Speeding down the slushy highway, Izzy bobbed and weaved through the traffic like a professional racer. I couldn't see anyone following us, but we were no fools. Just because we couldn't see them didn't mean they weren't there. Our goal was a river that separated the forest where our base was from Moon City. As long as we could make it to the bridge before the wolves caught up, we would be able to escape. Werewolves didn't venture out of their territory unless commanded to do so by their Alpha, and most of the time, as long as they chased us out of Moon City, they didn't care what happened beyond the city limits.

The snow had stopped conveniently enough, and a few rays of sunshine were able to peek through the parted clouds casting a few rays of golden spotlights on our destination. Just when the shimmering lights came shining over the horizon from the river up ahead, we thought we'd almost made it, and I let myself get a little hopeful that we had avoided the conflict. How stupid of me. With a bang, an enormous all-black werewolf came crashing down on one of the cars in front of us, snarling so loud I felt the vibration like a sonic boom. Its snarl reverberated through my body down to my bones, almost making me freeze with fear, but I had become accustomed to the sound over the years.

"Great!!" I said sarcastically. "Hold her steady, Izzy."

I leaned out of the window, and Jodi grabbed the waist of my jeans to make sure I wouldn't fall. The black werewolf, with purple eyes glowing bright like amethysts, focused his attention on me. He lunged forward, jumping from the car towards me. His fangs and sharp claws would've scared me, but this wasn't my first time staring death in the face. I fired the first shot at his shoulder and then another at his kneecap. I always tried to disarm, not kill. Killing a Luna wolf would result in us being hunted, and we only wanted to escape.

The wolf whined in pain as he tumbled to the ground, his claws barely missing my face before he landed, catching his balance. He looked up at me before baring his fangs again with an audible growl, his large ears folding backward, making him look even more menacing. The bullets I shot at him were slowly pushed out as his regeneration kicked in, and the holes closed like he'd never been shot at all as the fur grew back in both spots. The black wolf stood tall, letting out an ominous howl as four other wolves ran past him after us. It was loud, but nothing compared to the deep howl we heard earlier.

"Can't this fucking thing go any faster?!" Jodi shouted, pulling me back inside the van.

"It's a cargo van, not a Ferrari!!" Izzy shouted back at her, avoiding the wolves as they chased after us.

"Both of you, pull it together!!" I snapped. "Just make it to the bridge, and we should be fine! They never chase us outside of the city. This time should be no different!"

After a few more bumps and scrapes, we entered the bridge going over the river. I stuck my head back out of the window to see all five of the large wolves had stopped. They were a variation of colors and patterns, ranging from black, gray, and silver fur, some with a mix of them all like a calico cat. Then suddenly they all jumped off of the bridge as if they were diving into the water. Another cold chill ran down my spine when I heard a deeper, more demanding howl—the same one from the warehouse.

"Something isn't right...." I whispered, feeling the prickle of goosebumps all over my body, but it was particularly strong on the nape of my neck, like a sparkling ember turning into a raging inferno. A feeling that was a new sensation to me and couldn't have meant anything good.

"Why the hell did you have to say something about Artemis?! You took it too far with Johnny this time!!" Jodi said, almost yanking me out of the seat by my collar into the back of the van with her.

"This isn't about Artemis!! And fuck Johnny!!" I said, throwing her hand away from me and fixing my jacket. "I don't know who those wolves are, but they ain't with Johnny. They seem way more organized, and that howl just now—"

"We can't worry about that right now!! We need to get these supplies back to base, and then we can lay low for a while. We have enough to last at least three months," Izzy said, cutting me off as we reached the end of the bridge.

I looked back out the window behind us, and it seemed like the coast was clear, which was odd. They'd never given up this easily before, but I thought it best not to look a gifted horse in the mouth. "You're right. Hopefully, we can find a new connect before—"

Just as we were exiting the bridge, and I was about to put my head back inside the van, I noticed the large black wolf with purple eyes perched on the guardrails, waiting for us, with the other four wolves next to him on both sides. As soon as our eyes locked, he jumped forward with the other wolves swiftly behind him, crashing into the side of the van, almost tipping it over. He reached inside, trying to grab me, and I struggled to keep his sharp claws away from my throat. The other wolves scratched and ripped at the van, tearing through the metal like a warm knife going through a stick of butter.

