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My current part of the mission is clear: I’m to meet up with three other wolves I don’t know and live, eat, and fight alongside them for the duration of our battles to deal with the infestation in the Forbidden Forest. It’s a daunting prospect to trust strangers with my life in such dire circumstances. But in the face of the Rift’s horrors, it’s a risk I must take.
I suppose I’ve done it before, with soldiers in the military, but to be honest I usually ended up saving their lives. I have a hard time believing that it will ever work the other way around. I mean, the one time someone did try to save me, it only ended up in tragedy…
As soon as I allow that thought to enter my mind, I’m sent back in time to a tumultuous landscape haunted by the ghosts of my past. To the nightmarish hellscape of the battlefield, when my unit was pinned down by relentless enemy fire, our position became increasingly untenable. I recall panic gnawing at my heart as I desperately sought cover behind a crumbling wall, bullets whizzing past me like angry hornets.
I thought that was it for me, that I was going to die. That is until I felt a firm hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see Liam, a dependable soldier with a great laugh. Liam’s face was etched with determination, his eyes filled with a mix of fear and resolve. Without a word, Liam gestured for me to follow him, to make a run for it and break free from the relentless enemy assault.
I nodded, grateful for the chance to survive. We sprinted across the hellish terrain. Bullets zipped past us, striking the ground like deadly raindrops, but Liam kept me going…
We were almost there, almost to safety, when tragedy struck. A deafening explosion tore through the air, sending shock waves rippling through the earth. I was thrown to the ground, my world spinning into chaos. Smoke and dust billowed around me, obscuring my vision.
With a sense of dread, I crawled through the choking haze, my ears ringing and my heart pounding. When the dust finally settled, my worst fear was realized. Liam lay motionless, his body battered and broken. His sacrifice had shielded me from the blast, but cost him his life.
Now, that stuck with me and has made me the determined man I am today. No one will ever die for me again, I just won’t have it. I think that’s why I’m a little hesitant about working in a team, but according to intel that’s the only way we can fight The Rift monsters. As a team.
As I continue my search along the forest’s edge, I can’t shake the sense of foreboding that hangs over me. The Forbidden Forest holds secrets beyond its twisted trees and tangled vines, and I’m about to uncover them all, whether I’m ready or not. With the team I am yet to meet…
But honestly, while the whole situation is undeniably bizarre, I can manage that much. What I find harder to swallow is the next revelation, the one that was given to me just as I left to come here: we’ll need to form a mating bond with a human female, channeling our emotions of protection to defend ourselves from the monster’s insatiable desire to feed on our emotions. It sounds like utter nonsense, and I can’t help but roll my eyes at the idea.
I’m not ready to settle down, much less form a ‘mating bond’, but again I’m here now and somehow I’m going to have to make the best of this mess.
How on earth do they expect me to fall in love with someone I’ve never met? It’s a concept that defies reason. But I understand that desperate times call for desperate measures. If playing the part of a devoted mate is what it takes to survive this ordeal and protect my team, then I’ll do it, even if I’m not truly in love with her… whoever she may be.
As darkness falls, I continue searching for a safe haven within the Forbidden Forest. The shadows grow long, and the eerie sounds of the forest become even more unsettling. It’s a race against time to find shelter, and my instincts drive me forward.
Finally, I stumble upon a small cave nestled high into the crook of a massive rock formation. It seems like a natural fortress, its defenses appear tight and secure. In all the night time tales the elders of the pack used to tell me, I’d never heard of the monsters climbing, at least not in the traditional sense, so actually, this should be perfect.
Cautiously, I approach the cave entrance. The dim light from my lantern flickers, casting eerie shadows on the rocky walls. The cave’s interior is surprisingly spacious, and I quickly set about making it as secure as possible. I barricade the entrance with heavy stones and set up a make shift camp with my supplies.
But I still have one thing to do before I can settle in for the night. I need to find out who I will be fighting alongside, and creating this so called ‘mating round’ with. I need to meet with a shifter by the giant oak tree that stands tall above everything else.
Once there, I encounter a strange presence of a shifter who I believe is named Theo. He stands there, a silent and enigmatic figure, waiting for my arrival. Without a word, he hands me an envelope, and my curiosity piqued, I take it from him. Inside, I find a collection of profiles, neatly tucked away.
“My new team, I assume,” I remark, studying the profiles with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity. The individuals pictured within are strangers to me, their faces unrecognizable. I can’t help but wonder how we’ll all come together to face the challenges that lie ahead.
Theo offers a brief nod in response to my question, his silence remaining unbroken. I sense that he holds more information, that there’s something left unsaid. I decide to press further, needing to understand the full scope of the mission.
“And the woman?” I inquire, my voice tinged with both curiosity and concern. “Do I get to know who she is?”
Theo simply nods at the file once more. Intrigued and unable to contain my curiosity, I continue to flip through the profiles of the wolves until I find the one labeled as ‘the human.’ As I gaze at the image within, my heart skips a beat, and a shiver runs down my spine.
A hauntingly familiar face peers out at me from the profile. It’s a face I could never forget; one etched into my memory from a time long ago. Memories and emotions surge within me, overwhelming and conflicting all at once.
The woman in the profile photograph is a striking figure, her features both familiar and enigmatic. Her eyes, a mesmerizing shade of deep emerald green, seem to hold a world of secrets within them. They peer out from the photograph with a hint of determination, tinged with a touch of sadness. Her raven black hair cascades in waves around her shoulders, framing a face that carries the weight of untold experiences.
But I know that hair, I know those eyes… oh my God!
Questions whirl in my mind, a storm of confusion and disbelief. How is it possible? How could she be here, in the midst of this other-worldly mission? The face in the profile is someone I thought I had left behind in my past, a connection I had long buried.
As I continue to stare at the photograph, I realize that this mission has just taken a profoundly unexpected turn. The Forbidden Forest holds not only the secrets of The Rift and the monsters that threaten our world but also a startling reunion with someone from my past, a person whose presence in this tangled web of fate raises more questions than answers.
I lift my head to tell Theo there’s been some sort of mistake, I can’t enter a mating round with a woman I had a fling with almost twenty years ago, but he’s gone. Just vanished in to the night as if he was never even here.
I guess this is the way it’s going to be, whether I like it or not.
A rush of memories floods back, reminding me of the intensity of that short lived romance. We had parted ways under uncertain circumstances, and I had assumed that our paths would never cross again. But now, here she is, unexpectedly reentering my life in the most surreal and unlikely of situations.
I met Anya only by chance, at a music festival where her magnetic dancing simply drew me in. I couldn’t resist her and her emerald green eyes held a mischievous spark that promised adventure. She was the kind of woman who left an indelible mark on your soul, the memory of her touch still smoldering in the depths of my consciousness.
