Chapter Four

Raven

For the past week, I’ve done the same thing every single day. I wake with the sun, come out of the cave, and walk slowly, slowly, slowly to where my beast wants me the most. Then I chicken out at the last minute and run back to the caves, killing whatever prey happens to cross my path along the way.

And I didn’t do this just once a day. No, as dusk rolled in, I’d climb out of the cave again and do the same exact thing. It was never the plan, but somehow, I couldn’t get myself to cross the line.

Today was going to be different.

Not in the morning, no. I did exactly the same thing I always did then.

Something changed throughout the day. I couldn’t even tell you what. Maybe it was the direction of the wind shifting, reminding me that if I scented deeply enough, maybe I could capture his scent to memory. Or maybe it was fear, fear that if I didn’t do it now, I’d be forever in these caves, living less than half a life. Whatever it was, something had fortified me, and I was going to act on it before it was too late.

I got up of the cold hard damp ground and padded out of the cave, surprised to see the midafternoon light. Time was weird like that. But, no matter what time it was, nothing was going to stop me from finding my mate today. Nothing.

I was doing this.

Unlike the other days, I ran toward the border. I refused to lose my courage.

As I reached the territory, my beast pushed me to do something I’d never done before. Instead of turning back or racing straight into their lands, he decided to run the perimeter. It wasn’t giving up. It wasn’t retreating. But it also wasn’t getting me closer to where I needed to be.

The property was larger than I thought it was. In a few places, I scented some shifters, but, for the most part, it seemed like they didn’t leave the property at all—at least not in this direction. It made sense. If you had this kind of territory, you’d use it to keep everybody safe. They were about protecting those who needed it. Of course, they wouldn’t be reckless.

In a way, they’d protected me. Not in a way, really. They did. Full stop. By all accounts, I should’ve been killed long before now. I was culpable of the harm done to one of their own. I could argue all day long that I didn’t have a choice. But there is always a choice. Even if that meant I was the one suffering, it existed.

The air scented as if the local animals crossed their markings regularly. Very few animals realized the risks we posed them, but this felt more than that. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I’d file it away as something I needed to ask them when I finally crossed over, but this wasn’t going to be a social visit to them. They weren’t going to sit around answering a thousand questions from me to sate my curiosity. They were going to be the ones with questions…or fangs. That was still to be determined.

There was a crackle in the bush behind me. I turned to see what it was, only to be pounced on by a lion. A full-ass lion. How had I not scented him coming? More than that, why was I just now sensing multiple shifters.

Fuck.

The next thing I knew, I was surrounded by men, all naked, the scent of their beasts still hanging in the air. Some of them I recognized and, from the looks on their faces, they recognized me too, and not one of them looked at me with any kind of compassion.

The scent of my mate…it was there, but faint. The stupid lion whose jaw was tightening around my neck was the only one I could scent completely. There was no doubt in my mind that if I put up a second’s resistance, this would end quickly and bloodily.

“We told you not to fucking come back,” one of them growled.

I wanted to answer them, but in this form, it was impossible. It wasn’t as if I could shift either, with being pinned by a lion who was ready to snap my neck with his jaw at any moment.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was it. I made a fatal mistake coming here. So much for finding my mate.

“King, get off him,” one of the men—a wolf I thought—said.

The lion didn’t move.

“King, get off him.” He was not messing around.

Finally, the lion released me and stepped back, but he didn’t shift like the others did. He was ready to pounce and end me with one command.

I took my human skin. “I know you told me not to come back.”

“And yet, here you are.”

I wasn’t sure who was speaking, afraid to so much as to turn my head.

“We told you the consequences if you came back,” another shifter snapped.

My mate’s scent was here, barely. Which shifter did it belong to? Would I be able to feel their touch before they took me down? That alone would make this worth it.

But one thing for sure, I wasn’t leaving this clearing alive.

“I understand.” I dropped to my knees and bared my neck. I was giving them permission to do what they needed to. They weren’t the bad guys. I was. There was no need to make it harder on them than it needed to be.

“Before I go” --a sugar-coated way to say that if there ever was one — “could you… could you maybe tell me which one of you is my mate?”

There was a chorus of fucks .

The next thing I knew, I was being pulled to my feet.

“Let’s go,” someone ordered.

I wasn’t sure if this was good or bad. Whichever the case might be, it was what it was.