Page 3 of Defiant
It’s the last thing I see clearly before my wolf takes over and my rational mind shrinks as sensation and freedom streak across my thoughts and we begin to run.
We run for hours, honing our muscles, giving in to our senses and experiencing scent in a way I never have before. The forest becomes as decadent as a five-star meal. I lose track of time as the need to feel the wind in my fur overtakes everything else.
Sunset paints the sky before I stop by a stream, lungs, and legs burning but a sense of contentment has settled deep inside my bones that’s never been there before.
This was meant to be.
Two years of waiting and worrying after I turned nineteen and my wolf didn’t show up, years where I thought I’d be relegated to the boring human world, a glimmer—one of those people who saw a bit of the supernatural world but couldn’t take part in it.
That isn’t me.I want to wrap my arms around my torso and hug myself in my relief, so I shift back into my human form. I plan to hug myself and laugh in joy then lay back, stretched out on the grass and dangling my feet into the shallow trickle of the stream as I embrace the new me. The sensation of shifting is still so new that everything around me whirls oddly and I fall gracelessly to my knees when it’s over, shaking my head to clear my vision.
I start to recline but my wolf whines and the hair prickles on the back of my neck.
My head whips to my right and my eyes dart around. I don’t see anything, but the ominous feeling doesn’t go away. If anything, it increases as my skin defies the heat of the afternoon, and goose bumps rise on my arms.Shit.
I reach for my wolf, but fuck! She’s gone.
Hey!I mentally call for her, kicking myself over the fact that I’ve been so caught up in running I don’t even have a name for her.Fluffy?I try out a generic one, hoping she’ll respond—knowing from my mother that your wolf is supposed to come when you call it.
But my wolf has disappeared. I don’t see her in front of my eyes; I don’t feel her at all. I stretch harder, squeezing my eyes shut, searching the inside of my skull, mentally begging, calling out. But she’s gone. She’s disappeared like smoke in the wind.
Dammit.
Fear unfurls, dark and ugly as a storm inside my stomach, as I realize that I’m stuck naked and alone in the forest—miles from campus. No one knows where I am. The shadows of the trees loom over me. The sun hides behind them and my weak human eyes imagine all sorts of terrible things.
Fuck me.
A twig cracks and I scurry to my feet, stumbling when a rock bites into my arch. Dread singes my nostrils like cigarette smoke as I glance around for a weapon only to see water-smoothed stones and grass as my two options.
Right now I hate my fucking life choices.
I curse myself and my stupid excitement.Why didn’t I just bring Jonah?I snarl internally as I back up, telling myself that I’m probably freaked out about a rabbit or some bullshit like that. I should have brought Jonah; I shouldn’t have done this alone. Or fucking brought my phone. Lots of wolves wear Apple Watches so they can keep them on during their shift and call each other after for a pickup but had I wasted money on that shit? No. Because I didn’t have a wolf yet—hadn’t seen it as necessary.
I curse my past self because if I’d actually more than half-believed in my wolf’s existence, then I would have been prepared. I wouldn’t be having a heart attack over a stupid bunny in the woods right now … I shake my head.
Don’t be an idiot, Elena,I reassure myself.Nothing’s there.
Nothing’s there,I repeat that to myself a few times as I bring a hand to my chest and try to calm my heart.
But I’m a liar. There is something there. The shadows shift again and this time a bush definitely rustles; I see its leaves quake.
A wolf steps out from between the shadows—a huge white wolf, with glowing yellow eyes, who stares right at me.
My throat goes dry even as my limbs lock up in shock.
My brain speeds up into overtime. This wolf is alone, without a pack. Out before dark … And he’s massive. He’s at least twice the size of a normal wolf. His piercing gold eyes take me in intelligently and he doesn’t immediately growl. All of that can only mean one thing. He’s a shifter like me.
With the pack being so secretive, I have no idea who this wolf might be, but… I look around, suddenly realizing I have absolutely no idea where I am.
OH. SHIT.
Am I even on pack land?I glance around. I paid no attention when I ran, following my every whim. And I haven’t followed the pack border disputes for over a year because my wolf was so overdue—
I take a step back and the wolf’s lips peel upward, revealing sharp, pointed teeth as he growls.
No. No. No. No.
Disputed territory is no-man’s land. It can be a death sentence.
