Chapter 1 - Hunted

Eli

The forest is too quiet.

No crickets, no owls. Just the sound of my own breath shredding my lungs as I sprint downhill, branches clawing my arms.

I don’t dare shift.

Four legs would be faster, but the scent trail would be clearer, and I can feel them already.

Black shapes moving like shadows on either side. Wolves. Big ones. And they’re not planning on letting me go.

My foot catches on a root, and I skid hard, biting back a curse as my palms rip open on the dirt.

The scent of my blood fills the air. Fuck. I press my hands into the wet earth to mask it, but it’s too late.

A low growl rolls through the trees, deep enough to shake the ground.

I push myself up and run again, ignoring the sting in my knees.

There’s a ridge ahead. If I can make it over, I can cut across the stream to dilute my scent and throw them off.

I’ve done this before. I know how to run.

But these aren’t ordinary wolves.

Their territory markers are everywhere.

Skulls nailed to trees, strips of bloody cloth fluttering like warnings.

I ignored them because I thought I could pass through unnoticed.

All I need is to get out of the southlands. Then I can just disappear.

There’s a snap of twigs to my right. A flash of gold eyes. My stomach drops.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck-”

I veer left, but the ground disappears under me in a sudden dip, and I tumble.

Rocks tear at me as I roll, slamming into something hard enough to knock the air from my chest.

For a second, the world spins, black edges creeping in. Then I hear him.

A voice, low and rough, cutting through the night like a blade.

“You’re mine now.”

I scramble backward on my elbows, but a shadow drops from the trees above.

He hits the ground in a crouch, taller than any man I’ve ever seen, built like he was carved out of night itself.

His coat, no wait, it’s his skin, shines slick with shifting patterns. Black tattoos swirling across muscle as he moves.

And his eyes…wolf-gold, are burning straight through me.

He stands over me, making me feel small. Breakable.

He’s an Alpha.

I don’t need my wolf-sense to know it. My spine bows under the weight of his presence and my own wolf is cowering low in my chest.

“Please,” I rasp, holding up my hands. “I didn’t know this land belongs to anyone.”

“You knew.”

His voice is a growl, deep enough to make my bones vibrate.

He prowls closer, each step unhurried and deliberate.

“You crossed my line and breathed my air. Did you think that would be free? Or that you could outrun me?”

I scramble back, but my back hits a tree.

There’s nowhere left to go. His scent hits me then. Smoke, cedar and iron. And something inside me twists, hot and low, the wolf in me whining despite my terror.

No. No, not this. Not him. Please. My life is shitty enough already.

He leans down, close enough that I can see the sharp tips of his canines, not fully shifted but near.

He smells the blood on my hands and inhales deeply like he’s tasting it.

“You smell like prey,” he murmurs, and his hand snaps around my throat.

I claw at his wrist, heart jack-hammering, but he isn’t squeezing. Not really. Just holding me there, pinned against the tree. His thumb strokes my pulse, slow and possessive.

“You don’t belong anywhere,” he says, tilting his head. “Do you?”

My breath hitches. I don’t answer. He already knows.

A sound rumbles from his chest, part growl, part something else, and before I can speak again he leans in closer, until his mouth is at my neck.

His lips brush skin, and every nerve in my body sparks awake. I feel his teeth graze over the vein.

“You’re mine now,” he whispers again, and then his teeth break skin as his fangs sink into my neck.

Pain and fire explode through me, sharp and overwhelming, but there’s something else beneath it.

A pull. A heat that rushes down my spine and floods my groin, wrong and terrifying and addictive all at once.

My wolf howls inside me, not only out of fear, but out of something far more primal.

I choke on a cry as he licks the blood, sealing the bite with his own saliva.

The world tilts as the bond snaps into place like a shackle.

He steps back, eyes dark and wild, and I feel it thrumming between us, alive and electric. The chain that will make it nearly impossible for me to get away.

“Run again,” he says softly, almost kindly. “And see what happens.”

And then he hauls me up by the arm, dragging me deeper into the trees. Toward the heart of his pack, and whatever waits for me there.