Filed to story: The Alpha’s Pen Pal Book
he mindlinks me.
“Run to the safe room bunker.”
“I can fight,”
I reply as movement from the driver’s side catches my eye. Rogues circle us, waiting, biding their time. They know we’re sitting ducks.
“I can help you. I’m trained the same as any full-fledged warrior in Silver Ridge.”
“But can you shift?”
I bite my lip and close my eyes, focusing on my wolf, on shifting. But just like at my challenge, there is a block, a wall, something keeping my wolf from coming forward and my shift from happening. I shake my head and his hand moves to mine, squeezing it within his.
“Run as fast as you can,”
he says, and I slip my high heels off, my heart racing in my chest and my breaths shaky.
“I will distract them so you can get away. The pack is under attack, too. Delta Conor just linked me. Mindlink someone—your aunt or my mom—when you reach our border so they know you’re on your way and can keep the door from bolting shut until you’re there.”
“Dominic—“
“You can do this, Taryn. I know you can. And this is my job as alpha.”
I swallow and give him one quick nod, and then he bursts out through the door, shifting into his lycan with a mighty roar, drawing the attention of the small group of rogues.
They lunge at him, pouncing, and as soon as they are on him, I bolt, taking off through the trees and up the hill. The snow beneath my feet is freezing, but I keep my eyes ahead, sprinting through the trees and ignoring the pain from the temperature and the ice cutting into my feet. I recognize a border marker—a tree branded with our pack crest—and I reach out to my aunt through the pack link.
“Gigi! There are rogues on the road near the pack. I’m on my way to the safe house, and—“
“The bunker is destroyed,”
she replies.
“The entire pack is under attack. All the buildings are burning, and we’ve implemented Plan B. You need to get to safety.”
I grit my teeth and alter my path, running down the hill towards the spot where our border backs up to the Amber Forest border. If Plan B has been implemented, that means someone will alert the other packs—if they haven’t already—and they will expect us or will have scouts and warriors assembling to assist with fighting and rescue.
My head throbs from the crash and my muscles and lungs burn, but I keep pushing, running through and darting around the trees. Screams and shouting and sounds of fighting make their way to me from every corner of the forest, urging me to run faster. I don’t try to shift into my wolf, because attempting that would use up focus and energy I cannot spare.
I’m near the border when I hear it. Paws pounding the ground, slamming into it, harsh panting and snarling from behind me.
I risk a glance backwards, and a dirty, brown wolf follows me, his yellow eyes glowing and gleaming, his muzzle stained with blood and foam. His rogue stench of garbage and mildew hits my nose, and I retch once before turning forward and picking up my pace.
But the ice, snow, and the torn-up soles of my feet overpower me, and I stumble over a tree root, sprawling out onto the ground with a grunt. I scramble to my hands and knees, pushing myself to my feet, but claws dig into my thigh, yanking down and tearing both fabric and flesh.
I scream and grit my teeth, panting as I fight through the pain and the stinging of my thigh. The rogue lunges towards me again, but I’m ready this time and kick him in the chest, knocking him back at least one foot. I continue backing up, alternating between looking behind me for obstacles and looking at the rogue so I’m prepared for another assault.
He’s relentless, chasing me and lunging at me, and I know he’s trying to wear me out, but I have to keep fighting back. It would be easier if I could shift, but my wolf refuses to come out, even though my life is at stake, even though I need her now more than ever.
The rogue lunges again, this time biting into my leg, right where he already scratched me. I let out another bloodcurdling scream and fall to the ground, bile rising in my throat and tears stinging my eyes as I push at him with my hands and my other foot, trying to get him off me.
“Help me!” I yell, my voice hoarse and heavy with tears and exhaustion. “Please!”
I know it is pointless, though. The sounds of fighting and escaping have faded. There is no one around save for me and this merciless rogue. A sob works its way up my chest, and I choke on my breath, trying to keep everything in. I’m a warrior. I will meet my end with a brave face.
Triumph flashes in the rogue’s yellow eyes and he releases my leg, backing up and pacing as he watches me, as he plans his last strike.
I close my eyes as he pounces, but the attack I expect never comes.
Instead, there is a bellowing roar and the echoes of bodies clashing and teeth snapping, of fur tearing and claws scraping the ground, and of snarls and growls and yips of pain.
I open my eyes and find a very large gray and white wolf fighting off the smaller, weaker brown one. Power, rage, and strength ripple off him in waves as he tears into the rogue, ripping the fur from his body as he pins him to the ground with his mighty paws. My wolf howls and yips in my mind when she sees him, little yelps of joy.
“Reid,” I whisper, relief flooding through me and breaking the dam on my river of tears.
My shoulders shake as I sob, my adrenaline waning and giving way to the terror and pain I’d pushed down as I ran. I cover my mouth to stifle the sound so I don’t distract him, but it’s unnecessary. His focus is purely on the rogue, on ripping him to shreds for what he’s done to me.
Reid’s jaws lock around the rogue’s neck, and with one shake, it snaps, leaving the rogue limp and lifeless. But he shakes his head again, snapping it more, making sure the rogue is dead.
Then he jumps away from him and whips his head towards me. His blue eyes lock with mine, and I give him a weak smile through my tears.
His wolf is at my side in an instant. Blood drips from his muzzle, and he rubs it into the snowy ground next to me before he comes any closer, before he lets his wolf touch me. His nose brushes mine, and he licks the tears off my face, and even with the fear still gripping my heart and the pain in my body, I can’t help but laugh at the tickling of his warm tongue against my freezing and tear-stained cheeks, at the excitement my wolf feels at his presence.
“How’d you find me?” I ask him.
He’s not paying attention to my words, though. He moves his face, and his nose nudges at the scratches on my thigh, now numb because of the cold but still bleeding. My eyes scan over the trail of blood extending away from my body and into the forest, left behind from my cut-up feet as I ran. “Oh. Of course. My blood and my scent,” I say, answering my own question.
I close my eyes again as another wave of pain hits me, bringing nausea along with it. I swallow and clench my teeth, my body swaying and the forest spinning as I open my eyes again to look at Reid.
“Taryn? Where are you? I heard you yelling,”
Aunt Gigi mindlinks me.
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?