CHAPTER 3 : THE AMBUSH
1125 Words
The truck cut through the forest road in tense silence.
Kael drove like the world owed him no obstacles—one hand on the wheel, jaw tight, eyes fixed ahead. Leon sat beside him, alert. Rye sat next to me in the back but kept tossing annoyed glances in my direction as if I were an inconvenience strapped to the seat.
The atmosphere was thick.
Heavy.
Electrified.
And then my wolf—weak, usually silent—shivered.
Something felt wrong.
Kael noticed. His eyes flicked to the rear-view mirror, finding mine immediately.
“What is it?” he asked.
I shook my head, trying to steady my breath. “Something’s… off.”
Rye scoffed. “Her nerves are off. That’s it.”
But I wasn’t imagining it. My instincts had saved me more times than I wanted to remember.
Leon suddenly tensed.
“Alpha… do you smell that?”
Kael inhaled slowly.
His fingers tightened around the steering wheel.
“Wolfsbane.”
My heart stopped.
Wolfsbane meant hunters.
Or worse—wolves preparing to attack.
Before I could speak, the forest around us erupted.
BANG!
A massive tree crashed onto the road right in front of the truck. Kael slammed the brakes, tires screeching as the truck skidded sideways, throwing us all forward.
Leon cursed. “Brace!”
CRASH!
We hit the tree hard enough to shake the vehicle. Pain shot up my chest, and Rye swore loudly when his forehead slammed the seat in front of him.
Then—
Growls.
Dozens.
Surrounding us.
My blood turned cold.
Kael’s voice dropped into his true Alpha tone—cold, sharp, commanding.
“Get ready. They’re not ours.”
Rye already had the back door open. “Rogues?”
Kael shook his head slowly. “No. Trained wolves.”
Leon’s eyes widened. “Hunters working with wolves?”
Kael didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
The woods answered for him.
Shadows lunged from between the trees—wolves with scarred bodies and dark muzzles, eyes glowing with something unnatural. Their claws were sharper than normal. Their movements were too coordinated.
These weren’t rogues.
They were made.
My pulse raced. My breaths came fast and shallow.
Kael tore open his door and stepped out, his aura exploding like a storm. The force of it pressed against my skin, making it hard to breathe.
“Stay in the truck!” Leon ordered.
But something in me snapped—my instincts pushed forward with a sudden urgency.
“No—don’t get out there alone!” I protested.
Kael didn’t even look back.
His voice alone silenced the forest.
“I’m never alone.”
His wolf eyes glowed silver.
The first wolf attacked.
Kael moved like lightning—grabbing the wolf by the throat, twisting, and throwing it into another. Bones cracked. Snarls filled the air.
Leon shifted midair, fur exploding as he collided with two wolves at once.
Rye ripped a hunter from the bushes and slammed him to the ground. “Come at me, you cowards!”
Chaos.
Blood.
Snarls.
Metal glinting—hunters firing crossbows loaded with wolfsbane-tipped arrows.
Kael dodged one, grabbed it, snapped it between his fingers, and hurled it back with lethal precision.
It hit a hunter square in the chest.
The man dropped instantly.
I knew I should stay inside…
but someone screamed.
A child’s scream.
“No—no, no, no—” My body moved before my mind did.
I kicked open the door, ignoring Rye’s shout, and sprinted toward the sound. My legs burned. My lungs ached.
The forest blurred around me.
A hunter dragged a small girl—one of the pups I saved earlier—by her hair, a knife pressed against her neck.
She was crying. Terrified.
My chest burst with adrenaline.
“Let her go!”
The man jerked his head toward me and sneered. “Oh, look what we have here. The little stray.”
He tightened his grip on the child.
My heart pounded so hard it hurt.
“Please—she has nothing to do with this.”
“Oh, she has everything to do with this,” he hissed. “You should have left her to die. Now both of you will—”
A snarl ripped through the woods.
Kael.
“No one touches her.”
It wasn’t a voice anymore.
It was pure wolf fury.
He appeared behind the hunter, eyes blazing like silver fire.
But the hunter pressed the blade harder against the girl’s neck.
“One more step and—”
He didn’t finish.
Kael lunged.
I grabbed the child, pulling her out of the way just as Kael slammed into the hunter. The impact sent them both crashing into the ground.
The child sobbed into my chest. “D-Don’t let him hurt me again…”
“You’re safe,” I whispered, though my voice trembled. “I promise.”
But the moment I turned, a burning pain shot through my arm.
I gasped.
An arrow.
Wolfsbane-tipped.
Blood trickled down my skin as the poison spread like fire.
I stumbled back, choking.
The world blurred.
“No…” I whispered. “Not… again…”
Kael tore apart the last attacker and whipped around.
His eyes widened when he saw me fall to my knees.
“No!”
He ran toward me so fast the ground shook.
Leon and Rye were still fighting farther away. The forest was scattered with unconscious wolves and hunters.
But the only thing Kael cared about… was me.
He slid to my side, catching me before I hit the dirt. His hands gripped my face, his voice cracking in a way I never thought possible for him.
“Look at me,” Kael demanded. “Stay awake.”
“I—I’m fine,” I lied, blinking hard.
“You’re not.” His voice broke. “Wolfsbane shouldn’t affect you like this.”
“What… do you mean…?”
He didn’t answer.
He pressed his forehead to mine, eyes filled with a raw, furious panic.
“Who are you?” he whispered again, but this time it wasn’t cold.
It was desperate.
As if my answer meant everything.
My breath grew shallow. “I—I don’t know…”
Kael lifted me into his arms with a gentleness that didn’t match his violent rage moments ago.
“You will,” he said, voice shaking with something dangerously close to emotion. “I’ll make sure of it.”
My vision dimmed.
I heard Leon shouting.
Rye growling.
Wolves retreating.
And Kael’s heartbeat—thunderous, frantic—right beside my ear.
The last thing I heard before the darkness swallowed me was his voice:
“I won’t lose you. Not again.”
Again…?
Then everything faded.
- Writer
