Page 14 of Tangled Fates

RUN, my wolf commanded.

It sure as hell didn’t have to tell me twice, either.

4

RAVEN

A mistake? Sleeping with me had been a fucking mistake!?

I’ll show Dean what a mistake really is.

My paws pounded the dirt as my talons latched onto the soft, pliable ground beneath me. The wind whipped through my whiskey-colored fur, causing me to close my eyes as I used my other senses to guide me. Every time a tree crept close, I felt a shift in the wind against my sides. I dodged them like bullets, breathing in the crisp, clean mountain air of Bend. I pushed my muscles to the brink, digging my claws into the dirt and propelling myself forward at a blinding speed.

WE CAN GO FASTER.

I let out a growl as my wolf’s voice cascaded through my mind.

Do it.

It was as if my entire body had shifted gears, and the second I opened my eyes the world seemed to move past me in a blur. I leapt over entire downed trees and latched onto a sturdy grand fir, climbing it all the way to the top.

I gazed out over the entire forest, as far as my heavily focused eyes could see.

I’M HUNGRY.

Well, if we find a bear shifter, feel free to sink your teeth in and eat.

HELL, YEAH.

I wanted a fight. The fury flushing its way through my veins begged for one. I wove myself in and out of the trees, my talons digging into the dirt as it kicked up behind me. A heavy breeze kicked up, rustling dead leaves down to my back as I dodged them like falling icicles. I leapt onto the trunk of a dead, downed tree, catapulting myself through the air and feeling the wind ricochet through my fur. And the second that cool, rich dirt hit my front haunches as I dropped from midair, I took off like a bat out of hell.

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

WOLFY NEEDS SUSTENANCE!

I had no idea how in the hell those three men could look me dead in my face, day after day, and keep from me the truth about my father. The second I had told Levi and Dean what I had found in the letter, neither of them had looked shocked. If anything, guilt funneled over their faces, and I knew before Hudson had even gotten into the kitchen that they had already suspected my father’s murder.

They suspected it and didn’t bother telling me.

Stupid, bitch-ass motherfuckers.

YEAH! YOU TELL ‘EM!

If they were so hellbent on keeping me as Alpha, then where did they get off keeping that kind of information from me? Keeping information from the pack had gotten my father killed, so they decided to follow in his tracks? Seriously?! I was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that men were the stupidest species on the planet to ever exist, and I wanted to slap all of them upside their heads to knock some sense back into them.

Raven, you’re moving away too quickly.

Dean’s voice echoed in my mind, and it only made me angrier.

You’re too close to the mountains. Turn back.

Levi’s voice sounded worried, but I didn’t care. It wasn’t like they cared, anyway. Fated mates, my ass.

Raven, god damn it, cut this shit out and come back.

Hudson’s growling voice pissed me the fuck off, so I threw up a barrier in my mind. I didn’t want to hear them, and I sure as hell didn’t want them hearing me. I needed peace. I needed quiet. I needed a safe place to think. I had no desire to speak to any of the people that had gotten me into the situation was in, and hearing their voices only made me long for the one voice I’d no longer hear for the rest of my life.

I needed my father more than anything. I needed his counsel. His advice. I needed him to tell me what to do next. I needed him to train me so that I’d at least feel like I knew what the fuck I was doing. There was still so much to find out. Still so much to uncover. So many things about my life that I simply didn’t understand.

---