Chapter 2 Chapter Two

Aria

I sat on the big flat rock, waiting for him to arrive. Looking up, the sunlight kisses my skin. Light breeze caressed my wavy, black hair. I let out a small sigh. It was a day just like this. The first time I laid my eyes on him.

It was a bright, summer day. My parents and I went out for a picnic, when Dad introduced me to the idea of hide and seek.

In truth, I knew my Dad only wanted to test my abilities. How long I can mask my scent. How far I can read what tickled their minds, their thoughts, their emotions, even when they decide to breathe.

Aria - 8 years old

Jax - 10 years old

"Aria!" That was my mom.

( Where on earth did that little possum go?) I hear her think. Ever since I could remember, I can read minds, or more like hear people's thoughts.

I giggle to myself and duck behind the big trees.

(Oh I'm going to get you, Aria!)

I cover my mouth with my palm as more giggles escape my throat.

Creak!

A twig snapped right in front of me. I raise my head and stifle my gasp. Mom is right in front of me in her beautiful wolf form. Her furr light brown, almost skintone but it suits her. Her eyes glowed as she lifts her nose. She sniffs.

(Got you!) I could almost see her wolf smile when she thought of that.

I raced into the bushes, bursting into a fit of laughter as I ran for my life.

(That's not fair! You shifted!) I scream at her.

Aside from the ability to read others' minds, I can invade their thoughts even without a wolf.

My mom laughs in her head, but she's not going to get me that easy. I was trained by the best, my two alpha parents. There's no way I will lose.

Determined to prove I could outrun my mom, the fastest wolf in our pack, I changed route and took a turn east.

(Aria, no! Not that way!) My mom screams in panic.

I don't stop and continue running east, until the grass beneath my feet turned into dry soil. I stop and look around. This isn't part of our pack territory anymore.

Where am I?

The tall trees of the forest had long vanished in thin air. Everything around me is pure, dry, cracked surface, almost like a desert. Though hints of grass still peeked out from the cracks.

A heartbeat.

I stop in my tracks.

(Who is this? Why is she in my territory?)

Slowly, I turn around and lock eyes with... a boy? He is quite tall and looked a bit older than me. He has dark, chocolate hair and piercing green eyes, tan skin, wearing only a cloth wrapped around his waist. A wolf?

I think so. I could feel he's a wolf as I stare at him, and he stares right back at me.

(A pretty little girl? What is she doing here?) he thought.

I blush. How could he look so indifferent outside and still think like that inside?

I clear my throat.

"Hello," I say.

He looks at me, not saying anything back. And I began to feel more nervous.

"Do you know a way back to the forest? I think I'm lost," I say softly.

(How did I not sense her coming?) He thought.

It's because I masked my scent to avoid my parents. But he didn't need to know that.

He stares at me again, and I shift in my feet.

"Who are you?" He asks.

"I'm Aria. What's your name?"

"Jax. What are you doing in my territory?"

"Your territory?" I raise my brow.

"This territory belongs to the Black Creek Pack. Other packs are miles away from here, and we have to travel just to get to another pack. So it's impossible this territory could be yours, and what pack are you from anyway? I've never seen you before," I blink at him.

"No, my father says this will all be mine someday. The Black Creek Pack are intruders who stole our land from us, and one day, I will be the one to take it all back," he stated, looking so proud of himself and determined. I don't know what he's talking about, he doesn't even seem to know I'm the Alpha's daughter.

I shrug anyway, "Well, good luck with that."

"How did you come here in the first place?"

"I was hiding from my mom and dad," I explain.

His face twisted in confusion.

"Why? Did they try to kill you?" My eyes go wide and I look at him like he's grown two heads.

"What? No! Why would they do that?" I ask, horrified.

"Simple. You're not strong enough," he shrugs his shoulders and looks down at me.

I shake my head, "No. We were playing hide and seek,"

He tilts his head, looking puzzled.

"Play?"

I nod, "Yeah, play. We were just playing," I tell him.

(What an odd word to say) he thought, and I stare at him.

"You never played before?" I ask without thinking, and he squeezes his brows.

"No, what does that even mean?" He asks and I was about to tell him when a distant howl tore through the air.

(Father.)

What? Why did he think of his father?

He snaps his head to me and took my hand. My cheeks blush, I can't seem to help it.

(He'll kill her for trespassing on our land, she needs to get out.)

What? My eyes widen. Kill me? My heart thumps hard and before I realized it, we were already running.

"Wait!" I squeak.

"Hurry, or he will find you," he warns.

I gulp and follow his lead. Out of panic, my legs turned to jelly at one point and I stumbled to the ground. He picked up and carried me piggyback style. I wrap my hands around his neck as he dashed going northwest. Somehow, we ended up back in the forest and he let me go.

"I can't go any further from here. Not yet," he says.

"Okay," I just say, and feel my heart still thumping a million times faster as we ran.

Another distant howl ripped through the air for a second time. Our heads snapping to the direction we came from.

"What was that?"

"My father. He wants me to come home," he tells me.

He was about to turn and leave when he stopped and looked at me.

"Can I see you again?"

I don't know why but his words made my heart melt.

"Yes," he rescued me, after all.

I watch him leave moments before I hear my Dad's voice.

(Aria!)

Since then, we never played hide and seek in the forest. But they don't know I would sneak out and meet my rescuer before the sunsets, and we would exchange stories about our packs. He calls his a pack, and I learned from my father that the people outside our borders were wild rogues.

What started as a friendship quickly blossomed into something more.

Until I turned 18 and we met at the same place, and our feelings for each other finally came to light.

I took in the forest air and exhaled slowly, when I heard a crunch of leaves. My head snaps to the sound and our eyes lock.

"Aria?" His deep, baritone voice fills the air, making me shudder.

I smile.

"Jax."