Chapter 1

Julia Dirus's heart pounded in her chest and her breathing became shallow as she propelled herself forward and away from her pursuer. She pushed her bare feet against the soil of the forest floor and pumped her arms in front of her, hoping to gain speed. The man behind her was so fast, and he always seemed one step ahead of her, figuring out exactly where she planned to head in her attempts to outmaneuver him. Through her peripheral vision she could see her dark surroundings whizz by. The dense forest was always a little ominous, but at night it was truly chilling. If it wasn't for the bright moon above her, she would have had a hard time making her way over the root-infested ground.

Dodging a tree that loomed ahead of her, she veered to the left and took the opportunity to glance back and see where he was. The man who had been chasing her was nowhere to be seen. Julia stopped and stood silently, relying on her ears to pinpoint his location. The forest was dead quiet, with only the occasional cricket chirp breaking the blanket of silence. After a few moments she could hear a soft, low-pitched growl from behind her. Without taking the time to think about it, she took off at a dead sprint in the opposite direction and threw herself into the transformation from her human form to wolf.

Her pursuer obviously felt that all beats were off on this chase and so she wasn't about to play by the rules either. She may not be very big in her wolf form, but she was fast. At her fastest she could get up to forty miles per hour. So if he wanted to turn this lupine, so be it. She felt her spine bend, her legs and arms shorten. Her face elongated, her chestnut-colored hair retracted and her whole body began to grow a whitish-grey coat. She had transformed so many times in her life, that she barely even heard the pops of her joints and bones as they broke and reformed. From start to finish the transformation took about fifteen seconds, but that was more than enough time for him to gain ground on her. His growling could be heard more distinctly. He was getting closer.

The second she felt four paws hit the ground instead of two feet she took off like a bullet, heading for the nearby stream that ran through the property. If she could just reach the river, he'd have to stop chasing her. Her strides were long and ate up distance. The river bank was on the other side of a large, tree-enclosed clearing, and she would be at her most vulnerable as she crossed it. Without trees to block her from him, he would easily be able to make out her white coat against the green grass.

Upon entering the clearing she pushed herself even faster. She could feel her muscles contract and relax with each stride, and she pushed into the feeling, forcing them to work harder, push her farther. The cool night air was whipping through her coat and she felt revitalized. She loved the feeling of the wind. She let her thoughts wander to the glorious feeling of the run, but that small relaxation cost her. For when she was halfway across the clearing, a large grey wolf with a black stripe running down its back came barreling down on her from behind and to the left. By the time she noticed him, he was too close to hide from and was already leaping in the air to take her down to the ground.

Their bodies hit the earth with a muffled thud and the large male grabbed the scruff of her neck between his teeth, forcing her to admit defeat. She whimpered in acknowledgement of the loss and shook herself free of him. She rose to her feet and quickly squared off against him, her upper lip rising to expose her sharp teeth. He let out a short bark that sounded amused and then annoying her to no end he stepped forward, lovingly licked her muzzle and then pressed the side of his head against hers. She stepped back from him, not ready to show affection yet, and was met by his beautiful blue eyes, which were alight with mischief. Normal wolves all had amber eyes, but lycanthropes retained the color they had as humans. His were a deep sapphire. She padded around in a circle a few times and then plopped down with a huff, beginning the transformation back to her human form. He quickly settled in next to her and transformed as well.

"You cheated, Connor! I demand a second chance. We never said our lupine forms were allowed or I would have used mine to begin with!" she complained after she was able to speak again. She lay on her side completely naked, having left her sundress and sandals at the entrance of the forest where they started their favorite game of naked chase. Her objective was to get to the river before Connor reached her. So far she had only been able to evade him twice. Not that she usually complained; being caught could be so much fun when clothing wasn't involved. But tonight, they had made a bet on this little game, and Julia hated to lose. Her upper body was turned towards his, and she playfully scowled at him, crinkling her eyebrows.

