Skylar.

“Shit, he hung up!” I slammed my phone back on my lap, resting my head against the side mirror.

“You okay back there?” Mark, the man I met at the restaurant, asked from the driver's seat of his car.

I feigned a smile. “Just keep going.” I said before going back to fuming with anger.

Why didn't he tell me who he was? I mean, I always knew he was a werewolf but I never thought he was an Alpha and he was about to rule the most powerful pack in the country!

In truth, that wasn't the reason for my anger. It was the fact that he pretended not to sense our mate bond. How could he do that?

I needed to know why and that's why I was going to his pack. Perhaps if it couldn't work between us, I needed closure. Or maybe, just maybe he wasn't aware of our mate bond and I'd tell him.

“Why are we stopping?” I asked, sitting up.

“There's a long trafficahead.” Mark said, gesturing to the long spiral traffic before us.

Shit.

“Isn't there like a way for you to go past it?” I asked, my tone filled with urgency.

“It's a straight road, how do we get past this?”

And now I sound desperate. I AM DESPERATE.

The mating ceremony will begin in about two hours and looking at this hold up, we'll probably be half an hour late. I couldn't afford that.

“I can't wait here.” I muttered, kicking the door open.

“Hey, where are you going?”

I ran to Mark's side of the car, handing him my phone.

“Mark me the location now, please!” I asked.

He glanced at me weirdly but collected the phone and marked the location of the pack hall on my map.

I checked it once and without another word, began to jog up the sidewalk. I just had to make it in time!

I've jogged for about ten minutes when I stopped to check my map for the next turn. That was when I noticed another route along this lane.

Panting heavily, I looked around. The road was still lined up with vehicles. There was a forest at the other side of the road, with barbed wire stretching along its perimeter.

I didn't need to read the large precautionary sign on it before I knew how dangerous it was.

Everyone in town knew that the forest was filled with wild animals, especially the infamous mountain lions.

I glanced at the map and back at the forest. If I go through there, I'll be forty five minutes faster.

But I couldn't shift, meaning I was powerless against any wild animal.

I guess I'd just have to hope I don't get attacked by one.

I dashed across the road and jumped on the wire fence, earning yells and screams from the people in the hold up.

I didn't turn back as I landed on the other side of the fence and sped into the woods.

“May the goddess protect me…”

Twenty minutes in, I paused my sprint, panting heavily. Sweat dropped from my chin, my muscles ached with each heartbeat and pain throbbed from multiple scratches I'd sustained all over my body.

I checked the map, I was halfway there.

‘I have to keep going’. I thought, standing up straight.

I looked at my phone for the next direction but it went dark before my eyes.

“What?” I exclaimed, pushing the power button but it only showed the damned yellow triangle, indicating the battery was low.

“No no no…” I moaned, tears welling up in my eyes.

Why did this have to happen now? I gritted my teeth in frustration, wanting to just slump on the ground and give up.

But I couldn't. I have to get to Conrad.

As I took one step forward, I heard a growl.

I froze, the hair on the back of my neck stood straight. All I heard for a brief moment was the wheezing of the wind, the rustling of leaves and my own pounding heartbeats.

The growl came again. This time, just right behind me.

Instincts told me to jump to my right and when I did, I heard a thick bang on the place I was before.

Bile rushed to my throat and I gasped for breath.

The little trickles of moonlight was enough for me to see my assailant. A cougar.

The three feet tall beast barred its teeth at me, its yellow eyes glinting dangerously at me.

I ran.

The pain on my body, the aches in my muscles and even the lack of air in my lungs, all vanished from my mind. I only cared about running.

I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and I've been lucky to not have been caught by the cougar yet.

‘Goddess don't let me die here!’ I thought desperately as I jumped over a fallen tree.

I could hear the massive and quick steps of the cougar just behind me.

“Oh shit!” I exclaimed, sighting lights and buildings from a distance. I must have gotten to Maelstrom pack.

If I could just get…

I heard the crack before I felt the excruciating pain travel from my ankle to my entire leg.

I fell over, my face digging into the forest soil as I sustained more scratches on my body.

I groaned in pain, holding my ankle as tears rolled down my eyes.

I heard the growl again and snapped my eyes open. The cougar landed before me, slowly drawing closer to me with its barred teeth.

I panted, scrambling backwards with the strength left in me and also holding my twisted ankle.

This was it, I could feel it.

I shut my eyes, a guttural scream escaping from my throat as the cougar leapt for me. But instead of feeling claws and teeth tearing me apart, I heard a primal snarl and a loud bang.

I opened my eyes and not only saw the cougar now two meters away from me, but a five feet tall black wolf standing between us.

I watched in awe as the cougar purred and tried to run off but the wolf caught its tail with its teeth. Then it swung the cougar around and released it, sending it crashing on the bark of a thick tree.

I flinched at the sight but the wolf wasn't done. It dashed after the cougar and pinned it to the ground with its superior sized paws then ripped out a handful of flesh from its chest.

I screamed alongside the cougar. The wolf continued, shredding the cougar piece by piece until all that remained was its piled up mangled flesh and blood.

I shuddered at the horrid sight.

The wolf turned suddenly and I gasped, moving backwards in fear.

The wolf narrowed its gaze upon me and began to run towards me.

“No no!” Fear gripped me but as the wolf got to me, it transformed into Conrad.