Reluctantly Mated

It turned out her instincts sucked ass.

After several minutes of running through the woods and her pink fuzzy socks practically caked in dirt and leaves, Kenzie slowed down to a stop, trying desperately to catch her breath.

Weekly runs with her family helped keep her in shape, but she couldn’t run like that forever.

She wasn’t super thin for a reason, and that reason was definitely that cardio was one of the worst things imaginable.

Unlike wolves who were gifted with supernatural strength and endurance, Kenzie’s constitution was that of a human.

A human that enjoyed snacks and considered a tough workout reading a heavy hardback book for hours throughout the day.

Her physique wasn’t the only human trait she had.

Wolves could potentially live forever, but Kenzie was destined for a much shorter lifespan unless she found her fated mate…and that mate just happened to be an immortal.

If not, then she was as vulnerable as an actual human.

Not that any of that matters, she thought crossly. She was doomed to an early death, just like her parents had been.

Doomed to die this very night, as her luck would have it, all because she was a witch.

She wasn’t even a threat to the Mad Alpha! But if that lunatic was so prejudiced against her own kind, how did she reasonably think she could convince him to let her live?

Why had this seemed like a good plan at any point in time?

Think of your family, of your pack. Protect them.

Kenzie wanted to scream into the night as she stomped through the woods.

She wanted to wield a blast of magic so powerful it would knock any alpha on his ass if she felt threatened, but that would never happen, and she needed to stop wishing for things that simply wouldn’t be.

She wasn’t going to be of any help if she couldn’t even focus on her next step.

Speaking of… She took a look around, a small sound of frustration squeaking past her lips.

She was pretty sure she was lost.

Running in the opposite direction of Sam had seemed like a smart idea. It had made sense to run toward the danger, but there were no wolves around her, no howls closing in on her.

Maybe Kenzie got lost somewhere along the way. She was pretty shit with directions.

She kept going left, the thickness of the trees reminding her of her premonition, and she shivered, looking around in search of a wolf lurking in the shadows.

She didn’t see anything, and as a trickle of fear worked its way up her spine, she kept reminding herself why she was out sacrificing herself. It was for her family, her pack.

Her family, her pack. Kenzie repeated it like a mantra in her head until she tripped on a root, barely catching herself.

She was about to give up and move in the opposite direction, when there was a distinct shift in nature.

The crickets went quiet, and even the forest itself seemed to hold its breath, alerting her to trouble. She slowly turned to face what lurked behind her.

More than a handful of feet away stood a stocky man, not much taller than Kenzie herself, but he was built like he could lift a school bus without any kind of issue.

He might have been handsome except for the look in his eyes.

The man stared at her like she was an insect under a microscope, one he wanted to dissect.

Definitely a wolf, and a predatory one.

He was wearing gray sweats, clearly no underwear, based on the growing bulge in his pants.

A nervous flush rose in her cheeks, and Kenzie looked past his bare chest to his face, registering the cruel smirk and balding head as fear truly began to set in.

His aura was mixed with dark black and gray, smudged against the outline of his body, and she took an involuntary step back.

She focused on his receding hairline, hoping that would make her less nervous, and somehow it did.

Even wolves were prone to genetics.

Baldy didn’t move for a few heartbeats before slowly stalking toward her, his expression growing more sinister by the step.

She knew reacting in any prey-like fashion would be stupid, but she couldn’t help but back away from him, desperate to create a distance he was determined to close between them.

Kenzie backed up quickly for each of his unhurried steps, until she felt her spine press into a tree.

She clung to it like a lifeline, hoping her minor connection with nature would aid her, though she knew that was wishful thinking.

“Are you Kieran?” she asked quietly, almost afraid raising her voice would provoke him into an attack. Even posing the question seemed ridiculous. This man was nothing like her dream wolf.

Wait, her dream wolf? She was thinking of a homicidal maniac she’d never met as hers? What had gotten into her? Hecate Blessed, the Mad Alpha was there to kill her!

Right then and there, Kenzie resolved to dunk her head in a bucket of ice water to clear her thoughts if she made it through the night.

Hopefully, the shock of the cold would clear out the weird-ass thoughts bombarding her.

Baldy stopped for a moment, smirking at her in a way that made her tremble in fear. Her fingers bit into the bark as Kenzie backed around the side of the tree.

Her plan to surrender went up in smoke at his hostile, carnal stare, replaced by the strong urge to flee and not look back.

She needed to get away from him as soon as possible.

Run, a guiding force whispered, the word penetrating the fear in her mind. Kenzie could have sworn she felt a pulse of vitality hit her palm, where she touched the trunk of the large oak tree.

Her stiff muscles relaxed, her harsh breaths evening out. Even her terror abated under the calm that seemed to wash over her.

The wolfman crept closer, his ear twitching when he picked up the now steady beat of her heart. Hells, he could probably smell her emotions, all things considered.

Kenzie grimaced, feeling the sudden urge to lift her arm and sniff herself for any offensive odors, despite the harrowing situation she’d just found herself in.

“You’re going to wish I was him before I’m done with you.”

Her eyes snapped back to Baldy’s, body tensing at his cruel tone. He smirked again, hoping to scare her like he had before.

What an absolute jackass.

In an instant, he moved, almost too quickly for her to keep up as he leapt through the air, his fingers shifting into claws and swiping at her.

Kenzie jerked away from the tree, her muscles feeling invigorated as she took off away from him.

She didn’t know how the hell she’d gained strength from nature just then, but she sent a silent prayer of thanks out into the universe, determined to escape the douche-wolf trailing her.

A curse exploded into the wind behind her, making her think she’d actually outrun him, until his thick body slammed into her hip.

His claws sliced her sweater, and she screamed in pain as he flung her to the side, knocking her down and into the dirt.

Kenzie fell with an oof, dazed by the sudden position shift, her ribs aching as his bigger frame dropped over her, pinning her to the hard earth.

His claws dug into her waist, flipping her over and onto her back as she cried out, the terror she’d only just defeated roaring back to life.

Straddling her waist, Baldy settled himself more firmly over her until she could scarcely breathe in, the position very similar to what her dream wolf had done, but this felt like a complete and total violation.

Her dream wolf had felt like an embrace.

The difference was nauseating, and Kenzie really didn’t want to analyze her warring feelings at all.

Baldy rocked his hips along her pelvis, his movements making it clear he intended to rut her before she died. There was absolutely no way she was going to let that happen. No way!

Shrieking, Kenzie thrashed wildly beneath him until her knee connected with his crotch. He fell over, nearly crushing her before she wiggled away, her body freezing in fright.

She willed herself to run, to escape the danger, but she was immobile, watching him writhe on the ground.

Her hands fisted into the grass of the forest floor, and she felt that peculiar sensation of calmness attempting to seep back into her body.

It wasn’t enough to wash away her fear as it had before, but it was just enough that her limbs thawed.

Kenzie pushed off the ground, using her fear to propel her up and away from the threat whimpering behind her like a little bitch.

I hope his balls shrivel up and fall off, she thought hotly, determined to find safety now that her captor had been momentarily incapacitated.

Her socks caught on a few fallen branches, and she ripped them off quickly, desperation making her movements clumsy.

The soles of her feet tore open in her haste to get away, but she kept going, refusing to look back.

Find him, find him, find Kieran, her mind seemed to scream at her.

She knew her instincts and her premonition were telling her something her brain didn’t want to understand, that she couldn’t and wouldn’t comprehend.

He was clearly the danger, and yet she was running around frantically in the hopes he would find her and protect her from the wolf hunting her down.

What the hell was she thinking? It was absolute madness. It didn’t make sense, but she trusted her intuition.

Not that it mattered much anyway. Kieran was a problem to sort out after she escaped the clutches of the wolf that was giving her major rapey vibes.

Would the Mad Alpha really send one of his wolves to assault her before she was brought before him and killed?

Instinctively, she knew the answer to be a resounding no, unsure of why she was absolutely certain that the wolf behind her was acting outside of his alpha’s orders. But he was. She could feel it.

Maybe it was the allure of the moon compelling her assailant to mate, but the sway of its bright presence should have been dimmed enough for him to act rationally. Maybe he was just a dickhead.

Kenzie had only made it a few more feet before she was roughly grabbed from behind and thrown face down into the dirt.

Her head hit the ground with a hard smack, her arms grabbed and trapped behind her in his clammy hands.

“Let go of me!”

She struggled with all of her might, which wasn’t worth a damn against a shifter, especially a wolf.

There was a loud pop when he yanked her hand back before she registered a sharp pain in her left shoulder, a wail flying past her lips.

“Ah!”

The fucker had dislocated her shoulder! Kenzie moaned in pain. Baldy’s dark laugh carried into the trees.

The insects had long gone quiet in the struggle between them, making the night even eerier than before.

He laughed again as she cried angrily into the earth at his cruel treatment. What sick fuck enjoyed harming someone, especially like this?

Baldy kept pulling her arms, uncaring of the pain he was causing as she moaned low in her throat. He ground his pelvis into her ass, Kenzie’s hips digging into the dirt from the motion.

She nearly retched from the pain searing her body and the cold realization that she might not make it out of this.

“You’ll be screaming for me soon, witch, and for an entirely different reason.” He released her left arm, the limb hanging uselessly at her side.

“Stop!” She silently begged for a higher power, for someone, to help her break free, but nothing happened, her magic useless against the actual enemy.

“I’ll make you like everything I’m going to do to you.” His knees squeezed either side of her hips, and she could hear him grab at the fabric of his sweats, touching himself through the material.

“But even if you don’t,” he groaned, “just know I’m going to relish every single cry from those pretty lips of yours.”

Kenzie felt another flash of fear, sweat forming on her brow. A whimper came from her unbidden, but it was enough to draw another chuckle from the male holding her down.

“Enjoying it already? We’ve barely even started.”

His fingers pinched harshly into the denim covering her ass, no doubt leaving a bruise with his beefy-handed grip.

The pain of it was sharp enough, paired with the now dull throbbing of her shoulder, that Kenzie’s fear finally took a backseat to a much more tumultuous emotion.

Fear quickly turned to rage at the situation she was in, coupled with all of the events leading up to this moment.

Her head ached, her shoulder was fucking throbbing, and Baldy was trying to rape her.

Kenzie knew her time was up. Was she really going to let herself be violated by this pathetic excuse of a male?

No, she definitely wasn’t.

If she was going to die tonight, it wouldn’t be from this. It wouldn’t be like this.

She knew without a doubt Kieran Gallagher would be pissed the hell off that one of his wolves took the kill from him, and Kenzie had no doubt Baldy would end her life after he raped her.

“You have any words for me, pretty girl?” he hissed into her ear, his hot, fetid breath causing a tremor to run through her. Kenzie gagged, earning a cuffing to the side of the head.

Rattled, she gritted her teeth together, her skull pounding.

Did she have any words? Yeah, actually, she did.

Opening her mouth, Kenzie let out a piercing scream before shouting, “KIERAN!”

The wolf pinning her down cursed.

Kenzie screamed for Kieran again, her throat cracking from the force of her cry.

Her voice echoed far into the night as if the wind itself carried her plea out to the shifter she fearfully longed to meet.

Her captor snarled behind her before there was a sharp jab at the back of her head. It was lights out after that.