Chapter One: Escaping from the pack

Under the heavy downpour, Ara runs barefoot through the forest, a desperate look for survival on her face. She looks haggard and skinny, like she hasn’t eaten in weeks.

Behind her are Packs of howling wolves, with glowing golden eyes in hot pursuit. Their intent glares in their eyes.

“Awh!” Ara cries out as a low-hanging branch tears into her skin. She bears the pain with a tightened expression, her face not losing the determination driving her escape.

Her heart longs for rest, and her feet weep in pain, but the young woman persists with her escape. She has to leave tonight, or she will not survive.

The sight of civilization springs hope to her eyes. Maybe someone will help her, she hopes, and she pushes on with sheer strength. She is running on low, but it doesn’t matter. As long as she can get to the road where people are, and there is someone there to save her from them, then it would all be worth it.

She ignores her screaming feet and hurting lungs and keeps racing toward the edge of the forest, where a yellow beacon from a diner beckons like the red light on a baywatch.

In her bid for survival, she rushes into the road without looking and meets her end when a car crashes into her.

The wolves chasing her stop within the forest's boundaries in a line, their massive bodies blending into the night, out of sight of curious eyes, but close enough to pounce should the need call for it. They watch from behind the dense forest to see if the young woman survives.

Every one of them loathes her. She was a symbol of weakness their Pack couldn't afford—a wolf without a wolf.

An abomination.

And the old Alpha dared to make her the Luna.

When the older man announced his decision before his death, they all believed he had lost his sanity, but because he had been on his deathbed, his son and successor had to go ahead with his wishes.

But the whole pack hated the weakling forced upon them by the previous Alpha.

They had been pleased when the Alpha treated her like the trash she was, discarding her as soon as his father died, and taking on a mistress, the daughter of his father’s beta—a young woman who is not only beautiful but has a strong bloodline.

And tonight they get rid of the freak for good.

The driver freezes in shock, his eyes wide as saucers as he stares through the windscreen. The young woman's sudden appearance stuns him. “She came out of nowhere,” he mutters loudly, as if the words absolve him of what he has done.

“Are you not going to check on her?” A deep voice speaks from the owner’s angle. The man’s features are hidden by the darkness of the night, and only his piercing blue eyes can be seen.

The driver snaps out of his shock immediately. “Yes, boss,” he mutters with utmost respect, and hurriedly leaves the car.

As soon as he leaves, the man feels a stir in his spirit. A beckoning to check on the woman who has fallen into their car. He knows not why he feels such a strong pull toward the woman.

He goes to ignore it when his driver’s words ring out loudly into the night. “Boss! She is still alive!”

The man drops the business paper he was using to occupy his time on his ride home and steps out of the car. His tall and imposing figure dwarfs the car.

The sight of him strikes discomfort in the hearts of the wolves watching from the edges of the forest. They all know the man is not someone to trifle with.

He senses their presence and looks in their direction at once. They all flinch away at the sight of his eerie blue eyes and fall further back into the forest.

The man smirks to himself at their action, glad to know that the wolves still knew their place. He walks to where his driver kneels beside the fallen young woman. He freezes when his eyes fall on the young woman’s face.

An angel is the word that comes to his mind as he stares at her face. He feels a weird tugging in his chest to protect the young woman, and even his beast stirs at the presence of the woman.

No one has ever made his beast react.

“Who are you?”

Unintentionally, he speaks his thoughts out loud.

“What?” His driver whirls around to face him, but the man ignores his curiosity and bends to the woman on the floor. Her state tells a tale of long suffering and abuse, which, to his surprise, arouses a deep fury inside him.

“What happened to you?” He once again speaks his thoughts out loud in a low tone as he lifts the woman into his arms. Watching him, his driver’s jaw hits the floor. This is the gentlest he's ever seen his boss be with anyone.

The man looks down at the young woman’s unconscious face, his expression softening as he gazes upon its smooth and unblemished skin. The need to protect the woman from anything that wants to harm her stirs up in him, causing his grip to tighten possessively against the woman’s body.

Forgetting his driver, he heads back to his car, his thoughts focused on getting help for the woman in his arms.

His driver hurries ahead, still dumbfounded by the fact that his boss is carrying a woman in his arms. If any of their guys should see this, they would flip. Their boss has always been detached from the world, caring about nothing except work and protecting their people.

His boss has never been in a relationship before or shown any interest in a woman until now.

Who is this woman?

A witch?

A siren?

The driver ponders the origin of the woman from nowhere, who somehow manages the impossible, as he opens the door for his master and sneaks another look at her.

“What do we do, boss?” A wolf speaks through the link, casting a questioning look toward the most massive wolf in the midst.

The Beta speaks instead of the Alpha. “She is in the clutches of the Lycan King; I am sure she is finished.”

There is a hint of satisfaction in the voice of the one who has spoken, as if he believes the death of the young woman at the Lycan’s King’s hand to be a befitting end.

It is a well-known fact that the present King of the Lycans has a deep-seated hatred for the wolves, and has never suffered the company of their kind.

With their quarry in the clutches of the most feared creature in the Country, her fate is as good as sealed.

A thought that is echoed by the massive brown wolf with golden eyes. The young woman in question had been his mate, forced upon him by his father before his death.

He had hated her and punished her for his father's decision. He had planned to keep the wolfless freak as his entertainment until he was bored, never imagining that the spineless thing would dare to escape him.

At least with her in the clutches of the ruthless bastard that rules the Lycans, the bitch would be done for good.

Glad to be rid of the irritating and embarrassing thorn his father dumped on him, he whirled around and prowled back into the forest without another thought for his mate.