Rescued by the Blackridge Alpha

Chapter 7

Nia didn't wait for a second warning. She spun around and ran.

The lake vanished behind us. One moment there was open water and moonlight, the next there were trees everywhere, trunks rushing past on either side as Nia threw herself into the darkness.

Behind us, something crashed through the undergrowth.

He was following.

Faster.

Nia stretched into the run until her belly almost brushed the ground. Wet leaves sprayed behind her paws. A branch caught her shoulder and snapped, but she barely seemed to feel it.

Neither of us knew these woods.

That frightened me more than the wolf.

At Silvercrest, Nia could have run blind. She knew every stream, every deer trail, every fallen tree. Here, the forest gave her nothing. Every scent was unfamiliar. Every turn carried us farther from anything we knew.

The pounding behind us grew louder.

Nia veered around an oak, scrambling over exposed roots. A fallen trunk appeared out of the darkness ahead, too late to avoid. She gathered herself and jumped.

Something black flashed beside us.

Nia twisted in midair. She landed badly. Her hind legs slipped out from beneath her, sending us skidding through wet leaves. Pain shot through one hip. Nia scrambled upright and spun, teeth bared.

Nothing.

The forest behind us was empty.

Where is he?

Her ears moved frantically.

Left, right. Nothing.

Then a growl came from ahead.

Nia froze.

The black wolf stepped from behind a tree.

My stomach dropped.

No. That wasn't possible. He had been behind us.

Nia backed away, sides heaving. The wolf's breathing was barely faster than it had been at the lake.

He hadn't been chasing us. He'd been playing with us.

Anger flared through me.

Run.

Nia didn't need telling twice. She bolted left.

The wolf moved with us. Not behind.

Beside.

I caught glimpses of him through the trees. A black shoulder. The flash of an eye. Massive paws striking the ground before disappearing behind another trunk.

Nia changed direction.

So did he.

She cut sharply downhill.

He appeared below us.

Nia skidded, claws tearing grooves through the damp earth as she fought to turn. The black wolf stopped twenty feet away.

Nia spun and ran in the only direction he'd left open.

It happened again. And again.

Every time she tried to turn, black fur appeared between the trees.

He was choosing our path.

Stop letting him do that, I yelled.

Nia snarled. Apparently that was directed at me.

Oh, good. You're speaking again.

Nothing.

Fine. She could resume ignoring me after we weren't being hunted by something twice her size.

Nia raced through a patch of ferns, but exhaustion was beginning to drag at her stride. We'd already run farther tonight than we had in months. Her lungs burned. Her injured hip protested every time her hind paw struck the earth.

The black wolf remained effortlessly close.

Then Nia stopped.

Just stopped.

What are you doing?

She turned around.

Oh, absolutely not.

The black wolf emerged between the trees behind us.

Nia lowered her head. A growl vibrated through her chest.

Nia!

Her lips pulled back. Another growl.

Excellent. Very intimidating. Can we leave now?

She took a step toward him.

Apparently not.

The wolf stopped. For a few seconds, they faced each other across the forest floor.

Then he sat.

Nia's growl faltered.

I stared at him through her eyes.

He sat there.

The bastard actually sat down.

His tongue appeared briefly as he licked one canine, then disappeared again. His eyes never left us.

Heat flared through Nia.

Don't.

She stepped forward.

Nia!

Another step.

The black wolf's ears twitched.

I felt her outrage.

Despite everything, something dangerously close to laughter caught in my chest.

Then the wind shifted.

Nia froze. The amusement vanished.

There were others.

Her nose lifted. Three separate scents tangled together on the breeze. Male wolves. Close enough that Nia could distinguish sweat beneath their scents.

The black wolf was already standing. Every trace of indifference disappeared. His head lowered. His ears sharpened toward the trees.

And for the first time, I saw what the men at Silvercrest meant when they talked about an Alpha's presence.

It wasn't size, not even strength.

