WILD

two

Lorena had fallen asleep in the corner, sitting with her head on her knees. It must've been later in the day. Almost all of the girls were sitting and talking quietly amongst themselves or sleeping just as she was.

"Oh, you're awake!" She jumped, startled and looked towards her left to see Vera looking up at her with wide eyes. "Can I talk to you? You just seem very approachable."

The brown-eyed brunette nodded slowly. "Sure." She wasn't completely comfortable around Vera, especially after finding out that she was the alpha's daughter. She despised her alpha at this point, and she didn't know if she could completely warm up to Vera anymore.

The long blond-haired and green-eyed girl sighed happily. "Okay, I know what you might be thinking. I've never told anyone that Alpha Warden was my father. Please don't assume things about me just because I'm his flesh and blood."

Lorena regarded the girl carefully. She was extremely small for an alpha, but she could tell that the girl had been properly trained. She was muscular but toned, and extremely beautiful as well. She decided that it wasn't exactly fair for her to dislike Vera without letting her explain herself first. "Fine."

The girl beamed and got comfortable. "Well, I'm not related to the Luna Warden at all. I was an accident resulting from a drunken night between my mother and the alpha." She looked down and blushed, looking ashamed of herself as if it were her fault. "But he did take really good care of me," she added. "I saw him pretty often and he would invite my mother and I over for supper on occasion. The Luna was pretty nice to me. She only held hostility towards my mother, naturally." The girl smiled a bit. "He trained me himself, but I never got to join a class and have a rank, since he wanted to limit my appearance to the rest of the pack. Nobody really asked questions when they saw us together, though. They thought I was adopted, most likely."

Lorena frowned. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head. "No, don't be. I wouldn't have had a father at all, otherwise. My mom was a rogue he tracked down to kill at a bar but then she got them both drunk and well, here I am."

Lorena chuckled dryly. "How romantic."

Vera laughed a little, but then became serious again. "I know a lot of people hate my father right now. I even hated him for a while when he told me what was coming, and that I'd have to be shipped off to be mates with a stranger. Especially now, after the doctor told me I was extremely fertile. I could die out there, or be raped. Trust me, I know all of the risks. But he sent me anyways, and even though I love my father, I'll never, ever forgive him for that."

Lorena was surprised at the amount of venom in the petite girl's voice, but she couldn't blame her. To her, it sounded like their alpha sent his daughter away so that he wouldn't have to deal with her anymore. He had two other children, a son and a daughter, and sending her away would be the perfect opportunity to focus on them and forget about his other child that he hardly had time for in the first place. She wanted to point these things out, but Vera was a smart girl—she was sure she had already had these thoughts run through her head.

A voice startled all of the girls in the room and even Lorena screamed, unused to loud noises after hours of sitting in almost complete silence.

"You will now be released into the forest. There are three alphas and seven other males waiting. There are resting spots that are open for a week. You will get a three minute head start to run if you wish. You are not to kill or severely injure any of your pursuers. Once you are caught and marked, you've been mated and therefore the property of the one who caught you."

Lorena felt her blood boil. She wasn't going to be any man's property.

"You have thirty seconds to prepare." A timer appeared on the wall and Lorena's heart raced so fast she felt sick. Vera grabbed her arm and forced her to look at her.

"Hold it together. If we stick together then it will be harder for them to catch us. We're strong fighters."

Lorena shook her head. "It won't work! We're going to be caught anyways! They have a whole week to catch us. It's inevitable!"

"Lorena, please. You're strong. I've seen you fight back home. That quiet, humble, shy girl act you put on back with our old pack isn't going to help us now. I know you can act feral. I need that side of you to come out right now. We can do this together."

Her wide eyes flicked up to where the timer was counting down from ten seconds. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She had to get through this. She had to see her Papa again. And maybe she could fix things with her mom.

"Okay, let's do this."

"Good. Let's go."

The door started to open and Vera grabbed Lorena's shaking hand. They bolted as soon as the door was up, running side by side, but having no idea where they were going. Lorena had never been on a hunt or even went on a run in the forest before, but her natural instincts kicked in and she found herself quickly surveying the landscape. Her surroundings were nothing but a blur of evergreen green and the dark brown of the tree trunks they were running past. Once they'd ran for what felt like five minutes, they stopped to catch their breath. It was risky, seeing as those three alphas were most likely already on Vera's scent trail, but if they didn't rest at least a little they wouldn't be able to carry on at all.

Vera looked around in awe of the tall trees and sighed. "It's beautiful."

Lorena nodded. "It really is," she admitted. As bad as the situation was, there was no doubt that their surroundings were quite breathtaking. Above them was the darkening sky, and that's when she reminded herself that they were quickly losing daylight and needed a place to hide. "We need somewhere to rest tonight."

Vera nodded. "Yes, but the forest is so big and we don't know where to start."

The brunette she-wolf huffed. It was a smart move on the elder's part. Bringing unmated females from the pack on the very outskirts of the kingdom who had little to no training in the actual wild would mean that their pursuers have an even better chance at catching them sooner. By time the girls had run around a bit and exhausted themselves, they would come looking for a male or an alpha who knew these parts for help. They had to think like an alpha and that meant thinking ahead of everyone.

Suddenly, it hit her.

"Can you climb trees?"