Page 14 of The Alpha's Rejected Mate

I thought about how, only recently, I’d promised Colt that I wouldn’t do anything daring and run off by myself into the deep, dark woods. But my wolf didn’t pay any attention to me; instead, her joy consumed me. The thought of how I’d wanted to run through the woods with Colt in my wolf form pounded through me. And here I was. As my wolf and I raced under the canopy and into the undergrowth of the forest at night, I felt more alive than I ever had in my life. This was exactly what I’d always wanted.

Good girl.

For a while, we ran, relishing in the thickness of the shadows that cloaked our sandy form. The little bit of light that pierced the canopy from Vana’s waning moon above meant that our fur wasn’t too luminous. Every piece of forest floor seemed to hold a new scent and story as we traced the movements that had happened throughout the course of the day.

As my wolf came to a patch of ground with recently trod hoof-prints, the fur on her back crept up. The scent from the floor filled our olfactory senses, painting a confusing story. I didn’t recognize it at all. We didn’t recognize this new perfume. The closest thing I could compare it to were lilies. But there was something far more delicate about it. Curiosity took over, and my wolf, having set her sights on the trail, continued to track it.

We tracked the odor all the way to a glade in the forest. As the pines and firs thinned and left the open dell, the waning quarter of the moon bathed the dell with much more moonlight. And there, standing right in the clearing, was the source of the perfume I’d tracked.

My wolfish gaze widened as I drank in this creature’s statuesque form. From her hooves to her shoulders, she must have stood about five feet. She would easily match any of the male elks in Gunnison Park. But her sleek coat was pure white. But what stood out most was her horn. I didn’t think any of the bulls I’d ever seen, with their impressive velvety antlers, had ever come close to being as magnificent as the gleaming horn that projected from the center of the unicorn’s forehead. She looked out toward the end of the meadow.

Captivated, I continued to watch the creature from the shadows, anxiousness prickling over me. I didn’t want to startle the creature and scare her off. I didn’t know how my wolf knewshe was a female. But I supposed something about her scent informed my wolf. Somehow, I knew that the unicorn was a she.

My gaze raked over her gleaming silvery horn and then over her hooves, which glimmered to a lesser degree. I realized that she emanated with magic as pure as that of Vana’s, which I’d felt in my Moondream. My wolf senses tingled with curiosity and a touch of apprehension.

Just then, the unicorn turned her silvery eyes onme.

The sense that she’d known I was here all along took hold. Her eyes seemed full of an ancient wisdom, and for a moment, we regarded each other in the moonlit clearing.

Enamored by her beauty, my wolf took a step forward. My heart swelled with a mixture of awe and longing. The unicorn stood so poised and still. I was close to her, no more than a meter. Without thinking, I extended my neck, reaching out my muzzle toward her. To my surprise, the majestic creature stooped down, lowering her own muzzle. Her touch sent a surge of warmth and wonder through me. A sense of peace washed over me as if all my worries and doubts were being cleansed away.

But … the calm was suddenly assaulted. For a moment, I thought drums were pounding the air. But as I looked up—I blinked in as huge, scaly forms darkened the air, their pounding wings ripping through the air as they soared down toward us.

As surely as I’d known the unicorn was pure-hearted, something in my wolf growled that these beasts, these dragons, were the opposite.

In a moment, four huge, terrifying beasts had surrounded us.

The unicorn reared up on her hind legs as she faced the two dragons on her side of the clearing, seemingly startled by the creatures, too. One of the dragons on my side roared. His voice echoed through the night, catching in the canyon shelves not far off. The glimmer of fire that I saw in its open maw sent a shiver down my spine.

Without warning, the larger dragon on my side of the dell launched her long neck toward me, snapping her teeth at me. Once again, something in my wolf’s senses told me that she was female, and I stupidly wondered whether the bigger ones tended to be female. I told my rational brain to shut up. We weren’t watching birds of prey in the canyon. I narrowly dodged the beast’s snapping snout.

Then, the male dragon’s huge tail careened toward me. His long, scaley tail had barbs on the end, and I veered away, trying not to freak out over the danger those things could do to me.

The female’s glimmering orange eyes burned with viciousness as her jaws once more snapped toward me.

A bright light behind me distracted me, and I cast a look toward the unicorn and caught the dragons on her side of the clearing backing away from her glowing horn as if they couldn’t bear its brightness.

With my heart racing, I swerved away from the male’s tail again. The dragons were large and formidable creatures, and as fear flared through me, I knew I didn’t stand a chance against these huge, tough-scaled, fanged creatures.

But my wolf saw thingsdifferently. Instinctively, she snarled and leaped around, determined to protect her and me. The protective urge swept through us both as we instinctively knewthat we needed to protect the unicorn, too. As I peeked around again, I watched her slash her horn at one of the dragons, landing a blow into its soft underbelly. It let out an enraged shriek, and I took heart.

Maybewecould do this.

The clash of scales and claws echoed through the forest as my wolf went for the male dragon straight after he tried to strike with his tail again. Despite their size and strength, my wolf’s agility and primal instinct were impressive. With a series of swift moves, she managed to outmaneuver each of the dragons’ strikes. I marveled at her speed and nimbleness each time she bypassed an opponent, wondering how she did it. She always seemed to be two steps ahead until …

She wasn’t…

We weren’t…

Pain flared through my flank.

I was shocked as intense pain pitched through me, almost knocking me to the ground. My wolf whined in distress, the sound reverberating through the clearing as I stumbled, struggling to stay upright.

I felt the warm trickle of blood seeping from the wound on my side, the metallic smell of it engulfing me as panic thrashed through me.

The dragons had landed a hit. I didn’t know whether it was the male’s barbed tail or the female’s fangs that had left a deep gash in my wolf’s side. But as I backed away, my strength waning, hermovements started to grow weak, and … my back legs gave out completely.

Chapter 8

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