It was the sudden certainty that something in the forest had become a predator.

Nia felt it too. She backed away.

A voice drifted between the trees.

“...tomorrow.”

Another man laughed. “Plenty to choose from.”

Nia's ears flattened.

The transfer.

My attention snapped toward the voices. The second man said something I couldn't make out, followed by another laugh.

They were coming closer.

Go.

Nia turned.

The black wolf stepped into her path.

She recoiled.

Other way.

She tried.

He blocked her again.

A growl rose in Nia's throat.

The voices grew louder.

“Did you hear that?”

Shit.

Footsteps changed direction. They came toward us.

Nia tried to move again, but the black wolf crowded her backward until her flank brushed the trunk of an oak.

He's trapping us. Panic surged through me.

Nia snapped at him.

His head jerked away from her teeth, but he didn't retaliate. He simply stepped closer, forcing her farther behind the tree. Then he turned his back on us.

I went still.

His body filled the space between Nia and the approaching voices.

Three men emerged from the darkness. The one in front saw him first. His steps slowed.

The other two were looking past him.

At us.

“Well, well.” The man's eyes travelled over Nia. His nostrils flared. “She's alone.”

The second man smiled. “Not from around here either.”

Nia pressed herself closer to the tree.

I felt her exhaustion. Her aching hip. The frantic hammering of her heart.

Three wolves.

Four, counting the monster standing in front of us.

This had been a spectacularly bad idea.

The first man moved toward Nia.

The black wolf stepped sideways.

The man stopped.

Not because the wolf had made any sound. He hadn't. Something that large had no business moving that quietly.

No the man stopped because he hadn't seen the Black wolf until now. His gaze dropped to him. For the first time, he actually looked.

His smile vanished. So did every trace of colour. He stumbled backward.

The man beside him frowned, following his stare. His eyes widened.

Fear hit the air so sharply that even I could smell it through Nia.

The third man whispered something.

I didn't hear what.

Then his bones broke.

He shifted so violently that his shirt tore before he'd even hit the ground. Brown fur burst across his shoulders, and a heartbeat later a wolf was racing through the trees.

The other two didn't hesitate either.

One turned before he had fully shifted. His front paws struck the earth while his hind legs were still changing, sending him sprawling. He scrambled upright and ran.

The last man followed.

Seconds.

That was all it took.

Three men had walked into the clearing laughing. Now three wolves fled through the forest as though staying meant death.

Nia stared after them.

The black wolf didn't. He remained where he was, head slightly lowered, listening to their retreat.

Then slowly, he turned toward us.

My relief died before it had fully formed.

Right. We still had him.

Nia stepped away from the tree.

The wolf's gaze followed her. There was no warmth in it. No reassurance. Nothing to suggest he'd put himself between us and those men because he cared whether we survived the night.

Maybe he hadn't.

Maybe they'd simply trespassed on his territory.

Maybe he'd been keeping us away from them because we were his prey.

His upper lip lifted. A growl rolled through him.

It was low enough that I felt it before I properly heard it.

Nia's ears flattened.

The message needed no translation.

Go.

She hesitated.

The wolf lunged one step forward with a snarl.

Nia bolted.

Trees swallowed us.

She ran harder than before, ignoring the pain in her hip. I didn't tell her where to go. I didn't care, as long as every stride put more distance between us and that wolf.

For several minutes, there was nothing behind us.

Then a howl ripped through the night.

Nia faltered.

The sound came from the direction we'd left.

A second howl answered farther away.

Then a third.

The fleeing males.

Nia's ears turned back.

For one heartbeat, the forest went silent.

Something crashed through the undergrowth behind us.

Nia threw a terrified glance over her shoulder. A black shape tore between the trees in the opposite direction.

But he was not after us. He was after them.

Branches snapped beneath his weight before the darkness swallowed him.

Another howl sounded in the distance. It ended abruptly, followed by a painful cry.

Nia faced forward.

And ran like hell.