#2 The Golden Wolf

Ryanna POV

I didn’t look back.

Looking back meant hesitation. Hesitation meant teeth. And teeth meant an ending I wasn’t signing up for.

The forest swallowed me whole. Branches tore at my arms, and roots lunged for my ankles like the trees themselves were trying to take me out. My lungs dragged air in like they were on fire, every inhale a rasp, every exhale a curse.

The silver-eyed bastard was behind me somewhere, and the thought alone made my pulse spike. One alpha was bad enough.

Four was suicide.

I still didn’t know who the hell I was. My brain was a foggy, shattered mirror. But my body? My body knew exactly what the hell it was doing. Muscle memory took over, a second nature I didn’t remember earning.

Vault. Duck. Roll. Sprint. Again. Again. Again.

My breath tore through my throat. Sweat dripped down my back, sliding between my shoulder blades. The metallic taste of fear coated my tongue, too sharp, and too fucking bright.

Another howl split the air...but not the same one. Not silver. This one was… different.

Lower. Deeper. Richer. Hungrier.

It vibrated through my bones like a goddamn tuning fork. My legs reacted before my brain did, pushing harder and faster, like the sound alone lit a fuse in my blood.

“What fresh hell is...”

A branch slapped me across the face.

“Okay,” I wheezed, “rude.”

The forest changed as I barreled deeper, it got darker and thicker, the moonlight shrinking into thin slivers breaking between ancient trunks. The wind shifted, too, carrying a scent that punched straight into my lungs.

Warm. Wild. Gold and heat.

Something like sunlight poured into cedar and smoke. Something that hit me so hard I stumbled mid-step. Then I heard him. Not a howl this time.

A voice. “Keep running, little moon. I like it.”

My heart stalled.

I skidded around a boulder, my breath tearing out of me. “I am so done with all of you furry psychos!”

A laugh followed me through the dark, low, amused, and annoyingly beautiful. The kind of voice that belonged to a man who knew how sin tasted.

I tried to pour speed into my legs again, but the forest was changing around me. Branches pulled in tight overhead, turning the world into a tunnel of shadow and silver light.

Then...He appeared. Not behind me. Not beside me. In front of me.

A massive wolf burst through the dark like a sun flare, with fur like molten gold under the moon, and eyes like glowing amber, bright enough to burn straight into my skull. Power radiated off him in waves so thick it almost knocked me backward.

My brain short-circuited. I tried to stop. Failed. Slammed sideways into a tree.

“Ow...fuck...you...absolute menace!”

The golden wolf stalked forward, slow and deliberate, his muscles rippling beneath fur that looked too beautiful to belong to a creature trying to murder me.

He didn’t snarl. He didn’t lunge. He just looked at me like he’d found something he’d been hunting for years.

Then, flash of light, crack of bones, twist of heat,

he shifted. A man now stood where the wolf had been.

Tall. Broad. Sunlit gold hair dripping over his forehead. Eyes molten amber that bored into mine like they were reading through skin, bone, and soul.

Naked as the day he was born. Of fucking course.

I threw up a hand. “Holy hell! Get a leaf! A tree! A....something!”

He didn’t even blink. “You ran into my territory.”

“Your territory is the size of a small nation!”

He grinned, slow and wicked, the kind of smile that rewired your frontal cortex. “I like my space.”

“Congratulations,” I snapped. “Move your ass so I can leave it.”

He didn’t. Because why would a giant glowing alpha wolf do the reasonable thing? His gaze dragged down my body, lingering on the sweat, the dirt, and the scratches bleeding down my arms.

Something in his face shifted, hunger and recognition twisting together.

“You smell like the moon and roses.”

“I smell like exhaustion and regret.”

Another slow step forward.

I edged back until bark pressed against my spine. “Stay where you are.”

“If I wanted you dead,” he murmured, “you would’ve died the moment you hit that tree.”

“Wow. Sexy.”

His smile sharpened. “You’re mouthy.”

“You’re naked.”

He huffed a laugh. “And you’re mine.”

“Excuse me?!”

“Mate.”

The word hit me like a slap. I actually choked. “Hard no. No thank you. Wrong bitch.”

He stalked closer, close enough that I could feel the heat rolling off him, wild and alive. His scent crashed into me, warm, golden, something ancient and intoxicating. It squeezed around my ribs like a fist.

