.Chapter 3
Simone
The forest floor was a bitch to run on in human form, so I shifted the second I hit the tree line.
My bones cracked and reformed as my honey-colored wolf took over. Mom’s coloring, while Dash had gotten Dad’s darker fur. I’d always been proud of how beautiful my wolf was, but right now I wasn’t thinking about aesthetics. I was thinking about survival.
The castle grew smaller behind me as I sprinted through the underbrush, dodging low-hanging branches and leaping over fallen logs. Shadow Mountain loomed in the distance, but it was too far. At this pace, it would take me days to reach home, and I had a feeling I didn’t have days.
My paws hit the ground in a steady rhythm as I pushed myself harder. Every muscle in my body screamed for me to go faster, but I was already at my limit. The adrenaline from the wedding. disaster was starting to wear off, and exhaustion was creeping in.
When night fell, I finally allowed myself to rest behind a cluster of boulders. My sides heaved as I tried to catch my breath, ears swiveling at every sound. That’s when the wind shifted, carrying a scent that made my blood run cold.
Wolves. And they were close.
I hadn’t heard them approaching, which meant they were trained. Really trained. The kind of stealth that came from years of military discipline. My heart sank as I realized they must have gotten past Irene and Kenzi somehow.
Fear for my aunts clawed at my chest, but I forced myself to focus. I could still feel them through our pack bond, faint but alive. That was something, at least.
“I’ve got us,” my wolf said in my mind, her voice fierce and protective. “Let me take over fully so I can protect you, Simone.”
“I don’t want them to see me fight back,” I told her, staying low behind the rocks. “If someone is able to take me back to the Prince, I want to have the surprise advantage.”
She wasn’t happy about it, but she understood. We were too far from the mountain to use the natural magic there to our advantage. It was just us against however many trained soldiers Kellan
had sent after me.
I crept forward through the shadows, trying to muffle my footsteps on the forest floor. The scent was getting stronger, which meant they were getting closer. Up ahead, I could see a thick grove of ancient trees with massive trunks and dense canopy. If I could reach them, maybe I could climb
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high enough to lose my scent trail and wait them out. Just a little further…
They came out of nowhere.
One second I was creeping toward the tree line, and the next I was surrounded by a circle of men.
Some were in wolf form, others still human but armed. They moved with military precision, cutting off every escape route in seconds.
Shit.
“Come quietly,” one of them said, his voice eerily calm. “Our prince won’t hurt you.”
“The prince needs you safe,” another added, like he was reading from a script. “Stop fighting, girl.”
Safe for what? I wanted to ask, but I was too busy trying not to panic. These men weren’t acting normally. Their eyes had that glassy, unfocused look I’d seen in magical thralls before.
The first man lunged at me, and I barely dodged his grab. My wolf wanted to rip his throat out, but I
held her back.
“Dodge, don’t strike,” I told her. “Not unless we really have to.”
Another man came at me from the left, and I rolled away from his claws, feeling them graze my shoulder. Blood welled up, but I ignored it. I had to keep moving, keep dodging, until I could find an
opening to run.
But there were too many of them. Every time I avoided one attack, another came from a different direction. My paws were getting bloody from the rough terrain, and my breath was coming in
ragged gasps.
Then one of them got lucky.
Strong hands wrapped around my middle section from behind, tackling me to the ground and squeezing my throat tight enough to cut off my air. I thrashed under his grip to see if I could get rid of him quickly, pretending I was trying to claw off his face as black spots danced at the edges of my vision. The other men closed in, and I was out of options. Time to fight back.
But just as I was about to let my wolf loose and tear his throat off, something massive slammed into the man holding me, sending him flying into a tree with a sickening crack.
A shadow landed next to me with a heavy thud that shook the ground. I looked up and nearly pissed myself.
It was a lycan, but not just any lycan. This thing was enormous, easily three times the size of any shifter I’d ever seen. His fur was so black it seemed to absorb the moonlight, and his eyes…
His eyes were bright red and absolutely terrifying.
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“W-What the hell…” I thought, scrambling backward on instinct.
The massive wolf positioned himself between me and the remaining attackers, a low growl rumbling from his chest that I felt in my bones. The sound was so dominant, so fucking scary, that even the brainwashed soldiers hesitated.
And I had absolutely no idea if this new arrival was here to save me or eat me.
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