Chapter 4

The Hunt

Rowan's POV

They were hunting me. That single realization hit the moment the strangers stepped out of the shadows. Six wolves, all warriors and all armed. None of them belonged to any pack I recognized. 

The Moonlight filtered through the trees, revealing hard faces and cold eyes. They spread out around me.

Oh God. They are surrounding me, cutting me off of every escape route. My pulse thundered in my ears.

"What the fuck do you want?" I asked. But no one answered me.

A giant wolf, the largest among them, moved closer to me. His dark and dangerous eyes swept over me, assessing. 

Like he was inspecting something valuable. Then a gentle smile tugged on his face. A very cruel smile.

"We finally found him." He said, laughing. A cold chill ran through me. 

Found me? I asked. I took a step back. 

"I think you've got the wrong person." The warriors exchanged glances, and one of them laughed.

"No, not at all." His eyes locked directly into me. "We have exactly the right person here." Something about his voice made my stomach twist even more. 

I didn't know these wolves, I had never seen them before. Yet they had been looking for me.

But why? I asked. The giant one, their leader I guess, tilted his head and said: "Come quietly." 

Every instinct screamed danger. I tightened my grip on my bag.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." But his smile disappeared.

"That wasn't a request." He said. Too much fear surged through me. I was shaking, what the hell is all this? 

I was just betrayed by the only people I called my family, and now this?”

I sensed a predator near me. Even my wolf growled badly. 

The leader took another step. I thought of running and I ran. The forest exploded around me. 

The branches whipping around my face. Leaves crunched in my boots.

Behind me, angry shouts filled the night.

"They're moving fast on me and I'm moving faster!" 

"Don't let him escape!" I heard the leader shouting orders. My heart is pounding on my chest. I pushed harder and faster. 

The pain from the broken mate bond still lingered, but fear drowned it out. The strangers crashed through the forest behind me. Closing in. They were stronger and faster.

An experienced warrior; And I was a rejected Omega carrying a single duffel bag. This shouldn't even be a chase. 

I should have been caught already. Yet somehow, I wasn't. The distance between us wasn't shrinking, it was growing. I blinked, confused.

My feet barely seemed to touch the ground. The forest rushed past in a blur. The wind roared in my ears. 

What was happening? I had never moved this fast before in my entire life. Not even close. A loud shout echoed behind me.

"How is he doing that?" Someone asked. I didn't know. I didn't stop to find out. 

I just kept running. A fallen log appeared ahead of me and I jumped over it. My whole body sailed over it effortlessly. 

I landed without stumbling, without even losing speed. For a brief second, silver light flickered at the edge of my vision.

Then it vanished. My breath caught short. The same strange light I'd seen near the border. 

No, I sounded. Not now. I didn't have time to think about it. The chasers were still coming. A howl split the night. 

The sound was close. Much closer. One of them had shifted and my blood ran cold.

I now believed that they were done playing. I risked a glance behind me. A huge mistake. A massive gray wolf burst through the trees.

It's only a yard away.

Its jaws snapped. Missing my leg by just an inch. I stumbled down. Pain shot through my ankle.

And I hit the ground hard.

The impact knocked the air from my lungs.

The duffel bag flew from my hand. For a second, the world spun. 

Then from afar, I overheard footsteps, approaching with so much confidence. The hunters emerged from the darkness. Surrounding me once again. Their giant leader smiled.

"You should've listened." He said. I scrambled backward. My injured ankle screamed in protest. Blood streaming down from my noise. 

The circle tightened around me. Panic clawed at my chest.

"What do you want from me?" I asked, lying lifeless. 

The leader laughed, and for the first time, something like excitement flashed in his eyes. 

"You really don't know, do you?" I stared at him. He laughed.

A few of the others joined in. The gesture made my skin crawl.

"Pathetic."

The leader crouched down in front of me. "You've spent your entire life ignorant." He said. 

"What the hell are you talking about, you predator?" One of the warriors touched his weapon. 

“The heir doesn't know." The leader shot him a warning look, but too late. The word echoed in my head.

Heir?

My stomach went numb.

"What hair are you talking about? Are you joking or what?” I asked.

No one answered. The warriors looked at each other, and laughed. Their leader stood up. 

"Enough of this talking shit." He pointed at me.

"Take him." He ordered.

Two wolves moved closer to me, I backed away. 

"There has to be some mistake somewhere." I shouted. 

"There isn't." The leader's voice now looked calmed. "We've been searched for you for years."

Years, searching for me?

How?

Why?

Look, nothing made sense here. None of this. 

One of the warriors grabbed my arm. I fought hard. The only strength I have left burst, and nothing I could do. 

I want to be violent, but the warrior flew backward, actually flew. 

He crashed back into a tree with a grunt. The entire forest went deadly silent.

Everyone stared at me, including myself. 

What had I just done? The warrior weighed at least twice as much as I did.

That shouldn't have been possible. The leader's eyes widened, and something dangerous entered them. 

Maybe satisfaction or something else.

"Interesting." He said.

I took another step back. Fear now curling in my stomach. 

The warriors moved closer. But this time, cautiously. Like they had realized I wasn't entirely helpless. The leader stood up and raised his one hand and said:

"Careful." 

"I thought you said he was weak." One of the wolves frowned. 

"So did I." The leader never looked away from me. Then he gave an order that made my blood run cold.

"Remember we need him alive, not dead, but alive.”

The realization terrified me more than death. Because death was simple. And being alive meant they wanted something and  something only I could give.

I turned and started running again. The hunters followed after me. The forest blurring before us. 

Too much pain tore through my lungs. My noise was bleeding.

My injured ankle and my bleeding noise threatened to give out. I still keep running.

Because stopping wasn't an option. The trees ended. I skidded to a halt and my heart dropped completely.

A massive cliff. The ground disappeared from my feet. Far below, a river roared through the darkness. 

No way down and no escape. A heavy footsteps approaching behind me. Patient and certain.

I turned. To my surprise, the hunters emerged from the trees. One by one, they are forming a wall between me and the forest.

The leader looked at me and smiled. 

“It's over." He said. 

I backed toward the cliff's edge. The river is thundering below. The hunters advanced. 

My chest is tightening so badly. This couldn't be how it ended. Not here, not like this.

The leader took another step and every peace I believed in stopped at once. 

The forest went silent, completely silent. The hunters laughed. Every single one of them.

Confusion flickered through my blood. Then I felt it.

A strange scent, felt too powerful, too ancient and too terrifying. The pressure crashed over the clearing like a storm.

My knees nearly buckled. The hunters looked horrified.

One staggered backward, and another went pale. Fear filled their eyes. The fear warriors felt before death. 

A low growl sounded through the darkness, so deep. It sounded dominant and predatory. The sound seemed to shake the ground itself.

The leader's confidence shattered instantly. 

"No..." He shouted. 

One of the wolves looked toward the forest. His face was drained of color. And another took a trembling step backward and whispered the words that sent a chill down my spine.

"Impossible."

The growl came again, closer this time. The hunters' fear turned to panic. And one of them breathed a name that meant nothing to me. 

Yet somehow made every wolf around me terrified.

"The Alpha King."

The darkness between the trees shifted, and something powerful stepped into the clearing.