#4 The Golden Wolf
I didn’t sleep.
Not after that strange encounter.
Not after slipping free of the silver-eyed shadow and his massive, dark-eyed counterpart.
My heart was still running even when my feet slowed.
The forest at night glowed in thin ribbons of moonlight, and the air was sharp with pine and cold earth. My body buzzed, wired, restless, and still crackling with the danger I’d outrun. Sweat cooled on my neck. My legs trembled with leftover adrenaline, but nothing about me truly tired. If anything, I felt sharper. Primed.
And he was still out there. The golden one.
He didn’t chase me the way the others had, no pounding footsteps, no crashing through underbrush. He ghosted the edges of my path, flickers of honey-colored motion slipping between trees just long enough for me to notice.
He wanted me to notice. It should have chilled me.
Instead, something low in my stomach tightened, hot and unwelcome.
I entered a small clearing ringed in stone, the moss between them glowing faintly enough to unsettle any normal girl. But I wasn’t normal. I crouched, knife in hand, scanning every shadow.
“I know you’re there,” I whispered to the dark. “You want to keep playing peekaboo or do you want to see how fast I make you regret it?”
The breeze shifted. And then he stepped forward.
Tall. Broad. Golden hair falling around his face in a halo no angel would dare claim. His eyes glowed molten honey, warm and wild, cutting through the moonlit clearing like a blade.
My pulse jumped stupidly. He let his gaze sweep over me before speaking. “You run beautifully.”
“Creepy compliment,” I muttered. “Try again.”
His lips curved, slow, deliberate, and predatory. “You’re faster than they said.”
They? My stomach flipped. The silver one. The dark one. And now this.
I tightened my grip on the knife. “You stalk worse than they do.”
His smile deepened like he enjoyed the hit. “I’m not stalking you. I’m studying you.”
The way he said it, warm, amused, and deadly, sent a shiver up my spine I absolutely refused to acknowledge.
“Try studying from a distance,” I snapped. “Or pick a hobby. Knitting, maybe.”
He took two steps closer casually, like he wasn’t the size of a small mountain. “Distance ruins the details.”
“Details like what? How annoyed I am? Or how fast I can disembowel you?”
“Both,” he said, his voice dropping lower. “And the way your heartbeat changes when you’re deciding which one you’ll do first.”
Heat sparked in my veins. Annoyance. Anger. And something worse.... interest.
I hated that more than anything.
He stepped closer again and I stepped back, not retreating, just repositioning. He watched the movement with sharp amusement, as if cataloging it.
“You don’t smell like prey,” he murmured.
“Good,” I said. “Because I’m not.”
“What are you then?” His gaze dragged over me like a slow touch. “You fight like something ancient.”
“And you talk like someone begging for a concussion.”
His laugh was rich, warm, and entirely inappropriate for a man tracking me through the woods. “Hit me, little queen.”
“Stop calling me that.” My knife angled toward his ribs. “You don’t know me.”
His expression shifted, not softer, not gentler, but… darker. “I know enough.”
“And I know you need to back up.”
He didn’t. Of course he didn’t.
He reached out, slow enough for me to see it, fast enough that most people wouldn’t have. His fingers brushed a strand of my hair where it clung to my cheek with sweat.
My breath hitched. Not from fear. From something far dumber.
“Easy,” he murmured. “Your pulse is loud enough to hear.”
“Because I’m imagining ripping your throat out,” I rasped.
“Liar.”
The word rolled over me like a warm hand down my spine.
His scent hit next, cedar, heat, and amber. It wrapped around me, thick and intoxicating, and my grip on the knife tightened just to keep myself grounded.
“You’re tempting,” he said softly. “More than the others mentioned.”
“The others?” Ice slid down my stomach. “How many are there?”
His smile sharpened. “Enough.”
That was not comforting. He leaned in slowly, letting me feel the heat off his body. “When I take you...”
“No,” I cut in. “You won’t.”
“....it’ll be because you beg me for it.”
My heart lurched in my chest like a kicked hornet nest. I shoved him. Hard.
It barely moved him, but his grin widened like he loved the fight in me.
“You think you can stop me?” he asked.
“I don’t think. I know.”
“And I know,” he murmured, “that you’re not running from us.”
His eyes locked with mine, glowing and hungry. “You’re running toward whatever you already are.”
My breath stalled. Heat rippled through me at the words. Not desire....Recognition.
Something curled deep inside me, ancient and fierce, agreeing with him.
I stepped back, steady and controlled, giving him a dismissive look I didn't entirely feel. “If you want to catch me, sunshine, you’ll have to try harder next time.”
His laugh chased me into the trees. And I didn’t look back. Not because I wasn’t tempted, god help me, I was, but because I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction.
The forest swallowed me in cold shadow again. My skin tingled. My heart wouldn’t slow. The golden one’s heat still clung to my bones.
That’s when the wind shifted.
The golden scent, cedar, and amber, vanished.
Something else slid into its place.
Heavier. Cooler. Metal and leather and storm. My steps stilled. My breath caught.
The fourth. I wasn’t alone.
A darker shape moved between the pines, tall and broad, still as carved stone. Not pacing. Not prowling.
Waiting. The kind of predator who didn’t need to chase. My stomach tightened.
This one was different. More patient. More dangerous. I kept moving, pretending I hadn’t seen him. My body angled, my mind mapping escape routes. But every path I considered, he already blocked.
And then....A howl split the night, too close.
Not his. Not the golden one’s. One of the first two.
Shit.
Two closing in. One ahead. A trap tightening.
I inhaled, my eyes narrowing on the darkness where the newest predator waited.
“Alright,” I whispered, my knife sliding into my palm, and my pulse pounding hard enough to shake me.
“If you want me…”
I stepped forward, my muscles coiling.
“Come get me fuckers.”
