Read with BonusRead with Bonus

02. "Run, little hybrid."

Nuri continued to run until her feet began to ache, and she started to become lightheaded before she finally allowed herself to stop. Even then she continued on, until she felt like she was far enough away from that horrible man. Gasping for breath, she leaned against a tree for a few moments, then turned around to find that the alpha was just behind her, watching her with a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. He was enjoying this. He enjoyed running after her, though he had no real intentions on catching her, he simply enjoyed the thrill of a good chase.

'Oh my god, has he been following me? I must have run about five miles!’ Nuri thought as she glared through the trees at him, shaking her head in disbelief. *'No, I would have heard him! You must be seeing things, Nuri.' *She thought, refusing to believe that the man was truly standing before her.

"You thought you could run from me?" He laughed spitefully, narrowing his eyes as he took a few steps towards Nuri, taking in her appearance. She stood at 5'7 with long blonde hair that cascaded to her waist, and baby blue eyes like a clear blue sky. Her features were both striking and soft, as the alpha had a hard time looking away, despite his ever-growing hatred for the girl. 'She's beautiful. I hate that. Why does she have to be beautiful? If she wasn't one of those disgusting hybrids, I might be happy to have found my mate in her.'

"Why did you follow me? We both know you would rather kill me than to have me as your mate." Nuri gasped, still trying to catch her breath, as the sound of the alpha's deep rumbling voice had robbed her of any breath she might have regained. *'Stop it, Nuri. He's the alpha! It doesn't matter if you're meant to be mates or not. He doesn't want you, and you don't want him.' *She tried to convince herself, keeping her eyes trained on the man before her, not trusting that he wouldn't lunge at her the moment she dropped her guard.

*‘Please, Nuri, don’t be so hostile. Maybe he isn’t so bad. You’ll never know if you don’t give him the chance.’ *Nuri’s inner wolf said, flooding Nuri with feelings of sadness, begging her to lower her guard.

‘Give him the chance to, what? Murder me? We are a hybrid. Don’t let some silly notion of a soul mate cloud our judgement.’ Nuri replied to her wolf, hoping she’d take the hint and stop trying to curb Nuri from her survival instincts to get as far away as possible, as quickly as possible.

"Who are you?" The alpha asked, but Nuri didn't hear his words, as she was preoccupied with trying to figure out how to get far, far away, without alerting him to her intentions on doing so.

"Who are you?" He asked her once more, taking a few steps forward to close the difference between them, much to the chagrin of Nuri, who felt her heart jumping into her throat, the closer he stood to her. 'She really is, so beautiful.' he thought as he looked into her soft blue eyes, his inner wolf howling in pleasure the closer they got. ‘Please, closer! Closer!’ The wolf cried hopefully, nearly forcing his way out into the open, hoping Nuri would do the same, and the wolves could meet face to face.

"I'm Nuri, daughter of the Williamsons." She answered slowly, trying to back away, but trapping herself against a tree instead, blocking herself from getting any further away from him, much to the delight of her wolf.

"Kalmin, alpha of the Blue River pack." He replied, but he knew he didn't need to tell her who he was. There was no way she didn't already know. *'Those worthless Williamsons made this girl? That's more unbelievable than her being my mate.' *Kalmin thought as he put one hand on the tree Nuri was leaning against, bending down so their faces were only inches apart. "How old are you, Nuri?"

"I'm eighteen, soon to be nineteen," Nuri responded, willing her erratic heartbeat to slow down, knowing he could hear it, and hating the thought of giving him the pleasure of knowing how scared she was. "How old are you?" She retorted with a sneer, hoping he wouldn't see past her facade.

"Twenty-one, hybrid." He responded coldly, staring into her blue eyes, still hoping that his wolf was wrong. Hoping that this girl was not his mate, after all.

"Just because our wolves say we’re mates, doesn't mean we need to be mates, Kalmin." Nuri finally said after a few moments, then took a deep breath, shoved against his chest with all the force she could muster, pushing him to take a stunned step back.

