Finn woke, confused. The wood of the old cabin reverberated as the front door swung open and connected with the frame and wall. The sound and motion pulled her from a dream she couldn't hold onto. Her brain was groggy and she needed to blink multiple times to get the sleep to clear from her head and eyes.
Her eyes flicked reflexively to Carter's cot and saw that it was empty, his blanket lay on the floor. She bolted straight up, the aluminum frame of her cot shook from the force, and saw their door was open. They only closed it at night, an unspoken request for all who remained in the common room to be subdued. The main door to the old cabin was also open, it swung on its ancient hinges in the wind. The door protested with soft creaks when not blustered by the waxing and waning storm.
She sprinted for the common room. Rain was coming in through the entrance. Finn closed the door gently and scanned the room for anything amiss.
"Carter?" She called out in a hushed voice. There was no sound other than the occasional droplets of rain on the ancient glass of the windows. "Love?" She pressed their bond for him. Her soul was met not with silence or emptiness, but a force; a confusing wall of mist she could not penetrate. It was disquieting, not painful. He was there, inaccessible.
She ran to the door that housed the other men and opened it with great force. All three were asleep in their cots, their breathing barely noticeable in the dark. The sound of the door as it connected carelessly to the old wood did not cause them to stir.
"Guys?" She called to them but no one moved.
"Iz?" She asked as she stepped into their room. There was still no movement.
"Eutus? Ramsey?" She asked, louder. She reached her oldest brother and gripped him by the shoulders and shook.
"Izzy!" She yelled into his face but there was no waking him. Her fingers pushed painfully into his skin, desperate for him to scream at her. Slap her. Make a sound. She tried the same on the other two, but they were both unresponsive. In desperation, she returned to her eldest brother and pulled open one of Izzy's eyes with her fingers. His pupil was milky white. Someone had put them to sleep with magic.
"Fucking wizards," she croaked out as she ran for the front door. She pulled it open and looked out into the darkness, the rain smacked her face and then subsided. She thought she spied Carter's figure as it shuffled off in the darkness, an unnatural gait. Finn grabbed her large back knit sweater quickly from their shared room and pulled it over her head. She pulled on a pair of discarded leggings that had been abandoned at the foot of her cot and ran out into the darkness, her feet bare.
"Carter! Where are you going?!" She screamed into the unsure storm. His frame was mist as it fluttered in and out of her vision. The rain and wind continued to die down and then pick up with force.
"Carter! Please stop!" She cried again, a howl into the night.
She continued forward as she used her hand to shield her eyes from the droplets that stung her eyes when hit. Finally, she spied his outline in the darkness. He stood in a small clearing, the trees were rotten stumps all around him. The ground was full of half-rotten flora. His clothes, a shirt and jogging pants, were soaked through with water. He was motionless. Finn thought she could hear him speak as she ran to him. She wasn't sure if it was directed at her or if it could be the wind as it played tricks on her tired, confused mind.
"Carter!" She hollered. With the distance between them closed, she reached his arm. She gripped his wet bicep and pulled him to face her. His eyes were open but milky white and unseeing. His jaw hung open slightly, slack. She reached up to his face and cupped his cheek in her hand.
"Love?" She tried through their bond again but silence was her only response. Her focus had been solely on her mate, and that had been a mistake. Finn did not see the large creature that materialized out of the rain and gloom. It hulked over them, its form obscured.
"Hello, namesake," it said directly to her in a muted, melancholy voice as it slapped Carter with such force he was propelled backwards into a husk of a tree many feet away. Bark and splitters exploded at his impact, his eyes rolled back into his head, closed, and fell to the side. Finn screamed and ran to him, narrowly avoiding the unknown monstrosity's grasp as its hand-like appendage shot out to grab her. She slipped in the mud, the saving grace, and clung onto Carter. She shook him with great force, his head flopped to the sides.
"Carter! Carter! Are you okay?" She screamed as she gripped his scalp as she looked for wounds.
Carter let out a low moan, his closed eyes barely fluttered. Finn pushed out a breath of relief when she realized he was alive. She wrapped her arms around him to shield him with her body. Strong fingers gripped her by the sweater and pulled her from her mate. It threw her in the opposite direction as it took a stand between them. It had a claymore, a large two-handed sword, that it threw into the soil at its own feet as she connected with the ground.
Finn hit the dirt, spun, and mostly managed to land on all fours. Her fingers and toes dug painfully into the earth as she growled at whatever had attacked them. The monster was at least nine feet tall. It looked like a child's horrible drawing; a man badly stitched together with wolf parts. Its head and face were mostly of a man, but the lower jaw was of a wolf. It moved independently as though it chewed on the air. Similarly to a cow. It protruded from the human skull at an odd angle. Its limbs were unnaturally long and ended in fingers with deathly sharp talons, an impression of knives for finger tips. The hands reminded her almost of her own when transformed. That realization sickened her, fear rose in her gut. Parts of it were covered in dense, dark fur. When the wind picked up again, it pushed the scent of the decaying abomination to her nose. She gagged and choked down the bile that threatened to creep up her throat. Its vacant, milky eyes bore into her.
She stared at the abomination. Fear and understanding met in her mind. She had to force herself not to run. Every part of her demanded she run, hide. For a moment she felt a wolf; it screamed a warning and bade her to flee. "No." Rang out in her mind and silenced the voices. She couldn't leave Carter. He was defenseless and this stank of Malus fucking Helmut.
"...Fionn Ironblood?" She asked quietly to the no man's land that laid between them, but hoped in her heart it wouldn't hear. It silently inclined its head to her.
Rain fell softly around them. It was the rain that had helped mask his smell, Finn realized. She forced herself to focus on her surroundings. Beads of water made small sounds as they fell down upon the half rotten remains of the old battle ground. Crisp dead leaves littered the underbrush and covered the few green patches that had managed to regenerate after so long. The wind died away, no movement of mostly dead tree limbs. She needed to shift but she feared the creature would take that moment to strike.
"Fear not, little wolf. I will not attack while you transform. There is no sport in that or so your father bade me," its voice was strong, clear. Nothing like the garbled, decayed words of her birth mother. It didn't read her mind, it knew what and who she was.
"He isn't my father," she called back. "And I'm not a wolf." Her fingers dug into the dirt more. She readied herself.
It swayed as it talked, the horrifically long arms gave the impression of being moved by the air alone. How heavy could it be? How strong? Enough to lift a claymore. Enough to throw a large adult werewolf. Finn swallowed hard to force down the bile again.
"I know, little one," it's voice was melancholy. "...I was supposed to be your sire."
"And yet you stand here in his name. To end me! Elspeth's only child! Your mother raised me! We are family," she hurled the words like rocks, to wound. It seemed conscious, maybe she should convince it to leave them alone.