"I don't think so." Connor argued, grinning and dragging her to rest against his expansive muscular chest. "All is fair in love and war, and we never explicitly said that transforming was against the rules. In fact, I think given the nature of our bet it makes perfect sense." Julia made a noise that sounded like "pft" and then stuck her tongue out at him.

"You may have caught me, but I'm not going through with it. I refuse to be mated to such an underhanded scoundrel," she said in jest, hitting him playfully on his shoulder and making him laugh. In actuality she would have mated Connor even if he hadn't caught her. Her irritation came from the fact that they were both really competitive, which was one of the reasons they fit so well together. Now she had to start the mating ritual tonight instead of waiting until they could complete the whole thing like she wanted to. She knew she wanted to be with him forever and was thrilled by the thought of spending the rest of her life as his mate. But mating for a lycanthrope required the couple to go through a ritual in both their human and wolf forms, and neither Connor nor Julia had the time to do both before they had to get back to their respective packs. Only completing half of the ceremony would leave them in a weird limbo state. They would be "bonded" to one another but not officially mated. They would feel a pull towards one another and wouldn't be able to mate with anyone else, but they'd still lack the ability to reproduce, communicate telepathically or sense emotions.

"Are you upset that you won't have a lavish ceremony like your sisters did?" Connor asked while pressing his nose into Julia's hair and breathing in her scent. He also began to gently stroke her back with his finger tips, lightly caressing her and causing goose bumps to form on her skin. She shivered and burrowed in closer to him.

"Not really. Deena and Cilia have always been the ones big on getting attention. I'm content with simple. I just want to make sure my father doesn't kill you once we do this. With luck he will just disown me and not attack the entire Wulfric pack."

"It's still hard for me to believe that you came from that family. How did you turn out so..." He stumbled in his question, trying to think of the right wording. " ... decent?" Julia softly giggled but then stopped and started to lightly smooth her fingers over the muscles in his chest as she thought about her response.

"I don't know. I just never agreed with them on the whole 'lycanthropes are superior to humans' thing. I've never felt the need to have power or wealth to make me happy. I guess 'cause I saw what it did to my mom. When my father started to make his push for territory and allied himself with the human-hating Signatus pack, she just lost her sparkle. She became a dulled version of herself and I never could get past that. I'm almost glad she isn't around to see how they have torn away from the Alliance and the other packs. The Dirus and Wulfric packs used to be friends." After hearing her explain, Connor reached a hand up to caress the side of her face and placed kisses along her forehead.

"God, I wish you had been born into my pack or any pack still in the Alliance. The Rufus or Laniger packs would surely have let you mate me. It would have made this so much easier. You could have worn a beautiful dress and had a fantastic party instead of lying naked in the grass for your mating ceremony." Julia could tell that Connor was bothered by the fact he couldn't give her the mating experience that the children of alpha males should have, but she truly didn't care about such things. Julia pushed herself up from the ground with her hand and forced Conner flat on his back by pressing on his shoulder. She then positioned herself across his broad chest and propped herself up by placing her hands above his head. Her breasts pressed against him and her wavy brown hair formed a curtain around their faces.

"I like being naked in the grass with you, Connor. And come on, the stars are out, the moon is bright and the air is warm. I couldn't ask for a better mating ceremony than this." She leaned in to gently kiss him, emphasizing that she meant it. "I also wish I was a Wulfric or a Rufus or a Laniger but for different reasons. I don't care that I don't get a fancy party. I care that I don't get to howl my love for you from the hilltops. I want to scream it so loudly that no one would ever doubt my devotion to you. But you're gonna be my father's new number one target as it is." A lustful rumbling started to form in Connor's chest and Julia could feel the vibrations from it. He was exited by her words and was getting anxious to get started.

