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Chapter 1 — Lost
I remembered running.
I remembered being covered in blood. Blood which wasn’t mine. It didn’t smell like me.
Sticky dried blood which now matted my hair over my face. My clothes were thick with it making them nearly solid in the chilly morning air. I was cold and I’d been running nearly the whole first day.
Trying to get away from those chasing me. I could remember that much.
But that first evening, I’d tripped over a rock and hit my head so hard against a tree trunk that I’d felt my chin tuck into my neck.
I didn’t wake until the following morning and that was to find the top of my forehead now bleeding down my face. I drug my wrist over my eyes trying to keep the fluid out of them so I could see.
I couldn’t remember what I was running from anymore but the fear that’d driven me was alive and well.
I was deep in the heart of War Territory. And I was certain something was still chasing me. It’d been days and I was so hungry my stomach was cramping and felt as though it intended to eat itself. But I was driven to frantically look behind me, terrified.
My confusion was only worsened by something moving through the trees so fast I couldn’t tell what it was. It stopped in-front of me, hesitating only a moment and I realized it was a man.
I think. He was covered in mud and ash.
To disguise his scent, likely. That was easy to deduct. And his eyes were vibrant blue staring at me.
But I knew instinctively looking at him that men were what I’d feared running into.
The scream tore out of me even as he dropped something heavy around my shoulder.
I nearly flung it off as I stumbled back. Rearing from his touch. Realizing it was a cloak I stared at it over my shoulder in shock.
When I looked up he was gone. Scared off by me screaming my head off, no doubt.
So he’s not the one chasing me.
Who’s chasing me and who was that? I felt ashamed knowing someone had tried to be kind to me but I was so high strung and disgustingly matted with blood I probably scared him with my hysterics more than he’d scared me.
I saw another flash through the trees and realized he was still out there. Running faster than anyone I’d ever seen.
Or at least could currently recall.
I woke the next morning from sleeping up in a tree. Woke before the sun had risen by the tantalizing smell of a dead squirrel.
Food. I scrambled down the tree. Scratching my leg in the process, but too hungry to care.
I picked up the squirrel and sunk my teeth into it desperately.
The wolf inside me was ravenous but I was too weak from shock and my injuries and hunger to change.
It might kill me if I tried. I knew.
And what good would it do? I’d never been able to hunt. Though my sense of smell was good. I was not very fast and had no skill in running animals down. I didn’t understand how or why they veered the directions they did. I found them utterly unpredictable and impossible to catch.
And I sensed that whatever I was before…I’d never had to hunt.
Food was always brought to me.
***
Something nearby shot through the trees and I realized it was probably that same muddy man that had given me the cloak. Cloth which had warmed me last night.
He must’ve left me the food too.
Thank God I had an ally out here.
But now the question was, what did he want in return?
Wolves give nothing for free. I remembered that bit also.
“Who are you?” I called to where I’d last seen movement.
But something shot through the trees a bit away in a different direction.
I backed up uneasily. There were more.
I knew of only one that was kind. Who was the other?
A flash of movement to my left caught my eye and I yelped. They’re everywhere.
Feeling chased again I ran. But something cutting across my path made me turn left and run straight that way. Hearing their feet crushing sticks and kicking rocks behind me.
They’re on my heels.
I ran faster. Which wasn’t saying much. Breathing raggedly I ran as hard as I could until coming to a wall. Stopping I stared up at the huge stone and mortar construction.
Seeing only one door carved in it I edged that way but found it too ominous to knock on.
Turning around I stared into the shadows of the afternoon but saw no movement now, heard nothing.
Had I actually lost them? My heart was pounding in my ears so loud I wasn’t sure I could’ve heard someone anyway.
Chapter 2 — Asara Territory
At some point I’d dozed off as evening descended. Sleeping against a tree weekly. Facing away from the wall to watch for intruders. Trying to be quiet.
One squirrel had been kind but wasn’t enough. My stomach was growling from the hunger. Feeling like it was gnawing away at my backbone in desperation.
“Jaecar!” I heard a man shout from a distance away.
“Jaecar!” Another voice from another direction.
“Let her in!” This voice was far too my right.
How many were there? Let me in where?
Was this help or more torment?
The door groaned open and a tall man with black hair and a black goatee stepped through the door to meet me.
“Who are you?”
“Vanna…Rae…” I said slowly. Mechanically recalling my name.
“Well, Vanna Rae, you look like warmed over hell.”
I assumed this was Jaecar since he was indeed, ‘letting me in.’
“You need to get washed up down in the creek.” He pointed through the trees where I could faintly hear the slow sloshing of water. “Then you’ll need to cover up. He tossed me a different oversized cloak. I’ll go find you something to where. But the Mating Moon will be here in a few days so I’d suggest you cover well.”
I didn’t really know what any of that meant but I could tell Jaecar was sincere and on my side. I took the proffered cloak and headed down to the creek.
***
But while I washed, I heard Jaecar’s name called by one of the familiar voices. I heard the groaning of the door and knew he opened it for someone.
Whoever had driven me here.
“Where is she?”
