The Heat #WATTYS2019

Chapter 2

Despite the searing heat that had taken over my body, I ran as fast as my paws would carry me to the edge of the forest. I shot forward like a bullet, determined to put as much distance between the hormone crazed males and myself. Deep down I knew only one of those males would be able to soothe the pain, and the wolf in my genes was urging me to go back and let myself be mated. I powered on.

In a matter of minutes, I passed the first couple of trees and was in the woods. Woods were not my environment. I'd grown up in the South Clan, belonging to the Sand Dune Pack. I had lived my seventeen years of life around deserts, marshes, the occasional oasis and the sea. I knew how to swim better than anyone here, I could kill an alligator with my eyes closed and I could fish with more skill than one of the bald eagles one could see flying overhead when they were close to soft water ponds. I could run over sand for miles and miles without tiring. But woods were not my cup of tea.

Granted, the hiding places were infinite, but I spent too much energy swerving to avoid trees and logs in my way instead of keeping it for later.

I must have been in thirty miles and a half-hour had passed already, when I slowed down to a trot and started looking for a body of water that would soothe the aching heat between my hind legs and under my tail. It had calmed down a bit, but I was sure the males would have no problem tracking me.

A couple minutes later the breeze blew me a whiff of something fresh with a slight tang unique to fish. I followed the trail until it led me to a large river, around ten feet wide, and deep enough that I could swim comfortably. I waded in, letting the cool water soothe the burns slightly. I stayed there, reveling in the relenting of the pain, but the joy didn't last long. A new wave of fire scorched through my body, singeing me to my bones and I felt a steady stream of liquid drip from under my tail before being washed away by the current.

Shit.

I was starting to leave a trail.

Quickly, I dove underwater and started swimming with all my strength counter current. With luck, the trail would lead them downstream.

I swam for what seemed like hours but must have been less because I hadn't heard any sounds of pleasuring or raping yet. It meant that the males hadn't yet come this far out. I thanked my lucky stars. After a while, I waded out again, making sure to step on the rocks for about sixty feet before cutting into the woods. When I'd estimated that I was far enough inside, I found myself a little nook between two live oak roots and closed my eyes despite the burning ache in my abdomen and my whole body.

•••

I woke up to the sound of avid sniffing, followed by a hungry growl. My eyes shot open and met the yellow ones of another Wolf. The male stilled, lust filling his eyes and the hot, heavy smell seeped into the air. Without waiting, I bolted, belly low to the ground. I slalomed between the trunks and leapt over fallen trees. My paws carried me as fast as I could go, but I could hear the male gaining. He had probably lived in woods all his life and was used to it.

If only I could find an open space! I would outrun him in a couple seconds, leaving him in the dust. But I could not. There was only trees as far as the eye could see.

Desperate to find an escape, I slowed and tried to smell for a river. That was my downfall as I faltered and the male came barging into me. He made us roll a total of three times before we immerged with him on the top. He pinned me on the ground under his weight and opened his mind up to mine.

Shift, female.

I growled and stayed stubbornly in my wolf form.

I said, shift!

This time his order was followed by a short snarl. I flashed my teeth but stayed put. Despite everything, his touch was soothing my heat.

If I use my Alpha Command, your shift will be painful. You do not want this.

I stubbornly refused as his hard on pressed harder into my stomach.

Shift.

It was a simple, direct command, but with the Alpha tone to it, my body was forced to obey. Bone by bone I started to morph back into a human. In just a second I was laying under the male's now human body, both naked as the day we were born.

His gaze lowered to my relatively imposing cleavage and he licked his lips in what he surely thought was a sexy way. Now that we were skin to skin, the heat was almost gone, though still there, pulsating between my legs and prickling uncomfortably in my core. I knew that the only way the heat would leave was mating him. And I refused to give in.

"Leave me."

He lifted his hooded gaze to my ethereal golden eyes and smirked.

"So Sleeping Beauty talks, eh?" he murmured.

"I said leave me!" my tone promised death, but he ignored me.

In one, mighty heave, I flung him off and shifted back into my wolf before leaping onto him, teeth bared. He had no time to react before my sharp fangs tore through thick fur and rolls of protective layers of skin to clamp around his throat. He howled in pain and agony as I bit down hard. Then, in a sudden movement to the right, I snapped his neck. The Alpha male crumpled to the ground in a heap. The heat made females more aggressive than normal.

But as I stood over his dead corpse, I saw the scene through another's eyes. A lone she-wolf claiming her prey, blood dripping from her open maw. And I was horrified. For I had not just killed any Wolf. I had killed an Alpha male. Which now made me the Alpha of whichever Pack this male had ruled.

Already I could feel the power transferring from his soul to mine. At the back of my mind, a myriad of different voices howled in pain at their loss. A voice, though, spoke above all the others.

My brother is dead, Wolves of the East! Therefore I am your new Alpha! I claim my title before the Moon herself!

A surge of possessiveness flowed through me. I growled in my head.

No. I am your Alpha. I killed him. His power is now mine. I, Cassandra of the Sand Dune, Pack of the South Clan, claim my title as Alpha of the East Clan!

Silence filled my head for a second before everything exploded. A chorus of howls broke out in my mind and, satisfied with my new Clan, I tilted my head back and let out a howl full of power. It echoed around for miles and went on for a couple minutes after I'd finished.

A/N) First of all, shout out to @DiraTheWriter for voting on the previous parts!
Then I'm sorry I'm late I have absolutely no excuse apart from the fact that I'm on vacation so I don't know what day we are and I was reading The Locker Exchange, so sue you @weathervane!