== Enna’s POV ==

Collins eyes turned coal in an instant, a deep growl erupted from his throat, half a second later, he flipped the coffee table. It would have fell right on top of me if Simon hadn’t been fast enough. He rose and surrounded me, letting the wood crash onto his back.

The old lady started to scream hysterically as both Collins’ and our guards poured in. “Don’t touch him!” ordered Simon to everyone. He had turned around to face his angry friend, still shielding me with his body.

“Collins, calm down!” ordered Simon, but he was already too far. In the blink of an eye, Collins had let his wolf take over, blinded by rage. Feeling surrounded, he lunged at a few of his men and ours, even at Simon, but none wished to arm him.

“Collins!” yelled Simon at the other Alpha who was snarling, showing teeth and saliva, anger flashing in the beasts’ eyes. It took less than a second for him to lunge at Simon, but my mate was faster. In a swift motion, he grabbed me off the sofa, throwing me out of the way before shifting himself. I didn’t have time to assess the damages to my body as a voice right ahead screamed at me to stand up. I looked up to see Martin, he was on the other side of the window that he had opened. Like in a bad movie, everything seemed to happen so slowly and so fast at the same time. I only turned my head once to see the two great wolf facing each other in this house which already felt too small before, then, I accepted Martin’s extended hand, and rose to my feet. I followed him, jumped through the window, the ground was less than a meter below. He started for the woods.

“Is it necessary?” I asked, looking back at the house, my heart pumping, half from the stress, half from the fear for Simon’s well-being.

“Simon was clear that you were to be protected above anyone else” answered Martin with a little shrug. I heisted for a few more seconds. “Are you coming or not?” he asked with insistence, “We’re supposed to meet Nathalie in less than 2 minutes and you obviously won’t make it.”

“Fine”, I sighed. I wanted to stay with Simon but I didn’t want him to worry for me while he calmed Collins down. I followed Martin, half jogging, into the woods. The afternoon sun was now falling behind the horizon, casting only a little sprinkle of lights between the trees. Martin was walking ahead, not even bothering to look at me or ask how I was doing. This guy never seemed to like my presence but I had never really paid much attention to him. He had seemed to like Collins a lot, which was enough for me.

“Is it far from here?” I dared to ask.

“A little ahead” he answered, obviously annoyed.

We stopped in a clearing but there was no sign of Nathalie. I looked around then rested my back against a tree. My hip was painful from Simon’s throw and I was pretty certain it was covered with a bruise. I dusted my dress and raised my head to ask Martin, “Is she going to meet us here?”

But there was no one in the clearing. Neither Nathalie nor Martin was there, I rose back to my feet, stepping forward to look around. Maybe he was shifting behind a tree or just outside of the clearing’s outskirts. The light had even more diminished now, so it was possible that he was just in some shadow somewhere out of my sight.

“Martin?” I asked out loud, hoping for the beta to come out of his hiding place. But no one answered. “Martin?” I asked louder, only to be met with more silence.

“This is not funny” I said out loud again, in case he was playing a very sick joke on me. “Simon” I thought, as fear crept along my spine like the arachnid of nightmares. “SIMON” I downright screamed at the forest. A bird flew away, silence crushed me.

Then it hit me.

I could smell him. Somewhere, in those trees, Martin was hiding. I heard his laugh, deep in tone, but light in manner, as if I was just his trapped mouse in a sick game. This time, I thought directly to shift, because it was only my skin, and I didn’t have anyone else that couldn’t fly with me.

“Don’t try to fly, little bird” said Martin’s voice from the dark woods, “I laced your food with something that doesn’t allow you to shift. I thought it would work on Simon too, I would have loved to see his little head ripped by an angry Collins but he’s an Alpha, I guess he burned it off”

He walked into the clearing, everything was almost pitch black. I wondered since when had I left Simon’s side, and if he was already looking for me.

“Simon’s not coming” he said, showing a phone in his hand. “Nathalie is taking a long nap but he believes you are under her care. He’s a little too trusting, your mate.”

He had accentuated that last word as if it was poison in his mouth.

“What do you want with me?” I managed to ask. Honestly, I wasn’t extremely scared of him, I had met worse than this small time bully, but I was scared of the reasons. If there is one thing I know for sure is that reasons are always as twisted and as destructive in shifters as they are for Humans. Hatred only spawned two children, Hate and Forgiveness. I don’t think he brought me here for forgiveness and in the dusk, I could see the fire of hate in his eyes.

“Oh, it’s not about me, Enna” he answered with a little smile playing on his lips, just like someone who knew something the other didn’t and savored every moment of it.

That’s when my stomach lurched, making me feel sick and disoriented. There was another smell in the clearing, it was getting progressively stronger as did the noise of someone walking in the underbrush, crushing the dead leaves, walking like nothing could ever stop him.

My eyes grew wide as fast as Martin’s smile did, enjoying the realization on my face, the fall of his sick little joke. I thought my feet were cast in concrete, my head was spinning with the smell of the man I hated most in the world, the man who incarnated everything devious and evil in this world.

I was not going back.

I had tasted freedom, I had tasted love. I knew this was not all there was in the world, and I knew not everyone would treat me like a bird-freak for the rest of my life. I had friends, I had a new family, and I was not about to let that sick bastard take it all away from me again, just because he didn’t get his crazy plans sorted.

I got unstuck from my imaginary concrete. Martin, too distracted from me by his almost success didn’t the rock I used to bash his head coming, hopefully, he felt it as he crumbled to the ground in a lump of limbs and faded smile. If I couldn’t shift, I would run, and if I needed to run all the way off the edge of the universe, I would.

I didn’t hesitate two microseconds.

I took off.

________

Tun tun tun !