The Pack's Girl

All three Hayden brothers were now crawling on all fours onto the bank, nearly simultaneously. Coming at me from three different angles.

Having caught a whiff of something they found tantalizing, they were now charging me.

These three were always bullies, but right now, they looked positively feral.

I slid backward, retreating as I looked at each of them fearfully. What's going on? What did I do?

"That her?" Racer asked. Putting a foot on my chest to guide me to the ground so I couldn't keep moving backward. He sniffed pointedly. His eyes levelling on me.

Hunter dropped to his knees and lifted the hem of my cloak, purposely catching my skirt in his fists as well. He tossed them over his head like a shelter and inhaled deeply.

I yelped and eyed them in panic.

Hunter emerged from beneath my skirts and I stared at him in shock.

"Yep. It's her. She's not wearing undergarments." He said it so matter-of-factly, though I'd no idea what they were talking about.

I didn't have any undergarments. The only clothes I had were those the others had given me.

"You smelled me?" I lifted my brows, stunned.

"We could scent your arousal from the creek." Vanquish nodded over his shoulder, his voice husky.

"And it's not even the Mating Moon yet." Hunter looked at the other two. Still holding my skirt and cloak at chest level.

Making me uncomfortable that the other two could get a look at me if they leaned over.

Racer licked his lips. "She smells sooo good."

"Vanquish?" Hunter said in a low voice.

"Yes?"

"There's something else. You should probably come have a look at this."

What? What are they looking at? Was I malformed? I was too confused to retreat as I should've.

"What the Hell is that?" Vanquish roared, swatting my skirt off his head and gesturing to my middle.

What's he talking about?

"What?" I asked in confusion.

"What the hell do you have wrapped around your waist?"

Oh, no!

***

Note from the Author:

Explicit sex with some forced elements, raw animal aggression, lust and shapeshifting under a Mating Moon. A hate to love tale.

Read with caution.

***

I remembered running.

I remembered being covered in blood. Blood which wasn't mine. It didn't smell like me.

Sticky dried blood which now matted my hair over my face. My clothes were thick with it making them nearly solid in the chilly morning air. I was cold and I'd been running nearly the whole first day.

Trying to get away from those chasing me. I could remember that much.

But that first evening, I'd tripped over a rock and hit my head so hard against a tree trunk that I'd felt my chin tuck into my neck.

I didn't wake until the following morning and that was to find the top of my forehead now bleeding down my face. I drug my wrist over my eyes trying to keep the fluid out of them so I could see.

I couldn't remember what I was running from anymore but the fear that'd driven me was alive and well.

I was deep in the heart of War Territory. And I was certain something was still chasing me. It'd been days and I was so hungry my stomach was cramping and felt as though it intended to eat itself. But I was driven to frantically look behind me, terrified.

My confusion was only worsened by something moving through the trees so fast I couldn't tell what it was. It stopped in-front of me, hesitating only a moment and I realized it was a man.

I think. He was covered in mud and ash.

To disguise his scent, likely. That was easy to deduct. And his eyes were vibrant blue staring at me.

But I knew instinctively looking at him that men were what I'd feared running into.

The scream tore out of me even as he dropped something heavy around my shoulder.

I nearly flung it off as I stumbled back. Rearing from his touch. Realizing it was a cloak I stared at it over my shoulder in shock.

When I looked up he was gone. Scared off by me screaming my head off, no doubt.

So he's not the one chasing me.

Who's chasing me and who was that? I felt ashamed knowing someone had tried to be kind to me but I was so high strung and disgustingly matted with blood I probably scared him with my hysterics more than he'd scared me.

I saw another flash through the trees and realized he was still out there. Running faster than anyone I'd ever seen.

Or at least could currently recall.

I woke the next morning from sleeping up in a tree. Woke before the sun had risen by the tantalizing smell of a dead squirrel.

Food. I scrambled down the tree. Scratching my leg in the process, but too hungry to care.

I picked up the squirrel and sunk my teeth into it desperately.

The wolf inside me was ravenous but I was too weak from shock and my injuries and hunger to change.

It might kill me if I tried. I knew.

And what good would it do? I'd never been able to hunt. Though my sense of smell was good. I was not very fast and had no skill in running animals down. I didn't understand how or why they veered the directions they did. I found them utterly unpredictable and impossible to catch.

And I sensed that whatever I was before...I'd never had to hunt.

Food was always brought to me.

***

Something nearby shot through the trees and I realized it was probably that same muddy man that had given me the cloak. Cloth which had warmed me last night.

He must've left me the food too.

Thank God I had an ally out here.

But now the question was, what did he want in return?

Wolves give nothing for free. I remembered that bit also.

"Who are you?" I called to where I'd last seen movement.

But something shot through the trees a bit away in a different direction.

I backed up uneasily. There were more.

I knew of only one that was kind. Who was the other?

A flash of movement to my left caught my eye and I yelped. They're everywhere.

Feeling chased again I ran. But something cutting across my path made me turn left and run straight that way. Hearing their feet crushing sticks and kicking rocks behind me.

