BORA

Prologue

Gemma

You will not make it easy on me, won't you? I sneered at myself at how foolish that statement sounded. After knowing what you are. Of course, it won't be simple for me, especially given how things went nuts. Sanity seems to not be with me tonight, searching for you alone in the middle of the forest on a rainy night.

But that has to count for something, right, risking myself? It shows I care, even though you might rip my head from my shoulders. And leave my body in torn open flesh in the middle of nowhere. I can picture the yellow tape surrounding the gore after being found.

Yes, I am insane for this. But what are friends for, right? I nervously chuckled to myself.

I trotted through the water as it seeped through my shoe to the soles of my feet, splashing into the muddy grass. The heaviness of my feet is slowing me down.

Why the hell would I wear running shoes during a freezing rainstorm? I had the right idea. I will be running, so I wore running shoes, logically. But nature has told me it was a bad idea. I should have been better prepared to change a wolf's mind.

A wolf? I laugh to myself. And not just any kind of wolf, a shapeshifter that can supposedly become human and particularly enjoy killing, which is against my nature.

And that is something I thought I would never have to say in a million years. Me, Gemma Woods. The same girl who took a year off of college because I was scared of something different. Now all of it seems ridiculous, facing what I have to face.

A howl echoes through the trees, sending my gut into a pivot of fear as I stop, looking back. His outcry rumbled through the forest, quickening my heartbeat as I heard the distress call of birds being scared out of their homes.

It's coming. My knee-jerk reaction dashes one foot forward to run, but the tip of my foot skated back, losing friction as I fight to hold my balance,

"Agh!" I plunged into the wet ground, splashing into the watery mud, soaking the front of my clothes that were now sticking to me. I lost my legs at the worst possible time.

Get your butt up and run for your life, Gemma! I encouraged myself as I managed to stumble to my feet in a nick of time, kicking up the watery mud as I aimed hard not to slide again.

"Grr!" I hear the fierce growl not far behind approaching rapidly through the trees, whooshing in my ears. It becomes louder, which awakens my adrenaline.

Damn my legs, go, go, go.

I can barely see ahead, but I keep running until I notice a clear view of the midnight blue orange-tinted sky. And with last-minute heed of the warning. I am already perilously close to losing my footing at the cliff's brink.

"Ahh," I squeak the sound with my feet scuffing gravel rock as I contain the ground under my feet. That was a close one. Ripples of moving water engulfed my hearing as my eyes focused on a creek below.

Well, isn't this fricking great? The wolf has me cornered. Grr!" The growl urged me to spin around, stunned as he headed straight for me.

"STOP!" I winced to brace myself for his attack.

"Argh!" he growls, head-butting me off the cliff.

"Ahh!" I screeched, falling over but found the stamina to grab the roots poking out from the ground as I dangled in midair.

My eyes veer up, hearing the deep rumble coming from his throat that sends shivers down my spine.

"You gotta snap out of it, Bora!" I whimpered to myself and him.

I watch him slowly stalk me as he comes close, expiring air from his nostrils, blowing the hair out of my face and making my eyes blink. His razor-sharp canines dripped saliva onto my face.

"Bora, listen to me. You have to stop this!" I feel my hands slipping. "Bora!" It hurts to hold on. Will this be the way I die? Will you kill me with those same, deep butterscotch eyes that once held gentleness? Bora?

Slip.

My burning hands skidded, unable to hold the branch any longer, and in one moment, Bora leaped, as I declined, feeling the open air move upward as I fell backward, watching him before me, still exposing his teeth.

This is our fate.

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