The Boundary Line

Chapter 16

"Come on, come and get me!"

I growled, flinching back as Aria loud voice shouted at me through mind-link. I forced myself to go faster, my paws pounding after her dark red and black wolf that wove in between trees as she tried distancing herself from me. I chuckled through our private link.

"You know I'm going to catch you, right?" Ari may be fast, but I did have Beta blood in me.

I got a snort in response. I spotted Ari running up ahead, jumping over a log before taking a sharp lift. I followed after her, making sure I didn't lose sight of her.

After the meeting, Ari and I returned to her house, we just chatted and goofed around there for a few hours. It wasn't until we got bored that we decided to come for a run, it couldn't have been a more perfect time as my wolf was itching for a run through our beautiful forest.

I raised my head to the now darkening sky, the sun had just fallen behind the mountains and the full moon was eliciting the area surrounding me. It was so beautiful that I couldn't help but wish Tristan was here with me. 

My wolf stirred. The fact that Tristan had completely put up a block, not allowing us at all to feel him and know his where about wasn't settling too well with her. I may have been bit mad myself, but I understood that he was attending a very important meeting and going through a tough time with the loss of his pack members.

"He has his reasons" I told her, feeling how she was contemplating my words. After a few seconds of silence she huffed.

"I know that. But he is our Mate! They shouldn't need to shut us out, they can tell us anything!"

I sigh, the truth sinking in. Tristan is our Mate. And yes, judging by behavior and comments about myself being his, I knew he was very possessive. However, that being said, he seem so shut off I can't help but wonder if he really is going to go through with our Mating.

"We can't expect him to be like that. He's closed off and guarded, we only just found him." My wold said nothing as she retreated back to my mind. I swallowed, my throat feeling tight and focused on my surroundings, realizing that the forest now had the foggy haze of night time.

As soon as I leaped over a small log, it suddenly dawned on me that I couldn't see nor feel Aria. I had a strange feeling that something was wrong.

"Aria?" I asked, worriedly trying to mind-link her. When she didn't reply, my heart started to race faster, my wolf whining. "Aria, where are you?" I attempted to contact her again. The forest around me suddenly felt threatening and too dark for my liking. Considering I liked running at night and in the dark, had me on high alert. When my wolf started whining louder and low growls erupted from us, I felt movement to my right.

Spinning around, I got in a low position, the fur on my back standing up while threatening growls escaped me. Searching around wildly, my eyes settled on a hunched figure that was supporting its weight by leaning on a tree.

I sniffed, raising my nose slightly my senses only picked up an unfamiliar smell. Although it was a faint, I most defiantly knew it didn't belong here.

Carefully watching the creature, chills ran up and down my spine, shivers racking my body. What is this thing? Suddenly, in a blink of an eye it appeared in front of me.

I stumbled back shocked and was mortified at what I saw. There before me was a creature that resembled a bald male human but wasn't human. His smell alerted me of that immediately. It was dressed in a dirty t-shirt and some patchy shorts that looked like rags. But that's where the similarity ended.

I bared my teeth, my top lip pulled back in a snarl. My eyes never leaving the threat. I watched as the creature opened its mouth, the attempt it made to grin was chilling. My heart stopped when I locked eyes with a pair of red ones. No pupils, no iris and no whites. Nothing but a mass of shocking dull red. Exactly like the ones that invaded my dreams the other night.