Chapter One

*Ingrid*

It felt like I was trapped in one of those terrifying nightmares. The ones where you have to run, run until your lungs feel like they may burst right inside your chest. But you just can't seem to make your body move fast enough. 

I know I'm close to overheating, pushing my body to far way to fast.

The sunlight beating down from the sky is burning my skin.

Hot. Bright. All-consuming.

My legs burn with the intensity of this stupid three day trek across the mountains and into the forest, but they seem to move slower and slower as I try to fight my way through the dense terrain. My body wanted me to give up completely, but I have come so far already and there was no freaking way I could stop now that I'm almost there. This journey is imperative to my survial. I just hope I make it before my body decides to gives out.

The only time I've stopped to high up in a tree they almost caught me. I had to wait hours curled up on a branch barley moving before they moved onto another section of the forest. Then i bailed as fast as I could but I couldn't move quickly enough, and it didn't matter that I was surrounded by dangerous enemies that were certain to lead me to my death if they were to catch me. 

The feet I could hear pounding into the earth behind me never once wavered or slowed down. With relentless, ruthless force, they seem to be closing in on me. Closing towards the end, the end of absolutley everything.

Unfortunately for me, this wasn't a dream it was real. But just like the nightmare; I was actually running for my life. From my family. From my pack. From the only people in the whole world who were always suppose to protect me, and those people were currently trying to chase me down and bring me back home to my death.

I'm not sure how I ended up in this fucked up situation in the first place, When my father tried to force me into marrying the Alpha of our pack, I naturally refused. Alpha Stone wasn't my mate. He killed his true mate for disobeying him, and then killed his chosen mate because she didn't produce a male heir within the two years they were together. Apparently the two daughters that she gave him were worthless to him. Stone pawned the children off on other pack members, stating that he didn't have any use for them since they were girls so he didn't want them.

I would not- could not let that be my fate, mated with some beast hell bent on breaking my willpower and killing me if I couldn't give him what he wanted. The only reason he even needed another mate was so our packs strength wouldn't diminish. If that happened someone could come in and challenge him for the Alpha title to try and take over our pack.

But I just didn't understand why it had to be me? I didn't understand why he couldn't pick someone who's mate was already passed or someone who didn't have a care in finding their true mate. I didn't even have a wolf anymore for fucks sake. I was of no use to Alpha Stone. I just wanted him to pick someone, literally anyone who wasn't me. Hell even my sister would work for me, she would all but fall over herself if it meant that Stone would so much as notice her. She would jump at the chance to be mated to him, but that wasn't me. It would never be me. I knew my mate was out there, and I would never settle for anything less than him.

I know that there's a good chance I could die here today, in this thick part of the forest. No one would ever find my body, the men chasing me would make sure of it. They might have orders to bring me back alive, but if I fought hard enough I'm certain they would kill me. If it came down to them catching me I would fight like hell until one of them succeded.

All of that in mind I still didn't regret my decision to run. I couldn't just stay home like some sacrificial lamb and accept the future that Stone and my father had planned out for me.

Perhaps the outcome would be different if I could shift, but I don't have my wolf. She spoke to me once on my thirteenth birthday, but something always blocked me from her now. That was the only day I ever heard her or shifted. When Jules soft voice popped into my head it had been the happiest day of my life. I finally had someone that would always protect me and be there for me, no matter what. A built in friend for life.

But Father took one look at my wolf, eyes growing wide with fear, and went running to the Alpha. After that I had to take injections every day that made me feel as if I might die. Alpha Stone said it was necessary, that something was wrong with Jules and if I shifted again it could kill me and her.  After that my wolf form never returned to me. Every question I asked father and Alpha Stone went unanswered.

occasionally I could feel Jules poking around in my head, trying to find a way to be released but nothing ever came of it.

although none of that mattered now, I just need to make it to the Grey Ridge Pack. Their Alpha, Quinn will take me in. At least, I hope he will.

Alpha Quinn has a habit of taking people in that need help, even if it pissed off the neighboring packs. He protected the weak and turned them into ruthless wolves who would defend themselves and their pack by any means necessary. I just hope he could accept the fact that my wolf was sick and that I wouldn't ever be able to shift.

ALthough, these three days lost in the forest without my medication have been the best I've felt since that fatefull day I found out Jules was sick.

The Grey Ridge Pack was talked about in whispers, as if it was some kind of scary bedtime story to tell children to keep them from disobeying. But Alpha Quinn was everything that nightmares are made of. The stories I was told in school, by friends and family, stories of Quinn torturing people who crossed him. Cutting out the tongue of traders and sending it home to their familes.

He was the most cutthroat Alpha on this side of the world. Everyone feared him, even Stone which might be the most prominent reason I chose Quinn to run to. Stone might be a psychopath, but I'm positive that Quinn had him beat in every aspect. The only difference between to two was that Quinn would never hurt women or children who hadn't crossed him.

I couldn't fathom how the stories came to be since no one really ever lived to tell the tale of being tortured by him though. I'd assumed they'd been passed down from his soldiers.

Fuck, I hope I'm making the right decision by running to him. No one would dare go to war with the Grey Ridge Pack, at least that's what I was hoping for anyways. Stone couldn't be that ignorant, right?

'Okay Ingrid, you just have to make it to the edge of the forest. To the Grey Ridge Pack protected lands. Somehow make the guards and the warriors they would call see that you are not a threat to them, that you need help, that you need them to protect you. And then everything would be okay. Should be a easy enough task, right?' I kept going over the plan in my head, willing Jules to say something, literally anything to ease my fears but Her calming voice never came. I had, after all been running for three days. That means three days without the injections from Alpha Stone that were suppose to kept her healthy. 

Regret seeped into every inch of my body, if I didn't get the injections I could be killing Jules and I would die right along with her..

My heartbeat speed in my chest as i realized the severity of my situation.

"What the fuck have I done?" 

No. No, I cant think of that right now, I just need to keep running. The faster my feet moved across the earths floor, the faster my heart raced. Feeling like it was going to leap out of my chest at any moment.

When a howl sounded through the air the men chasing me started to pick up the pace. They knew we were getting closer to Alpha Quinn's land and no one was allowed to cross the boundaries without notifying the other pack. If it occured They would be slaughtered without second thought.

When Alpha Quinn is alerted that the borders have been breached he'll think that someone is coming to try and attack them,and he will call the pack warriors to come and protect their land and their people, which is exactly what I'm hoping for. Stone's men might be stupid enough to try and take on the most ruthless Alpha that's ever lived but I was putting all of my hope into the fact they wouldn't try and take on Quinn AND his pack warriors. Rumor has it every one of Quinn's men were huge, skin littered with scars from the fights they've endured. No one has ever crossed this boundary with out notifying Quinn first.

I could smell the anger and fear coming off the men behind me in waves. "Ingrid. Whatever the fuck you are thinking of doing, it will not work. Alpha Stone will come for you to get you back, no matter who you run to. You must know that." The leader bellows.

"Fuck you Ezra, I will never go back with you to Stone." I scream, pushing myself even harder trying to create some type of distance between us. They can try and take me, but honestly I'd throw myself over a cliff before I would go back to Stone.

Jumping over limbs, ducking around trees, I finally catch sight of a huge black wolf running full speed towards me. Knowing this is my only chance for survival and help from the men chasing me, I scream out to the wolf.

"Help. Please, please help me."