Page 3 of Forsaking His Mate

I don’t know what I am, but I am not fully wolf. I am something else—a hybrid of some kind. The magic inside me is stronger than it should be and the things I can do scare me. When I asked my father to explain what I am, he never could. He would tell me I was his child and that was all that matters.

He was wrong though. I want to be normal. I want to run with my pack. I want to find my fated mate, and I want to have pups. I will never experience any of this because I cannot shift.

I have been kept hidden my entire life because I am different. I should have been killed at birth, or certainly when my father began to suspect something was off—definitely before hunters turned up to destroy my pack only to kill me.

Even though he is the alpha and there were risks to keeping me alive, my father couldn’t kill me, nor could he leave me among the humans. He and my pack love me. I am one of them, even despite my inability to shift and my weird gifts.

It would have been kinder for all of us if he had ended my life. I never wanted to bring suffering or pain to any of them. Now they are dying because of me.

Suddenly, the marl wolf snaps at me, catching myleg with his sharp teeth. I cry out, jolting away. I can feel blood running down into my sneaker.

My mind reminds me I can’t outrun him, but I try anyway, turning and darting around a tree before taking off at full speed.

I barely make it ten steps before a weight lands on my back. I sprawl, throwing my hands out to cushion my fall as I hit the forest floor. My body jars as I make contact, old roots smashing my knees and shins.

I don’t want to cry out, but the sound escapes my mouth anyway. My palms sting as I try to push up, trying to hide my vulnerability before this thing starts tearing at me.

As I lift myself off the ground, paws press against my spine, forcing me back into the dirt. The air is pushed from my lungs, leaving me spluttering and gasping.

Red hot agony tears down my back as the wolf attacks me. I scream, though it feels as if it gets caught in my throat.

I’m going to die.

This is my end.

As a last effort, I shove him back with my mind, and the wolf is thrown off me, whimpering. I get my hands under me and try to get to my feet, not stopping to see what has him crying or to consider the fact I just moved him with a thought. My back is on fire, and I can hardly breathe.

A vision snaps through my mind of a white wolf clashing with the marl one. I know the white wolf is my father; I’ve seen him in his form many times before. He’s coming for me and I want to scream at him to stay away.

There isn’t the time to warn him and I curse myvisions. What good is it seeing the future if I can't change anything?

I catch his familiar scent just before the white wolf erupts out of the undergrowth and leaps over me to attack the marl one exactly as I saw.

For a moment, all I can do is lie in the dirt and try to catch my breath. I can hear the barks and growls coming from behind me as the fight gets underway. My father’s strength seems to fill the air as he battles this wolf to save my life.

He has always been the one to save me.

I force myself up on to my knees, swallowing my pain to watch the fight. My father is said to be one of the strongest alphas of our kind. I wouldn’t know; I’ve never met wolves outside of the Gold River Pack, but watching him in action makes me think it might not have been a lie.

Despite being smaller, he snaps and bites at the marl wolf, his teeth sinking deep. The fight is savage, blood spraying as they both take chunks out of each other. Fear grips me as red stains my father’s white fur.

Suddenly, there’s a high-pitched whimper as the marl wolf goes down, and then silence. My father’s wolf turns to face me, blood covering his snout, his blue eyes taking me in before he collapses onto his side.

I rush to him, stumbling over my own feet and dropping into the dirt next to him as his transformation starts. Bones pop and crack, his whimpers quiet as his body fades from fur to skin.

Then, he’s lying before me, naked. His skin is covered in welts and cuts and I wince at the damage done to him.

“Tessa.” He says my name with such desperation.

“I’m okay,” I lie, because my back feels like it’s beenlicked by fire. As bad as my injuries are, they are nothing compared to my father’s. He’ll heal, as all wolves can, but it will take time for it to knit together.

“I tried to get to you as fast as I could,” he says, reaching his hand out to me.

“I know.”

He lets out a shaky breath. “I thought you could be safe here with us, but they will come again. Now that they know you’re here, those hunters will never stop.”

My chest aches with every word he says. He’s right.

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