I shoved past him. Or tried. His hand shot out, bracing on the tree beside my head, not trapping me, but close enough that every nerve in my body sparked.

“Don’t run.”

“I will always run.”

His eyes darkened. “Not from me.”

“You have excellent confidence for someone with their dick out.”

His laughter rumbled through the leaves. “Get used to it.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I will stab you.”

He leaned in, his breath brushing the shell of my ear.

“Do it. I want to feel that fire.”

My knees went weak. Anger. Fear. Something hotter I refused to name. It all collided inside me.

“Move,” I rasped.

“No.”

I shoved him with everything I had. He didn’t budge. Not an inch. So I did what any self-respecting feral amnesiac queen would do:

I jumped. Straight up, caught a branch, swung myself into the tree canopy, and scrambled higher.

“Bye!”

Wind rushed past my ears as I lunged into the leaves, grabbing branch after branch until I perched on a thick limb high above the forest floor.

I looked down. The golden alpha stared up at me.

His hair glowed, and his eyes were brighter than fire. His chest rose with a slow inhale that said he was not amused and was absolutely going to climb up after me.

“You really think that’ll help you?” he asked.

“Pretty sure tree equals safety,” I panted. “Science.”

He dug his fingers into the bark. Oh no. Oh fucking no. He was climbing. He moved like the tree grew for him, like gravity was more of a suggestion than a law. Every muscle flexed, every limb precise, and powerful.

He reached my branch in seconds. My breath snagged.

“Hi,” I said weakly.

His golden eyes dragged over me, heat simmering under every pass. “Don’t hide from me.”

“I’m not hiding. I’m… tactically elevated.”

He huffed. “You’re cute.”

“Shut up.”

“You’re mine.”

“I said shut up.”

He climbed onto the branch with me, balancing easily despite his size. He had one knee bent, and one hand bracing him as he leaned forward.

Slow. Intentional. The man was feral temptation embodied.

“Look at me,” he murmured.

I shouldn’t have. I did.

Heat slammed through me, wild, electric, and terrifying. My pulse thrashed. My skin buzzed. Something deep inside me stretched, reaching out toward him like a magnet pulled too close.

“Do you feel it?” he asked softly.

My throat closed. “No.”

“Yes,” he said with absolute certainty. “You do.”

“I don’t even know who I am,” I snapped. “How the hell would I feel something like that?”

He reached out, and brushed a strand of hair from my cheek. My breath hitched. My entire body went molten.

His voice dropped to a low growl. “You may not know your name. But your soul knows you're mine.”

“Oh great,” I muttered. “Now my soul’s horny. Thanks.”

His smile wrecked me.

“You’re mine,” he whispered again, closer now. “The Hunt isn’t about catching you anymore.”

My heartbeat pounded so loud I could barely think. “Then what is it about?”

“Keeping you.”

“Pass.”

“Try again.”

“I said pass....hey!”

His hand wrapped around my wrist. Not harsh. Not trapping. Just firm enough to send a shock through the bond I didn’t want to admit existed.

My vision blurred at the edges. Panic. Heat. Recognition. All tangled.

“No,” I whispered. “Let me go.”

He leaned his forehead against mine.

“Run,” he said, his breath ghosting my lips, “but know this....”

His fingers slid from my wrist to my jaw, tilting my face up.

“I will always find you.”

My chest constricted.

“I hate you,” I lied.

“I know.”

His lips brushed my cheek, hot, soft, and barely there, and my entire body jolted like something ancient inside me had just woken up.

I recoiled on instinct, shoved him hard, and leapt from the branch. Gravity swallowed me.

I hit the ground in a roll, pain slicing through my shoulder, but I didn’t stop.

I ran.

I heard him drop from the tree seconds later,

graceful, predatory, and furious. His growl chased me through the forest:

“I’ll find you again, little moon. And when I do, you’ll know me.”

I didn’t look back. I didn’t slow. My heart thundered in my chest, dust and heat and something feral pooling in my stomach.

I didn’t know my name. I didn’t know my past. I didn’t know why four alphas wanted to claim me. But I knew one thing with absolute, terrifying clarity....

I wasn’t running from them. I was running from myself.

And sooner or later…they were going to catch me.