Page 3 of Wounded Mate
With any luck, the angry pack of wolves will rough me up a little and send me on my way with threats of what will happen should I ever return.
Without luck, this will be my last run.
My lungs burn as my sides expand and contract wildly. The terrain is hilly, and racing down a steep embankment jars my forelegs. One misstep and I’m done for.
But it’s too late.
The alpha and his second round on me. One of them slams me sideways.
My feet fly out from under me, and I’m rolling tail over snout to my flank. I skid to a stop, only to be pinned down by a wolf much bigger than I am.
“Yield,” the alpha commands while his second gnaws on my neck like I’m his personal chew toy.
As if I have any choice in the matter. I’ve been bested. Nothing to do now but await my fate. Even still, I glare up at him and bare my teeth.
The alpha is even more intimidating in his human form. His dark hair is shorn close to his scalp. Skin flushed red, muscled chest heaving, and steel-gray eyes blazing, he glowers.
“You dare trespass on Mantis Pack lands?”
A pained whine escapes my lips. I flail, struggling to evade the foaming jaws around my throat, but this only makes the wolf bite harder.
His breath stinks of death.
The others have caught up. They surround me. Ten, maybe twelve wolves. I’m guessing because the alpha is the only one in my sightline, but I hear the others panting, catching their breath after the chase.
A low growl emanates from far too close to my unprotected flank. I curl in on myself to protect my organs.
Should I shift? Would they be less likely to slaughter me in my human form or more likely? It’s a toss-up.
My human form isn’t normal. I haven’t been able to fully shift into it since the curse. Wolves hate me because of it. They see my failure as a weakness. As other. And though my problems with shifting are beyond my control, I can’t help but think the other wolves are right.
I’m a monster. It’s why they all reject me.
But this pack doesn’t know that yet. And if I stay in my wolf form, they won’t need to find out. Either way, they’re evicting me from their territory. But which way gives me the best chance at survival?
I don’t shift.
“I said yield.” The alpha steps forward until his ugly bare feet are in my face.
I can’t even raise my head to meet his eyes anymore. His second has me pinned like an omega in heat, and not in the fun way. Looks like I’m getting screwed over like one too, regardless of whether or not I shift.
Fighting reluctance, I let my body go limp. Tense muscles spasm as I force them to release and submit to this alpha and his enforcer. I whimper and turn my belly up, hating every second.
Rumors of another wolf like me lured me here. A mongrel they say, a wolf without a proper human form, another outsider. A loner. It’s whispered he has a vampire for a mate and has found a home for himself with the man’s family. A place to belong.
That’s all I’ve ever wanted.
I thought maybe if I could find them, they’d let me stay. Maybe we could be friends. Maybe they wouldn’t mind another misfit werewolf hanging off their coattails.
But none of that will happen if I die here tonight. I won’t shift. It’s too risky. But I’ll yield.
“What are you doing in our territory, trespasser?” The alpha nudges my snout with his smelly big toe. “Shift and beg for your life.”
I’ll do neither. Instead, I whine, a high-pitched grating sound of contrition that I hope will be enough capitulation for him to let me go about my business. I don’t want anything in his territory but to leave it behind me.
Hot drool from the second’s jowls drips down my neck.
The alpha toes my snout harder. “Shift. Or else.”
