Chapter 306

| hadn't intended to tell Grace my history, or at least not yet, but it seems to have opened her up. Maybe our similar stories will help her see that I’m not all bad and can possibly be trusted, if not as her mate, maybe as her friend.

I'm thrilled that she asks me to run with her. | would have anyway, since | need to protect her, especially with the nearby packs. |

didn’t like how close to their boundaries she ran last night. It puts her at too much risk. All they have to do is see her eyes to know what she is. Only Guardians have golden eyes.

Louis is beside himself in his happiness playing with Maia. She’s definitely all in with the mate bond. He’s enjoying the chase, periodically nipping at her heels when we smell them. | hadn’t realized how close we’d gotten to the pack’s border, but there are three standing at the border, almost as if they are waiting for Maia to show up, and they probably are. If this is her pattern, they would have picked up her scent and would be waiting to confront her about why she’s constantly at the edge of their territory.

When Maia turns and two more jump out, | know it’s going to come down to a fight. | don’t waste any time as Louis leaps over her and begins fighting with the two wolves that blocked her escape. | know the other three will join the fight and | have to hope that Maia will run and get far enough away that they won't follow her. They’ve seen her eyes.

I'm fighting off two at once and waiting for the bite to come to my flank, but it doesn’t. | realize that rather than run, Maia has joined the fight and is taking on three at once. While the two I’m fighting seem to have no problem with going for the kill with me, the other three don’t seem to be doing that with Maia. This is good and bad because | don’t think she’s ever been trained as a fighter, but it also means that they know what she is and have called in reinforcements. | need to get her out of here now.

| didn’t want to kill these wolves, but now it’s become serious. | kick one in the throat as | go for the legs on the other. | bite down, breaking one leg, before releasing him and clamping down on his other leg. | turn, just as the first is jumping at me and Louis’s teeth bite into his shoulder, ripping flesh from bone. He howls in pain, causing one of the wolves corralling Maia to turn toward me.

As | watch, Maia turns, biting down on the wolf's flank and | hear his femur bone break. His how! of pain is only going to bring more wolves faster. Time for us to 1. go.

Louis kicks out at one of the remaining wolves, breaking ribs. The last one tries to bite down on the back of Maia’s neck to restrain her, but she turns last minute and bites through his throat, his gurgling sound the last thing we hear before he falls dead at her feet.

I run to her, nipping at her to move. She seems to understand what | mean, she takes off toward her apartment. We're running full out for probably 15 minutes before the howls go up.

When we get to our clothes, we both shift quickly and get dressed.

“We have to leave here.”

“| can’t just leave. Where will | go?”

and “We'll head toward Rik and Liam’s packs. They will protect you, but we need to leave now. They will come for you, and not just because you are a Guardian. You killed one of their pack members.”

“| don’t have a car. How will we leave and what about Benny?”

“You can call Benny. Do you need to get anything from your apartment?”

“Yes, everything | have left from my mother is there.” | nod.

“You go to your apartment and get what you want to take, and I'll go get us bus tickets. Do NOT leave your apartment until |

come to get you.”