23

"Devin?!" I yelled to try and stop him. He couldn't take my mate away from me.

I ran through the halls of the big house hoping to finally get out of here. But this house was like a labyrinth. The fear in me increased from second to second more. I almost panicked when I thought about being late because I'm too stupid to escape this maze.

"DEVIN?!", I tried it again. Then suddenly I had another idea. Why didn't I think of that earlier? I lifted my nose a bit and now followed his trail. Lo and behold, it worked perfectly.

A few minutes later I found the large front door. I quickly opened it and noticed Devin first.

He stood in his reddish wolf form in front of another jet black wolf, which was the same size as him. Only at second glance did I recognize him as my alpha from my new pack. So you really came to set me free. And not only that. Alpha Arsen and all his warriors were there. So they really had a chance to win. WE had a chance.

Devin and Alpha Arsenic growled menacingly at each other and moved in circles, waiting for the other to launch the first attack. But suddenly something changed in her attitude. Alpha Arsen released the tension from his body and took a few steps back.

What's going on? You can't just let him win. But they didn't either, because the next moment a smaller cappuchino-colored wolf stepped in front of Devin. I recognized this wolf. It was my Steven.

Panic flared up in me again. You can't pit Steven against Devin, can you? Have you seen the size difference? Steven is completely inferior to him. He was then and he still is.

Now it was Steven and Devin staring at each other and circling each other. And it was Steven who launched the first attack. At that moment when the two started fighting, shots were suddenly heard. I looked around and saw the hunters arrive and start shooting at the group of wolves.

My heart beat immeasurably. Total chaos broke out. Shots, growls and whimpers. A whimper?

Startled by this, I turned back to the fight in which Devin's reddish wolf clawed Steven's back. Steven lay beneath him, whining, trying to crawl away.

He hurts my mate, nobody can hurt my mate! I had to intervene.

Without thinking, I transformed and ran towards the fight. The other wolves meanwhile tried to destroy all the hunters. Alpha Arsen was also fighting with one of these and therefore could not intervene. Everything was up to me.

I jumped onto Devin's back, yanking him off Steven. Completely confused by this, he shook me off before recognizing me and starting to growl at me.

"Silva! What will it be when it's done?" he asked angrily through the mindlink. But I don't care if he's mad. Nobody hurts my mate!

"Protect my mate." I said boldly and put myself in a fighting position in front of him. But he didn't even take my challenge seriously and the next moment he was attacked from the side.

This time it was Alpha Arsen who lunged at Devin and fought with him. I wanted to continue following the fight, but I too was knocked over so that I was now lying on my back under another wolf.

This wolf growled at me and sank its large paws into my chest, making me howl. Only now did I recognize the one opposite mine. My own mate was about to shred my chest. Why didn't he recognize me?

"Steven!!!" I yelped through the Mindlink. He didn't even respond at first.

And suddenly it became clear to me. Steven has only seen me in my wolf form once so far and he can't recognize my smell either because I totally smell like his enemy. I tried to whimper, but he just didn't recognize me, just pulled his paws further down my chest and ripped all my flesh open with it.

It hurt so bad, but I couldn't give up. I have to hold out for Steven.

Since whimpering didn't help, I tried to turn. Maybe I could crawl away. But as soon as I was on my stomach, Steven grabbed my neck with his snout. I foolishly exposed him to a sensitive spot. He now decided on my life or death all by himself.

For that moment I thought it was over. I thought that now he would break my neck and kill me. My own mate. And if he should do it, then so be it. Then I must have deserved it, because I didn't want to spend my life without him anyway. So if he doesn't want me, then he should finally bring it to an end and put me out of this pain.

"STEVEN ENOUGH!" suddenly a very authoritarian sounding voice yelled.

Steven immediately stopped whatever he was doing and let go of me. He had to, because that was an alpha command.

I realized that the sounds of battle around us had stopped. So I looked around for Devin with the last of my strength, but he was gone. Except for dead hunters and the group of wolves, everyone was gone. Alpha Arsenic stood next to me in his human form and glared at Steven.

Having no strength left to hold myself in my wolf form any longer, I transformed back and lay on my stomach, powerless, on the ground.

My pain clouded my head and I was only able to perceive everything as a blur.

"Oh fuck!" said the alpha's voice next to me, and moments later I heard more bone cracking.

"Silva? OMG SILVA?" yelled a hysterical-sounding Steven. I felt so incredibly sorry when I realized the real reason he did it was because he didn't recognize me. He'll blame himself, but he wants to I don't. It's not his fault...

"I'm so sorry," I heard my mate's cracked voice just before I closed my eyes.