“Washing up at the creek.” Jaecar said. “Give her some time. She’s scared as hell.”
Whoever it was must’ve nodded because I heard no response.
***
True to his word, Jaecar returned later with a grossly oversized dress.
“Was the closest I could find from one of the old women in the camp.” He nodded through the trees in the direction of a bit of firelight.
I took it greedily and barely peered at him from under the oversized hood of the cloak he’d given me. Holding it tightly closed to hide that I was bare beneath it. Though I didn’t currently look like much.
I was covered in scrapes and bruises with a few long slashes on my arms and one on my stomach. Whatever had happened to me…I’d clearly been through hell.
“Go through the trees.” Jaecar pointed. “And in the distance at the edge of the camp is an old hut from the Widower Tom that passed away last year. No one resides it. Take it.
I nodded hesitantly. Clinging to the fabric covering me. “Th-thank you.”
“Don’t thank me…” He said cryptically. “Wasn’t my doing to bring you here. You may very well regret that one day.”
***
Despite my apprehension from his words, I was vastly relieved when I entered the rough-hewn hut, more a shack really, and found a bit of boar cooking over a flame. I was desperately hungry.
I slid on my knees near the fire and yanked the meat off the spit in such a hurry that I burned my hands. Desperately cramming the food in my mouth and purring as it hit my tongue.
Someone had bothered to feed me. Despite how grateful I was, I was far too tired to question who.
The next morning when I opened the door to peer out, I find a bundle of oversized clothes on my stoop. I greedily tugged them inside and undid the strings holding them. Highly grateful.
I remembered what Jaecar had said about the Mating Moon and eyed one worn dress. Deciding, I began determinedly tearing it into thick strips.
To bind my body.
Other then that I sat on the one wooden chair at the tiny square table and listened to everyone in the camp.
There was a knock the next morning and more food.
I tugged it inside and slammed the door. Sinking my teeth into the raw meat in my rush to put more in my stomach.
Apparently, the village is taking care of me. And I was vaguely touched. But not enough to want to spend time outside my hut.
It was the third evening, when I heard a man with a crisp decisive tone talking outside my shuttered window. I instinctively knew that kind of power and strength indicated it was the alpha.
“She can’t hunt and she’s clearly traumatized. She’s no desire to come out of there. You three know how dangerous unsocialized wolves can become. She can’t stay here if she doesn’t start at least engaging with the woods and someone in the camp.”
That was the first time I heard the knock on the door. I swallowed hard. Hunkering down and hoping they’d not make me leave.
That night there was scratching around my hut. Wolves asking to come in.
No. You’ll make me leave.
The next morning was another knock I wouldn’t answer. Opting to hide inside until it stopped.
Which was the first time Hunter Hayden crept in my window.
***
I was trying to kick dust over the floorboards to one corner in an effort to clean up. When I turned around, I squawked at the sight of him in the middle of my hut.
Midnight hair and dancing light blue eyes intent on me. “You smell like honey…Delicious…”
He was tall and dark skinned from being in the sun. His shoulders squared and his hips narrow and athletic. His legs long.
And when I lunged like I might dive out the window past him, he agilely hopped into my path. Blocking the way.
I gasped. Finding myself hissing through my teeth.
Hissing?
He eyed me. Thinking the same thing I likely was.
Wolves don’t hiss.
Chapter 3 — The Hayden Brothers
I didn’t know where I’d come from or why I ended up wandering hungry in the woods.
I knew I was fortunate Jaecar had no interest in me.
He had his eye on a she-wolf already.
Samantha. He'd been chasing every male away from her for years, from what I understood.
In some ways I envied her. He seemed to be the only kind wolf among the bunch of lascivious males.
I used all the oversized clothes to pretend to be a frumpy little female to keep the pack from being interested.
From preying on me under the Mating Moon.
It worked. I kept the heavy bindings under my dress each day. And the bodice loose enough to hide any hint of shape. Then I kept my hood low over my face.
Doing my damnedest to not earn any attention.
I’d kept hidden in the rundown hut for a while, but those aggressive males had soon scented me.
Three virile males that were never apart. They looked identical. Good looking, well built, and dark.
The Hayden Brothers.
***
THE HAYDEN BROTHERS
We liked the smell of her. It aroused us.
We were triplets, the last of the Hayden line. What one of us wanted, we all did. So, we learned to share all our things.
And we're going to share her. One way or another.
Afterall, everyone knows Vanna Rae belongs to us.
***
The triplets were nicknamed for what they did best in the pack. Vanquish, Hunter, and Racer. They were exactly how they sounded.
Vanquish was highly dominant and prone to violence toward other wolves in the pack. Commanding. Easier to distinguish from the other two because he had green eyes rather than their blue ones.
Hunter was a phenomenal tracker and often kept the pack fed well during the winter.
Racer had a mole just under his left eye. He could run down anyone, anywhere. Except our young Alpha, Draven.
But no one is as fast as Draven.
The three of them had been scratching at my door ever since I arrived.
And, sick of me refusing to open it, one eventually crept in my window. Curious to get a look at me.
