated a step and Eli's arms flopped to his sides. He fingered his wrists and the bruises that were forming.
"Venus, don't do anything, okay? I didn't tell you to give your brother a lecture or even to tell Serena. Both of them are happy and we can't interfere with-"
"Happy? That's false happiness!" Venus shouted. She slapped her face and pressed her hands tightly against her eyes. "And I helped her get that sense of false love. I was the one that pushed them together and gave them ideas. I did that, Eli. Don't you get it?" She paced back and forth anxiously, biting her lip and wringing her hands.
Eli grabbed her shoulders and pulled her close, rubbing her back and accepting the punches she landed against his body.
"You didn't know. I didn't know." Eli whispered into her hair.
"But you knew a few days ago..." She whimpered. She shoved him away and sped toward the door, Eli shouted and raced after her.
"Don't you dare go talk to him!" Eli snapped.
"I need some air. Thanks for caring about your WIFE and not your Alpha for once." She shouted as she slammed the door in his face. Eli retracted his fingers in time from getting severed from his hand.
Venus shot toward the woods, racing along the back side of the houses. She dodged the low branches and weaved around the brush and roots until she was at the changing cabin.
She entered the cabin, stripped, and shifted into her wolf form.
The massive brown wolf barged from the cabin and sprinted toward the wood and meadow, forgetting everything behind it.
Venus' fur whipped in the wind, flowing as she sprinted the few miles to the open field.
The sun dipped into the horizon, lighting the grass tips in a natural orange fire. Venus' eyes burned as the sun's rays blinded her. Her pupils retracted as a reaction to the blinding sunset.
Tree branches snagged and pulled on her tufts of fur, leaving follicles dotting the trees in her wake. The heavy pounding of her feet was the only sound in the entire wood.
As she entered the meadow, her nose picked up a strange scent. It was nothing that she recognized immediately, but nothing that was too threatening. The scent of another wolf floated over the grass tips, leading to the other side of the meadow, into the foreboding woods.
She padded through the dead flowers and crunchy grass until she was on the forest's edge. The wolf's scent was strong and familiar but out of reach.
Venus huffed and bit down, clenching her canines. Her saliva dripped onto the dead leaves as she entered the forest, marking her presence.
The forest was dark from the canopy of pine boughs above her. She slunk beneath the needles, heading toward the scent further into the woods. The soft crunch of her feet hitting the ground irritated her. The one time she needed to be quiet was in the fall after the leaves had time to crisp.
She came upon a run-down cabin not too far into her journey through the dark. The wolf's scent flowed profusely from the cracks in the walls and the roofing.
Venus crept along the crumbling, moldy walls until she was under a window. She held her nose under the cracked glass and sniffed.
It was another wolf for sure, one that smelled of grass and dirt. It had been here recently to say the least, if anything, it was probably still there. She strained her neck to peer into the broken window.
Her eyes met ocean-blue wolf eyes, staring back at her, fangs bared.
Venus yipped as she jumped back, fur bristling. Her own fangs were showing and her eyes narrowed as the wolf exited the cabin and made its way toward her.
Its ashy-blonde fur bristled where it wasn't matted. Bugs lept out of the patches in a chance to escape the wolf's presence. Foam flowed from the corners of its mouth and down its chin. Slowly it padded toward her, snarling low.
"Why are you here?" Its voice rumbled, low, masculine.
"I followed your trail. I just wanted some fresh air but found you in my search." Venus backed away as the wolf advanced. She was taking in the wolf's form. He was much larger than her. Blood crusted around its mouth, paws, and underbelly. Everywhere else had dirt and leaves.
"You?" The wolf laughed slightly. "You found my trail that all the other mutts missed. You must have a gift." The wolf sped up, almost to a jog toward her. Its feet pranced delicately on the soil, making no sound as it moved.
"I guess you could say that." Venus looked around at the barren forest floor. Nothing, no one was there to help her out of this situation.
"Want to play a game?"
"A game?" Venus froze. The phrase resonated within her heart, familiar to her core.
"Yes, a game. A game of tag. If you illude me long enough, you can live. If you are caught, you die." The wolf darted toward her without giving Venus a chance to answer. Its jaws were wide, aimed at her neck and jugular.