To be a Werewolf's Mate...

chapter 8

Sorry for the wait! I hope to have another chapter up by the end of this week. Thanks for the paicence. Votes and Comments make me write fast, so if you want an update .... Anyway, have fun reading. BTW - IS RYKER HOT OR WHAT? --->

We had circled back so that we were headed over the forest that Ryker had tracked me down in. A great pain swept over my body, and I quickly shifted back into my human form. The wind burned my eyes and the creatures claws dug in to my arms, causing me some pain. I placed my hand on the pawl trying to push it off of me. The creature lent it head down near mine, showed its teeth and let out a ferocious growl. I screamed, loud. The creature lifted its head higher and banked to the left.

Why had I been such an idiot? Ughh... why I thought that going with a huge creature was a smart idea was a good idea at the time was beyond me. The lion shifted me again as he dove down towards the tree tops. If I were able to move my arm I would be able to touch the changing leaves. Every once in a while I could see life below me, a young buck running through the forest or a white rabbit resting.

The lion had banked right again, still staying close to the tree tops, when he let out a loud roar. One of the legs that the creature was holding me by was hit by an arrow, the quill sticking out of the wound. The creature released its grasp on me, and I was suddenly falling through the sky.

I hit tree after tree on my way down, the branches scraping against my skin. The ground was closing in, and it seemed that an early death was in the cards for me. I bigger branch hit me in the arm. I reached out to it with my hand attempting to stop my fall. The skin on my hand flayed off I could feel the blood that was rushing to fill its place.

It was hopeless. This was it. This was the end. I twisted in the air so that my back was parallel to the ground. My eyes were squeezed tight weighting for the inevitable, but it never came. Instead of the hard ground I landed in a pair of warm, strong arms. I turned my head around, hoping, praying that it wasn't who I thought that it might be. The second that I moved the arms tensed around me, as though they were afraid that I would run away.

I continued to swivel in his arms, rotating until I could see his face. There was that blond hair. Looking just a bit lower I saw two furious green eyes. I ducked my head into his shoulder, hoping that somehow he would not be so mad at me. His arms clenched tighter around me, and I could feel his head duck down into my hair.

"Never do that to me again." He growled into my hair.

"I'm sorry. I was mad and ... I ... just..." I cried into his chest hoping that he would understand.

"Shhh, Shhh. Everything is ok. I'm not mad at you. I was acting like an idiot, and I'm sorry for that." He told me, pulling me farther into his chest. He started walking.

"What was that, Ryker?"

"That was a shifter. They hate werewolves because we are there only competition for land. They were attempting to find a way to attack me and my pack without engaging a male werewolf directly. Females are the easiest for them to go after because they can only shift in the first twenty four hours of their mating, but then after they have a child they are able to shift whenever they need too. It was stupid of me to leave you alone like I did. I was practically asking for them to come after you.

"When I came back and you weren't there I started to worry. The shifters have recently started paying attention to our pack more than others. The only thing that was going through my head was that you had been taken. I followed your sent to the river; there I noticed the scent of the shifter. I alerted the pack and had our warriors get ready to attack. You would get taken by a flying shifter, the hardest kind for us to take down. I'm so glad that he decided to let you go with only one shot. Normally they take the females down with them, like a suicide mission. They know that without our mates a male with slowly die from the heartbreak." He nuzzled his head in my hair again, marking me with his sent, "I'm so happy that you're safe."