Chapter 2: Her Forbidden Designation

For the first time in almost a week, I felt relaxed while eating the meatball sub I bought from a nearby café. It was the freshest and best-tasting food I had eaten in days.

Even better, the owners showed me a hotel that was not too expensive for the night.

As the sun went down and the air became cooler, I rode a few blocks and parked beside the hotel. It was not the greatest place to hide my bike, but it would work for one night. I planned to leave early tomorrow.

I threw my duffle bag over my shoulder, got a room without any problems, and walked to “twenty-four,” the number written on the old green door with a sharpie. The building was old with a low square shape. Ugly as hell, but I did not care. I only hoped there were no rats or roaches. After sleeping on hard ground for days, I could deal with the rest.

When I walked inside, I was surprised to see an old-looking but very clean room.

Cream-colored walls surrounded simple furniture: two queen beds, a table with a lamp between them, and a desk in the corner. When I opened the bathroom door, I saw a shower-bath combination and almost screamed with excitement.

I was going to sit in that bath for an hour and let my sore body rest. Refusing to shift unless I absolutely had to had caused problems for me over the years, but a good bath could help make up for my weaker healing abilities.

I locked the door and pushed the deadbolt across. It would not stop a shifter, but it would give me a few seconds of warning. I left my bag on the bed, walked into the bathroom, and turned the water on all the way. While it heated up, I took out my bag with toiletries. I only had a toothbrush, toothpaste, facewash, moisturizer, mascara, and lip gloss. Everything else was back in Florida.

My money situation was not very stable, but I had managed to save a few thousand dollars during the last two years. Thank the moon goddess I had it with me when I ran. It would hurt to spend that money replacing everything I left behind, but it was still better than being dragged into the pack cities.

I dropped my clothes onto the floor because I planned to wash them later in the sink, then stepped into the shower and quickly cleaned myself using one of those free soap packets. It smelled strongly of roses and chemicals. Shifters usually avoided things made in laboratories, but during the last few years they had been useful for hiding my natural scent.

It was my bad luck that I ran into that alpha after finishing my shift at the diner because I had already sweated through the fake scent. He smelled that I was a shifter from across the street, and the second his alpha growl hit me, I ran. I was not going to stay and wait for him to ask me which pack I belonged to.

Not if I wanted to live long enough to see my twenty-sixth birthday.

After the best bath I've ever had, I climbed into bed naked. I did not have enough clothes to waste by sleeping in them, especially since I only had three shirts, one pair of denim shorts, and two pairs of jeans left. I would have to live with very little until I could stop by some thrift stores.

By the time my head touched the pillow, I was so exhausted that I slept for almost twenty-four hours. Once or twice every month, my tiredness became so strong that it pushed me into a very deep sleep. As a rogue, it was dangerous to leave myself that unprotected, but I trusted that my wolf would warn me if there was real danger.

When she suddenly spoke up just as I opened my eyes, shouting danger danger danger at me, I first thought she was reacting to the trust I had in her, until I heard the sound of shoes scraping against the ground outside.

I quickly jumped out of bed and was immediately hit by the earthy smell of shifters.

Trying hard to control my panic, because panic would make me weak, I pulled on athletic shorts and a tank top with a built-in bra. Holding my duffle bag, I ran lightly toward the window and silently thanked the goddess when the weak screen came off easily. The musky smell became stronger in the air, showing that there was more than one shifter outside.

Fear and frustration hit me at the same time as I cursed myself for making a beginner mistake by parking my bike beside the hotel instead of behind it. Now I had no choice except to run and hope I could steal a bike along the way.

As I threw myself out of the window, my wolf moved inside me.

Stay with the pack.

No! I cried out in panic. Pack is not for us.

After everything I had done to stay away from the pack cities, that one meeting with the alpha in Florida had ruined everything. I had known he was a tracker, and he had clearly followed my path even while I ran across several state borders.

The hotel door was kicked open just as I rolled over the loose gravel outside. I felt a few small cuts and injuries from the fall, but even my weaker shifter healing would start working soon, and I was used to pain. It would not slow me down.

I ran as fast as if my life depended on it, taking as many side roads as I could while watching for a bike. I almost reached the street where I had first parked when a deep rumble sounded behind me, growing stronger until I could feel it inside my chest.

They had sent a strong alpha after me, but his dominance would not stop me—as long as I stayed out of his reach. The rough ground hurt my feet, making me push myself harder.

But it was still not enough because strong arms suddenly wrapped around me.

I started fighting before we even hit the ground, but the much bigger shifter held nothing back and slammed his full weight into me. I was tall for a woman at five-eleven without shoes, but his body completely covered mine as we crashed down together.

“Stay the fuck down, rogue,” he growled as he slammed me into the ground again.

I twisted the way I had been taught when trapped under a bigger opponent, and I managed to get my hands under me before being smashed down again. My head hit the ground hard, and everything turned black.