2

Minutes went by and nothing happened. I heard the man swimming in the pond, and them the waterfall’s sound changed. Curiosity overcame fear and I peeped through the bush.

He was standing right under the waterfall, the water up to his hips, his back turned to me. It slimmed down from his broad shoulders to his slender waist, the muscles in his arms popping up as he washed his face and his dark hair.

I stared at him, speechless. Not so much because he was butt naked, but because he had the healthiest, strongest, most beautiful body I’d ever seen. His skin was almost as pale as mine, and it looked as smooth as silk.

Then a moonbeam touched the trees and the top of the cliff. And my dirty blood allowed my eyes to see clearer, not only around me, but as far as the man in front of me, a hundred feet away.

And my heart skipped a beat when I saw the subtle tattoo covering his back, light lines like drawn with silver ink: a cross and a crescent moon.

I muffled a cry, because Teah had told me about that tattoo.

That was no ordinary wolf: he was the Alpha.

And this was my bad luck reaching a new level: I’ve come across the mightiest, most feared wolf in the whole Dale.

I fought back my tears, regretting my awful luck, not realizing I was still staring at him, like asking for him to find me and kill me right there and then. He was back to swimming about the pond. I ducked again when I saw him climb out of the water and shut my eyes tightly. I was sure I’d soon feel his fangs closing around my throat.

Ever since his father died in battle, three years ago, he led the pack with an iron fist. They said he was young and hotheaded, moody, and the only one who could temper down his recklessness was his mother, the Luna queen, because he had no mate and didn’t even bother looking for one.

He wouldn’t suffer any kind of disobedience, be it from wolves or human subjects. And he didn’t hesitate to deliver exemplary punishments to whomever dared to challenge his authority, or tried to break the strict ancient laws of his pack.

To my utter surprise, I heard him turn back into a wolf and trot away down the trail. I waited until I didn’t hear him anymore, and only then I dared to look up at the pond. No trace of the Alpha. I sat up, confused. I couldn’t hear him or smell him. Had he really left without noticing my presence? I waited a few more endless minutes to be sure.

As soon as I was convinced I was alone, I came cautiously out from behind the bush. I knew I needed to leave right away. I couldn’t risk being found by another wolf out there. But I couldn’t go back home without my boots. Father had given them to me a year ago, and if I showed up without them, he would give me a taste of his belt and have me spend the winter barefoot.

I rolled up my dress around my waist and slid into the pond’s cold water, hoping the damned boots were stuck among the rocks and roots by the bank, and the river hadn’t carried them away.

I rummaged around underwater until I found the leather strips, entangled around a thick root. I was relieved to find both boots were there.

The first one was easy to disentangle, and I left it on the bank to deal with the other one. Of course it turned out harder to get, like it clung to the roots.

I was grappling with the stubborn thing, grunting under my breath, when I growl behind me sent a chill down my spine. I looked back from over my shoulder, holding my breath. That was no wolf: it was a mountain lion. I saw the dim reflection of the moonlight in the eyes of the beast. It was perched on a low branch that stretched over the water from the other bank.

I rushed to my bank with one last tug at the boot, that was as kind as to let go of the roots. I glanced back as I climbed up in a hurry. The lion had crouched on the branch, ears back, and it let out a menacing growl.

I heard the creak behind me as I climbed out of the water. And fear froze me when I turned around, watching with hallucinated eyes how the beast leaped over the pond, its front legs stretching out toward me.

Then everything seemed to happen at the same time. I heard a deep growl behind me and something pushed me violently forward at the exact moment when the lion reached the bank.

I fell face first to the water and sank down, the skirt of my dress whirling up around me, constraining my arms. Somehow I managed to wriggle up and breach the water, gasping for air. To see in disbelief the black wolf was back. He’d caught the lion by the throat and was shaking it, unfazed by its desperate swipes. Until the lion’s neck broke with an awful snap, its golden fur covered in blood.

All of a sudden, the wolf turned to me, threw the dead beast against a tree and faced me with a long growl.

I lowered my head as tears rolled down my cheeks. I didn’t even notice my shawl had slid forward, hiding most of my face.

The wolf growled again and I risked a glance. It had to be the Alpha. The same huge size and the same jet black fur. He stepped back, away from the bank, sat down on his hind legs and nodded. Like calling me?

I wasn’t about to ignore it, sure he would let me know if I’d gotten it wrong. But at the first step I took, my sprained ankle slipped on a flat rock at the bottom of the pond, twisting again. The pain made me groan and the wolf stood up, sniffing me from where he was.

I bit my tongue and forced myself to limp to the bank. The wolf sat back down while I struggled to climb out of the water. I didn’t bother trying to stand up, and just fell down to my knees before him, my face against the grass.

“I’m so sorry, my lord!” I cried with a shaky voice. “It’s all my fault!”

I heard the wolf come closer and I stayed still, breathing heavily and bearing the pain numbing my whole leg. I felt him sniff me and his low, hostile growl. Then, with an unexpected gentleness given those huge fangs, he removed the shawl from my head, exposing my hair.

He stepped back with a menacing growl, and I understood my essence and the color of my hair had alerted him. Shaking from head to toes, sweating out of sheer terror, my heart ramming my chest, I straightened up to sit on my feet and faced him, letting him have a good look at my face and my eyes.

He spread his legs, ears back, fur standing on end, furrowed snout showing his deadly fangs.