Another bout of thunder echoed around me. It was already raining heavily. The first drop fell an hour ago and it had been falling harder and harder since then.
I was soaked to the bone, freezing cold, and I seemed to be walking in circles.My panic had long since faded.I had accepted the fact that I was going to die. In a few hours, I would be joining my parents.I was okay with that.I had tried to find my way out of the forest, but no matter how hard I tried or how far I walked, I couldn’t get out. The trees seemed to go on for miles and miles, and I had yet to find a sign of something familiar to help me get home.My foot caught on something, sending me falling to the ground. I tried to stop my fall, but ended up twisting my wrist. Instead of getting up, I curled into a ball with my injured wrist cradled to my chest.It took too long for me to realize that the thunder wasn’t the only thing echoing in the air.My body jerked when a twig snapped behind me. I sucked in a sharp breath and held completely still.Every instinct inside me warned me to run.To fight because there was a predator behind me.Another twig snapped, closer than before, and a second later, something touched my back.Squeezing my eyes closed, I bit my lip to stop my chattering teeth.I could hear the animal sniffing me. Its nose moved up my back and all the way up my neck. It pushed the wet strands of hair away and pressed its snout against my skin.Tears mixed with the raindrops, and before I could stop it, a whimper fell from my lips.The animal froze and did something unexpected.It licked my cheek.I whimpered again when it nudged my shoulder.For a moment, nothing happened.I flinched at the first snap of bone.The second made me feel sick.I curled tighter into a ball.“Are you injured?” a deep, slightly accented voice questioned. “I don’t smell any blood.”Was he a friend or an enemy?My pack has never given me any reason to trust them or to interact with the other packs that visited. So I had no idea which packs were enemies or which were allies.“My name is Lucas. I’m the beta of the Crystalvalley Pack.”I had been right about not being in pack territory. But I was in another pack’s territory and that could only mean trouble.A howl pierced the air.Lucas muttered a curse. “Axel, can you take care of her?”Bones snapped and a moment later, a wolf jumped over me and took off into the forest.It was the perfect opportunity to get the hell out of here before he came back.But my limbs wouldn’t move.I was too cold, and it was starting to seep into my bones.Silence surrounded me.The rain slowed to a drizzle and a few minutes later it stopped completely.I blinked.The silence was deafening.Whoever Axel was, he hadn’t shown up.I could try to find a way out of the forest again. However, the fact still remained, I was on another pack’s land.I slowly sat up and glanced around.There was no one around. No more howls echoing in the air. Whoever they had been chasing seemed to have been caught. Which was why it was the perfect opportunity to leave.Based on what I knew about pack rules, wolves invading another pack’s land without permission was punishable by death.I was human, but that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t be punished.Getting to my feet, I stumbled slightly and hit the ground again.I froze.I hadn’t imagined it. That was definitely a growl, and it was close by. Careful, as not to draw any attention to myself, I felt around the ground, searching for something I could use as a weapon. My fingers brushed sticks and dirt and then something more solid. I gripped the rock tightly and waited.The wolf approaching me was not the same one who had first found me, and I had a feeling it wasn’t the so-called Axel.It had a sense of danger radiating off him. I couldn’t fight the fear and panic filling me.A twig snapped.I jerked upright and spun around with the rock raised and ready to use.But a rock would have had no effect on the animal charging me.It was three times as big as me with canines half the length of my forearm.It growled as it lunged at me.I closed my eyes and mentally prepared myself for the pain I knew was to come.Only it never did.My eyes snapped open when I heard a thud, followed by a pained whine.The wolf was no longer in front of me. It staggered to its feet a few feet away from me, swaying slightly.A man appeared behind it.He stared straight at me as he leaned over the wolf, gripped the wolf’s upper and lower jaw, and then tore him in half.Blood and body parts were sprayed everywhere.With the fear of the impending attack fading, I blinked at my rescuer.He must be the man the beta told to take care of me.The dark cloak he wore fluttered in the wind behind him, making him look like someone out of a movie.His eyes, I realized, were glowing red. Scary-looking, but for some reason he didn’t scare me as much as the wolf had.One thing I knew for certain was the fact that he wasn’t human even though he looked like one.“You give up too easily,” he muttered as he stepped over the body and walked towards me. “If you hit it hard enough, you might have been able to crack its skull.”“A-Axel?” I stuttered.“Yes, little human.” Axel crouched in front of me. “Are you lost?”I nodded.“It’s too dangerous for your kind to be wandering around the forest so late at night on a full moon.”I swallowed, debating whether I should tell him I wasn’t there by my own free will.A howl pierced the air, followed by three more.“Looks like the hunt is over.”“H-hunt?”Axel tilted his head to the side slightly and silently studied me for a few seconds.“You’re not a werewolf,” I muttered.“No, I’m something far scarier and much more dangerous.”“W-what?”“A vampire.”I frowned. The girl didn’t scream or try to make a run for it like they usually did. I wasn’t sure what to think of her. When Lucas found her, she hadn’t tried to fight, but then the beast came and she was ready to fight him one moment, and just gave up the next second. Humans were pathetic things…but this girl was...different. A shiver shook her body when the wind started picking up. My eyes dropped, taking in her soaked attire and the goosebumps covering her skin. She wasn’t dressed for a midnight stroll in the forest which made me believe that she might have been kidnapped and escaped, or someone had used her as bait for the rogues. “What’s your name?” I asked her as I stood to pull my cloak off. “C-Cora.” Throwing the cloak across her shoulders, I knelt in front of her again and gently helped guide her arms through the sleeves, and then did up the button at the front close to her neck. “Do you have a last name, Cora?” I questioned. She pursed her lips. I studied her s
I blinked at the blue pillow a few inches from my face. It took a few minutes for the sleep to fade and the memories from last night to flood my mind. A shiver raced through me. Turning onto my back, I blinked up at the ceiling for a few seconds before I slowly sat up. My eyes darted around the room. I froze when I spotted the man occupying the chair in one corner of the room. He had a book resting on his lap. The brown leather was worn like the book was being used constantly. “How do you feel?” His voice was deep and accented. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t make out where his accent was from. Slowly, he raised his head to look at me. Gray eyes locked with mine for a moment and then lowered to my neck. I watched as his eyes darkened and flashed black for a second before they returned back to normal. “Doctor said that you should stay in bed for a few days until you are fully rested.” He paused. “How are you feeling, Cora?” I swallowed.”F-fine,” I stuttered.