"Just run away with me, Julia. Tonight. I can keep you safe. I'm more that capable of protecting you from anything your father could dish out. There's an Alliance building a few miles south of here that our allied packs use as a store house and basis of combat stuff. I doubt you'd be able to make it as far into Wulfric territory as the alpha mansion without being captured, but you should be able to make it there. Plus, if we kept you there he wouldn't be able to find you, the Dirus pack hasn't located it yet. It would be safe, and once we were fully mated there'd be nothing he could do about it."

Julia lowered her head into the crook of his neck to think about what he just offered. She'd be saying goodbye to everything she'd ever known, not that that was necessarily a bad thing. But her father was going to flip. She hadn't yet thought about how she was going to get out from under his control. Technically she should be able to leave anytime she wanted to. At twenty-five she had been an adult for years, but when you are the daughter of an alpha, your life in not always your own. Her father had been trying to convince her for the past year to mate with Darian Signatus, the alpha of the Signatus pack. Together Darian and her father had formed an alliance of their own called Derrator. It was their goal to take over all the lycanthrope territories in this state and gain enough strength to turn against the humans. She wanted nothing to do with that plan. She hated the things her father was doing, and feared that he would turn all his forces against the Wulfric pack once she betrayed him for Connor. She inhaled deeply and then slowly let it out. It would be so easy for her to say yes to Connor. She desperately wanted to.

"I can't do it," she said, her voice slightly muffled against his neck. She felt him tense under her and lifted her head to quickly add, "At least not tonight. There are things I need to get from the manor house. Things of my mom's. I don't want to leave them; they're all I have left of her. But can I meet you there tomorrow?"

Hope and excitement flared across Connor's face, and then his deep chest rumblings started up again. Connor's eyes darkened with lust, and he rolled their bodies so that he was looking down at her. He grabbed the back of her neck with his hand, pulling her up so that her lips met his. Their kisses began as gentle massages but quickly transformed into heated, open-mouthed battles for mutual possession. Their tongues dueled for space and their lips roughly pushed against each other. Soon their hands joined in on the fray. She clutched his shoulder with one hand, while the other tangled itself in his dark hair.

Meanwhile, his right hand grabbed her naked breast, using his thumb to play with her hardened nipple. Julia could feel his substantial erection pressing against her, and she echoed his arousal in the liquid heat that was pooling between her thighs. His hand journeyed down her side to the rounded globe of her ass, and he used her hips as leverage to pull her core closer to him. He ground himself against her. Julia let out a deep moan and then tore herself away from his mouth.

"So is that a yes? Can we meet there tomorrow?"

"If you're not there I will hunt you down and drag your little ass there myself." He squeezed her ass, accentuating his point. Leaning down, Connor proceeded to nibble on her earlobe and place kisses along the side of her neck.

"Mmm, good to know," she said. She could feel herself becoming agonizingly aroused. His tortuous kisses were causing her blood to heat beneath her skin. She needed him to touch her soon or she'd go crazy. Flexing her hips in a circular pattern, she rubbed herself against him. Short of breath, she asked him, "So how do I find this place?" She felt Connor grin against her and continue to press his lips along her collarbone.

"Well," he said in between kisses. "It can be tricky to find if you're not told in detail how to get there. It's camouflaged well. If you start here at the clearing, you need to cross the river, and then head south." Connor continued his oral exploration, heading in the direction of the valley between her breasts. "Now this is very important. As you continue south, a hill with a large compound on its crest can be seen. That's a Dirus combat camp; you'll have to be careful not to be spotted." His hand reached up to engulf her breast, and he pinched the pink tip. Kissing around the curve of her plump mound he continued his directions, "Stay close to the side of the hill, and they'll be less likely to see you. They're expecting to see a pack of us attack from the east. They'll be looking for distance approaches; so the closer to the hill, the better." He suddenly sucked one nipple inside his mouth, flicking it with his tongue. With his hand he massaged her other breast, causing her to moan and squirm beneath him. Her hands latched onto the back of his head, holding him against her.