Chapter 196: Grace: Unwanted Interruption

Seven minutes. That’s all I have left.

I sprint down the street, phone clutched in my sweaty palm as I check the map for the fifth time in thirty seconds. The little blue dot of my location inches painfully slowly toward the destination marker. This app doesn’t bother with luxuries like street names or turns—just a straight line cutting through buildings, yards, and whatever else stands between me and this mysterious Guardian.

My lungs burn, legs already turning to jelly. I’m no stranger to running away from danger, but there’s a huge difference between running on demand and running out of fear.

When I’m afraid, I don’t notice things like how my thighs ache and I have a stitch in my side and how my breathing’s getting too short and shallow. Adrenaline takes over and I just go until I can’t go anymore.

But now I’m forcing every extra step. Running for thirty seconds? Doable. A minute? Sure. Three minutes straight? Torture.

Had I known this was going to happen, I would have started working out days ago. Maybe trained like I was going to enter a marathon.

Behind me, there are shifters shadowing my every move, probably not even breathing hard. They’ve been following me since I burst out of the camper, probably watching my every move to feed gossip to the pack. Or maybe wait until I’m even farther and more isolated to bully me to tears.

Too bad. There’s a scary little app in my phone far more terrifying than the shifters I grew up with.

I cut across someone’s front yard, earning a startled curse from an older shifter out watering her herb garden.

"Sorry!" I gasp, not slowing down.

My destination is still too far, and—

enough force I nearly topple over. The world spins as

Ellie.

pretty nose. But

snap, trying

budge an inch in her grip. My human strength is nothing against hers, and

are you back?" she hisses, her nails digging into my skin. They’re the sharp, pointy kind of manicured nails, and they hurt like hell when paired with her

again, fighting back a wince as her grip tightens. "Why do you care? I’m not going after your precious mate, so you don’t have to worry about that." She can have Rafe in all his

face contorts as she demands, "What did

father?" I blink, genuinely confused, temporarily pausing at trying to regain ownership of my own limb. "Seriously? I’ve never even met your father." How she expects a human girl to contact the alpha of

dangerously. "Don’t lie to me,

on this

For the first time, I realized her hair’s a mess instead of neatly brushed, and there are dark purplish bruises

Strange.

strange as how she’s acting,

and I’m going to end it," she mutters,

a muscle to help, of course. They’re loyal to Rafe, which means they’re

glance at my phone shows she’s wasted twenty seconds

struggle harder, digging my heels in. "Leave me alone, for fuck’s sake! You can have

and I hit the ground hard, my knees scraping against the

what you are. You filthy little whore. What tricks have

she raises her hand again, but I meet

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