"They fucking followed us?!" Jodi yelled in shock, looking around the van, trying to avoid being clawed while she shot her gun in every direction, making the wolves fall off the van one by one.

"No shit, Captain Obvious!!" I yelled at her with a sarcastic tone. "Can you help me out here?!"

Without another word, she punched the snarling wolf dead in his nose, and then I kicked him in the eye. As he whined and recoiled from the van in pain, he scratched my face just a little with his sharp nails. I prepared myself to feel the awful sting of venom, but it never came. Touching my cheek in disbelief, I got the uneasy feeling again. "Something definitely isn't right," I thought to myself. 

Venom from wolves of the Luna could be deadly to wolves of the Sol in large quantities, but a scratch like this should hurt at the very least, considering I'm a dormant. The fact that I felt no pain at all was beyond my comprehension of how potent I'd heard the venom really was. I'd witnessed it only once as a child, and even a tiny amount made the biggest and strongest of Alphas uncomfortable. It was a sort of toxin that was secreted from their claws, but the most potent form came from their fangs. 

"We've got more company!!" Izzy shouted, bringing my attention to the four other wolves now blocking the road into the forest ahead.

"Oh come onnnn!!" I whined in frustration, trying to catch my breath and wiping the blood from my cheek.

"We can't let them follow us back to the base..." Jodi said, shaking her head with a furrowed brow. "We can't." She insisted, looking at me.

She was right. If they found our hideout full of dormants and our suppressant labs, they'd lock us all up, if not just kill us on the spot. A bunch of dormants from the Sol pack being found in Luna territory wouldn't end well, especially in our line of work. I checked the clip of my guns to see how many bullets I had before snatching Jodi's out of her holster.

"Hey!! What are you doing?!" she asked, trying to take her gun back.

"You two, get these supplies back to the base. I'll meet up with you later," I said, taking off my jacket and tossing it in the back.

"Lyn, you can't be serious?!" Izzy said, realizing what I was about to do. "I'm not letting you do this!"

"Do you have a better idea?!" I snapped at him.

There was a silence that filled the van before Jodi placed a firm grip on my shoulder. The pain stung, but I understood why she touched me, so I endured it.

"If you don't come back in 24 hours, I swear to Apollo I'll hunt you down," she said with a serious expression and glazed-over eyes.

I looked at her in shock for a second before flashing a cocky smile. "Screw Apollo," I said, and she smirked in return. "Guys, I'll be fine. I always am, right?" I asked with a coy smile, looking between them both.

I touched Izzy, who was clearly still not okay with my plan, gently on his shoulder. With a deep, heated breath through his nose, he looked back forward and stepped on the gas. "Fuck it, but like Jodi said—24 hours, and we're coming after you," he said, giving me a stern look.

"24 hours," I said with a quick nod to them both.

The wolves weren't moving out of the way, even after seeing that we had no intentions of stopping, and they had no intention of letting us go. I opened the passenger side door in just enough time to smack one of the wolves before he could dodge completely. The impact was so hard it took the door off of the van completely, and the wolf was trapped underneath, whining in pain. I shook off my slight disorientation, seeing the other wolves being bulldozed over by the van, and then gathering again, snarling at me once they gained their footing. Some looked more menacing than others, but all of them were big, especially compared to me.

With a smile, I took off for the thicket of trees, and they chased after me immediately. I noticed none of them even attempted to follow the van, which made me both relieved and worried. Relieved because that meant the twins would get away, but worried because now it was clear that I was their target. This plan was starting to seem like a bad idea after all. I didn't count on dealing with all five of them; at the very least, I thought two or three of them would go after the van.

