Chapter Four

Valerie

Life was moving at one eighty kilometers for me, one minute I was being thrown out with nowhere to go and the next minutia was sitting next to a powerful man heading to his mansion and pregnant with his baby. 

A big part of me was still hoping this was a bad dream and I would wake up and have my life back. 

The drive to Max’s house felt like it went on forever.

Not because it was far away, I had no sense of time, but because of the suffocating silence sitting between us. He was a statue of calm, fingers scrolling through his phone like he hadn’t just flipped my life upside down and claimed my baby as his. I couldn’t read him. Couldn’t even feel him. But I sensed something of an energy. Cold. Powerful. Unmovable.

He exuded danger… and respect. Like a man you didn’t cross. Like someone who made the rules and was the rule.

Maybe that's why he didn't even care to know who I was or if I was even dangerous. But again, he had just tracked me down to the hospital I was in. A man like him probably had people who did everything for him. 

And I was stuck beside him, trapped in leather seats and quiet luxury, my mind a storm.

When the SUV finally pulled into a long stone driveway lined with hedges taller than me, I thought we’d entered another world. This wasn’t a house, it was a palace.

Huge glass windows, marble steps, flickering lanterns embedded into the walls. I’d only seen places like this on TV celebrity documentaries and royal tours. It looked like the kind of place a prince lived. Or a god.

I swallowed hard as the car came to a stop in front of the massive doors. Before I could move, Max was already outside, rounding the vehicle. He opened my door with mechanical grace, not even looking at me.

But then everything changed.

I stepped out, and something moved in my peripheral vision.

Fast. Low to the ground.

I turned my head slowly… it looked like a dog, but when I looked clearer, my whole body froze. 

Two huge wolves were racing across the yard, large, sleek, and silent. One grey with piercing silver eyes. The other was pure black, like it was carved from night. They weren’t pets. They weren’t trained animals.

They were predators. I had read the stories and the myths. This was not real. 

My entire body locked. My lungs squeezed shut.

And then they changed direction and started running towards us. 

I let out a scream and instinctively grabbed onto Max’s arm, my fingers digging into his suit jacket, into the hard muscle underneath.

“They’re coming this way!” I cried, trembling.

He didn’t move, he didn’t even blink.

Didn’t so much as breathe differently.

“What are you, are you not seeing this?” I shrieked, trying to back away, but Max just stood there, steady and calm as stone.

Then it happened.right in front of my eyes, just feet from us, the two wolves…shifted.

Their bodies rippled bones snapping, skin twisting, fur shrinking and within seconds, they were in human form just like Max and I. 

My legs gave out.

I stumbled back from Max, releasing his arm like it burned me. The scream that tore from my throat was pure survival. 

One of the men, tall, dark skinned, muscular with tribal markings across his chest bowed slightly.

“Alpha,” he said.

The other pale, leaner, with dark hair to his jaw echoed it.

“Alpha.”

Alpha? I repeated myself slowly, What the hell was this?

Max gave a single nod. 

What on earth was going on here? Was I dreaming? I asked myself, confused. 

"The perimeter is secure." One of the men said to Max and he nodded again and they started walking away. 

I immediately let go of my hand from Max's grip and took a run for it. 

I was not going to stand there and wait for them to kill me. 

Without thinking of anything else, I just stared running towards the gate that was still open, hoping I would make it before they closed it.