I stood outside the bedroom door, sucking in deep breaths. Fighting my instincts was hard, especially since I was a man who always relied on his instincts to drive him in the right direction. I sucked in another deep breath before I forced myself to move. Everything was a fucking mess. Nate and I had grown close over the years. He was like a brother, and through him I had gotten to know my half-sister. There had been no hesitation when he asked me to take Cora in if something happened to them. But things were different. Everything had changed because the seventeen-year-old girl in that bedroom was my mate. Not only that, but I found out that she had already met her mate and he had rejected her. I frowned. None of this made any fucking sense. Was this a cruel game? Some sort of test? “At least she’s not blood-related to you,” Axel muttered when I entered my office. I snarled at him. “Aren’t you supposed to be locked in your coffin?” “Funny,” he muttered. “You for
I couldn’t see much of the pack from the window. The house was surrounded by other houses, some with colourful gardens. There were more houses beyond with tall buildings. And in the distance, I could make out the tall trees of the forest that surrounded the houses. It looked a lot different than my old pack. I turned away from the window and glanced around at the room once again. It was small but cozy. There was a built-in closet across from the double bed with a chair and a small table next to it. The walls were painted a light blue with white wooden furniture and dark blue bedding. The room reminded me of something you would find in a guest house by the beach. After eating, I made the bed, braided my hair, and then tried to get some sleep, but failed. My mind was too busy. My arrival at my new home wasn’t exactly how I had imagined it. I thought that I would have been calm and level-headed to make a good impression. Not dressed in my night clothes, soaking wet and fee
Keiran’s pack was a lot bigger than Alpha Rowan’s pack. “Everyone in town is a shifter,” Keiran explained. “We occasionally get some human tourists, but they don’t stay long because our…town doesn’t have much to offer them. One of the pack rules is to never expose yourself to humans. We don’t want any hunters coming to town.”“You’ll have no problem with me,” I muttered. “You can misbehave, Cora,” Keiran said softly. Before I could answer him, he opened a door and gestured for me to enter. My eyes darted around, taking everything in. It looked like one of those expensive clothing shops you would usually find in the mall. “You can pick out anything you want.” Keiran followed me around as I took a look at the clothes. It was definitely expensive. “Season’s changing,” he muttered. “If you want, we can only get you some clothes for autumn and winter.”I bit my lip as I stared at the rack of thick winter jackets. It reminded me of Dad’s jacket. “Cora?”“C-can we go somewhere less…
Mine. My hold on Cora tightened as I snarled at him. She didn’t belong to him, she was mine. My mate. Only mine. But doubt started to fill me when his head lowered and he rubbed his snout along her cheek. A deep purr rumbled from his chest. Cora’s low whimper pulled me out of my shock. Growling, I gripped him by the scruff of his neck and jerked him off us. He instantly got to his feet and shook out his fur. My warning growl had him freezing, but not before letting out one of his own. Sitting up, I turned my attention towards Cora. She was pale and shaking slightly. I moved the strands of hair from her face and gripped her chin to turn her attention towards me. Wide jade eyes blinked up at me. She was scared, but she was trying her best not to show it. “K-Keiran?”“Are you injured?” I asked her softly. She hesitated too long before she shook her head. My eyes dropped, darting over her and then lingering on the hand she was favouring. It was the same wrist she had injured t
The doctor at Alpha Rowan’s pack never treated me when I got sick or injured. He claimed that he knew nothing about human illnesses and that I was not important enough for him to learn about them. Whenever I got injured, Mom would treat my wounds. And whenever I got sick, they had to take me to town to see a human doctor. But the doctor sitting in front of me, examining my wrist was nothing like the other doctors I had been to. She was gentle as she touched parts of my skin and put me at ease by asking me numerous questions. “Not broken,” she muttered as she lowered my arm to my lap. “But you’ve made the sprain worse.” Her eyes darted over to Keiran who stood leaning against the wall. “I gave you orders and I expect them to be followed, alpha.”“It won’t happen again, Olive.”“Better not,” she muttered as she stood. “I’ll see if I can find you a brace to wear to limit movement. You also need to try to keep weight off of it otherwise you’ll risk another re-injury.”“Thank you.” Oliv
School. My stomach twisted with nausea as I made my way down the stairs a week later. The doctor had given me the all-clear to go to school much to my disappointment. When I entered the kitchen it was to find only Keiran sitting at the table. My eyes darted around, taking in the various dishes. “I wasn’t sure what you like,” he muttered, standing.“You cooked?” I breathed, wide-eyed. He raised an eyebrow. “Yes, you didn’t think I could?”“No,” I told him honestly. “Dad couldn’t cook. It was always me or Mom that cooked for him.”Keiran pulled a chair out for me and then took a seat again. Placing a plate down in front of me, he gestured to the other plates. “Help yourself.”“Thank you.”I grabbed a slice of toast and took a small bite. I was too nervous to actually eat. But he went through all the trouble to cook and I wanted to show him that I appreciated it. “It’s important for a male to know how to take care of his mate which includes cooking.” He took a bite of bacon and slo