VIOLET

My calves burned and my chest tightened as I trudged through the thick forest. I pushed myself to the limit, more than I’d ever pushed myself before. What I was enduring at the moment put my Crossfit sessions at the gym to shame.

I had never known fear like this. Those evil men were clear about what they planned to do to me when they caught me. I was doing everything in my power to prevent that.

I tripped over a thick tree root protruding from the ground and twisted my ankle. I cursed under my breath and dragged myself forward across the rough terrain until I could bear to rise to my feet again.

I spotted a fast-moving stream in front of me, and on instinct, I bolted upright and half-ran, half hopped toward it. I had read or saw something somewhere about how wolves tracked by scent. If I entered the water, there was a good chance that the wolves would lose me. But I couldn’t be sure. These weren’t natural wolves. They were half human. I had to give it a try, anyway.

I entered the stream and proceeded to wade across it to get to the other side. The moment the water rose above my waist, my body responded. I didn’t know if it was from the cold temperature of the water or my fear.

The howls behind me in the distance urged me to move harder and faster. I couldn’t give up. Somewhere in these woods, there had to be someplace I could hide out until morning. I knew it was a long shot, but maybe people lived out here. I could’ve sworn I saw smoke billowing up from the trees in the direction I ran.

Finally, I reached the other side of the stream and took off at a full run again, but this time my soggy sneakers and drenched clothes weighed me down. Despite my efforts, I heard something barreling through the bushes behind me. I turned completely around, stumbling backward and put some distance between myself and the new threat, trying to decipher whether the noise came from the bad wolves or something else. I got my answer soon.

The wolf raced from a distance out onto the path where I was running and bared its teeth. It growled rabidly with spittle flying from every which direction.

Just before the wolf leaped up in the air, I turned around swiftly and made a quick pivot to the right. The wolf landed on the dry earth with a thud. I caught hold of a branch and broke it off. When the wolf came at me again, I screamed loudly and swung at it, beating it across the face. It let out a painful yelp and used its paws to stroke at the fresh cut on its nostrils. I took the thick branch and hit it across the face again.

Not waiting around to see how much damage I did the second time, I got up and ran again. I didn’t have enough time to gain my bearings or sense of direction. I heard the sound of the stream again and wondered if I was running in circles. Just as I was about to take another turn down a path that looked like it had been walked before, two wolves began circling around me. A tan wolf and a two-toned brown wolf. As wolves do to their prey, they had cornered me. Probably right where they wanted.

The tan wolf blocked my path, growling and snapping its canines. I shrieked and shrank back, tripping over my own two feet. When I landed ass first on the ground, I knew I was deader than dead. I shielded my face with my forearm, hoping and praying they wouldn’t maul me to death. If they were going to kill me, I wanted it to be quick.

Something else was running toward us through the bushes, I heard it loud and clear. Even the wolves surrounding me paused to listen. There had been six of them. With the two standing over me breathing on my face and another one coming from somewhere else, I knew it was over for me.

But before the tan or two-toned wolf could attack me, the third black wolf sailed through the air out of nowhere and barreled through both of them. The black wolf placed its body in front of mine and growled viciously at the other two.

I was confused and dazed. What was this? Were they fighting over the right to kill me now?

Sure enough, all three wolves began fighting in a frenzy of fur and teeth. But it wasn’t what I thought. The black wolf seemed to be fighting against the other two. It took blow after blow from the tan and two-toned wolf. Realizing that this would probably be my only moment to get another head start, I sprang back up. I only made it two steps before a wolf jumped on my back and mowed me down to the ground.

A sharp pain struck me in my right shoulder area and I screamed in agony.

I rolled over in shock to face the wolf. I touched my shoulder and my fingers came in contact with something slippery and wet. I brought my fingers up to the moonlight and saw the blood. The tan wolf had bitten me!

I looked in horror and witnessed the victory marked in its pupils. How odd that I could sense that—his pride over biting.

One moment the tan wolf was hunched over me, and in the next, there was a bloody mess on one side of its face. Some blood sprayed on my nose and in my mouth as the black wolf finished off the tan wolf, tearing into its throat, dragging the carcass away from my body, and shaking its head from side to side with the dead tan wolf still between its jaws.

I knew it wasn’t over yet. The two-toned wolf came for the black wolf again, but the black wolf must have had it with this game—this lottery—whatever. The black wolf’s jaws came down on the throat of the two-toned wolf, canines first, and ripped through fur and flesh. The two-toned wolf dropped like deadweight and a chilled silence riddled the night.

My breath came out in a rush. My fingers dug into the ground beneath me as I gathered up dirt and rocks, prepared to use any weapon to stay alive amid the carnage.

The black wolf set its gaze on me and took several slow steps toward me. Our connection was cut off when another tan wolf darted out into the clearing and then came to an abrupt halt when it observed the mess. It looked at the black wolf once, jumped back, and tried to take off in the direction whence it came. But it was too late. The murderous black wolf pounced and instantly ripped out the throat of the third wolf.

When the night was silent again, the black wolf turned his pupils back on me, and all I could recall was what the Alpha said before he told me to run: ‘We’ll take turns breeding you.’

I dragged my pained body backward, putting some space between myself and the lone wolf. I covered the spot where the wolf bit me with my hand, applying pressure to it. The bleeding had slowed, but something felt odd about the way the bite affected me. My vision clouded over and a wave of nausea folded over me.

The wolf sat on its haunches and stared at me. He made a low whining sound, almost like a sad dog. Its teeth were no longer barred and its tail wagged from side to side parallel with the ground. Before I knew it, the wolf had closed the distance and was now sniffing me and touching me with its snout and paws. It seemed like it posed no threat, but I couldn’t be sure. After all, my body seemed to have a mind of its own as I fought to keep my eyes open and my focus steady.

Right before I thought I would pass out, the wolf stood on all fours and its body began to change, morph, and shift. Right before me, the murderous black wolf became a muscled, flawless, and naked man.

He kneeled next to me and slipped an arm between my back and the ground. His hair was a deep black, just like his fur, and his eyes were a mossy green.

“I’m not going to let anybody hurt you.” His voice was deep and mesmerizing, and the tone of it put me further into a trance.

Some of his victim’s blood must have transferred over because red stains marred the lower half of his face. Yet, he was still exceptionally good-looking. His jaws were set like granite and I remembered the way he had effortlessly ended my attacker’s lives. There was a dusting of a five o’clock shadow around his jawline.

He wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand, but his gaze never left me. My attention shifted to his muscular body. He was big as hell. As big as any average man I had ever met. He towered over me. Sweat rolled down his face and neck before finally settling down between the ridges of his rock solid core. My gaze lingered on a distinct tattoo on the upper left side of his chest in the shape of a crescent moon. Then my curiosity got the better of me and I blinked several times before peering through my heavy eyelids and taking in the part that made him male. He was full, thick, and aroused.

I gasped and grabbed his forearm for support, trying to propel myself upward.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you either. I want to help you, but I can’t do that out here on this land,” he said, looking behind him.

“Okay…” I mumbled, my limbs shaking as a cold draft slithering across my skin.

“The bad men are dead,” he stated.

“There’s more…six. There were six. And…an alpha,” I whispered, and swallowed to soothe the dryness at the back of my throat.

“Then I have to get you away from here. Right now.” He held out his hand. “Please?”

I slipped my palm in his and nodded.

He hooked an arm behind my knees while the other supported my back and lifted me up into his arms. Warmth engulfed me like a blanket, and oddly, I felt safe. He stood without faltering. When the stranger began to hurry through the forest, I let fatigue take me.