The Ruthless Alpha’s Bunny Mate

Chapter 1

Clover

The scent of damp earth and crushed clover usually brought a sense of calm to me, but today it only instilled a sense of dread.

The Warren was in a disordered frenzy, preparing for departure as rabbits in human forms rushed around tying bundles of dried roots and winter provisions into satchels with twitching noses. I turned my head back and forth, watching the chaos unfold.

"Out of the way, Clover!"

I yelped in surprise as a heavy weight collided with the side of my ribcage, sending me skidding across the forest floor. Throwing up a cloud of dust, I landed on my side, my right leg twisting awkwardly beneath me. I groaned in pain as a sharp pain lanced up the side of my hip.

"Watch where you're swinging that useless hind leg," growled Bran, one of the Colony's lead foragers. He pushed past me, slinging two large sacks of grain over his shoulder without looking back. "Wouldn't want you stumbling and taking out half the herd."

Managing to push myself back onto my knees, I brushed the dust from my tunic. My right hind leg dragged against the ground.

Since my seventh birthday, when the chalk cliff slipped beneath me and all but shattered my leg, I hadn't been the same. The limb, now twisted in an odd angle, was permanently stiff and sore. Worse yet, it prevented me from ever running at full speed when danger drew near. Speed and agility were what the Colony valued most outside of sharp senses, and being injured to the point of sluggishness had not been a blessing.

"Weak hind legs and no speed mean you're a liability to us all," muttered Elder Silas as he loomed over me. His long cloak billowed behind him as he stood, the leader of my colony. Few dared to question his orders. Not many knew how to defy his will.

"Elder Silas," I murmured, fixing my gaze upon the dirt.

"Are you finished wallowing long enough to help us all survive?" he snapped. "The sickness in the valley has grown rampant, striking down burrows left and right. The waters ran foul during the night, and if we linger, we'll follow those poor rabbits to infection."

I shivered. The Blight. That vile sickness that had come sweeping across the land in the last handful of weeks. It had begun three weeks ago, a foreign sickness that had twisted the colony's lives forever. It had started when the first dark sludge had seeped into the underground rivulets. Those sludge-coated waters had tainted the very source of our drinking water, and within a matter of days, the colony was doomed. We had not had a choice. We could no longer live within the valley; we had to leave, to find the old burrows in the Great Meadow on the mountains' northern side.

If only we could reach them before the first snowfall, we could hibernate safely within the burrows. The only problem with this plan was the path to the Meadow.

The Ridge. The forbidden pass over the Obsidian Ridge.

The territory of the Bloodfang Rogues, a pack of vicious wolf shifters who had been banished from the southern packs for their violent ways. Their Alpha was a particularly notorious monster by the name of Gideon the Bloodthirsty, said to tear the throats out of anyone stupid enough to trespass on his lands. His pack was said to have the sharpest teeth of any predator in the land and the most brutal nature.

"We move at twilight, and we travel light," declared Elder Silas, his voice carrying across the colony, silencing the murmuring crowds. "We must reach the Meadow by the next week. Every shifter who slows us down will not be given aid. We cross the ridge under the cover of darkness. Any hindrance to the colony's survival will result in immediate execution. Is this understood?"

His dark eyes fixed on me as he spoke these words.

"Silas, please," I whispered, taking a step forward. My bad leg caught on a tree root, sending me stumbling forward. "I can carry extra rations, and I can carry the medicinal herbs. Just let me go before the sickness finds us all-"

"Before you trip over your own hind legs and alert the wolves to our presence?" Silas asked dryly. "No, Clover. You will march with the rear guard. If you keep up, you live. If you don't..." He stepped closer, lowering his voice. "...do not expect any of us to waste time trying to save you. You've crippled this colony for a decade already. We cannot, will not, let your broken bones waste us all."

My heart pounded painfully in my chest, but I could not form an answer. By the time the moon reached its highest point in the sky, the colony had arrived at the base of the forbidden Obsidian Ridge.

Sticky black stones littered the rocky path as we climbed slowly upward. The scent of wolves clung to the air as ominous growls echoed from far above. My heart thundered in my chest as the colony reached the crest of the ridge. The sight before me was one of my worst nightmares.

"The border markers," someone muttered. "That means we're at the edge of Bloodfang territory." I clenched my jaw, forcing myself to my feet. This was not the time to falter. I could feel my leg dragging, and I forced my foot to move faster.

Upward we climbed. Upward and into darkness, toward Death's very doorstep. I forced myself to my feet, my boots scraping against the loose gravel. My breath came in short gasps as my other rabbits in human forms took swift, nimble steps, bounding lightly atop the rockslides. I, however, was a sorry excuse for a rabbit, a broken hind leg keeping me from taking more than a few painful steps.

"Hurry up, deadweight!" growled a voice from above me. "She'll get us all killed if a wolf hears that miserable leg of hers!"

"I told you, she'll get us all killed if her foot continues!" hissed another.

I forced my foot to move, biting back a cry of pain as my leg buckled. My knees slammed painfully into the ground. A sharp rock bit into my trousers, digging into my skin. I choked back a whimper as my pack thudded to the ground. The wooden canteen at its center clattered down the mountainside, making a horribly loud CLANG* sound as it tumbled down the rocky ravine.

The entire colony froze. A hushed gasp passed over the rabbits as they turned toward me. High above us, wolves howled and bayed.

"RUN!" Silas bellowed, his voice as raw as the fear in his eyes. "NOW!"

In an instant, the entire colony was in chaos. Dozens of shifters were in the air, transformed into their rabbit forms and bounding up the trail at top speed. I scrambled forward, blood trickling down my shin as I tried to get to my feet. My hands touched a familiar cloak.

"Please!" I beseeched the young man I'd known since childhood. He had a look of horror on his face as he turned away from me. "Help me up!"

He shoved my hands away, transforming into a rabbit and leaping over my prone form with a flash of cream-colored fur.

"Please!" I sobbed, trying to crawl forward despite the pain. "Don't leave me here!"

One after another, the shifters leapt over me, shoving past me as they fled for their lives. In five seconds, the trail above me was completely empty. I was alone, abandoned by my friends, by my colony.

The howls of wolves were only seconds away.

I forced myself onto my knees, pushing against the rock wall. I tried to run but nearly collapsed as the bad leg buckled beneath me. I was just too slow. Always too slow.

The bushes behind me rustled, and I turned on my hip just in time to see a great black dog lunge at me. Behind it, three more beasts circled, closing in on all sides. The first wolf's glowing golden eyes fixed on me, and his lips parted in a long, toothy snarl. A deep growl rumbled from his chest, vibrating up my spine.

My colony was long gone, racing up the ridge far above me. Just as they always did. And now, I was alone at the mercy of the monster.