Her Chosen Mate

Part 2

"What was that, princess?" the first wolf, Isaiah, if she remembered correctly, simpered at her. His eyes gleamed with the need to inflict pain, his fangs visible in his toothy grin. "You want your book back? Maybe you should come and get it."

He shifted, as gracelessly as she could have predicted, his friends following suit until her back was pressed to the bark of the tree. They closed in, low like they might lunge at any moment.

Aria felt the hair on the back of her neck stand as her wolf clawed its way out, the pain from cracking and bending bones fleeting before she was on all fours, hackles raised in warning. She snarled and tried to rip the book from Isaiah's maw, only to have another's jaw catch her flank. She yelped in pain and jumped back, trying to keep all of them in her line of sight. They spread out, and Aria's heart  thundered in her chest, her ears flat against her head.

She knew there was no way she could take any of them on, let alone all of them at once. She glanced away, praying April would hurry up, when Isaiah leapt forward, his teeth catching her undefended side. There was no scent of blood, but Aria's eyes watered with the sudden pain. She sank low to the ground, readying to when Isaiah clamped his teeth around her neck and every single nerve in Aria's body screamed for her to get away, get away, get away. But he had her pinned, and if she moved too much, his fangs would tear right through fur, skin and sinew.

A low, warning growl echoed across the clearing, pulling Isaiah's attention from Aria for a brief second. She managed to turn her neck enough to stop the brassy, almost golden wolf approaching them from between the cluster of trees. His ears weren't pressed back, but casually flicking left to right, picking up every breath in his vicinity. Isaiah didn't let go, but his attention had now fully turned to the newcomer, who padded towards them almost soundlessly.

That low grumble grew closer, until the wolf was feet away, snout pulled back in a snarl. In one swift move, he'd snapped at Isaiah, pulling him off Aria effortlessly and pinning him to the ground. The soft whimpers of submission were drowned by the earth shaking growl that rattled Aria to her very core.

Isaiah and his friends fled, their tails between their legs, leaving Aria's book tattered in the dirt.

Aria stared after them, slowly shifting back until her toes curled in the grass. The other wolf walked towards her book, shifting with each step until he bent down and lifted the book with human hands. Silently, he walked over to her and held it out.

"Here," he said, his voice deep but not at all as intimidating as his snarl.Aiden . It was Aiden, the son of the Alpha, who had come to her rescue. His dark brown eyes seemed to glow in the gold of the sunset, his hair the color of polished brass. Aria was sure her lungs had jumped out of her chest.

"Thank you," she whispered, taking the torn book back with shaking hands. He only nodded and walked away the same way he came. Aria watched him leave, her stomach doing strange somersaults and her brain refusing to believe any of that had happened.

"Oh my God, I can't leave you anywhere," April said, sweaty as she jogged up to Aria and threw a smelly arm around Aria's shoulders. "Did you just get rescued by the hottest guy our age?"

Aria scrunched up her nose and shrugged her best friend's sticky arm off.

"Our age? Should we even be looking at guys at our age? Shouldn't we be waiting?"

April snickered and looked at the spot where Aiden had disappeared beyond the treeline.

"Wait until I find my True Mate?" she scoffed, grabbing the bottle of water she'd left beside Aria near the tree. "I'm going to look at any male I please."

"You're unbelievable," Aria sighed, her mind still full of the bright blur of gold that had released her from Isaiah's maw. "With that attitude, I'm surprised you haven't found him yet."