They're on my heels.

I ran faster. Which wasn't saying much. Breathing raggedly I ran as hard as I could until coming to a wall. Stopping I stared up at the huge stone and mortar construction.

Seeing only one door carved in it I edged that way but found it too ominous to knock on.

Turning around I stared into the shadows of the afternoon but saw no movement now, heard nothing.

Had I actually lost them? My heart was pounding in my ears so loud I wasn't sure I could've heard someone anyway.

At some point I'd dozed off as evening descended. Sleeping against a tree weekly. Facing away from the wall to watch for intruders. Trying to be quiet.

One squirrel had been kind but wasn't enough. My stomach was growling from the hunger. Feeling like it was gnawing away at my backbone in desperation.

"Jaecar!" I heard a man shout from a distance away.

"Jaecar!" Another voice from another direction.

"Let her in!" This voice was far too my right.

How many were there? Let me in where?

Was this help or more torment?

The door groaned open and a tall man with black hair and a black goatee stepped through the door to meet me.

"Who are you?"

"Vanna...Rae..." I said slowly. Mechanically recalling my name.

"Well, Vanna Rae, you look like warmed over hell."

I assumed this was Jaecar since he was indeed, 'letting me in.'

"You need to get washed up down in the creek." He pointed through the trees where I could faintly hear the slow sloshing of water. "Then you'll need to cover up. He tossed me a different oversized cloak. I'll go find you something to where. But the Mating Moon will be here in a few days so I'd suggest you cover well."

I didn't really know what any of that meant but I could tell Jaecar was sincere and on my side. I took the proffered cloak and headed down to the creek.

***

But while I washed, I heard Jaecar's name called by one of the familiar voices. I heard the groaning of the door and knew he opened it for someone.

Whoever had driven me here.

"Where is she?"

"Washing up at the creek." Jaecar said. "Give her some time. She's scared as hell."

Whoever it was must've nodded because I heard no response.

***

True to his word, Jaecar returned later with a grossly oversized dress.

"Was the closest I could find from one of the old women in the camp." He nodded through the trees in the direction of a bit of firelight.

I took it greedily and barely peered at him from under the oversized hood of the cloak he'd given me. Holding it tightly closed to hide that I was bare beneath it. Though I didn't currently look like much.

I was covered in scrapes and bruises with a few long slashes on my arms and one on my stomach. Whatever had happened to me...I'd clearly been through hell.

"Go through the trees." Jaecar pointed. "And in the distance at the edge of the camp is an old hut from the Widower Tom that passed away last year. No one resides it. Take it.

I nodded hesitantly. Clinging to the fabric covering me. "Th-thank you."

"Don't thank me..." He said cryptically. "Wasn't my doing to bring you here. You may very well regret that one day."

***

Despite my apprehension from his words, I was vastly relieved when I entered the rough-hewn hut, more a shack really, and found a bit of boar cooking over a flame. I was desperately hungry.

I slid on my knees near the fire and yanked the meat off the spit in such a hurry that I burned my hands. Desperately cramming the food in my mouth and purring as it hit my tongue.

Someone had bothered to feed me. Despite how grateful I was, I was far too tired to question who.

The next morning when I opened the door to peer out, I find a bundle of oversized clothes on my stoop. I greedily tugged them inside and undid the strings holding them. Highly grateful.

I remembered what Jaecar had said about the Mating Moon and eyed one worn dress. Deciding, I began determinedly tearing it into thick strips.

To bind my body.

Other then that I sat on the one wooden chair at the tiny square table and listened to everyone in the camp.

There was a knock the next morning and more food.

I tugged it inside and slammed the door. Sinking my teeth into the raw meat in my rush to put more in my stomach.

Apparently, the village is taking care of me. And I was vaguely touched. But not enough to want to spend time outside my hut.

It was the third evening, when I heard a man with a crisp decisive tone talking outside my shuttered window. I instinctively knew that kind of power and strength indicated it was the alpha.

"She can't hunt and she's clearly traumatized. She's no desire to come out of there. You three know how dangerous unsocialized wolves can become. She can't stay here if she doesn't start at least engaging with the woods and someone in the camp."

That was the first time I heard the knock on the door. I swallowed hard. Hunkering down and hoping they'd not make me leave.

That night there was scratching around my hut. Wolves asking to come in.

No. You'll make me leave.

The next morning was another knock I wouldn't answer. Opting to hide inside until it stopped.

Which was the first time Hunter Hayden crept in my window.

***

I was trying to kick dust over the floorboards to one corner in an effort to clean up. When I turned around, I squawked at the sight of him in the middle of my hut.

Midnight hair and dancing light blue eyes intent on me. "You smell like honey...Delicious..."

He was tall and dark skinned from being in the sun. His shoulders squared and his hips narrow and athletic. His legs long.

And when I lunged like I might dive out the window past him, he agilely hopped into my path. Blocking the way.

I gasped. Finding myself hissing through my teeth.

Hissing?

He eyed me. Thinking the same thing I likely was.

Wolves don't hiss.