Chapter 4: A Wolf Among Rogues

Allene's POV

I couldn’t stop myself from running and didn’t even try to.

My body moved on pure instinct as I tore through the forest, scaling across branches and tearing through leaves, my feet barely touching the ground. The wind burned against my face and my lungs screamed for air, yet I didn’t slow down.

Leonard’s men were still behind me, chasing relentlessly. I was sure that I could hear him too. His growls echoed through the forest, filled with fury.

The fact that Leonard had shifted to chase me into the deep forest shocked me beyond words. My mind reeled, confusion tangling with fear. I didn’t know what to think, what to feel or even what to say. All I knew was that an alpha wolf was hunting me, and I was running for my life.

As I ran, I tried to communicate with my wolf. I reached inward desperately, calling out to her while my legs carried me forward. But I was lost. In the chaos of her sudden awakening after being dormant for so long, and even more lost at the fact that she was proving so hard to communicate with.

I still couldn’t understand how I had an alpha wolf.

Especially when a high priest had once told my parents that I was a shell, a term used for defective werewolves who were born without a wolf spirit. A curse, they had called it.

This was all so confusing but I didn’t want to dwell more on such thoughts. I kept running in whatever direction my wolf dragged me toward, trusting her blindly, as long as it put distance between me and the men behind me.

Leonard barked more orders from behind.

“Don’t let her get away, or I will have your heads in exchange!” he growled.

He had rejected me countless times in the past. He had always wanted me gone, always made it clear that his heart belonged to Jessica Sanders. Hadn’t I done him a favor by rejecting him and choosing to leave his pack on my own?

Why was he so hellbent on dragging me back when I owed him nothing?

The question barely finished forming in my mind when my foot struck a fallen tree branch. I lost my footing and crashed hard against the ground, the impact knocking the air from my lungs.

But to my shock, Leonard’s men suddenly stopped.

They didn’t keep chasing.

Confusion washed over me and in that moment, I felt my wolf retreat. My body shifted back into my human form without my consent, leaving me vulnerable and exposed on the forest floor.

I raised my head slowly, I was human, there was no way I could outrun them now.

Yet none of them moved forward.

They stood rooted where they had paused, as if an invisible barrier lay between us. That hesitation gave me just enough courage to scramble to my feet and run again, my human legs carrying me as fast as they could.

A sharp whizz passed dangerously close to my ear.

I ducked instinctively, heart pounding violently, and when I lifted my head, I saw an arrow buried deep in the bark of a tree just inches from where my head had been.

“Well, well, well… what do we have here?” a cold voice drawled.

“A stray wolf from a pack,” another voice added, his tone amused as he licked his lips.

They began approaching me.

There were three of them and the acrid, rotten scent rolling off their bodies told me everything I needed to know. Rogues!

“What do you want?” I asked, panic tightening my throat as I reached for a stick beside me. My hands trembled as I held it out, as if it could somehow protect me from them.

“You’re in our territory, and you still have the audacity to ask what we want?” the third man snapped. His voice was louder than the others, his temper simmering just beneath the surface.

“I say we finish her off now,” he continued, turning to his companions. “No need keeping her alive or asking any questions. Let’s just kill her and return to our duty posts.”

My gaze flickered around wildly, and realization struck.

I had crossed the border.

“No…” I whispered to my soul, fear clinging to me like a second skin.

This wasn’t what I had anticipated when I ran away from Leonard.

“Please, you have to believe me,” I pleaded desperately. “I didn’t plan to intrude into your territory. I was only—”

My words were cut short by a harsh slap that landed across my face.

Pain exploded through my cheek as my head snapped to the side, I staggered, barely keeping my balance.

The taste of blood filled my mouth. Still, I tried to plead because I knew what it meant to trespass into rogue territory.

Rogues were outlaws, wolves banished or exiled from their packs. Creatures who lived by no law except survival and cruelty.

To trespass into their land meant death, and they were always vicious when delivering it.

I swallowed hard, my throat dry as panic wrapped even more around my chest. I searched desperately for a way out, but pleading was no longer an option.

In a desperate attempt at freedom, I bent down and grabbed a handful of sand, flinging it into their faces before they could reach me.

I turned sharply toward the only opening I could see, my body screaming as I forced myself to run, but I didn’t get far.

A powerful blow struck my back, sending me hurtling into the nearest tree hidden among the bushes.

I crashed hard against it and fell to the ground with a painful thud, agony coursing through my body instantly. My vision blurred, and I struggled to breathe. As I lay there, I thought of everything I had been running from and how I couldn’t let this consume me too.

“You’re a spy sent by a pack to study us and our borders, looking for loopholes to loot us,” one of them roared as he stalked toward me where I lay sprawled beneath the tree.

“How dare you try to escape?”

I tried desperately to call my wolf again, but every attempt failed.

If only I had been able to shift earlier, this wouldn’t have happened. I would’ve escaped easily. But now, I couldn’t even communicate with the wolf I had only just discovered existed within me.

My hands moved instinctively toward the sand again.

But my fingers hadn’t even touched the ground when one of them grabbed my wrist.

I gasped and struggled, trying to wrench my hand free, but his grip tightened painfully. He twisted my arm sharply, and I cried out as pain shot through my shoulder.

He was about to twist it further when a voice cut through the air, sending everyone into sudden silence.

“Let her go.”

The voice was low but there was steel in it. An authority I sensed they noticed too.

“This is a spy sent from a pack to inspect our borders,” one of them snapped back. “Run along while we deal with her. She’s nothing but a provocation.”

“I said let her go,” the voice came again, colder this time. “Rogues don’t have patrolmen. And you don’t want to kill her for being a provocation, you want to kill her because you can as carries nothing of value for you to plunder.”

The tension snapped immediately.

All thr three rogues shifted in a blink, snarling as they lunged toward him.

“Run!” I screamed hoarsely, fear ripping through me. “Please, run!”

I felt touched that someone tried to stand up for me, I didn’t want him to die because of me. There were three of them and only one of him. The fight was unfair even before it began.

I forced myself to stand, legs trembling, intending to run if my body would let me. But before I could take a step, snarls and crashing sounds filled the forest.

I turned, expecting the worst. Expecting to see my savior bleeding on the ground.

Instead, I saw the three rogues lying motionless.

“They aren’t needed here anymore,” he said calmly, as if he hadn’t just taken their lives.

The way he spoke didn’t soften my stare. If anything, it made me even more cautious. When he stepped closer and asked if I was hurt, the moonlight finally revealed his face.

“Draven… Amari?” I whispered in disbelief.

He froze, his eyes narrowing as he looked at me skeptically.

“It’s really you,” I breathed.

He was Leonard’s uncle. The man banished from the pack years ago.