For the first time in our entire relationship, we were on even footing. I knew what he was and what he’d done, and he knew that I knew. This was the moment we’d been moving toward since the moment we met at that party all those months ago.

Rick opened his mouth to say something, some lie or some sort of explanation, but he never got that far.

In a blur of motion, Ollie appeared, shifting in mid-air and tackling Rick.

He was hurt, but not as bad as I’d thought if he could still shift and fight.

Thank God. He and Rick rolled across the ground, throwing punches and growling.

The fight didn’t last long. Ollie was injured, and Rick landed a kick to his stomach that sent the other man rolling away with an agonized yelp of pain.

Rick scrambled to his feet, glaring at Ollie as the other wolf writhed on the wet pavement, back legs kicking out convulsively. Rick must have kicked him hard enough to break his ribs.

“What the fuck?” Rick said, panting heavily and glaring at Ollie. “You should have stayed in the truck!”

Rick took two quick steps backward, gaze bouncing from me and back to Ollie. He gave me one final glance before letting out a low growl of frustration. In the next instant, he bolted for the woods, shifting as he did.

Ollie shifted back, holding his side. “Fucking coward.”

As hurt as he was, Ollie didn’t look afraid—if anything, he looked more furious than I felt. He glanced at me and tossed his phone in my direction. I snatched it out of the air before I even had a chance to think.

“Call nine-one-one,” Ollie grunted. He stood shakily and took a few steps toward the forest after Rick.

“No, Ollie, you need help,” I protested. “You’re hurt.”

“I’ll be fine, but Rick won’t be when I’m done with him,” Ollie said. “I’ve got to catch him before he gets away. If he’s resorted to trying to kill a shifter cop, then he’s escalating things.” He eyed me carefully. “Call them.”

“What if he comes back?” I asked, my heart still thundering.

Ollie winced, pressed at his side, and took a step toward the forest. “He probably won’t. He tried to get the jump on us and failed. If I had to guess, he’s running.” Grimacing in pain, he wiped the smear of blood from his forehead. “If he does come back, you run your ass off. Got it?”

“Got it,” I answered.

Without another word, he shifted and took off into the woods.

I stood there for a few minutes, shaking and growing slowly more and more soaked.

Finally, shaking my head to get my thoughts in line, I ran back to the truck.

It was the only shelter around, and I had to get out of the storm to make the call.

As I yanked open the driver-side door, I kept glancing behind me, scared Rick might reappear.

Every sound was his footsteps, every flash of lightning was another explosion from a gun.

By the time I slammed the door behind me, I was shivering, and it wasn’t from the rain.

Terror had rooted itself deep in my heart and mind.

With a start, I realized I was repeating a single word over and over in my mind.

Nate . Nate. Nate… like some strange prayer, it echoed through my head. I wished, more than anything, that he was here.

Another peal of thunder made me flinch, and I scanned the surroundings for any sign of Rick.

I still couldn’t fathom how things had changed so fast. In less than ten minutes, he’d gone from my crazy ex-boyfriend to a nightmare vision.

I didn’t even want to think about what he’d do if he somehow managed to take me.

Would he hurt me? Kill me? Drag me away and lock me in some room where he’d keep me as some twisted version of a mate to birth heirs to his family’s empire? Every option was equally horrifying.

“Focus,” I muttered as I forced myself to dial the emergency line.

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” the operator intoned.

The businesslike and calm tone threw me for a second. Didn’t she understand what was happening? Why wasn’t she as freaked out as I was?

“Uh, yes, I, uh…” I trailed off, unsure what to say. Did I give her the honest truth? Did I lie? I hadn’t thought this through.

“Miss? Are you all right?” The operator sounded more empathetic now, which helped kickstart my mind.

“Yes, sorry, I’ve been in a car accident. I need help.”

Catching sight of a street sign, I gave her my best guess at a location, and she told me she’d have someone there as soon as possible.

When I got off the line, I felt no better.

I was still alone. Every few seconds, a car went whizzing past, sending up sprays of water.

One of them laid on the horn, and I realized we were still sitting in the middle of the road.

I turned on the emergency flashers. The last thing I needed was to have a car plow into my rear and send me to the hospital.

My body ached, my scalp stung from when Rick had yanked my hair, my ass throbbed from falling to the pavement, and my hand was covered in tiny cuts from the glass. I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering, wishing with all my heart that I wasn’t alone.

It took a few seconds to remember where we’d been going in the first place.

My head was still ringing, and none of my thoughts wanted to line up the way they were supposed to.

Ollie had a pack. We were on our way to introduce me to Alpha JC.

Could they help? Without Nate or Ollie around, I couldn’t think of anyone else who could come to my aid.

Mom would, and Lesley would, but I couldn’t drag them into this nightmare.

Besides, what could they do to protect me from Rick?

Shaking my head to clear it, I stared at the phone.

Before I could talk myself out of it, I swiped through Ollie’s call list. One of the last calls he’d made was to a number labeled JC–Alpha .

My finger hovered above the screen, hesitating.

Would he even answer? When I told him what had happened, would he do anything?

Why would they accept my word? He’d probably be pissed that I’d brought attention to his pack and end up shunning me.

