ARIA POV
I crashed through the trees, my lungs burning. The howls behind me were getting closer.
"Keep moving," I whispered to myself, holding the map Lucien had given me. It was marked with blood now—my blood—from the cut on my palm where I'd grabbed a thorny branch to pull myself up a steep hill.
My father's words still echoed in my head. War was coming. Tonight. But I couldn't trust him. I'd run away instead, and now strange wolves were chasing me.
They weren't from Darius's pack. Their smell was different—wilder, older somehow. Part of the Forgotten Packs, maybe?
A growl came from my right. Too close. I spun around just as a huge gray wolf lunged at me from between two trees.
I didn't have time to think. My body moved on its own. I dropped to the ground, feeling the wolf fly over me. My hands hit the dirt, claws extending from my fingers.
Wait—claws?