39

"What are you doing here?!"

"Apparently save your life!"

Juniper held my hands tightly in hers and it must have taken a lot of her strength to pull me back up the abyss, but she made every effort and a moment later I was already lying next to her on the forest floor, trying to calm myself and my rapid breathing .

"Shit, was that close," I breathed heavily, turning my face in her direction. She just nodded casually and quickly sat up to give me a thoughtful look.

"Why did you run away?"

Her green eyes pierced me in search of a plausible explanation, but I avoided her intense gaze, overwhelmed, and just stared at the sky, where darkness was slowly disappearing and making room for a new day.

"What's the point of not leaving?" I asked her, then got up, quickly getting to my feet and brushing the dirt off my clothes.

"Well, not every she-wolf would have left her mate alone with someone like Yasha," she spoke slightly ironically. "Especially not with their connection."

"Well," I blurted out defiantly while looking down at her. "I'm just not every wolf. I also give keno the opportunity to decide freely."

She tilted her head slightly as if to analyze me, but I didn't give her another chance. I quickly turned my back on her and took a few steps into the forest in front of me.

"You're pretty selfish, you know that?!" she suddenly called after me, and while I shouldn't care what this blonde girl thought of me, I stopped my movement and turned to face her, stunned.

She was now standing upright again and looked at me with folded arms.

"Selfish?" I echoed her words, barely avoiding sounding overly angry. "I've been kidnapped, imprisoned and tagged against my will. Nevertheless, I stayed with him and even now I'm giving him a unique chance to decide against me, even though I've developed feelings for him... You call that selfish?"

"Yes," she said simply, very dryly, and I would have liked to attack her, she made me so angry with her opinion.

"He suffers without you. Surely you're aware of that and yet you don't seem to give a damn about what's going on inside him."

"That's not true," I contradicted her, shaking my head and running towards her to stop right in front of her. "I'm suffering too! Don't you think I miss him so much I can hardly breathe?!"

"Why are you-"

"Because it hurts a lot more watching him torment himself not wanting to hurt me! That's why I left and yes! It's probably selfish but I've made my decision! Now he has to make his and this without constantly asking myself how I feel about it!"

My voice grew louder and more and more cracked until I felt tears on my cheeks too and pulled my eyes from Junipers to wipe my face with the sleeve of my yellow sweater in embarrassment.

"It's okay," she tried to calm me down and I noticed that she came closer and seemed to want to hug me, but I immediately widened my eyes and pushed her slightly away from me.

"You should go to your sister!", I said decisively and wanted to turn in the other direction again, but then she grabbed my arm and looked at me sympathetically.

"You want to look for your aunt, right?" she asked quietly and after I nodded skeptically, she let go of me and took a deep breath. "Then let me accompany you. I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Why?" I asked immediately, irritated, and she cracked such a goofy grin on her petite face that I reluctantly started to smile, too.

"You're marked, sweetie. If you die, he dies. If he dies, my sister will live forever in infinite sorrow."

"So you do it for her?"

Juniper nodded and I just thought she should come with me.

"But one thing should be clear to you," I warned her and ran ahead of her through the trees.

"And that would be?"

I quickly turned to her and looked a little longer into her face, which looked at me questioningly.

"Each to his own," I said confidently, raising an eyebrow. "My priority is my aunt. Should you find yourself in a hopeless situation, don't think that I would risk my life for you."

She laughed softly and stepped next to me with quick steps to continue walking next to me.

"You're going to start liking me," she winked and I rolled my eyes, but also had to smile a little.

I actually really liked her, with her open and honest manner, but she was still related to this little whore, who was probably already lolling naked on a tree to lure Keno's wolf. Disgusted with my own thoughts, I expelled all the air from my lungs and clutched my forehead in desperation.

"You're thinking about him," Juniper commented on my gesture, but I ignored her and just kept walking over the many branches, which began to crack louder and louder the deeper we penetrated into the thicket.

For hours we walked between the dense trees and where the sky above us had been light blue hours before, now only dark gray was left.

"We should find some shelter. It will surely soon-"

Juniper couldn't even finish talking when it started raining so hard that I was completely soaked within seconds. But taking a break now wasn't an option for me. Every second could count...

"We're going on!", I said loudly and was about to climb over a large tree trunk that was lying around, but then I slipped clumsily and flew directly into the wet leaves with my face behind it and groaned in annoyance.

"You okay?" I heard Juniper appear next to me and as soon as I lifted my head and looked up at her, she started laughing out loud with joy, which made me even angrier than I already was was.

"Haha, how funny you freak!" I snapped at her, quickly getting up off the ground and hurrying on.

"My God, why is it always so dramatic?" she asked, still amused, and I just showed her my middle finger.

I really wasn't in the mood for her, but when it suddenly started thundering so loudly that even the ground shook slightly beneath me, I took a few steps backwards in panic and searched for hers with my hand.

I looked over at her wide-eyed and swallowed hard, but Juniper didn't make fun or say anything stupid. Instead, she squeezed my hand tightly and continued walking through the forest close to me.

"You don't need to panic. Surely no lightning will strike here," she said at some point in the silence and then stopped abruptly when we recognized a dark, large figure in front of us in the pouring rain.

"You see him too, don't you?" I whispered, not sure if I was imagining it out of fear, but hearing a soft "yes" from Juniper, I immediately let go of her hand and held my breath , ready to fight this sinister figure.