Chapter 2 CHAPTER

CHAPTER 2

THE WOMAN was bloody from her head down to her chest. Joaquin unwittingly bent down and sniffs from her head 'til where the iron scent was heavily centered. He didn't question why he needed to spend time on her neck more than five seconds. He tricked himself into thinking that he's just being thorough with his work.

Meticulous. Proper.

'Who are you fooling, Joaquin?' He chastised himself, 'She smells like jasmine and fire. Life and death.'

Especially when he found her outside his doorstep where humans shouldn't cross. All in her attitude despite of being injured. Joaquin knew she's up to something he couldn't possibly understand.

She's young. It's already given since her voice was tinged with vigor only present to those youthful and full of vitality.

Joaquin was cold and stern. He's the 6'1 personification of the word monotone. Painstakingly boring and bookish.

He didn't even know why he needs to berate himself over something like this. Certainly because Joaquin knew that the woman was a beauty. A peerless beauty he had no way of having.

Joaquin didn't sleep that night and stayed by the window to listen. The woman might be in danger. He couldn't see the wounds on her body unless he half-shifted. Something he never wanted to do again.

There's a reason why he chose this forest and make it his home. His father had told him he's too young to scurry and hide. 'Least make yourself a son or a daughter before you go into seclusion,' he said. Joaquin didn't heed him and fled to vanish.

Joaquin knew that his kind was not the same like the most werewolves shifters that stood on all fours. They are extremely rare and extinct. Their lives are short unless they are mated.

And the most horrible thing for his kind; they were made to be killed.

The shifter kind is afraid of them. No one wants Joaquin De Villa in their vicinity. Not his grandparents. Not even his father.

PENELOPE BLACKE woke up to the enticing smell of pine and rain. When her guts reacted with a summersault, she knew that the scent was no ordinary. It was familiar. This was the trail she's been following the moment a rogue's claw took a large tear on her chest. It almost pierced her heart. Penelope had fought for life since the day she was born. A close call from hell wasn't a new experience for her. But a betrayal is something more fatal than this.

In her former pack, she ate death threats for desserts. Being an enforcer to a female alpha is a tough job. When your employer was a narcissistic, selfish and insecure she-wolf, it's not a new thing being tossed around early in the morning.

It wasn't Penelope's fault that she was born with a superior and fierce look. Men liked her. But that's where it ends. She has been saving herself for that blue-eyed man.

Her mate. She had already claimed him as hers the moment she saw him. There's no way that the zing she felt thorough her system was just an aftershock after the horrific encounter she had.

Penelope was on the run against the pack traitors that were ordered to remove every enforcer's head in her pack. She had warned Beatix, her alpha, to not receive the shady group of men but since the woman loved any men with gargantuan lower poles, Beatrix only snorted.

A mission to save the annihilated clan of rabbit shifters sent Penelope moving out of the territory with the suspicious group of men. The rescue went fine. It was too smooth and easy for Penelope's Beta wolf. It predicted the foreboding attack.

It was on the entrance of the Calistre woods, approximately a couple of hundred kilometers from the bunnys' clan, that the four men turned to slit Diana's head, a friend of Penelope. She's also a Beta wolf and a loyal pack enforcer. Her pained eyes didn't close when her head fell down the thick vegetation.

Penelope's scream was muffled that time. She was with two more beta enforcers. Together, they fought the rogue men and hide the depleting bunny shifters inside a cave.

Penelope was the head of that operation. She didn't manage to save her members. The bunny shifters, mainly teenagers and the old one are safe but Penelope's life is in peril.

Two of the rogue wolves were killed by her friends. After decapitating another one, she didn't have enough strength to kill the last guy. They casted a spell on her senses. Something she doesn't understand.

How could four rogues know something like magic?

It's a privilege only given to those pack territories who have mages in them! Alpha Beatrix' territory certainly didn't have one as far as she know too.

The storm decided to grace the forest with its presence. Penelope cussed nonstop in her head. With her 50/50 senses, she might just as well drop and stop running!

Penelope was bloody from her head down to her knees when she saw a cabin. Penelope doesn't understand why but her heart thumped in a way as though it knows she's going to be safe.

She lunged forward and dragged herself. Penelope discovered a barrier but it was too late to pull her feet back. She could only wish that the setback was not that painful.

Penelope was surprised when the protective array didn't reject her presence. In the contrary, it welcomed her with warm air for a while before it vanished.

The whole place was quiet for Penelope. She didn't feel any restlessness and weary.

“Aaaah!”

A loud cry chorused with the thunder. Penelope turned to the guy who was chasing her. The rogue burned despite of the rain. He thrashed but the barrier cursed him into ashes. He couldn't escape.

Penelope doesn't recognize the barrier but she knows it can detect a killing intent. The protective array doesn't want anyone with a black heart inside and disturb the owner living in the cabin.

"Help…" Penelope called.

A sigh went past her ears. Penelope scrambled to that direction. There was a stair she couldn't take. Her legs had stopped working. She opted to picking some stone and throw them on the shelter's door. 'Please, don't get angry. I just want your help!'

A quiet groan echoed inside the barrier. As much as Penelope was gratified that her senses are okay by now, she didn't want to hear that delicious moan in her almost dying state.

She couldn't hear anything aside the sharp intake of breath of one person—a man.

'Is he jerking off?' Penelope's eyes flashed when the scent of rain and freshly cut pine entered her nose. 'Oh, great. I've scented him.'

She heard the man talk. The solemn voice of the man tickled her ears. Penelope licked her lips and sighed.

'My mate is not human. He's a shifter kind that I have never met before. He sounds sexy and big, and he's flapping himself off while I gawk unto hell's lobby right at the moment. Fantastic. I already like him.'

When he finally dashed out to look for her, Penelope saw him. He had a proud nose with a black curly hair. His bulky shoulders was eye-catching. He's a tall man.

Penelope's eyes blurred for a moment. The lost of blood took a toll on her. She forced herself to stay awake. She waited for him to turn on her side to fully look at his face.

He didn't disappoint.

Penelope rolled out of the bed and sat with a smile. The memory of last night's meeting was memorable for her. She'd like to know her mate's opinion about it too.

She was face to face with a blue-eyed man. He was fiddling with something on the bedside table when Penelope looked up.

Her breath caught. She wasn't mistaken that night. Her mate has the most beautiful eyes she'd ever seen. It was as blue as the sky on a sunny day with the depth that's on par with a violent ocean. Penelope thanked God in her head before giving her best smile.

"So, you know—"

"I'm blind," his deep voice intercepted, "I'm sorry. I'm blind."

Penelope choke back her words and stared at him. 'He's what?'