PENELOPE HAD A bad feeling about these rogue men that's after them. Lance's hiss not too far away from her is not reassuring. Joaquin's dismay was clear on his expression. He commented, "He's must be hurt. How can he not train? How can he be so confident?"

"What practice?" She tried to catch Lance on action but the situation went like a flash in her eyes. "I'll check on him."


"Bring him here. Let's just hide. Don't fight anymore."

Penelope leaped and dashed. She didn't risk shifting into a full wolf. "Stay there, Joaquin!"

Her mate stood unmoving to his spot. His head faced on her side with his hands clenched in a fist.


'Where's that guy?' She didn't call Lance so he won't be distracted. Fighting five wolves versus one is a tough job for him.

Blue light gleamed above her head. Penelope's jaw slacked when she saw Lance delivering a swift roundhouse kick to a wolf. His face tight with worry and annoyance. "Why are you here? I said, you protect Joaquin!"


"He wants me to check on you!" Her eyes roamed Lance's body. She couldn't find anything amiss. When she was about to jump on a branch and watch his back as a support, she noticed red drops of blood on the ground below the elevated Lance. Base on the lively tinge of the liquid, it doesn't belong to a rogue.

Plops of blood flowed rapidly but Lance had already sent the wolf away. Penelope stuttered, "Lance! Are you injured?"

He scoffed mightily. "Duh. Just a scratch! What can a rogue do to me? They can't even touch my hair!"

'Enough of that nonsense!' She can clearly see that his back is not as straight as it was before. He's enduring a wound that Penelope couldn't even see.

Penelope surveyed the ground while still clinging on the tree. She leveled to Lance's height.

"Lance?" Penelope repeated, "Lance, are you really okay?"

Lance failed to answer. A huge brown wolf jumped to bite his left foot. Penelope gasped on the sight. Claws clamped on her shoulder. The memory of her injury last night burned at the back of her mind. 'No, not again!' Penelope twisted her back and swerved to the right. She left the tree and landed on the ground. Baring her elongated fangs, she countered a bite with a heavy kick. Bones cracked under her feet. The brown wolf twisted in pain.

Penelope sought Lance in the area. She didn't like what she saw. "Lance!"

The man was crushed under two huge wolves. His neck strained as he shouted. "Go back to Joaquin!"

Penelope dived to his side with a full shift. She let out a light whimper before opening her jaw to clamp against the bigger wolf.

'I must keep you alive.' Penelope roared. 'Must keep you alive.'

These rogue men had a familiar scent. Penelope remembered the traitors who cornered her the other day. Pain errupted in her chest.

She couldn't believe that she brought trouble on Joaquin's doorstep.

'What if he will know about this?' Penelope groaned when her hind leg twisted. She lifted her head to look at Lance's direction. Her eyes watered when the man stopped moving.

Lance either fainted or he's dead.

A defeaning howl stiffened Penelope's struggle. The wolf above her roared madly. He stepped back and started to sniff around.

Leaves rustled on Penelope's right side. A blue wolf went past her eyes and tumbled with her enemy.

Penelope forcefully shifted herself back to her human form. Her unbelieving eyes stalked the blue wolf's manic attack against the rogues.

When his eyes glimpsed at her slightly, a zing of awareness numb her back.

It was Joaquin.