The sudden voice scared the both of me and Mia, and we gave each other a hesitant look before turning around to see the source of the voice: a shabbily dressed, creepy, old, nasty rogue.

Mia growled, stepping further and I knew her wolf was asserting dominance and acting on her instincts to protect me and the baby.

"Ari, I love you so so so much. But right now I need you to turn and run back into the pack hall. It's the closest and safest place for you right now. Please just let me deal with this."

Ari mind-linked me in a tone of panic and urgency, and I knew she was serious about me leaving her and getting my own self to safety but I won't.

Leaving Mia here whilst I go ahead and go to safety all by myself is such a selfish decision. Leaving my best friend to fend for herself whilst I greedily seek shelter is something I'm not about to do.

"No. I'm not leaving you alone, Mia. I'm going to stay here and help you."

I retorted in confidence. There's no way I'd leave Mia on her own in front of a dangerous rogue. Ride or die. Literally Mia is my ride or die. I can't leave her alone.

The rogue winked, bursting out into sarcastic and angry laughter at the end of his stupid sentence.

"Ari in less than 10 seconds, I'm going to shift into my wolf and we're going to attack this filthy rogue. You need to go back to the pack house and get help. I know you are worried for me, but the quicker you get to the pack house- the quicker you can get me some help. On the count of three..., three, two, one.."

Ari leaped on top of the rogue, taking him by surprise.

She shrieked, and I took off towards the pack house, running and running and running. My legs were starting to hurt and I wished I was faster.

The ground felt like a trampoline with every step I took slightly propelling me up into the air, pushing me to run even faster.

Mia's shriek cut through the forest, making me skid to a stop and turn around.

Frantically I mind linked Mia to check if she was okay because that scream sounded very painful.

"Mia, are you okay?"

"I'm fine just a cut but Ari-"

"A cut! Oh my moon goddess, Mia are you okay?? Scratch that I'm coming to get you now!"

Resorting to running back to where I had just ran from, I felt even more worried for Mia due to the smell of blood that clouded the area.

"Ari! You stubborn she-bîtch would it kill you to listen to me?? He's coming for YOU! Go back to the pack house!! He's on his way and he wants blood!"

Mia's voice filled my mind, her words finally kicking in and the effects making themselves known to me.

'He wants blood'. Well then. I'm screwed.

Mia sounds like she's referring to a vampire- a rogue would've been busy still beating her but vampires are different. Vile, bloodsucking creatures, preying on the blood of innocents and- wait- the blood of innocents?? He's after my child. Shît.

In another U-turn, I ran back towards the pack house, the instincts of my wolf kicking in as we went a lot faster than we were running before.

"Hey Ari, it's Lena-"

"Wow look at you, Lena, turning up whenever I need you."

I gritted out, still angry that she had been dead silent for so long.

"I'm so sorry Ari, but we need to run faster so that we can-"

"Why can't you just let me shift you stubborn wolf! It would be so much easier if we could shift!!"

"Ari even I'm itching to shift but I can't let you shift- it would be so harmful to the baby and I'm not risking the baby's life."

"Oh so you're going to risk the mothers life so that both can die all at once? Wow you're just amazing aren't you Lena, look at you all-"

"For the sake of the moon goddess, Ari will you please just LISTEN to me for a minute?"

Lena's outburst of anger reprimanded me for my stubbornness.

"Go on."

I spoke, ashamed of how stubborn I was now acting.

"Finally! Okay so I've spoken to Hayden and-"

"You spoke to Hayden! Why-"

"ARI! JUST SHUT UP AND LISTEN!"

"Sorry." I meekly responded.

"Thank you. Anyways, I've spoken to Hayden and he's on his way, he'll be here soon. We just need to try our best to get to the pack house. And also, Ari, they're worried."

"Who's worried?"

"Hayden and Dmitri... I know that you think that they don't care about us but they do!! Even Dmitri cares!!"

"Come on Lena, not this again. Stop the utter cap."

"Ari stop denying it. They're on their way now. Why would they bother if they didn't care. They do care. Even if it's just a bit- they care. And that's what matters. You're not an absolutist. I know you aren't. So stop the black and white thinking and let's focus on the good. We have a lot to be grateful for."

"I guess you're right. But it is an Alpha's instinct to rescue a pack member who is in danger so think about all the other possibilities and stop being so naive about it."

Lena murmured a feeble and dismissing 'Okay' and then shut her mind link so she could focus on making the both of us run a lot faster than we were running before.

When you mind link you don't even realise it but whatever activity you are doing- in this case running, gets slower or it is affected in whichever way due to your lack of focus.

These past few minutes I was talking to Lena which is why I lost focus without even realising it and my running pace decreased.

Unfortunately for me- the decrease in my speed has most probably given the rogue a much better advantage, and I'm right because his footsteps can be heard thundering behind me. Oh, in wolf form of course! Lucky me!

Imagine telling my future child about all that went down the day I found out I was pregnant with them. Crazy story, right? In all honestly I'd love recalling this hectic story but I can't do that if I die right now, can I? Especially since in order to retell a personal anecdote you have to actually live through the ordeal so that you can retell it?

Swerving through trees and jumping above tree roots, I was - well with the added mental effort of Lena too, trying my best to get to safety. Actually, isn't it quite ironic that me and Mia walked this entire way ranting to each other without even noticing how far we had gotten? It felt like a few minutes- ten at the very most to walk from the pack house and yet now it feels like I've been running back for ten hours.

Luckily I can somewhat see the edges of the pack hall roof? But maybe I'm hallucinating because I'm exhausted from running and I really want a nap. And food. And some more food.

Fûck. I have this thing I do where I get so lost in my thoughts, no matter what I'm doing, and it almost never ends well. I've always been a daydreamer.

From my early ages I'd been using it as an escape from stuff like stress and I really thought I peaked in high school maths classes where I would stare out of the window sometimes and pretend I wasn't being asked to do a lengthy and annoying equation.

But I clearly have not let go of that old habit. Because here I am, stuck on a tree root and I honestly have no clue how I managed to do this considering I was running just fine a while ago and now the back of my dress is somehow stuck on a tree branch whilst my lower body is entangled with a tree root?

My foot is wedged beneath the tree root, if that helps you in understanding my terrible predicament any better.

This day just keeps getting better and better.