Chapter Nineteen
Josie
I was in full-flight mode. I’d left my new pack to save them from these assholes, but here they were.
There were several of them—I wasn’t sure how many, but I couldn’t stop to check.
Much faster in wolf form, it would cost me a few seconds to shift, seconds I didn’t have if I was going to keep ahead of them.
Luckily, they weren’t smart enough to shift because if they had, they’d have overtaken me in no time.
As it was, they were enough out of shape in their two-legged forms that I was able to get a head start.
Shouts came from behind me as I pounded through the countryside, so panicked, I didn’t know what I was doing.
Everything that had been so beautiful when I was wandering aimlessly became a blur.
Blues and greens of water and trees all smeared together in my vision as my heart rate leapt up and my breath rasped in my chest.
How did they find me so fast? It wasn’t possible, but maybe they had a way, especially the alpha, to find escaped pack members.
I swerved left, shooting for a gully and pounding down into it.
I didn’t know the terrain, but neither did they.
Circling a spear of granite or something like it, I ducked down and hoped they’d run on past. But they didn’t.
In fact, one of them spotted me and shouted to the others while he closed in.
A beta I’d always feared from childhood, the kind who was mean to kids and animals, leered at me, his hand shooting out to grasp my wrist.
“Let me go, you asshole,” I snarled. “You don’t want to find out what will happen if you don’t.”
“Yeah? What exactly will that be?” He laughed.
“Are you going to call for those males who think you’re theirs?
Go ahead. Although I don’t think they’re anywhere near here.
They let you leave. And why? Because they have no more interest in you than the mate you were supposed to get.
Because of your selfishness, we lost the deal for the fungus and you cannot imagine how mad that made the alpha.
He’s going to make you sorry you were ever born. ”
“I’m sorry you were ever born.” I spat in his face and tugged at my arm. “You don’t own people. You don’t even own clean socks.”
He swiped the spit away, eyes red with rage. “The alpha said we can’t hurt you until he gets here. I guess he wants the pleasure. But I’ll get my turn. With the mating deal fallen through, you’re just so much more female flesh. I imagine everyone will get their turn.”
“You’re disgusting.” I jerked harder, but he still held on.
“Your mate will probably be thrilled to learn you are out taking your pleasure from unwilling females. As I recall—and for no reason I can imagine—she’s the jealous type.
If you do anything like you’re talking about, I’ll tell her, and she’ll have your pathetic ass out of the house and living in the single dorms.”
She was jealous, and I didn’t understand why she would ever let him touch her, but the fear in his eyes confirmed I’d struck a nerve.
Then he stiffened. “Besides, what makes you think you’re going back to the pack to tattle on anyone.
When we’re done with you, the alpha has another pack willing to take you on.
They need a fertile female to increase their numbers.
And, you lucky little bitch, they aren’t picky. ”
“Nice. I’ll just run away from them.”
“You can try.” His sneer made him even less attractive if possible. “But they are in the middle of the desert and not above binding disobedient females.”
“Binding me?” Bending, I sank my teeth into the hand that gripped me. Followed it up with a sharp knee to the groin. He crumpled to the ground with a pathetic shriek.
I spat blood on the forest floor, wanting his foulness out of my mouth, and then, without giving him a chance to recover, I was off again.
This time, instead of downhill like the gully, I ran upslope, hoping to get some distance so I could hide.
But while I’d been struggling with the beta, the others had come into sight. Their feet pounded the ground and I was already tired. How would I ever be able to go on? The question was answered when I ran out of trail and found myself perched on the edge of a cliff.
It had to end sometime.
I’d had a good run, at least recently.
In my mind, I bid farewell to all the people who’d helped me and especially the three alphas who I’d never make love with.
Three was looking normal now. Way more normal than what my own pack had in mind for me.
I’d give anything to be able to mate them and live happily ever after, at least for a while.