———

I was running through the forest for what seemed like hours, trying to avoid being caught or killed by the wolves. What they wanted exactly was a gamble I wasn't willing to take by finding out. I had a few close calls but managed to avoid them so far with my knowledge of the surrounding forest. The number of miles I traversed was lost to me, but I stayed close to the river so I didn't leave tracks in the snow, and whatever scent they may have been using to follow me would be diluted. My body was cold—so cold—and I was tired. No matter how far I ran or where I hid, those damn wolves seemed to keep finding me. It was frustrating, to say the least. 

Dormants didn't have a very distinct scent since we had no pheromones, and I was careful not to leave a trail. So how they were still managing to track me was a mystery, a very unsettling mystery. To be able to track me for this long wasn't normal, and it made me wonder how they were doing it.

Suddenly, my ears started ringing, and a sharp pain throbbed against my temple to the beat of my heart. I'd never experienced a migraine like this before, and it felt unbearable, unnatural. It was almost as if—no. That would be impossible, and to think otherwise was absolutely ludicrous. With a shuddering breath, goosebumps, and the small hairs standing up on the nape of my neck, that uneasy feeling flooded all my senses again. My eyes searched the area frantically, and I could tell my pupils were slightly dilated. My instincts had started to take over, and a pulsing sensation reverberated through my entire body. 

"Someone's here," I thought to myself.

I crouched to the ground as low as I could before darting towards a big pine tree. The feeling continued to get stronger and stronger, and I was trying to contain my panic. The forest had gotten eerily quiet, as if all the wildlife in the area had suddenly vanished. It was so quiet, in fact, that the ringing in my ears was the only thing I could hear. 

A feeling of dread seemed to come over me as I was consumed by the silence, and the ringing in my ears got even louder. There was something about being in a forest completely void of sound that made me feel an overwhelming sense of anxiety—a terrifying feeling I'd never ever experienced before. 

Carefully, I looked from behind the tree into the snow-covered forest, and I couldn't see any signs of movement. I closed my eyes and put my back against the tree, silently exhaling my distress in a breath that felt like I'd been holding it longer than I realized, and tried to calm my nerves. Another damn panic attack. That made two in the span of just a few hours, something was definitely wrong.

I'd heard how the experience was different for everyone, but this was just crazy, and I still didn't even know why I was panicking so irrevocably. The moment I opened my eyes, however, it all became clear. Johnny was standing in front of me with a toothy grin. His suit had bloody claw marks on it, and he looked disheveled, like he'd been in some sort of fight.

"Hello, darlin'," he said, putting a hand around my neck with a very tight grip, pushing me harder into the tree, so much so that the bark of the tree started cracking under the pressure. I pulled my gun out quickly, but not quickly enough. "Ah, ah, ah, none of that," he said, catching my wrist and squeezing so tight I winced in pain and had no choice but to drop my gun.

"What the hell are you doing here, Johnny?" I said through labored breaths, grabbing and hitting his arm in an attempt to struggle free.

"Don't play dumb with me," he said in a dark tone. "First, you insult my beloved goddess, and then you set me up. Do you know how long I've managed to evade those dogs, and then they show up with you and your suppressants? Here I thought we were getting along better than that." He leaned closer to me, staring into my eyes and licking his lips as he towered over me. "Tell me, how long have you been working with them, and what could they have possibly promised a wolf of the Sol that's been rogue for a decade?"

His hand on my skin was more uncomfortable than any touch I'd ever experienced. It was so utterly repulsive that I had to swallow the bile just to preserve the little dignity I could cling to in this situation. A vehement rage boiled inside me, releasing a fresh wave of adrenaline throughout my body.

In his lustful distraction, I punched him in the throat and kneed him in the balls. He doubled over in pain, letting out an angry groan. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but I didn't set you up. And keep your fucking hands off of me, asshole!" I said, shoving him away from me and picking up my gun.

He began to growl as he stood back up but didn't immediately chase after me. I could hear his clothes ripping from him as he shifted into his wolf form while I ran through the woods, trying to put some distance between us, but my body was tired. I was tired. Looking over my shoulder, I didn't see Johnny where I left him, which was no surprise. It was bad enough I didn't know if I had lost the wolves from earlier, but now I had to deal with this idiot. I was beginning to wish I'd listened to the twins and stayed at the base this morning.