The tree isn’t the most beautiful and fascinating part of the city.
No, it’s the leaves.
Burning leaves constantly fall off the branches at the top of the tree. They flutter down and then disappear into nothing but embers before they hit the ground. I stare around in awe at the place I’ve always wanted to come to see.
Terrified awe.
What the hell am I going to do? I bite my backpack in my mouth a little tighter, wondering what Mum packed inside it for me and if she is still alive. My wolf whines softly, our pain shared between us, threatening to take over the fear we need to focus on. It isn’t safe here. I glance back up at the portal at the top of the massive hill that I’ve just fallen down. Rizer is going to follow me here soon. He is too powerful for me to fight head-on, and there’s no way I’m going to get away from him in his pack’s territory if he spots me now. I glance back at the tree and Stormfire city resting around it.
There’s only really one thing I can do to survive: hide in Rizer’s pack of millions of Stormfire wolves and make sure he doesn’t find me.
He won’t think I’m brave enough to hide in his own pack. Hopefully.
At least I won’t stand out in Stormfire, not with my red fur wolf, as they all appear the same as me, something I’ve always wanted. Just not like this. Except for the white streak of hair, but I can disguise that with a hat or something in human form. Not so much as a wolf. I lean back on my heels and tighten my grip on the backpack before I break out into a run. My wolf bolts across the rocky terrain that seems like it’s on fire, but it does nothing but heat my paws. In fact, I feel warm but not on fire like I should do.
“Outside the gates of Hell’s city burn all those who flee and do not belong.”
My academy teachers’ words come back to haunt me as I keep running and come to a large river made of clear, crimson water. Sharp rocks sit at the bottom, and a few strange fish swim around them. Let’s hope none of them bite. The current of the river flows fast, and I don’t see a bridge in sight or anywhere I can cross.
We’ll have to swim.
Feeling my wolf’s reluctance to go into it, and I’m completely in agreement with her, I figure we don’t have a choice. We’re not great at swimming. It was never one of our bonus points at the academy, but there’s no way around it. I pull the backpack tightly into my mouth, knowing I need to hold on firmly to it in the river.
We can do this!
I dive into the water, and my wolf uses all our strength to swim to the other side. We try not to get pushed too far down by the current, but the river is deeper and bigger than we thought. The water is warm, almost painfully warm, but I try not to focus on it as we swim as fast as we can to the other side. Soon we realise the current is much wilder than we predicted, and suddenly we are being pushed harshly around. My wolf dives underwater, and we bare our teeth, holding the backpack to push through the current. It directs our path. I know I need to let the current take me and not fight it, even as I can’t see or hear anything but red water.
It’s official. Hell sucks, and they even ruined water.
My wolf pulls free of the current eventually, and we break out of the top of the river, gasping for air around the backpack. We end up just being pulled and pulled farther down the river, not able to get out of the current to either side. My legs ache, and tiredness takes over with every brush of a wave of water against us. The only good thing is that Rizor is unlikely to find me now. The dreadful thing is that rivers like this can only end in two ways. One could be a pretty lake and the other a deadly waterfall.
With my luck, it is definitely going to be a waterfall.
No sooner do I think that than the rushing of a waterfall in the distance carries to my ears, and pure panic makes me struggle around in the water. I want to shift back, but I know it’s not a good idea. My wolf is stronger than I am. She goes back underwater with the current, and we try swimming tougher when we come back up, but it doesn’t get us anywhere. I glance around as quickly as possible, looking for anything to help us get out of this damn river. That’s when I see it, a big rock ledge on the left side, next to the edge of the waterfall cliff. If I could just land on to that, I can climb out and be on the right side for the city.
I swim as hard as I can towards it, pushing my wolf to her limits, begging our body not to give our tiredness.
We really need to work on our cardio and swimming skills if we survive this.
We just about slam our body into it, my lungs gasping from the impact, and I nearly drop the backpack out of my mouth. Pulling myself up onto the ledge, I reel my weak legs across to the side of the rocky pathway and finding a hidden space between a few roots of a stray tree that will hide me for a bit.
Fucking hell, I think to myself, letting out a small, frustrated whine.
I shift back, needing to be human for a moment, and take a deep breath before breaking down in sobs as the pain of everything that has happened catches up with me. Wrapping my arms around my knees, I don’t know how long I cry for. Knowing that my mum’s gone, knowing my dad is most likely gone, too, and I’m the alpha’s intended mate.
And he rejected me.
Being rejected by someone who you’re meant to mate with is unheard of in the pack world. At least I’ve never heard of it. But then it’s also unheard of for the Stormfire alpha to take a mate. I know he has one son whose mother he murdered, but she was never his mate. Just his breeder.
How he ever thought I could be his mate is insane to think about. I’m no alpha female and I never want to take a mate. I don’t want to love someone because magic forces me to. Too many times I saw my mum resist her mating bond because her mate was an asshole.
Sorry, Dad, but you were one. RIP. Hopefully.
I grit my teeth, and my wolf lets out a growl that echoes in my chest when I think of Rizor calling me weak. I am not weak. Taking a deep breath, I try to control my emotions, try to push down my urge to shift back. To run and run until we get out of this world, to somewhere safe from him. But I know we need to be smarter than that right now. I don’t have anywhere to go back to. The alpha of Caeli won’t fight the Stormfire pack for me, which he would have to do if he protected me. Rizor will never stop until he kills me…even I don’t understand what he wants with my death. I can’t go straight to my brother because that’s exactly where he’d think I’d go. Watching my brother is going to be his first move, no doubt. I search my brain for an answer for a long time before I come up with the perfect (ish) idea.
I look up at the falling embers that drift down around me, matching the same colour as my hair. I think of my brother’s best friend who lives here in Stormfire. The boy who always smelt of burning leaves and bad decisions.
Caspian Hardling.
I met him a few times as a young teenager and I fixated on him because he was Stormfire, new, interesting, and most importantly, gorgeous. His parents let him spend two years training in Caeli Academy as part of a student exchange programme to help with peace between the four packs. Caspian is a good guy, and I can trust him. My brother said he trusted Caspian with his life, and I really have no one else to turn to here. I doubt Caspian is even going to remember me; I haven’t seen him since I was thirteen and blurted out I had a big crush on his handsome eighteen-year-old ass.
I was a dork who had just discovered wine. A bad combo.