CHAPTER 1

The wet slap of flesh echoed through the door. My heart pounded in my ears as realization crept over me like ice water. I pressed my palm against the wood, pushing it open a sliver.

Jasper's naked back glistened with sweat. Olivia's legs were locked around his waist as he thrust into her. Their grunts and moans filled the room like a perverted symphony.

A vase clattered behind me. I whipped around at the sound, my elbow clipping the edge of the hall table. Purple shards scattered across the hardwood.

Jasper froze, his eyes finding mine over Olivia's shoulder. Her mouth formed a surprised 'O'. I should have run, but I was paralyzed, a deer mesmerized by oncoming headlights.

"Alexa..." Jasper's gravelly voice broke the spell. Olivia's head lolled to the side, strands of blonde hair stuck to her sweaty brow as she registered my presence.

"Oh god..." she gasped, arms scrambling to cover her breasts.

Fury propelled me backwards as Jasper disentangled himself, grabbing blindly for his jeans. "Baby, wait! Let me explain..."

I pivoted on my heel and fled. Tears burned hot trails down my cheeks as the front door slammed against the wall behind me with a hollow boom. The cold spring air bit at my exposed skin as I ran into the darkness.

My calves screamed from the sprint to my car. The plastic key fob slipped through my shaking fingers twice before I finally managed to remote unlock. I fumbled with the keys, finally wrenching the driver's side open. Jasper's bellow of my name echoed across the driveway as I peeled out, gravel pinging off the undercarriage.

Streetlights strobed past, blurring into smears of amber. I pressed the gas pedal into the floorboards, the town limits sign a green blur in the rearview mirror. My traitor wolf howled inside me, a mournful lament of abandonment.

Where could I go? The Packlands spanned hundreds of miles in every direction. Anyone I knew would eventually have to answer to Jasper. Only one person could understand this anguish.

I steered towards Shirley's place, cutting across the deserted backroads, the pitch black night swallowing everything except the twin beams of my high beams. She lived in the bordering neutral territory between our pack and the White Pines clan. A knot of tension unwound from my shoulders the deeper I drove into their lands.

Shirley stood in her garden, pruning shears glinting under the moonlight. I cut the engine, footsteps crunching over the pea gravel drive.

"Alexa?" She squinted at my approach, one hand shading her eyes against the glare of my headlights. Even in the dim glow, she recognized the devastation etched on my features. The pruners slipped from her grasp as she rushed towards me, engulfing me in a tight hug. "Oh honey...what happened?"

I collapsed into her embrace, sobs wracking my body. Jasper's forest musk and Olivia's vanilla scent still clung to me like a cruel joke. Shirley murmured soothing words, guiding me inside to the cozy familiarity of her living room.

She settled me on the floral sofa, disappearing into the kitchen briefly. When she returned, a mug of steaming chamomile tea was pressed into my hands.

"Careful, it's hot." Her voice was gentle. "Now talk to me, Lex. What's got you so torn up?"

My lips trembled around the words as I described walking in on my mate and best friend. Shirley's expression twisted with revulsion and pity in equal measures as the story tumbled out.

"That low-life, mangy mutt!" She swore vehemently when I finished. "And that two-faced bitch destroying her sister like that!"

I flinched at her cruel words for Olivia. As much as the blonde had betrayed me, she'd been my closest friend since we were pups.

Shirley must have seen my hurt because she gentled her tone. "You don't deserve their deception, babe. You're too good for thataikto."

"I can't stay, Shirl." My voice was a cracked whisper. "I have to leave the pack. I can't see him again, not after..."

The images flashed again behind my eyelids with gruesome clarity. I doubled over, pressing the heels of my hands against my eye sockets to block them out.

Shirley wrapped her arms around me again, pulling me against her side. "Shh...you've got a home here as long as you need, honey."

As the shock faded, nausea crept in to take its place. A cold sweat beaded across my brow and upper lip. The world tilted violently.

"Alexa? You don't look so good..." Shirley's voice was distant, echoing metallically.

My knees buckled and I spiraled down into the darkness.

____

The crunch of dead leaves and snap of twigs filled the eerie silence as I tore through the inky blackness of the forest. Branches whipped against my face, leaving stinging crimson welts. My chest heaved with each ragged breath.

I resisted the urge to look over my shoulder. The sound of pursuit was unmistakable - the inexorable approach of whatever fresh hell was hunting me tonight. Harsh panting seemed to echo from every direction, surrounding me in an ever-tightening noose.

A thick root snagged my boot and sent me sprawling forward. The air fled my lungs in a whooping gasp as I slammed into the loamy earth. I scrambled up onto my hands and knees, fingers clawing at the soft soil for purchase.

From the corner of my eye, movement flickered through the dense trunks. A preternatural awareness prickled the back of my neck. It was close...so close.

"Alexa..." The voices drifted through the trees in a ghostly chorus, as sweet and sinister as a children's nursery rhyme.

I swallowed hard against the lump of dread clogging my throat. The whispers grew louder, more insistent, chanting my name like a ritual invocation.

"Alexa...Alexa...Alexa..."

My head whipped around, searching for the source. The forest seemed to inhale a collective breath, every leaf and creature holding perfectly still.

Crack!

A branch exploded somewhere behind me. I scrambled backwards on my butt and palms, pulse thundering in my ears. The voices rose in a keening wail, blending into one piercing shriek.

Something massive hurtled through the underbrush, barreling straight towards me. I dug my heels into the spongy earth and backpedaled furiously.

A blur of motion solidified into a towering humanoid shape, all sharp angles and rigid bones. It skidded to a halt mere inches from me, the impact gouging deep furrows into the forest floor.

Bared fangs stretched its mottled gray flesh into a skeletal grin, lips pulled back in a deranged, mocking leer. Blank sockets stared down at me, hollows in its warped skull where eyes should have been.

The creature crouched over me, spindly fingers splayed wide as it caged me against the ground. Rancid, decaying breath gusted over my face in wet, putrid bursts.

"Why did you run, little one?" Each malformed word was drawn out into a phlegmy hiss.

I pressed myself into the damp soil, willing the earth to simply open up and swallow me whole. My limbs were frozen, leaden weights immobilized by stark primal terror.

It cocked its hairless head, and I flinched as its grotesque features seemed to flow and contort. The sunken pits of its eye sockets split into open, oozing geysers. Blood and rank gray matter poured over its cheeks in rivulets as two baleful yellow orbs blinked into existence inside those spurting wounds.

The smile widened into an impossibly broad slash, unhinging its jaw with a sickening pop. It leaned close until its dripping, putrid maw engulfed my vision.

"We've been waiting for you," it gurgled, fetid spittle splattering across my ashen face as I screamed.

***