3-Outlaw

Elena

Wolfe

“Get out of my sight Elena Wolfe.” Alpha Alaric’s booming voice still thundered in my head as I stumbled into the dark woods.

I’d killed someone, killed

a princess. I brought my shaky hands to my face, and my blood-stained fingers blurred as a wave of dizziness tore through me.

I didn't have much time... I had to hurry before Alpha Alaric finished his last rites and came hunting for me, a fate worse than death.

“Come on Elena, just a little farther,” I wheezed to myself, unable to stop the whimper from rising through my throat when my view of the shadowed trees blurred as my eyes filled with tears.

Nineteen years. That was how long I had been a part of Alpha Alaric’s pack and half of it I lived as an outcast because of my dead mates.

I had longed for freedom...a place where I was truly accepted, but not like this.

The snap of dried twigs behind me made me whip my head around and squint into the darkness, my heart instantly thumping faster inside me.

What the hell was that?

“Hello?” I called out stupidly before quickly cursing myself when my shaky voice echoed creepily in the quiet forest.

Crickets. “Hell,” I chuckled, shaking myself and wondering if this was how all the outcasts lost their minds to the dark woods.

I had heard stories of the place, the thick pine forest with thick, pulsing cobwebs holding the trees together like veins. The savage hunters and rogues made the shadows between the trees their home.

It was where wolves came to die or kill, and there wasn't a mother-fucker on the moon goddess’ green earth that was more tired than I was.

I must have been walking for hours, and yet the winding dirty path seemed to stretch on forever. My thighs felt like they would catch on fire and I slowly slithered to the ground, feeling the darkness rush behind my eyes until only the buzz of static in my ear pierced it.

#

Pain burst through my leg before I opened my eyes and shrieked loudly when I saw a red-eyed fox nibbling at my flesh.

“Get away from me! You piece of shit!” I screamed, throwing a handful of dried leaves at the creature who backed away with a snarl, it's razor-sharp fangs stained with my blood.

“Augghh,” I cried, cradling my stinging leg and trying not to look at the gorged flesh sticking out.

This was all my fault. Goddammit, why hadn't I just stayed quiet and taken it? How could Alpha Alaric have just thrown me out of the pack without another look back?

“After all I've done for you,” I hissed bitterly, feeling the light in my heart get snuffed out as pain wracked through me.

My heart hammered painfully inside me as more snarls came from the trees and I whirled around to see bright red eyes appearing from the shadows.

There must have been a dozen of the hounds circling around me and my fingers shook as I threw dirt every which way.

“N-no! No, get away from me!” I stammered, but the hounds must have sensed my weakness because they inched closer, their hideous faces scrunched up as drool dribbled from the corners of their snouts.

Devoured by hungry, wild hounds, I couldn't die like that!

“Get away from me!” I wheeze again, snatching up a broken-off tree branch that had been lying in the dirt beside me and gritting my teeth through the pain as I struggled to my feet.

Bella’s disdainful eyes flashed in my mind and I swallowed the whimper that rose to my throat as the weight of my loneliness settled over me.

Bella would have been right beside me in an instant if she were here, fighting tooth and nail until the very end.

I blinked warily, running deeper into the woods with the hounds snapping their jaws at my ankles before I whirled around suddenly, stabbing the stake into my belly with a deafening scream.

It felt like my midriff had been sawn through by a meat grinder and I almost collapsed as red-hot pain tingled up and down my body like electricity.

The hellhounds watched me from the shadows, and if I hadn't known any better I would have thought my sudden show of bravery had scared them.

Fuck that, they could have my leftovers after I was dead! I wasn't letting a couple of muscular dogs have me!

“Come on Elena...

you're

better off dead anyway.” I whispered, sniffing loudly before focusing all my attention on the sharp edge of the branch that pressed painfully into the sore skin of my belly.

“Didn't ANYONE teach you to aim for the heart when you want to kill a wolf sweetheart?” A man’s honeyed voice filled my ear suddenly as I felt big manly hands creep up my sides before I looked down in shock to see one black claw stab bluntly at my heart.

I shrieked loudly, feeling my body tense as I jumped back, waving the stick at the intruder like a spear.

I could feel my nipples harden almost immediately under the man’s touch, the thick musk of his scent almost bringing me to my knees. A royal wolf! Fuck!

“W-what...w-who are you?” I stammered with my heart racing, and my eyes widened when I saw the second, larger wolf emerge from the shadows.

Huge, white wolves, their furs marked by old and new scars. Fuck! Fuck no! I knew who they were! No, no, no this couldn't be happening to me!

“By all means! Continue! Don't let us interrupt you! My brother and I...well, we so love to see a woman in distress, don't we Anthony?” The first wolf drawled, his crystal blue eyes dragging over my body in a way that made heat roll up my neck.

He was sizing me up, and not in a good way. It was the way a lion looked at a fucking deer before tearing its head off.

Almost like he wondered how my insides tasted.

I felt the moisture dry from my mouth when both wolves shifted into their human form, the fur sinking into a tan, white skin.

Anthony. So that was the name of the larger one. I could feel the rage rolling off him in waves as he glared hard at me, as though accusing me of something.

How long had they been standing in the shadows? Watching me? I felt a shudder creep up my spine at the thought.

“Please, just leave me alone, I don't want to have to fight you-” I stammered, summoning my courage to bare my fangs at the wolves and watching Anthony’s dark eyebrows rise with amusement.

If I didn't know any better I would have said he was intrigued. Intrigue was good. I needed to keep the royal fucks amused until I could get the hell out of here.

“Fight us? My, you are one brave woman.” Anthony spoke finally, and I felt the breath drain from my lungs at the thunderous sound of his voice. He was an Alpha, I could feel it, even as a rogue. The sheer command that laced his deep rumbling voice.

The heated look in his hazel eyes made me want to fall on my back and spread my legs for him.

Bella had always said wolves like this were dangerous, I couldn't risk them getting any closer.

I waved the stake between us wildly.

“Don’t make me have to use this!” I roared, charging at the wolves suddenly and watching a look of surprise split across the first wolf’s face before he smiled and...disappeared.

I could feel my heart thudding dully in my ears before I swerved around in the split-second that remained, lodging the wood firmly into the big wolf’s chest.

“Aww, sweetie...you really... shouldn't have done that.” The big wolf whispered and I felt my legs tremble as I stared down at the stake that had split in half the moment I stabbed it into the brick wall of his chest.

Huh? My brows knotted in confusion and everything seemed to move in slow motion as I wondered how I had barely even dented him!

I suddenly felt a man’s hot breath on my shoulder just before I caught the blonde hair of the man and his exquisitely tan face in the corner of my eye.

I felt pain stab into my neck and hands caressing my sides just as my world went dark.