'Did this little hybrid just put her hands on me?’ Kalmin thought, staring down at her in silence, as he truly didn’t believe anyone, let alone a lowly hybrid, could be so foolish as to provoke an alpha. ‘The audacity!' he thought, gasping out in a mixture of shock and hatred as he growled, and grabbed Nuri by the throat, slamming her back into the tree. "You'll pay for putting your hands on me, hybrid." He seethed, unable to contain his boiling anger any longer.

"Kill me, please. I'd rather be dead than be your mate." Nuri responded honestly, her blue eyes clear and serious as she waited for the death, she was sure would be coming any moment now. ‘Better dead than living a life of torment under his boot, subject to his every fleeting desire.’

"I'm the alpha of the Blue River pack. There isn't a wolf around that wouldn't kill to be my mate!" Kalmin exclaimed, chuckling lowly as he tightened his grasp around her throat. The tighter he held her, the more his wolf cried in anguish, begging him to stop, to let his mate live. But Kalmin didn't care. As far as he was concerned, killing this girl would give him the chance to find his real mate, the one who deserved a wolf of his stature. That was certainly not a hybrid.

"It's amazing you can find a shirt to fit over that engorged head of yours, alpha. Look into my eyes, listen to my heart. Tell me if I'm lying, then." Nuri struggled out as his hand continued to tighten around her throat, cutting off her air supply. Kalmin scoffed, but looked into her eyes, and focused on her heartbeat, waiting. "I would rather die than to be yours, alpha," Nuri repeated, using every ounce of willpower she had to keep her eyes trained on his, ignoring her wolf as she begged Nuri to beg him to be hers, and to forgive her for her transgressions.

"So, am I lying?" Nuri gasped, her face reddening from lack of air, her sight beginning to spin, telling her she would pass out soon if he continued to hold her in this way.

Kalmin looked into her eyes for a few long moments, then released her throat, earning him thanks from his inner wolf. 'Our mate is gorgeous, strong, and fearless! Who better to be our mate than Nuri?' His wolf asked.

'I don't care what she is. She's a hybrid, and that makes her unworthy.' Kalmin thought as he watched as Nuri backed away from him, holding her throat as she gasped for air.

"You aren't going to kill me?" She asked, furrowing her brows in confusion. ‘I thought he'd rather kill me than to take a chance anyone finds out that he's mated to a hybrid.' She thought, then sighed. She took a few steps to the side, so he wasn't standing directly in front of her anymore and growled, hoping it would be enough. "I don't want you, and you don't want me. We don't need to talk about it anymore." She said, before turning on her heels to run, this time towards home. She didn't care that she lived an hour away, she figured he wouldn't bother following her so far this time. But if only she knew just how much Kalmin loved the hunt, perhaps she wouldn’t have thought such foolhardy things.

Kalmin watched as she ran, her long blonde hair waving back and forth in the wind, confused by his mixed feelings he felt as he watched her disappear from sight. 'Our mate doesn't want us?' His wolf whimpered softly, disappointed.

"No, she doesn't want us. Just as we do not want her." Kalmin said aloud, watching Nuri run until she became nothing more than a mirage in the distance, chuckling lowly as he started to count down from ten.

‘You do not want her. I do.’ Kalmin’s wolf said, then heard Kalmin counting down, and asked; ‘If you do not want her, why are you going to chase her?’

“When we are not hungry, but have the urge to hunt, what do we do?”

‘We hunt, of course.’

“And when we are not in the mood to hunt, but we see a nice juicy rabbit cross our path, one who looks like it would put up a particularly good fight for its life, what do we do?” Kalmin said, grinning as his countdown reached zero, then ran after the girl who’d long since disappeared from his sight. He turned his nose up to the air, breathing in the smell of Nuri’s fear, letting his inner wolf take the reins.

‘We allow it to think it has a chance, then we kill it.’

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter