Chương 4: The Encounter

She tore through them one after the other, the thrill of the battle humming in her blood as they went down. The enemy had breached the last of their defenses and Adrianna fought desperately to protect the only home she had ever known. For each one she killed, two more seemed to take its place like some demented hydra. Five wolves surrounded her and the only thing she had on her was a knife. She had crafted that knife herself, with an edge so sharp that it could cut through limbs like butter.

In one swift move, Adrianna pivoted, killing the wolf in front of her as she jumped off its body, flipping midair to stab the one leaping at her back. The other wolves started stalking towards her and she waited, tensing her muscles in anticipation. As they neared her, one of them suddenly jumped only to be torn apart. Its blood dripped down Adrianna's face, as she looked at the remaining two with anger. Within seconds they were on the ground, dead.

She surveyed the forest. She could see her brothers embroiled in a battle further away, as well as enemy wolves coming toward her fast. Time blurred as she fought and before she knew it, she was deep in the forest chasing wolves. Alone now, she decided to go back to the battle, when she heard the leaves in the trees behind her rustle. She paused, as her heightened senses picked up on something above her. Before she could look up, a wolf attacked her from behind, and Adrianna shifted.

A beautiful wolf with golden yellow fur and a lean muscled body, took her place. She narrowed her eyes at the enemy before growling. The other female tensed before they both leapt high into the air. Adrianna leapt several feet higher than her opponent but before she could slash at the other wolf with her claws, the enemy attacked her unprotected underbelly. Adriana shifted into her human form and flipped mid-air so that she lay on her stomach as the other wolf growled over her back.

The other wolf pinned Adrianna to the ground and just as she was going to sink her teeth into Adrianna's neck, Adrianna grasped her knife, and desperately slashed at the limb pinning her to the ground. The other wolf yelped and stumbled away from Adrianna, who warily got up as the other wolf howled in pain.

More wolves surrounded them, summoned by one of their own howling in pain. Adrianna felt bone tired but when saw the other wolves prowling toward her, she crouched low and pressed her hand to the ground creating a tornado like field of wind with her at the center. The velocity of the winds looked so high, that no wolf dared approach it. She saw her enemy shape shift into a beautiful woman, watching her warily as she bled profusely. As Adrianna neared the woman with danger lurking in her fierce golden yellow eyes, she drew her knife to finally end the other woman when suddenly her field was broken. She gasped in surprise as a man entered, entirely unbothered by winds that should have been fast enough to tear him apart.

Adriana watched the man prowl forward and her senses went haywire as she felt the sheer presence of his wolf. She dropped her guard for a second as she stared into the arctic-blue of his eyes, and her body shuddered entirely involuntarily. They gazed at each other, before his face twisted into a harsh scowl bringing her back to the situation at hand. She growled at him as he moved nearer to where she stood, the downed woman at her feet and her knife a scant inch from the woman's heart.

The alpha moved stealthily toward her and growled in warning. Her eyes couldn't help flickering from his face to his well defined upper body, to his broad shoulders, and to his muscular arms. Power seemed to coil under his skin and was apparent in his every movement, something she couldn't help but admire. The sheer authority and command radiating off him had both her body and her wolf riveted. Her blood heated and his eyes turned hungry, something that thrilled her as much as it surprised her, primal lust roaring through her body so intense that it almost hurt.

He came to a stop in front of her, towering over her and her knees became wobbly. Her eyes turned to her natural brown again as she looked at him, confused at her reaction. Why was her control slipping?

She came back to herself as he growled threateningly again. Involuntary attraction or not, she would not back down. He stood not two feet from her and she could feel his foreboding aura tint the air around them, as she readied herself to fight him- much to her wolf's disappointment.

She moved to put the woman between them, as her eyes turned a dangerous golden yellow again. Without thought she firmly gripped her knife, and raised her arms to bury it in the woman's heart. Before she could do so, the werewolf thrust her away from the woman with such force that she landed a few meters away. She felt her head hit something and her vision swam. Her knife was soaked in blood and she didn't know whose it was, all she could see was the man carrying the woman away in his arms. Her field of wind had fallen, and she could barely feel the wolves surrounding her leave with their alpha.

She felt cold and knew with sudden, sharp clarity that no one would bother healing her. As she clung desperately to the last vestiges of her consciousness, she felt the warmth of a body around her. Its arms encircled her as she relaxed into it, and without further thought drifted off.

She forced her eyes open after an indeterminate amount of time had passed, and assessed her surroundings before she realized where she was.

Her inner wolf relaxed when she saw the familiar surroundings: the light cream walls plastered with various posters that she had accumulated over the years, the brown cushioned carpet that matched her eye color, and the very delicately crafted light pinewood shelves that matched her comfortable queen-size plush bed. She pulled over the blanket that was strewn across the bed and snuggled beneath it. Inhaling the fresh pine scent that surrounded her grandfather's cottage in the jungle, she picked up a strange smell - it was the fresh smell of an unfamiliar wolf and it was coming from her room. Her inner wolf growled again, becoming alert. It wasn't that she was nervous or anxious, but rather that she didn't know who would dare enter her room.

Was it an enemy? But who had the guts to enter her grandfather's territory…