Chapter Four

I snap my head around to look over my shoulder as I keep running away from the worrisome wolves. I can hear them gaining on me as each second passed. There is no way that I am going to out run all of them. I can't even take on one of them.

Dark masses weave in and out of the trees following my exact path. Wouldn't it just have been a hell of a lot easier if they just went the quickest way to me and not follow my every step? I ignore the thought and listen to the paws suddenly fading. Are they stopping? That can't be happening. I've been warned about the wolves in this part of the country. They don't stop for anything at all. They live for nothing but the kill.

I glance behind me once again for my eyes to land on the jet-black fur off a wolf only maybe twenty feet behind me at the most. I catch a whiff of his scent. He's the one that reeks of sex. God, of all the wolves the alpha has to be practically on top of me? This is so not fair. This wolf has that campfire smell and he kinda smells like Marlboros. Who would have ever thought that the wolf would smoke? Isn't there some sort of law against that or something?

I force my feet to move faster only to suddenly find myself on the ground. Fuck! Of all times I have a flair up it has to be now? Why did I have to keep that one quality of being a human? I don't freakin' want to have any human qualities right now! Can't I just act like a full on badass vampire?

My survivor mode kicks in. There is no way that I'm going to let some stupid dog eat me, or whatever the hell the dogs do. I kick up dirt with my boot so the wet soil goes right in the dog's face. It gives me all of a second or so but I turn myself over so I'm facing up and I can see that the huge dog is maybe five feet away. I push myself up only to find my back to be pressed into the rough bark of a tree. Damn it I am so dead.

The wolf is growling at me, snapping its jaws. I look at anything but its teeth knowing that they will most likely be the last thing that I see alive. The wolf is crouched low like it's ready to pounce on me and tare to pieces. I study its shaggy black hair. There are some small twigs and bits of leaves caught in the fur behind its legs. The muscles rippled the thick fur each and every time a growl came tumbling out of the animal's mouth.

"Oh give it a rest already. You've got me cornered. I know you're gonna kill me." I grip the soft dirt in my hands letting my own words sink into my brain. I have no chance against this one wolf never mind the other wolves that were now flanking this one's sides. Four more joined the big black one and now I could truly smell the wet dog stench. I blink hard. Wait a second. How come the black one doesn't smell like the terrible other dogs?

I glance back to the black one that's directly in front of me. Something is very off about this wolf. He doesn't smell like a wolf at all. He smells like a person. He smells like….like… I take in another whiff trying to ignore dog's retched stench and just concentrate on the other scents, the burning wood, the Marlboros, and sex. The last time I smelt that combination of scents before was the last time I saw him, the last time I saw Nate.

The black wolf stops snarling at me and stood up as if I had just electrocuted it. I can feel it watching me and it's eyes running over my body. I look at it silently asking it to stop giving me a once over. The thought that a wolf could be checking you out is more then weird. It's eyes catch mine. They are a warm hazel, the same hazel that Nate's eyes were. There is no way that a wolf has the same color eyes as my old boyfriend's. The wolf has the same blue and green spots in it's iris' just like Nate.

The large wolf whined causing all of the other wolves to look at it. The black wolf turned to look at the wolf to it's right. The gray wolf starred down at the black wolf almost as if they were having a conversation between the two of them. The other wolves turn towards me just as the black wolf bolts away behind a huge pine tree.

"Ben get over here I need some pants!" The voice was deep, husky, and slightly scratchy. The voice was not one that a person could forget especially if it is the first and last thing that is heard everyday for three years. One of the wolves trotted away towards the tree that the black wolf ran behind. The other wolf came back a second or so later to regain it's spot at the end of the line.

"Oh my god," I push myself up against the tree, digging my heals into the ground so I was halfway standing up. This is not happening. That couldn't have been Nate's voice. The wolves quickly turned back to me, growling.

"Whoa whoa whoa. Guy's don't. I got it." I turn to the voice to see a human jogging towards me. The guy was extremely tall and muscular. His abs are chiseled out as if by stone. He has back shaggy hair that falls just below his ears in a jagged fashion. His face looks exactly how I thought it would, exactly how I remember it had been. Each and every single one of his fetchers are sharply angled and set high. I squeeze my eyes shut. It can't be him.