Aliyah kept running in the streets, she wanted to transform but she couldn’t do that with the humans walking around. She glanced behind her a number of times and she couldn’t see him but she knew he was chasing her because his scent was lingering around and her wolf was still reacting in that strange way to him. When she finally saw the woods coming up, she sighed in relieve and increased her pace, she knew the only reason he hasn’t caught up to her was probably because he was trying to avoid the human stares as well. Everyone knows that nightwalkers are pretty fast and there was no where she could outrun him with her human legs.
As she ran, she wondered why he was chasing her in the first place, she didn’t cost him any trouble and the treaty clearly states that if there was no problem then there was no reason to attack. She had figured out what he was and had minded her business by leaving the club for him, what does he still want with her now? Immediately she approached the woods, she jumped and shifted midair, landing on her paws and her shredded clothes falling in pieces beside her. She didn’t care about the clothes and continued with her run, her strength and agility increased with the transformation. The more she ran, she noticed her wolf didn’t really want to but she pushed forward.
She could hear the rustling of dried leaves behind her and knew he was behind her, probably had released his full force in the pursuit as well. She could feel fear rising in her heart, she doesn’t know why but she was afraid of him. She had met a lot of nightwalkers before, killed a few but none aroused the fear in her like he did. She thought of calling for help with the mind link but she was still far from home and furthermore, she wouldn’t want her father to know she was outside or where she was coming from.
A sharp pain on her hind leg made her wince and growl in pain, stopping her run immediately. She glanced at her leg and saw that she had stepped on a trap probably left by a human who was either trying to hunt one of her kind for proof as they have been doing these past years or one who genuinely wants to hunt for other animals for consumption. Whichever it was, all she knew was that he has completely ruined her life by leaving that trap in that particular place. She winced as the pain she felt forced her to shift back into her human form.
She tried to help free her leg but when she touched it, it hurt like hell. She winced in pain and bit her tongue hard to stop herself from screaming. She heard the rustling of the leaves and remembered her current situation. He was close; she could perceive his scent much stronger now without the intoxicated scent of humans. She flashed her eyes around, wondering which side he would jump out from. Nightwalkers are always light on their feet but she could always hear them even if faintly except for him. She remembered the time in the club, it was like no one was moving. Who is he anyway?
“You are a long way from home, little wolf.” She heard the most tantalizing voice say and her wolf reacted to it. She glanced around but there was no sign of him. She knew he was there, she could smell him, his dead plant scent that was somehow messing with her mind and her wolf.
“Stay back, I am not afraid of you,” she yelled the lie with every confidence she could muster, her eyes searching frantically, refusing to be caught unaware by him. She could feel her wolf searching for him as well but unlike her, she was searching without fear but with…longing?
“Oh but you should be little wolf, I can be your worst nightmare,” he stepped out of the shadows then, his midnight blue eyes holding her spellbound and the full moon highlighting his skin, making him paler than he should be with the tree leaves casting long and sexy shadows on his face. Aliyah gulped, not only her wolf this time because even her was mesmerized by the man’s beauty. She realized that she had not gotten a clear view of his look back in the club because of the dimmed lights, the man should be given the award of the most handsome man she has ever seen, be it a wolf, a human or even a nightwalker.
“You can’t be, I have killed more of your kind and I won’t hesitate to kill you too,” she warned, her eyes burning like a blue flame.
Edward chuckled, he could smell the fear off her but somehow he loved how she was trying to hide it and put up a front. He took a step closer and that was when it hit him, the tantalizing scent he had perceived earlier and it took him only a second to realize what smelt so good: her blood. He gulped, his eyes going to her foot that was still stuck in the trap, the blood that coated it and he shivered. With the amount of blood he had last night, he shouldn’t grow thirsty for the next seven days and even so, he shouldn’t be thirsty for a howler’s blood, they don’t feed on them.
Aliyah noticed the change in the man and she followed his gaze to her foot, fear rose in her heart immediately and she took her eyes back at him, “you don’t feed on us,” she felt a need to remind him, seeing the way his eyes were not leaving her wound.
“Exactly,” he whispered in a terrifying voice, his eyes going back to her but rather than midnight blue, it was glowing red, “I kill your kind.” He could feel his fangs elongating and he tried so hard to hide it, he could see his reflection in her eyes and he knew he looked terrifying now. What is wrong with me? He wondered, his eyes going to that soft spot on her neck, he could see her pulse and the blood flowing in her veins and that was when he realized that he was longing to sink his fangs on her not to feed on her but to…Mark her?
He took a step back, surprised at his own longing and fought to control himself before he did something that even he would regret. His eyes flashed between blue and red as he fought for control but at the end, he squatted near her foot so swiftly that Aliyah transformed her hand into paw midair and scratched him badly on the face, warning him to stay away. She growled angrily at him and when he looked at her and she saw the huge lines of her claws on his beautiful face, she felt bad immediately and even heard her wolf whimper in pain for him.
Nightwalkers are good at healing speedily but even a wound from wolf claws would take days to heal completely. They had been taught so in school and she had seen an experiment as well when they had captured one and experimented on him. Their claws are deadly to them just as nightwalkers fangs are deadly to them. A bite from them always takes days to heal and if too deep, a weak wolf would die from the pain before it fully heals.
She had wanted to apologize seeing she had hurt him so badly but a shocking thing had happened, she had watched with her very eyes as the claw lines began filling up and soon, his face was as smooth as ever. She gasped in shock mixed with fear and backed away from him, however, her action triggered her wound and she winced in pain.
“Be still,” he said, his voice was shockingly soft and her wolf became still immediately, forcing her to obey.
‘Shouldn’t I be mad at her for hurting me?’ He wondered, however he wasn’t and rather, he leaned towards her feet and pried the teeth of the trap open. He stared at her injured foot and he was overcome with the emotion to help heal her since her healing speed was slow compared to his. But before he could do that, he stopped himself and let her foot drop loudly, causing her to yelp in pain. He stood up, retreating to a safe distance, “I should kill you for hurting me but from the look of it, you are in a worse shape than I am, so I will let it pass tonight.”
Aliyah stared at her foot, he may have dropped her forcefully but he had still helped her and she wondered why. She glanced at him, wanting to say something but she found him looking at her and it was only then she realized she was naked. She grew embarrassed immediately and wished there was a way she could magically cloth herself. She could feel his gaze burning all over her but she didn’t dare look at him.
Edward watched her, he could sense the change in her emotion, she wasn’t afraid anymore and even though he was surprised and wondered when he stopped being scary, he was more concerned with the new emotion she had picked up. Her body language was changing and he could hear the increase in her heart beat as well as the s****l tension that was now hovering in the air. “What are you doing?” he asked, not understanding how her emotion could change so drastically.
Aliyah felt more embarrassed knowing he had picked up the change in her body, damned human, he really did drug me. She wanted to go back to the club and deal with the asshole but she was more worried about the man in front of her and the fact that her wolf was in support of anything he would do to her now, which was a first. Even if she was drugged, her wolf shouldn’t be affected by it, so why is she swooning over the nightwalker? Her body was reacting quickly to the medicine and it wasn’t helping if a sexy man was standing in front of her, gawking at her naked body. She shivered at that thought and had to bite back a moan.
A new scent suddenly overshadowed the tantalizing scent of her blood and having lived as long as he had, Edward recognized the scent immediately. Apparently, it was the same in every woman, be it a nightwalker, a human or even… a howler.
In a swift movement, he was before her immediately and he grabbed her tightly by the neck, “are you trying to seduce me, little wolf?” he smiled but his voice was dangerous.