Chapter 1

Predictable predicament

Have you ever known how you would die? It’s a frightening thing, that’s for sure. I never knew when it’d happen, but I knew exactly what would happen, and who would do it.

Because, I’ve lived my entire life, from the moment I was born, on the run. From none other than Karn, my mother’s soulmate.

He’s a dick, and he never loved my mother, and she never loved him. But, he still wanted her. And, she refused. She left the pack, with the wolf she loved with her whole heart - Henry. My dad. It’s been years since then, and they had me, and then my younger sister Harli.

But, Karn is still after us. He doesn’t want my mother anymore, he wants to kill us. He already succeeded with murdering my father, and undoubtably, Harli and I will be next. I know he’ll leave my mother till last; force her to watch us die.

Karn is evil. He’s power-hungry, and violent when he doesn’t get exactly what he wants. And, my family has been sought after by him for too long.

At some point, he would catch up with us.

It’s happened before, and we lost my father.

Now, it’s happened again, and this time, I’ll be the one to lose my life.

Things aren’t looking too promising for me - I mean, I tried to stand up to him, to protect my family, but. He’s an alpha; he’s big and strong. And me? I’m a rogue; I’m weak and haven’t eaten a proper meal in a while.

There hasn’t been time. My family is exhausted - I’m exhausted. We’ve been running, constantly, for too long. And now? I can barely move. Whether that’s because of blood loss or just my generally weak state, I don’t know.

But, things really aren’t looking too good for me. Karn roughed me up pretty badly; the side of my face and all down my side burns like hell.

He’s insane.

Harli howls at Karn- no! Now she’ll die too! Why aren’t they just running? My mother and sister- they should just go!

But, they don’t.

Instead, with the very last of my consciousness, I have to watch as that fucking alpha bites my little sister’s neck, and a sickening crunch reverberates through the trees. My sister’s yelp is abruptly cut off, and Karn drops her body, Harli nothing more than a broken rag-doll.

Karn stalks over to my mother, growling at her. She doesn’t even move an inch, until the alpha bites her shoulder and she lets out the smallest whimper. Karn shifts, but keeps his claws, digging them into my mother’s back.

“Shift,” he snarls, venom dripping from his tone. She obliges silently, her dark hair dirty and matted, her eyes downturned.

“I’ve killed your fake mate, I’ve killed you son, I’m about to kill your daughter. Is there anything you’d like to say?” He hisses, grabbing her hair roughly and dragging her to the ground. I try desperately to stand, but all that happens is a low growl escapes my throat.

Karn turns back, anger clouding his vision. “Oh, I see. The runt still has some fight left in him? Good. You can watch him bleed to death,” he says with a horrific smile, grabbing my mother and throwing her in front of me.

“R-rat,” she gasps out, tears beginning to fall now that she can see me…see what Karn did to me. I want to reassure her somehow, but even my vision is fuzzy, and I can’t make a sound.

“What’ll it be, Harriet?” He asks, shoving her face into the ground.

“P-please, spare my children. I-I’ll do anything you want,” she whispers, and I manage to growl again. Karn smirks, releasing my mother with another shove, before pressing his foot down on my neck.

My mother’s eyes widen as he applies more pressure, and I begin to wonder if he’ll suffocate me first, or snap my neck. “Please, alpha! They did nothing wrong, they- they’re innocent!” My mother gasps, reaching forward to push the man off me.

He only kicks her away. That fucking does it. Nobody, nobody, hurts my mother, and gets away with it.

I snap my head round, biting into his ankle hard. Karn lets out an ear-splitting scream, as I lock my jaw, and physically am unable to let go.

My mother crawls over to Harli, and I see my little sister stir, although one of her fore-legs looks terrible. Thank God. He broke a leg, not her neck.

Karn transforms his claws and swipes at my left eye. I don’t even try to evade it, and get four claws to the face.

And then, a howl echoes through the trees. Too far away to be one of Karn’s wolves, and certainly not a howl belonging to my family. Suddenly, there are more howls joining the first one, and getting progressively closer.

“Shit, alpha, this is another pack’s territory! We must leave now!” A transformed wolf yells, before shutting up as soon as Karn glares at him. Finally, my jaw unlocks, and I release Karn’s ankle. He quickly moves away from me, nursing his injury, but not before kicking my side again.

I’m barely even registering the pain anymore, it’s more like everything hurts, and I can’t distinguish what is what anymore.

Blinking dully, a pale shape steps out of the forest, surrounded by darker ones. The light-coloured one is the biggest, and gives off an unmistakeable aura of alpha.

Slowly, my eyes get harder and harder to open after each blink, and the pain I felt begins to dull. Well. Everything I feel begins to dull, and all I feel is…light.

Is this what dad felt when he died too?

A surprisingly soothing voice graces my ears, but it is one I don’t recognise. “You’re in my territory. Leave now, or we won’t hesitate to attack.”

And then, a voice which I’ll always remember - Karn’s.

“I’m merely exterminating these rogues for you. We’ll retreat once we’re sure they’re all dead,” he says, practically spitting the last word.

“No, you’ll leave now,” says the first voice again. Karn is silent for a moment, before I feel his claws sink into my neck once again.

My mother screams my name, sounding more distraught even than when my father died. “Now we’ll leave. Harriet,” Karn says sharply, addressing my mother.

“This is your fault. You should be grateful that I spared your other child. This is what happens when you defy me.” He rips his claws from my neck, and the last thing I hear, is my mother’s sobbing.