Page 35 of Wolf’s Fated Bride

“Shift. Shift immediately.”

No way. We’re standing in the middle of the inferno, and I’d rather die a wolf than a naked girl.

Ash pulls the fire into his body, extinguishing the inferno in a second. He turns to Sven. “Stop the feed and leave us.”

When Sven doesn’t respond, I turn my head his way. Sven’s mouth is agape. Clearly shocked, he stares, unmoving.

“Which wolf is that?” someone asks from Sven’s electronic device.

“None of your business,” Ash says. “I’m going to count to one, and you will turn off the device. One.”

“Wait!” the person says, just as Sven slides the device into his pocket.

“What… What was that?” Sven asks.

Ash is by two backpacks at the side of the pool, getting dressed. Gray sweatpants. No shirt. No shoes. Must be nice to keep warm in this weather.

“How much time do we have left?” he asks Sven.

Twenty minutes. Maybe less.

Ash gives me a once-over, his jaw tight. “The storm will bury us if we don’t get back now.”

I’m so lucky to have this alpha inform me about the weather in my neck of the woods. In wolf form, I roll my eyes.

“We can get trapped in the cave or run back to the castle,” he says. “You can pick which.”

I move toward the exit.

“Keep tightly to my flank,” he says. “If you stray, I’ll be forced to carry you like a disobedient pup who walked into a burning fire.” He shakes his head. “The fuck?”

I huff. I didn’t walk into fire. I slipped and slid.

Ash and I climb out. Sven turns on the electric sled that the humans provide to our Regulators.

The blizzard has already started. Ash wastes no time and shifts into a horse-sized, obsidian wolf. He takes off, racing beside Sven’s sled toward the castle. I sprint at top speed, yet I can’t catch up. I understand the urgency, but also, if he hadn’t been purging, we wouldn’t be stuck in this fucked-up situation.

I trip over my own feet and tumble down the mountain.

With a firm grip on the scruff of my neck, Ash, back in his human form, slings me into his arms and runs with me. My muzzle bounces off his biceps, my ears flop, and I bury my nose in the crook of his arm, because this has to be one of the most humiliating moments of my life.

My father and Sören warned me. Gently, they suggested that I ran too slowly and should never run with the trackers. But I thought they were being mean because I was an omega and a girl.

Now I see why they said that. Ash Fireborn sprints at a speed I couldn’t possibly match. If my pack is to outmaneuver an opposing pack (such as the Fireborns), we are only as fast as our weakest tracker. Which is me.

But even with his speed, we can’t outrun the brutal storm that’ll swallow us whole.

I lift my head. Frost covers Ash’s face, and fire burns in his eyes. He looks like a nightmare. Slowing down, he stares at me down his nose.

“You think you can do what you did in the cave so we don’t die out here?” he asks.

Without further ado, we’re engulfed in elemental flame. In his arms, I whimper, wishing I could crawl inside him to escape the fire blazing around us.

Ash glares as he runs. “What the fuck are you?”

Me? He thinks I’m the problem? He’s the lunatic who keeps setting me on fire!

Chapter 13