And so, it'd begun.
Thanks to Hunter.
***
Now after months of them rounding me up to drag me out with them, I'd taken to pretending I wasn't home to avoid their bullying.
But I was tidying my small amount of property when I rounded to find Hunter in the middle of my hut.
Again.
A glance at my open window confirmed how he'd gotten in.
The boards I'd nailed over it hung loose along the floor.
"Not your best work." He gestured. Towering over me at six foot, he was an imposing figure. Softened only by his constant grin.
He's not smiling now though.
Hunter sniffed the air as he descended on me. “You smell good. Faint, but sweet.”
I bolted for the door but when I threw it open Vanquish was there with his dark hair and green eyes.
I’d yelped.
“Don’t be afraid. Just us." He growled in his low, harsh, voice.
"We’re going to the creek to find a snack and wash up.” Hunter explained from behind me.
“Care to join us?” Racer materialized next to him.
Probably through the window too.
“No.” I shook my head. Eying the two of them before feeling heat generating at my back and realizing Hunter had closed in behind me.
They're always too close. I glanced over my shoulder and he peered under my hood suspicious.
When he reached to pluck it off, I ducked and lunged forward. Stepping right into Vanquish's range.
***
“Sure, she does.” Vanquish caught the shoulder of the oversized cloak I was never without, roped around the waist. Refusing to let me by as he turned with me in tow.
I looked like a plump monk. But I didn't care.
It serves its purpose.
Vanquish drug me from the hut and toward the creek. “You don’t want to stink, do you?”
“That cloak certainly does.” Hunter cackled from behind us feigning holding his nose. “She definitely sweats in it.”
“Round little thing, aren’t you?” Racer stepped aside me and lightly poked me in the belly. Unaware it was the soft bindings I layered under my clothes.
I nodded hesitantly. Let them think that.
But I was nervous. I always was around them.
Vanquish led me near the creek.
***
Soon the other two were splashing and laughing.
I was pointedly ignoring them.
After a time, I was sure they were busy frolicking. I made a break for it. Trying to retreat back to the safety of my hut.
I'll need more nails and boards to keep them out.
But as I slowly edged toward the border of trees I bumped into a solid wall and flinched.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Vanquish’s inescapable eyes were locked on me. Thick muscled arms crossed over his chest disapprovingly. As unyielding as the wall that locked in the Asara Pack in these woods.
Damn him.
How is he always everywhere?
***
“Come play with us!” Hunter, the more playful of them, invited.
“No.” I shook my head adamantly.
I’m not getting in there.
These three exuded lust as surely as they breathed.
No way am I taking off my clothes.
“Cindy or Aloira would come in.” Racer complained.
I'm sure they would.
They're skanks.
I’d often heard one or the other of the triplets having a go at the two willing female breeders.
The other five of us dodged all the males like the plague. Knowing that tempting them could prove a dangerous game.
They were all predatory, aggressive, and willing to fight for what they wanted. And to breed any female of age.
I don't want bred.
“I asked you a question.” Vanquish sneered.
Forcing me to look up into his fierce green eyes.
“I was just-just...” I looked around desperately. “going to pick some berries.”
I fled to the bush I’d spotted and began desperately plucking the berries and stacking them in my hand.
Vanquish descended on me while I cowered near the bush. He batted the berries out of my hand. Snatching me under my arms and tossing me in the water.
I surfaced spitting and desperately made for shore. Knowing all the extra fabric on my body could quickly weigh me down.
“Come on.” Hunter told Racer and they swam to me. Tugging me back into the water. I felt their cloying hands pawing me. But under all my oversized and padded garments, they were unable to feel anything.
“We really need to get these clothes off her and see what’s under here.” Racer frowned.
No. I looked fearfully from one to the other as they pinned my arms to the bank.
"Just hold her." Hunter leaned in close while Racer complied and feigned humping his groin against me.
I jerked from Racer and floundered onto the bank. Climbing to my feet.
They laughed uproariously as I fled, tugging at my hood to keep my hair hidden.
***
"Where you off to so fast?" Vanquish lightly shoved me sideways. Sending me toppling. "We didn't say you could go anywhere."
"Yeah." Hunter climbed from the water.
"There's a cost for residing in the safety of our pack." Racer contributed.
The three half naked males stood over me with their hair dripping and keen eyes alert. Chests glistening damply in the sunlight as fat water droplets trailed down over their ripped abdomens to their soaked pants and over bare feet.
All three eyed where my ankles peeked from the bottom of my cloak and I feared they were tempted to peer under it.
I clambered to my feet gracelessly and fled back to my hut.
"Oh, come on, Vanna Rae!" Hunter taunted.
"You going to cry?" Racer.
"Can't run forever, Rabbit." Vanquish said.
I hate when he calls me that.
And he knew it. It was his favorite nickname for me. Mocking that I often cowered and twinged away.
It was less that I feared them now and more that I feared what they'd become if they knew what was under my cloak.
It was my worst fear that they'd find out.
And they're seeming progressively more determined to. I was getting the clear sense that this Mating Moon might be my most dangerous one yet.
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