"Can you run?"
Draven's urgent voice cut through the night air as howls echoed from multiple directions around them. His silver eyes scanned the darkness, counting threats that Elarose couldn't see yet but could somehow sense approaching.
"I think so," she whispered, though her legs felt shaky from whatever had just happened to her body. The strange warmth in her chest was still there, pulsing like a second heartbeat, and everything around her seemed sharper and clearer than it should have been.
"Good. Because we need to move. Now." Draven grabbed her hand, and the moment their skin touched, that electric sensation shot through her again. But this time, instead of overwhelming her, it seemed to give her strength. "Marcus wasn't alone. I can smell at least a dozen others closing in on our position."
Before Elarose could ask what he meant by 'smell,' the first set of glowing eyes appeared between the trees. Then another pair. Then another. Soon the forest around them was dotted with at least fifteen pairs of eyes, all reflecting the moonlight like tiny mirrors.
"What are they?" she asked, though some deep instinct already knew the answer would terrify her.
"Rogues. Werewolves without a pack, which makes them desperate and dangerous." Draven's voice carried a low growl that definitely wasn't human. "They're working with Marcus, and they want you alive. That might be the only thing that saves us."
A bone-chilling howl rose from somewhere to their left, answered immediately by howls from all around them. The sound made every hair on Elarose's body stand up, and she felt something wild stir in response deep in her chest.
"This way," Draven said, pulling her toward a gap between two massive oak trees. "My pack's territory is two miles north. If we can reach the border, we'll have help."
They began running through the forest, and Elarose was amazed to discover that she could keep up with Draven's inhuman pace. Her feet seemed to find the right places to step automatically, avoiding roots and rocks that should have tripped her in the darkness. Her breathing stayed steady even though they were running faster than she had ever run in her life.
Behind them, she could hear the sound of large bodies crashing through the underbrush. Whatever was chasing them was getting closer.
"How are you doing that?" Draven asked, glancing at her as they ran. His voice held surprise and something that might have been impressed.
"Doing what?"
"Running like that. Seeing in the dark. Most humans would have fallen ten times by now."
Elarose wanted to tell him that she didn't know, that none of this made sense, but she was too focused on the fact that the sounds behind them were definitely getting closer. She could hear individual footsteps now, could smell something wild and musky that made her nose wrinkle.
"They're gaining on us," she said, and was surprised by how calm her voice sounded.
"I know." Draven suddenly stopped and pulled her behind a cluster of large boulders. "We're not going to outrun them. They know this forest better than I do, and they're not tired."
"So what do we do?"
Before he could answer, a voice called out from the darkness nearby.
"There's no point in hiding, Draven. We can smell you both."
Marcus stepped into view about twenty feet away, but he looked different now. His fingernails had grown into claws, his teeth were longer and sharper, and his eyes glowed with that eerie yellow light. He was still in human form, but barely.
"Just give us the girl and we'll let you walk away," Marcus continued. "You can't protect her. Your curse makes you weak during regular moons. We both know it."
"Touch her and die," Draven snarled, stepping protectively in front of Elarose. She could see that he was changing too - his muscles were getting bigger, his features were becoming more angular, and his silver eyes were starting to glow.
"Brave words from someone who's outnumbered fifteen to one."
As if summoned by his words, more figures began emerging from the shadows. Elarose counted at least a dozen rogues, all of them partially shifted like Marcus. They had the bodies of men but the claws, teeth, and eyes of predators.
"What do they want with me?" Elarose asked quietly.
"Power," Draven replied without taking his eyes off Marcus. "There are prophecies about someone like you. Someone who could change the balance of power in the supernatural world."
"What kind of prophecies?"
"The kind that make people do very stupid things." Draven's muscles tensed as the rogues began to spread out, surrounding their hiding spot. "Listen to me carefully, Elarose. When I give the signal, I want you to run straight north. Don't look back, don't stop for anything. My pack will find you."
"I'm not leaving you to fight them alone."
"You don't have a choice. You're not ready for this kind of fight."
But even as he said it, Elarose could feel something stirring inside her. The warmth in her chest was growing stronger, spreading through her arms and legs like liquid fire. Her senses were becoming even sharper - she could hear the heartbeats of every rogue surrounding them, could smell their individual scents, could see every detail of their faces despite the darkness.
"Maybe I'm more ready than you think," she said, and meant it.
Marcus laughed from his position near the trees. "The little orphan thinks she's a fighter. How adorable."
"She doesn't know what she is yet," one of the other rogues said. "But I can smell the power on her. It's intoxicating."
"Enough talk," Marcus snapped. "Take her. Kill him if he resists."
The rogues attacked all at once, coming at them from multiple directions. Draven met the first three with movements so fast they were almost a blur, his hands somehow growing claws of his own as he fought. But there were too many of them.
Elarose saw one of the rogues circling around to attack Draven from behind and reacted without thinking. She grabbed a fallen branch from the ground and swung it at the rogue's head with all her strength.
The branch should have broken on impact. Instead, it hit the rogue so hard that he flew backward into a tree, the trunk cracking from the impact. The rogue slumped to the ground and didn't get up.
Everyone froze, staring at Elarose in shock.
"That's impossible," Marcus breathed. "No human is that strong."
"I'm beginning to think she's not human," Draven said, his voice filled with amazement.
Elarose stared down at her hands, which were still holding the unbroken branch.
She felt perfectly normal, but she had just hit someone hard enough to knock them unconscious and break a tree.
That definitely wasn't normal.