Catch Her By Her Scent novel Chapter 20

I never liked crowds, much less a crowd of hundreds of antsy teenage girls. I walk off to the edge of the group and sit down on a rock and wait for the games to start. I watch the setting and sun, but before it set all the way a man stepped in front of the group and whistled to get everyone's attention.

"Ladies, ladies! The mating games will be starting in a few minutes and I have to go over a few things with you before we let you go and the games officially begin."

He looks over all of us with a calculating gaze while we all nod in his general direction.

"First of all no man can force himself on you and force you to be his mate. Second once you find your mate, you have to come back to the main gathering grounds and confirm your mate with the council. Lastly we do not recommend this, but you can reject your mate. If you choose to do this though you have to give the council a reason for your rejection. Is that clear ladies?"

He looked over at us again as we nodded.

"Now that we have gone over the rules are there any last minute questions that you ladies have or anything that you need to be clarified on?"

Once again he looked over the crowd and I saw someone raise their hand to speck.

"Yes young lady what is your concern?"

"What if we do not find our mates?"

"If you do not find your mate this time then you will come to the main gathering areas when the night is over and we will put you on the list the come the games next year. Any more questions?"

I was running so fast through the woods I couldn't even hear myself thinking. I swerved through the trees trying to find my escape route. I looked back at the wolf that was a rustic color with spots of white scattered around its body. Before I could turn my head around I tripped over a log, but luckily I recovered quickly and kept running.

I don't know how long I had been running, but I have been gradually slowing down and I won't be able to run from this wolf much longer. I know he is still following me I can hear his footsteps and heavy breathing tight behind me. If I stop now then he will surely catch up to me. I see the trees flying by me and then I see the ground coming up the to meet me again.

I screamed when I felt my ankle pop. I looked down to see that my ankle wasn't pointing in the right direction. I crawl behind a bush hoping that the wolf will be to preoccupied in running to notice that I had fallen. Unfortunately for me the wolf stopped and put its nose in the air trying to catch a scent, my scent. He puts his nose to the ground and follows my scent to the front of the bush and gently pushes it away to see me hiding behind it.

I know that this wolf is not my mate, I look into his eyes and see a darkness in them. He growled at me and kept walking forwards, advancing on me. I push myself backwards, only to be met with the hard bark of a tree. The wolf bares its teeth at me and snaps them in my face grazing the tip of my nose.