Primitive Instincts

Chapter 16

Things lately couldn't get any crazier. Fighting with my mom and playing tag with Rachel seemed like a lifetime ago. Almost like everything was a dream before this, before Hunter.

My heart ached to leave him back there without knowing the rogue was dead and his wound wasn't life threatening, but Hunter a big boy and he could take care of himself. At least that's what I've been telling myself.

I didn't want to admit it, but the mate pull was getting stronger.

Why did that rogue attack us? They tended to avoid any and all confrontations with Alphas, maybe it thought if it defeated Hunter it could become Alpha. But it wasn't acting like it wanted power, all I saw in its cold dead eyes was the insatiable need to kill.

It didn't even look like a rogue. It's scent didn't smell rotten like old milk and I couldn't see a single bone poking out from his ribcage. His fur flowed softly, almost plush looking unlike the scruffy malnourished ones I've seen before. But why would a normal wolf attack us?

None of it mattered now, all I had to worry about was running away from Hunter and from the other wolf. For all I knew he could have friends.

The sun was gone and the forest was once again enveloped into a world of inky darkness, shadows lurking in the corners of my eyes like ghosts and frozen air burned my lungs a little more aggressively. It was almost over, soon the will reach its highest point and I can be know as the first female to beat an Alpha.

But just like Grandma use to say 'don't count your chickens before they're hatched' I wasn't going to let my guard down in the slightest bit.

The night began to thicken like molasses and every snap of a twig and old owls cry spooked me. The dark and I had a complex relationship, I was terrified of the things that dwelled beneath its cover endlessly but always felt a little more alive stalking through it, as if the thought of being one of those things brought every nerve ending I had to life. However, right now wasn't one of those times, I felt like a child again wanting to curl up in bed and pull the covers over my head as if it was an unbreakable shield from the monsters in my closet.

It didn't help that I had a strange feeling that I was being followed, the shadows in the distance seemed to get a little closer with each gate I sprinted. Even causing me to run a little faster but to my suspicions only caused the murky figures to go faster as well. This discovery was one of the most spine chilling things I've ever experienced. It was like hearing a noise in the house and assuming it was the cat, but then the unsettling realization sets upon you once you come to terms you don't own a cat.

If I listened closely I could hear the faint panting of wolves in the distance as they kept up with my speed, at least I knew it was hard for them to run as fast as I can.

I thought about calling for help, to be honest I'd even take Hunter showing up but quickly thought against it because right now my new friends don't think I know about them yet. Right now I had to act like everything was okay and I didn't want to run around like a maniac screaming for someone to save me.

I estimated around 12 shapes surrounding me, they worked like a pack of hungry lions, skillfully fencing me in like a injured gazelle. Two were running at an incredible speed trying to cut me off in front without me seeing, that's when they'd go in for the kill, once their prey has been successfully trapped is when the precious space between me and them would vanish.

This wasn't your ordinary rogue gang up on an unsuspecting wolf, that I could handle. Rogues occasionally team up in sparse times, but are never this coordinated. These wolves moved like a well oiled machine, each knew where the other was and kept in formation.