Chapter Two: A Very Neat Trick

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me.

“Where did he go?”

“After him!”

I ran faster as I heard the pack warriors closing in on me.

I didn’t know what was happening to me, but I knew there was an explanation.

There had to be. I couldn’t be a witch.

Witches were always women. I had never heard of a male witch.

And, even though witches were women, they were practically extinct. There hasn’t been a single sighting of a witch in years, the war between species made sure of that.

But I couldn’t dwell on that for too long, I had to escape from my pack. Because the last reason why I couldn’t be a witch was simple. 

Any witch found on pack grounds must be executed. My death was set in stone even if I didn’t burn half the pack house down. 

The trees whipped past me, clawing against my skin as I dashed past them as fast as my skinny legs could carry me.

The memory of Nathan’s body hit me like a punch in the gut and I let out a pained gasp. 

My legs forgot how to move on their own and I quickly tumbled, mouth full of sand and leaves as I planted my face into the floor.

“I think he’s over here!” I heard a voice call out.

A part of me wanted to give up. Maybe I deserved to be hunted, caught and tried for being a witch.

I killed my best friend.

I killed Nathan. 

A soft cry escaped my lips and a lone tear rolled down my already tear-stained cheek. 

Nathan cared for me like we were brothers and I killed him. 

The only other person that had cared for me asides him looked at me like I was a monster, and how could I forget he rejected me too.

Maybe I should allow them to take me back to the pack house. Nathan deserved justice.

I deserve to die. 

“But Nathan wouldn’t want that,” a small part of me whispered.

It was right.

Nathan would want me to figure out what was happening to me.

He’d tell me even as I was being hunted that… “Everything is going to be right as rain, Snowflake,” I murmured to myself.

Almost like it had been waiting for my signal, a huge torrent of rain burst down from the sky, drenching me and my surroundings in seconds.

“Where’d the scent go?” One of my pursuers called out to another over the sound of the rain drumming heavily against the ground.

“I’ve lost it!” 

“I think I've got something over here,” Another voice called out.

For a brief second, I froze, feeling the rain beat against my skin like it was punishment. 

Have I been discovered?

I held my breath as I awaited their rough hands to yank me up, but instead the footsteps went farther away.

I waited a few more seconds before bolting in the opposite direction, a new strength in my eyes.

I had to understand what was happening to me. For Nathan’s sake. 

I couldn’t let this happen to me again.

I had to find out who was speaking to me in my head.

Was it another witch?

I had to find them somehow.

I ran as fast as I could past my pack’s border and even after I was long past it, I didn’t stop. No. Not until my legs could no longer move and I was dying of fatigue. Not until every breath felt like torture.

After running for about one hour after I had passed my pack’s border I finally collapsed on the ground.

“State your name and your business.”

Low growls surrounded me from all sides.

Fuck.

I must have been running so hard that I ran into another pack’s territory… but wait.

The only pack close to us is the one led by that Psycho Alpha. The Red—

“You are on Red Moon soil. State your name, Rouge.”

Rouge? I’m not a rouge.

“Please, I have no business with you,” I started, tears slowly pooling behind my eyes, “I’m just passing through. I only wanted to catch my breath, I will leave now,” I begged as I forced myself to stand up even though my legs were trembling.

If I was in Alpha Talon’s territory I had to get out. He was a beast. A mad man that some even say made a deal with the devil to rule his pack for more than a hundred years.

I had to leave no matter how tired I was before I set eyes on him.

 He was the oldest Alpha alive. Who knows what he would do to me if I’m brought before him.

“You seem to be under the impression that we are going to let you walk out of here alive,” A deep velvety voice chuckled, and he stepped out of the shadows.

Gorgeous. Breathtaking. Those words could not do him justice.

He had a beast-like handsomeness and unruly blond locks that felt like I was staring at a man with a lion’s mane.

He wore nothing but a loose short, a tell-tale sign that he just shifted from his wolf form.

Power emanated from him in waves and something in me responded to that power. 

I felt heat gathering in my hands, warming me, strengthening me.

Old Dante would have run with his non-existent tails between his legs when any ranked wolf spoke to him.

But somehow, power flowed through my veins now and I knew first hand just how dangerous I could be.

“Please, you need to let me go. It’s for your own safety,” I said. 

I couldn’t let a repeat of what happened at my pack house happen again. I didn’t want to hurt anyone.

“You’re either brave, or very very stupid,” he took slow steps towards me as he spoke, placing emphasis on the last ‘very’. 

He looked at me with a very predatory glint in his eyes. Like he wanted to rip me apart till there was nothing left but bones.

I should be scared. I should run. But somehow I could only think about how cat-like his stormy grey eyes looked. He was unbelievably sexy.

“My money is on stupid,” he finished with a smile that looked like a threat.

He was taunting me. 

I was skinny and about five foot and nine inches. Of course he would taunt me.

 A man made entirely of muscles like him could never take me seriously if I told him to do anything for his safety.

“I’m warning you, stay back,” I said again, I could feel the heat starting to gather in my stomach. I could feel the pressure building up within me again and I knew what it meant to let go this time.

I was prepared to do what I had to do if that was what it took to guarantee my safety. I had to get answers. For myself. For Nathan. 

“Oh, no. I’m so terrified,” the handsome man said dryly as he took a step closer.

The power in me reacted before I could think, flames burst out from within me, creating a ring of fire that stopped him in his tracks.

“That’s a neat trick,” He yelled over the blazing fire that crackled loudly on the forest floor. “A very neat trick,” he repeated, the look in his eyes changing from the hunger for my death to something more… manic?

He stared at the flames with a wide smile that revealed rows of straight white teeth. He looked mad. Raving mad. 

He took a step closer and the flames immediately latched on to his skin, searing off the flesh from his legs. 

“Are you insane?!” I yelled. 

Images of burnt bodies flashed in my head and the stench of burning flesh filled my nose, choking me so sharply that it almost brought water to my eyes but I had cried so much, there was nothing left in my tear ducts. 

I took a step back, clenching and unclenching my hands, trying to stop the flames. 

I thought I was prepared to do anything, but I didn’t want to be responsible for another death. 

The fool in front of me barely looked fazed, instead he took another step, into the circle of fire that surrounded me.

“I’ve got a trick of my own as well.”