Chapter 2 Hunted By Moonlight

I never knew my legs could carry me this fast.

Being this Shadow Wolf thing? It felt like I was flying. No, like a bullet shooting through the trees. I wasn't running, I was slicing everything in my way. But gosh, it was too much. Too strong. My lungs burned like someone poured fire inside them.

And my wolf? She howled in my head, thick with rage.

MINE. THEY TRIED TO BREAK US. NOW WE BREAK THEM.

I could see it so clearly, claws ripping into every face that ever sneered at me. Part of me wanted it. But the thought twisted my stomach. What happens after?

"There she is! Don't let the bitch reach the river!" Jax's voice came from the right, loud and mean.

He was getting closer. Even with all this new power, I was tired. Years of barely eating as a servant had left me weak. I pushed anyway. My paws slipped on wet moss and I almost fell, my body failing again. Always failing.

Then I felt it, the first glitch.

As I leaped over a fallen log, my body didn't stay solid. For a split second, I turned into a cloud of black smoke and went right through the wood like nothing. But when I landed on the other side? Everything spun. My wolf vanished. My bones snapped back into place with a sickening crunch, dumping me onto the dirt, human and naked. My power had run out.

Dammit! Not now! Everything always falls apart. Always at the worst moment.

I grabbed the bundle Lila threw at me in all the chaos. My hands wouldn't stop shaking. I pulled out the wool jacket and the plain dress. The second the fabric touched me, blood started soaking through from the gash on my hip where the hunter's arrow had sliced me.

I heard paws. Heavy ones from Jax.

He burst through the bushes and shifted back to human right in front of me with that ugly twisted grin spread across his face.

I curled into myself, arms over my chest, hating how small I felt again. The shadows tried to hide me, but I was still just the broken omega.

"Jax burst through the trees, shifting back to human with a jagged grin. "From monster to shivering rat," he mocked, reaching for my throat. "Time to erase this mistake."

But the shadows? They didn't ask me. They just shot up from the ground, wrapped around his ankles like snakes. He tripped hard and his face landed in the dirt.

"What the hell?" he yelled, kicking at the black mist.

I didn't stick around to watch him get up. I turned and ran. No wolf speed anymore, but I still had the stubborn part of me that had survived years of hell.

Jax roared furiously behind me but the trees were closing in tighter, hiding me step by step.

The air changed and got colder. It smelled like wet earth, old rot, and something ancient and secret. I knew exactly what it meant. I had crossed the border. I was in Rogue Lands now.

Jax and his guys stopped at the tree line. Their torches looked like angry eyes far away. They didn't follow.

No Eclipse wolf was stupid enough to enter the Rogue Lands without an Alpha's command.

"Yeah, keep running, mutt!" Jax yelled, his voice echoing. "The Rogues will do our job for us! They'll pick your bones clean by morning! You're dead either way."

Their laughter chased me, cruel and loud, but it faded as they turned back toward the pack house. Toward safety. Warm beds. Full stomachs. While I run until I can't.

I kept going because I had to. My legs turned to jelly, but I forced them forward. Every shadow looked like it was about to grab me. Every twig snap made me flinch hard.

I pushed into the Rogue Lands, the air turning cold and smelling of old rot. Jax's laughter faded behind me, but the silence of the forest was worse.

I ran until my legs were jelly but they just kept moving on their own because the second I stopped, I was done for. And I wasn't ready to be done. Not after the way Kairos looked at me.

That cold, empty look was still burning behind my eyes..

The moon was way down low by then and dawn was probably somewhere behind the trees, but this forest didn't care. It stayed dark, mean, thorns snagging me every few steps.

I stumbled into a tiny clearing and basically collapsed against an old fallen log. My side was screaming. Blood had soaked Lila's jacket completely, making it heavy and freezing against my skin, my numb fingers pressing the wound.

I let my eyes close. Just for a second.

Which was a huge mistake, because the second I let my guard down, the bond exploded in my chest again.

It was Kairos.

He wasn't just angry anymore. He was hunting. I could feel his massive deadly wolf crashing through the trees straight toward me.

He was coming to finish it. He was coming to kill the monster he'd rejected, before the Shadow Madness could spread.

I have to hide. I have to hide right now. Panic clawing up my throat. He won't stop and he won't hesitate to kill me.

The rejection felt like a rock sitting on my chest. Twenty-two years I'd dreamed about my mate. Prayed every single night for someone who would see me, choose me, love me. And when the Moon Goddess finally answered? She gave me a man who wanted me dead.

I spotted a little hollow under a rocky overhang. I crawled inside quickly and curled into a tight ball, hugging Lila's bundle to my chest like it was the only thing keeping me alive. It was all I had left of my old life.

I tried to stay awake. Tried to keep watch. But my eyes were so heavy. My head pounded from the mate bond, throbbing like a bad bruise that wouldn't stop hurting.

Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his face-those storm-gray eyes full of nothing but disgust. Always disgust.

I hate you, Kairos, I whispered into the dark, voice cracking. I hate you for doing this to me. I hate you for being right about how broken I am.

Right as I started drifting into feverish, half-sleep, a new scent hit me hard and pulled me awake.

It wasn't Kairos. Not the sharp blood-and-copper smell of the Alpha. Not Jax's stink.

This was different. Deep. Spicy. Familiar in a way that made my skin tingle. Cedarwood. Mountain wind. The smell of a wolf who didn't belong to anyone. A wolf who had survived things that should have killed him.

A rogue? Another hunting party? Or worse?

Then I heard it-heavy footsteps, slow and deliberate, right outside my hiding spot.

A big shadow blocked the moonlight and turned everything pitch black. My eart slammed, with my lungs burning.

There was no air or any escape.

I held my breath until my lungs screamed. My heart slammed so hard I thought it would crack my ribs. I prayed to a Goddess I didn't believe in anymore to make me invisible.

Please pass. Please don't stop. Please.

But I wasn't.

A large, dark hand reached into the hollow.

I scrambled back, nails digging into dirt, but there was nowhere left to go.

This was probably my end.

I opened my mouth to scream, to beg for help I knew wouldn't come, but a rough, warm palm clamped over my lips. It smelled like earth. Like home in a way I couldn't explain.

Home. How? How can that feel like home?

"Found you," a deep, gravelly voice whispered right against my ear.

It sounded like a dream I used to have or the worst nightmare coming true.

I looked up through the spaces between his fingers. Glowing gold eyes stared back at me. Intense. Burning. Not full of hate like Kairos's eyes but full of something else. Something hungry. Something that made my stomach flip.

For a heartbeat his gold eyes flickered - darker, almost black - then cleared. I told myself it was just exhaustion

Before I could fight or before I could even think, a strange sweet mist filled the air. My muscles went soft, my head fell back and once more, my body betrayed me again.

The last thing I felt was his arms sliding under me, lifting me like I weighed nothing.

"Sleep, Elara," he murmured low against my ear. "The King can't reach you here."

And then the world went completely black.