“Fuck it,” I muttered, and hit the call button.

“Ollie? What’s up? Are you almost here?” The voice on the other end of the line was calm, assured, and much younger than I’d anticipated. He sounded my age, or perhaps a bit older.

“Um, this isn’t Ollie,” I said. “My name’s Cameron Torres. I need help.” To my horror, I sounded on the verge of tears.

“All right, Cameron. I know you. Or know of you, I should say. Ollie’s told me a lot about what’s going on,” he said, an assuring warmth filling his voice. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

Something in the way he spoke shattered the floodgates.

The tears came then, and I blubbered like a baby as I tried to explain everything.

My embarrassment couldn’t stop me from telling him everything that had happened—the feral attack, Nate leaving, Rick attacking us, and Ollie taking off after him.

By the time I was finished, I was completely drained.

“Okay, Cameron,” JC said. “I need you to stay calm. Don’t lose that phone. We’re coming for you. The pack is on the way.”

A little whimper of relief escaped my lips, and I wiped my face with my sleeve. Help was coming. The cavalry would come riding in and sweep me away to safety. I couldn’t have asked for more.

“What should I do until you get here?” I asked, sweeping my gaze across the tree line again.

The storm had escalated a bit. The thick, dark clouds made the morning look more like dusk, but I could still make out the forest. Already, I could tell my vision was different— better— than before.

Everything was in higher contrast, more visible, even through the deluge of rain.

If not for my enhanced eyesight, I wouldn’t have seen him. Rick stumbled out of the forest in his human form, soaking wet and disheveled. He looked even more unhinged than before, like an actual wild animal. Had he killed Ollie?

“Oh, God!” I shouted into the phone. “He’s back!”

“Cameron, run ,” JC said into the phone. “We’ll find you, but you have to run. Now .”

Something about the commanding nature of his voice stirred me to life. Lunging toward the passenger side, I scrambled out through the missing door, then sprinted across the road into the forest on the opposite side of the truck.

“ Cameron !” Rick bellowed behind me, a roll of thunder punctuating his voice. It made him sound like some kind of ancient storm god of mythology. With a whimper of panic, I ran faster, plunging into the woods.

My legs pumped, muscles flexing and pushing me faster than I’d ever gone in my life. I was too terrified to enjoy the speed. At any other time, it would have been shocking, exhilarating, and magical. Now? All I could think was that I wasn’t going fast enough .

I could hear Rick coming for me. It was hard to tell exactly how far back he was, especially with my enhanced hearing that made everything sound closer.

I risked a glance over my shoulder, and all I could see was a faint outline of a man some hundred yards behind.

The pouring rain obscured everything else.

Looking back proved to be a mistake. My right foot caught a root, and the next thing I knew, I was tumbling through the air.

I’d run right into a ravine, and my body was now nothing but a badly designed bowling ball crashing down, a victim of gravity and momentum. Branches slapped at me as the ground pounded the breath from my lungs. The globs of mud were the only thing that kept me from breaking something.

The sodden ground slammed into me, coating my body as I tumbled, head over heels down toward the small creek at the bottom. A rock dug into my ribs, a branch scraped an agonizing furrow in my shoulder, and my ankle twisted as I rolled to a stop at the bottom.

An inches-deep puddle of mud cushioned my fall, but even as I lay there, covered head to toe in thick, wet earth, my fear still pushed me on, urging me to move.

Except, my body was spent. I could barely stand, much less run.

All I could do was drag myself away from the creek into a pile of underbrush.

Even as I did, I heard Rick’s chaotic approach.

As I lay there beneath the foliage, I shivered in terror and fear. He’d sniff me out in seconds. He’d drag me away, kicking and screaming, and it would all be over.

A moment later, Rick appeared only feet away.

The foliage covered me, and the canopy kept most of the rain away so I could see him clearly.

Body trembling, I watched him walk across the creek.

I had to dig my teeth into my tongue to keep from whimpering.

Rick stopped in the middle of the creek, then raised his head and sniffed the air.

He looked exactly like a dog searching for his prey.

To my shock, he let out a hiss of frustration and bolted upstream, leaving me behind.

I gaped at him. He hadn’t found me. How?

I’d been less than six feet from him. Then I glanced down at the mud coating my entire body, even my face.

Could that have masked me in some way? I took a hesitant sniff, and all I could smell was the earthiness of the wet soil.

Unwilling to take this miracle gift for granted, I waited a few minutes to make sure Rick wasn’t coming back, then slowly got to my feet.

If anyone had walked by, they’d have thought some swamp monster was rising from its resting place. Gobs of mud tumbled from my shoulders, but I didn’t wipe it off. If it was keeping me safe from Rick, I wanted it to stay on me as long as possible.

My body screamed at me to stop, to lie down and rest. Instead, with a heave of determination, I put my foot forward and began to climb up out of the ravine, moving in the opposite direction of Rick. It was tough-going. With each step, my twisted ankle made me yelp in pain.

As I climbed, I realized I’d lost Ollie’s phone in the fall. There was nothing to do about that now. All I could do was run, and that was exactly what I was going to do.