As soon as those instincts kick in, I’m able to calculate my next move, as if I’m living life two milliseconds ahead of everyone around me, and I’m able to anticipate their next moves before they make them. It’s how I was able to escape Sam this morning.
And it’s how I’m able to determine that his next move now is to grab my wrist when I fail to respond to his question.
Deftly stepping to the side, I dodge the movement when his hand leaves his chin and he reaches toward me. I act oblivious and keep the smile plastered on my face when I say, “Oh, to unwind?” I shrug nonchalantly as I begin walking slowly toward the pack hall, keeping my eyes on Sam and Darius. “I like tending to my crops.”
Darius snickers. “Why don’t you letustend to your crops, Yvie?”
Catching the innuendo in that suggestion, I remain unfazed, smiling and acting oblivious again. “I—I could never expect the betas of Moonshine to help with gardening!” I chuckle nonchalantly, waving a dismissive hand in the air as I continue on my way. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go prepare dinner for tonight.”
As I spin on my heel and begin power-walking through the thick blanket of snow that covers the meadow, I can hear thetwo betas following me with prowling, threatening steps. I keep my eyes glued to the pack hall building up ahead, knowing that my only escape is reaching it before either of them can grab me.
I just need to be one step ahead.
“Come on, Yvie! Where are you going?!” Sam calls out from behind me.
“Don’t be like that, Yvie! Let us tend to your crops!” Darius chimes in with a disturbing hint of bemusement in his voice that sends a chill down my spine. My steps are quick, matching the beat of the alarm bells ringing in my eardrums as I try to get as far away from the betas as possible.
They don’t need to spell it out for me to know what they’re planning. I can already sense their intentions, and I can’t let it happen to me. I refuse to be a victim again. I refuse to let another man touch me again.
Even if the first time was because I did it willingly.
Chapter 2 - Dawson
Two Weeks Earlier
“Is Alpha Elias gonna join us any time soon?” Brooks, a fellow alpha of the Snehvolk Pack, scoffs with mock derision, his voice tapering into a chuckle as he shakes his head.
His response comes in the form of the pack den’s door crashing in and the head alpha’s dramatic arrival.
Shaking my head, I turn back to the bar counter, lift my drink, and chuckle. “There he is,” I mutter as both Brooks and Thane begin chastising Alpha Elias’s rather late arrival.
“Sorry, boys,” Elias apologizes without an ounce of remorse evident on his face. As the main alpha of the Snehvolk Pack, he really doesn’t owe us an apology.
But considering that we’re his closest friends, it’s the least he can do. Ever since he became bound to his fated mate, Luna Aurora, he hasn’t been as accessible as he used to be.
I know it’s unreasonable for the rest of us to take it personally. After all, a male wolf’s entire life revolves around his mate when he finds her and becomes bound to her.
Or so I’ve heard.
It’s not like I’ve experienced that much. Perhaps a tiny glimpse into what it could have been, until it was rudely stripped from me before I could get a chance to explore it.
Shrugging off those thoughts because, truthfully, it doesn’t matter, I turn to Alpha Elias as he continues to address us so formally that I have reason to believe that he called us to the pack den to tell us something important, not just to share a drink between friends.
Still, he lifts his bourbon to his mouth and takes a huge slurp before continuing, “We’ve heard nothing about the demon dog.” Elias sets his empty glass down with a deliberate clink that echoes throughout the wooden-structured den.
The pause allows each of the four alphas of the pack to gather our thoughts and composure and realize that we aren’t truly in the clear yet.
The demon dog is a malevolent, demonic spirit that threatens our kind. Once thought to be appeased only when a pack made a willing sacrifice of one of their own to the demon, we soon realized how wrong we were when it attacked us with deliberate intent to harm the luna of the pack.
Aurora Sinclair is no ordinary omega she-wolf who was chosen as Alpha Elias’s mat—she’s part witch, a descendant of an ancient mystical tribe who possesses mystical powers that the demonic spirit has been after.
Two months ago, the demon dog attacked the pack when we tried luring it here with Aurora’s powers channeled into a device to distract it. But the demon turned out to be much smarter than we thought for something that looks as horrendous and hideous as the shaggy black mutt-like creature, with its purple tongue and empty black eyes.
It’s not a creature of this Earth, but instead a spirit from a different dimension that only manifests in physical form like a washed-out dog. It doesn’t succumb to any ordinary attacks, and our wolf claws are no match for the creature, even though it’s after our kind.
It’s already killed four of our pack members, leaving their limbs torn and strewn across the fields as if it were sending a warning message. We thought we would appease it by offeringit a sacrifice, but it turned out that the sacrifice was not just a powerful witch, but the main alpha’s fated mate.
Since then, the demon has been attacking us to get to Aurora Sinclair, Elias’s mate. The last time it attacked two months ago, it almost killed all the alphas of the Snehvolk Pack. If it wasn’t for Luna Aurora’s magic, we would have died.
