The breaking period: Day 5,480, hour 1
Running through a forest at night while having an existential crisis was not on my bingo card for today.
Yet here I was.
"They're getting closer," Ina said, keeping pace beside me with the kind of ease that suggested she could probably run marathons in her sleep.
Meanwhile, I was gasping like an asthmatic chain smoker.
"You know you could just shift," Sahya suggested helpfully. "It would be faster."
"I don't know how to shift!" I wheezed.
"It's literally instinct. Just... let go."
"Let go of what?"
"Everything. Your fear. Your control. Your ridiculous human need to understand everything before you do it."
"That sounds like terrible advice!"
"And yet here we are, about to be caught by five horny werewolves who think you're their mate. Pick your poison, sweetie."
Ina grabbed my arm and pulled me behind a massive oak tree. "Stop. Listen."
I stopped, lungs burning, and tried to listen past my own heartbeat.
Footsteps.
Multiple sets.
Heavy, fast, getting closer.
And voices.
"I can smell her." Raka. Because of course it was Raka. "She's close."
"We all can smell her, brother." Rivan. "The question is why she's running."
Because you're terrifying and I hate you, I thought viciously.
Sahya laughed. "Fair points."
"She must be scared," a third voice said. Tama. The Beta heir who'd spent years enforcing rules that kept me at the bottom of the pack hierarchy. "We should slow down. We're hunting her."
"We're tracking our mate," Raka snarled. "There's a difference."
"Is there?" That was Bima, sounding uncertain for the first time in his life. "Because from her perspective, four wolves chasing her through the forest probably feels like a hunt."
"Four?" my wolf said. "Where's number five?"
Good question.
The fifth scent—that dark, ancient, waiting presence—was there but distant. Watching but not engaging.
Mysterious bastard.
"We need to shift," Ina whispered. "It's the only way you'll outrun them."
"I. Don't. Know. How."
"Yes, you do. Your wolf knows. Trust her."
I looked at Ina like she'd suggested I juggle chainsaws. "The wolf who's been asleep for eighteen years and woke up twenty minutes ago? THAT wolf?"
"I'm right here you know. Hearing you loud and clear," Sahya said, offended.
"Good," I told her. "Then hear this: I don't trust you. I don't trust this situation. And I definitely don't trust that I won't accidentally shift into a tree or something."
"That's not how shifting works."
"You don't know that! I don't know the rules!"
The footsteps were getting closer.
"Ayla," Ina said urgently. "You need to decide. Now. Either shift and run, or face them."
Ninety-seven.
I started counting because my brain was short-circuiting.
Ninety-five.
Four males who'd spent years making my life hell were tracking me through the forest because apparently I was their mate now.
Ninety-three.
My wolf, SAHYA, who I'd just discovered existed, was nagging me to shift.
Ninety-one.
And somewhere out there, a mysterious fifth mate was lurking like a creep.
"Fuck it," I said. "How do I shift?"
"FINALLY." Sahya surged forward in my mind. "Stop fighting me. Stop thinking. Just feel."
"Feel what?"
"Everything."
And suddenly I did.
I felt the earth beneath my feet, solid and ancient. The wind carrying a thousand scents—pine, earth, prey, predator, pack. The moon above, full and bright and calling to something deep inside me.
I felt her.
Not separate from me. Part of me.
Always had been.
"Let go," Ina whispered.
So I did.
Pain exploded through my body, bones breaking, reforming, muscles tearing and rebuilding. I screamed, but the sound came out as a howl that echoed through the forest like a declaration of war.
My hands hit the groher, no, PAWS.
WHITE PAWS!
I looked down at myself and saw fur. Glowing white fur that seemed to catch the moonlight and reflect it back brighter.
"Told you," my wolf said, but now her voice wasn't separate. It was mine. We were one.
Holy shit.
I was a wolf.
"Run," Ina said. "I'll delay them."
I didn't need to be told twice.
I ran.
And oh my goddess, it was nothing like running as a human. This was power. Pure, raw, exhilarating power. My legs ate up distance, paws barely touching the ground. The forest became a blur of trees and shadows, and I could see it all—every detail sharp and clear even in the darkness.
I could smell everything. Deer bedding down for the night. A fox hunting mice. The rain coming from the east.
And my mates.
Still behind me.
Still comitwice
"They're faster than us," my wolf said. "We're strong but untrained. They're warriors."
"So what do we do?"
"Run smarter. Not harder."
I veered left, crashing through underbrush toward the sound of water. A stream. If I could cross it, maybe mask my scent.
Behind me, I heard howls.
Four different voices calling to me, for me, trying to get me to stop.
I ran faster.
The stream appeared through the trees—wider than I expected. Maybe fifteen feet across, moving fast over rocks.
I didn't hesitate. I leaped.
Cleared it easily.
Landed on the other side and kept running.
"Nice jump," my wolf said. "But they'll make it too."
"Do you have any helpful suggestions or just commentary?"
"Both. It's called multitasking."
I could hear them crossing the stream. Still gaining.
My muscles screamed. My lungs burned. Shifting apparently took a massive amount of energy, and I'd been running on fumes even before this disaster started.
"We can't keep this up," my wolf admitted. "We need to hide or fight."
"I vote hide."
"Smart choice."
Ahead, the trees thickened into a dense grove. I dove into it, weaving between trunks, trying to lose them in the maze of vegetation.
Behind me, the howls grew more frustrated.
They were losing my trail.
Good.
I found a massive fallen tree, hollowed out by time and rot, and crawled inside. My white fur stood out like a beacon, so I rolled in the dirt and dead leaves until I looked less like a mystical creature and more like a very dirty dog.
"Glamorous," my wolf said.
"Survival first. Fashion never."
I pressed myself into the deepest part of the hollow and went still.
Footsteps approached. Slowed. Stopped.
"She's close." Raka's voice, frustrated and tense. "I can feel her."
"We all can," Rivan said. "The bond is pulling."
"Then why can't we find her?" That was Tama, sounding more analytical than angry.
"Because she doesn't want to be found," a new voice said.
Elara.
The fifth scent, honey and lightning, suddenly made sense.
He'd been there all along. Just watching. Waiting.
"You helped her," Raka accused.
"I did no such thing," Elara said calmly. "But I'm also not going to help you hunt her like prey."
"She's our mate!"
"And she's terrified. Look at what we've done to her. Years of cruelty, and now we expect her to just... what? Fall into our arms?"
Silence.
"I like him," Sahya commented.
"Don't get attached."
"Too late."
"We need to back off," Elara continued. "Give her space. Let her come to us when she's ready."
"And if she never is?" Rivan asked quietly.
"Then we live with the consequences of our actions."
More silence.
Then footsteps retreating.
I stayed frozen in my hollow tree, barely breathing, until their scents faded completely.
Only then did I relax.
"That was close," Sahya said.
"Too close."
Something else stirred in the distance. Shadows moving. Not one of my mates.
Something darker.
Ancient.
Watching.
The enemy Ina had mentioned. The one who'd killed my parents. The one who'd waited eighteen years for me to wake up.
They knew I was here now.
"We need to move," Sahyasaid urgently.
"Where?"
"The pack. Ironically, it's the safest place right now. Wards. Numbers. Protection."
"We just managed to lose them. They'll corner me there."
"Better cornered by mates than caught by enemies."
She had a point.
I crawled out of the hollow tree and started running again. Not toward sanctuary.
Toward Pack Mahardika.
Toward home.
Even if home didn't want me.
Ninety-seven.
At least I'd face my mates on my own terms.
Not running.
Not hiding.
But choosing.
And that made all the difference.