I hadn’t meant to sleep, but when I opened my eyes the light through the window was pre-dawn gray. I whipped the covers aside and hurried over for a closer look. Nothing moved in the yard below me. It was hard to see if the coast was clear with my weak human eyes.
I needed to get out of the house.
Somewhere between getting shown around the little hole of a town and being told I was semi-betrothed to some guy I’d never met, I had made a decision: daughter of the alpha or not, I was not going to put up with some crazy werewolf pack running my life.
I was leaving, and there was nothing they could say to stop me. If they found me and dragged me back a hundred times, I’d leave a hundred and one. Maybe, eventually, they’d get sick of it and just leave me be.
I dressed quickly, as quietly as I could in the still house. Every creak underneath my feet felt like an alarm, but no one came. At the door, I hesitated. The tiny cell phone was a pulsing temptation on my nightstand, but in the end, I left it behind. Mom would be worried, but I couldn’t go back there. Not right away. It’s the first place they’d check, starting with the phone records for this little number they’d so graciously provided. I was new to pack life, not born yesterday.
I eased my bedroom door open, fully expecting Brent to be standing there glaring at me. But the hall was empty. Apparently, they’d graduated me to “trustworthy at night.”
I held my breath the entire way downstairs, so sure someone was going to snatch me from behind or block my path. But as I tore across the backyard and into the thick woods beyond, my inner wolf rising to the surface, the feeling of freedom was unmistakable.
I’d made it. I was getting out.
I ran all-out for three miles before I stopped to breathe. By then, even my wolf was exhausted and breathless. My sides heaved as my animal lungs gasped for air. It was only a matter of time before they realized I was gone. I could really only allow short breaks like this before resuming my journey north. I had to get out of the forest before they caught my scent or it was over.
I hadn’t even meant to go this way, but like a magnet drawn to its other half, my heart was leading me to Oregon. Maybe I could call my mom and have her meet me. We could run together. Settle in the next destination. Resume our life somewhere else, like we’d always done.
I started running again, deeper into the dark growth. The trees were closer together and didn’t let the first hints of sunlight reach the ground, especially now, when the horizon was only beginning to catch a hint of the coming day. Shadows hunched in shadows. I caught a strange scent just ahead and faltered.
It was like nothing I’d ever smelled before. The smell was sickly sweet, reminding me of a dead animal in the woods that hadn’t begun to rot. But something else mixed with it. Something unique and alluring in its strangeness. I wandered closer, both wary and curious.
Leaves parted and the path up ahead broke open, giving me a full view. With my animal’s sharpened senses, it took only seconds to spot the source.
There, standing in the cradle of a fallen tree, was a person. He was definitely male, solid without appearing overly muscular. I sniffed. Not a werewolf but … not quite human either. My nose twitched at that even as my brain rejected it. Those were the only two choices—it didn’t make sense.
He stood on the broken log of an ancient oak and leaned against another tree, breaking branches with his hands. He snapped another twig and his lip curled, like he was disgusted by it somehow. I padded closer, the curious animal in me drawn to this strange specimen. He smelled strange; exotic and dangerous. There was something about him…
I crept closer, trying to get a better look at him. Even from here, the strong line of his jaw was tense and through his tee I saw that his shoulders were rigid with stress. He moved quickly from branch to snapped branch—faster than any other human I’d seen. And precise, as if despite the speed, every movement was measured and calculated down to the second.
As he moved, my attention caught not on his impossible speed, but on his face. Strong, silent, and masculine—except for the thick lashes that framed sharp, piercing irises.
My wolf muscles contracted automatically at the sight of them. Predator, every nerve in me screamed. I shook it away—that was crazy. He was a person.
As if I’d called the words aloud, his eyes snapped up, searching and scanning the undergrowth. I held my breath and froze. The hair on the sides of my neck rose in panic. How had he heard my silent footsteps? No human could have heard that.
His eyes tracked over the trees and settled on the very spot I was crouched in. His gaze seemed to lock onto mine, despite the distance and brush cover that separated us. The animal in me spooked; the desire to flee was overwhelming. But something made me hesitate.
One second was all it took.
He was on me faster than a blink. Arms extended in a full-body tackle, we went down and rolled across the forest floor. My snarls mixed with his grunts as we both struggled for the upper hand. I’d never actually fought someone before, let alone in my wolf form. I’d wrestled around a little with my mother as a pup, but nothing like this. It was terrifying. I wasn’t sure how long I could go without actually hurting him. Despite his amazing speed and accuracy, he was still a person. And I was a wolf.
But even as I thought it, the strange sweet smell from earlier grew thicker around me until it filled my nostrils and drove out everything else. My wolf wanted to kill whatever was attached to that smell. The human in me was horrified.
He tried driving his fist into my shoulder, but I dodged him and jumped back as I scrambled to my feet.
I circled him, wary of his speed and the deadly look in his eyes. He didn’t look nearly as afraid as I thought he should. He looked … vicious. Up close, his hair was darker than mine and long enough to fall just short of his brow. It contrasted sharply with his fair skin, like someone who didn’t spend much time outside. And his eyes—those were the worst. I found it hard to look away, especially with him staring at me so intently, but there was a violence underneath his calm intensity that made me think twice about his slight build.
Something in him wanted to hurt me just as badly as I did him.