บุรุษอัปลักษณ์ท้ายหมู่บ้านผู้นี้คือสามีข้า

“Don't move! The council rules state that all shifters must be part of a pack city.”

Without turning around, I ran fast through the alley and headed toward the metal ladder I had fixed into the ground when I first moved into this apartment building. I never entered any situation without having plan B, C, and D ready. These plans had helped me stay away from shifter cities for the last ten years, ever since Mom died.

“Fucking rogue! Stop!” he yelled again.

I felt the pressure from his dominance as he tried to make me stop moving, but it slid off me like it was never there. The fact that it had no effect on me would make him realize my designation, and that would make me ten times more dangerous.

Which I would worry about only if I got caught.

I never expected to run into an alpha city in Jacksonville, Florida.

Alphas usually stayed in the main shifter cities, and I usually stayed far away from those places.

My body slammed against the metal steps of the ladder as I climbed it in seconds. My long legs and slim body helped me move fast to the second floor. As soon as I pulled myself onto the metal balcony, I partially shifted and used my wolf claws to cut through the rope that held the ladder.

I was gone before it even pulled back up. In situations like this, the difference between being free and ending up under the packs’ control was only a few seconds. This was not my first chase, but it was my first time being chased by an alpha.

“Unregistered shifters are required to face the Alpha Council in Shadow Crest City,” he repeated. His anger poured out so strongly, to the extent that I could still hear him even from inside the building. If weaker alphas—or beta and delta shifters—had been nearby, they would have dropped to their knees under his dominance. Thank fuck I did not have to deal with that. There were not many good things about my designation inside the packs, but this was one of them.

I heard a loud sound as he grabbed the railing to pull himself up, but I was already running through the empty apartment hallway. I had lived in this rent-by-the-week dump long enough to know the fastest way to get to the other side and into the alley where I hid my bike.

Without my baby, a Yamaha YZF-R6, I would already have been dead ten times over.

Shadow Crest City was the worst place I could ever end up. Any of the pack cities would be terrible. The second I stood in front of the council, they would discover my designation, and the alphas would fight to destroy me.

I had spent too many years trying to avoid ending up like my mom to give up now.

I left the building through an open window and dropped one full floor to the ground. My legs hardly felt the impact as I rushed toward my bike. I had not even been here for a month, and it was already time to leave. Farther away from the pack cities. Farther away from whatever future waited for me in the hands of the council.

Farther away from becoming my mother.

Not that she did not deserve everything that happened to her, but that was not the point. The point was that I could not let the same thing happen to me.

My baby was exactly where I left her, hidden in a side street. She was already packed with a bag that had enough important things to keep me going for a week. My escape bag never left my bike no matter how long I stayed somewhere.

The engine came to life with a twist of my key and a press of the button.

I heard a shout behind me. Fuck a delta! He found me quickly. The alpha had my scent now, and that would definitely come back to hurt me, but I could not think about that today.

I had to leave Jacksonville.

I lifted the kickstand, pulled the clutch, shifted into gear, and rode into the darkening street. It was early evening, but Florida weather was still far from cool even though Halloween was getting close. I had been curious about the weather changes here, but I was not going to stay and find out. It was time to leave the East Coast and enter new territory.

Step one: stay away from the main pack cities. There were five cities that I knew about: Silver City in Vermont, Greenville in Louisiana, Durangille in Montana near the Canadian border, Thorny Gardens in Kansas, and the biggest city of them all was Shadow Crest. It was on the West Coast in Oregon near the California border and covered a huge area of forests and land.

Do not get me wrong, shifters could be anywhere. Witch magic kept humans away from shifter cities, but sadly it did not stop shifters from entering human towns. But they never stayed for long. If you were not connected to one of the cities and their council, then you were called a rogue.

And rogues were killed.

I had been running for a long time, but the last eight months had been especially hard. It almost felt like I kept getting pulled toward places where shifters were visiting, and that forced me to run more often than before. It was seriously exhausting.

My ride through the crowded city started slowly, and then I was finally able to fully speed up on the highway. As I raced through the darkness, my heartbeat finally stopped pounding in my throat, and my wolf’s growl slowly calmed inside my chest. My beast and I had not been getting along lately. We shared one soul, but her instincts were old and did not always match human feelings. To her, we should be around other shifters, joining pack runs, and being protected from the human world.

A wolf’s instincts knew that a strong pack was the strongest force on Earth, and every time I shifted into wolf form she pushed me toward the shifter cities. That was why I had not shifted in weeks and planned to keep avoiding it until I had no other choice.

Pack, she rumbled before becoming quiet.

It is too dangerous, we are not like other shifters.

My wolf let out a huff, and I knew she thought I was stupid and controlled by a weak mind, but for now she only gave another annoyed huff and stopped.

I forced my mind away from another close escape and let myself relax until there was nothing except the open road.

I rode for days, crossing many state borders and only stopping for gas and sleep beside my bike in small forest areas.

Six days into my trip, I entered New Mexico and felt so exhausted that I decided to find a hotel. None of the larger pack towns were nearby, so resting for a few days should be safe. I reached Santa Fe around midday and parked my bike on a street filled with shops and market stands.

After getting off my bike, I stretched my legs and tried to ease the pain in my back, wanting a real shower and bed badly. I had never been here before, but I was fascinated by the city’s colorful buildings and special design. Santa Fe held tightly to its history, and I could almost feel it in the streets, smell it in the stone roads and old bricks.

Nobody paid attention to me while I walked around, and I worked hard to avoid looking like a tourist. People always noticed tourists, and I needed to fit in.

Later, I returned to my bike, thankful that I had not seen or smelled any signs of another shifter nearby.