The Hunted Princess

Chapter 4

Without knowing it I was leaning into him, not only for support but because . . . I wanted too.

My body felt at peace being here. This was absurd, it felt as though I've been wanting to do this all my life.

This was it, I was losing my mind!

I took a moment to evaluate the speed in which we were moving, I'd never seen anything move this fast before. But with the wind blowing my hair and the warm feel of the wolf beneath my skin, the view was somewhat enjoyable.

In fact, I loved looking at the forest from this point of view. If this was how the wolves saw it, this place was rather heavenly.

I found myself relaxing a bit. That is until I heard another howl that crackled through the forest. The sound came from right behind us. To my surprise, my body felt the tension coming out of the wolf beneath me.

Before I knew it I was being thrown off his back and onto the ground as he faced three other wolves. I stared at them now and noticed that none of them could come even the slightest bit close to his size.

He growled at them, his aggressive stance so powerful that the three of them cowered a bit. I evaluated my surroundings, I remembered this area as well. It made me wonder if the black wolf was taking me back to his abode, if I remembered correctly, it should be a little distance from here.

It also meant that I was pretty far away from the camp. It would take me a good while to get back there, this was bad for me considering there were wolves parading all over this forest, all with one intention of eating me alive!

I considered climbing another tree until the fight was over, but after my first experience. . . I was beyond terrified of ever climbing one of those things again.

I felt a lot safer with the feel of the ground right beneath my feet. Besides, I had serious anxiety whenever I was high up in the air.

I jumped as the sound of teeth snapping and bone breaking broke through the quiet forest. If they kept this up, they would surely attract the other wolves in the forest with how loud they were being. In that case, my life would be completely over, I wouldn't stand a chance if that happened. I also, for some reason feared that the black wolf would also get seriously hurt if it came to that.

I couldn't understand why his safety would bother me when I was just another meal to him. A lot of things were not making sense to me, my mind kept confusing my body on how to react.

Eventually, I decided that the best thing for me to do was run. That was the rule I was given, to run as fast as I could and I should definitely follow it in this instance.

The last thing I should be thinking about was the safety of any of those things sent to kill me.

Maybe if I could run fast enough I may reach back the cave in time. I needed to keep positive thoughts if I wanted to get out of here.

My eyes zeroed in on a spear hidden a couple feet away from me. I lunged for the weapon before taking off running once more. My heartbeat aligned with the speed of my feet moving against the fallen leaves and twigs all over the jungle's floor.

Multiple growls a little distance away somehow managed to feed more energy into my body as I sprinted through the forest. Surely my feet would ache the moment I stopped, but that was the least of my worries.

A branch caught onto my dress and I mumbled a few curse words under my breath. The bloody messenger didn't even offer me time to change, fully knowing that this dress would only slow me down.

With fidgety hands, I grabbed the spear and focused on cutting the dress shorter. When I'd made a hole in the cotton fabric, I reached down and ripped the thing in half.

Modesty shouldn't be a problem here, I didn't think the wolves would care that my legs were bare to them.

Unless . . . They liked that. What if I would seem more appetizing to their taste now?

Really, Alina? Get a grip!

I heard it then. The sound of a twig being mashed.

Deep breaths.

Maybe it's just a squirrel?

However, as I turned to face the direction of the sound. It was not a harmless squirrel glaring straight back at me. It was the same wolf from before, the one I'd just been racing through the woods with!

Fear crippled my spine, my own organs failing me. My feet refused to stand and without warning I crashed against the tree behind me.

A low growl was forming low in his throat, his claw digging into the dirt on the ground. For a quick second, I imagined those very claws digging into my skin.

Now is not the time to think of that!

How did he find me so quickly? His mouth was smeared with blood, leaving my imagination to figure out what exactly happened in the fight.

It meant the beast had killed all three wolves within minutes!

It also meant that he would be doing the exact same thing to me in seconds. My body was nothing compared to those demon wolves. It would easily bend and break against this one.

My breath hitched, a small whimper escaping my throat.

I didn't want to die this way.

The beast focused on me, the black specs in his silver eyes going two shades darker.

Why do I feel like I've seen him do that a hundred times before this?

I watched with terrified eyes as he took another step in my direction. Everything moved in slow motion after that. My heart rate accelerated as the wolf lunged for my throat. I saw my life flash before my eyes in that moment.

"Caelan stoppp!" I screamed.

My eyes widened as the beast stopped mid-air, his face one of pain as he dropped to the ground right before me.

H-how did I do that?