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Tessa froze, her heart hammering in her chest as the car came closer, the headlights blinding. It was too close—she could see the driver’s panicked expression, feel the weight of the seconds stretching out in front of her, too many thoughts crashing together, and then—nothing.
Her body didn't move. Fear, sharp and overwhelming, held her in place as if time itself had stopped. Then, there was an odd sensation, like she was floating, untethered to the ground. Her body felt distant, as though it was no longer hers. She was watching herself from somewhere far away, a mere observer of her own life. She couldn’t feel the pounding of her heart anymore. There was no rush of adrenaline, no breath hitching in her chest. It was just—stillness. Silence.
In this place, time seemed to stretch in strange ways, just like the equations she spent hours studying. Time wasn’t linear here. It didn’t have to follow a predictable path. It bent, wove through itself, and she could almost hear it. She was falling outside of it, drifting between moments, where there was no past or future, just a stretch of endless now.
It was both peaceful and disorienting. Her mind raced, reaching for something solid, but it was as if everything she knew had unraveled, slipping through her grasp. She had studied the concepts of time and space, but never could she have imagined it would feel like this. The world around her didn’t exist the way she thought it did. Here, it was fractured, broken into pieces, just like her thoughts, hanging in the space between reality and something else entirely.
Suddenly, a violent noise shattered the stillness—a crash, the sickening sound of metal crushing against flesh, followed by the sickening shatter of glass. It pulled her back, and with it, a shock, a violent jolt of fear and pain. Her mind fought against the pull, but she couldn’t help it.
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The howl. It cut through the air, raw and filled with agony, something deep and primal. The cry echoed in her chest, as though she felt the pain in her own body, even though she knew she had not been touched. It was the wolf’s howl, the one who had taken the hit for her. She could feel it in the air, vibrating through her, raw and real. Her heart skipped, a sharp pang of something she couldn’t name gripping her chest.
And then—darkness.
Tessa was jolted back into herself, her body slamming back into her reality, gasping for air, as if she’d been holding her breath for too long. Her chest heaved with a frantic rhythm, her vision swimming with dizziness, but all she could hear was the wolf’s howl, still ringing in her mind.
And then, just as quickly, her vision blurred, the world around her spinning, and she passed out once again, leaving everything behind.
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Ryker limped through the dense woods, each step a stab of pain that shot through his body. His side throbbed where the car had struck him, but he could feel the healing starting to take effect, his wounds slowly knitting together under his skin. Still, the pain was unbearable, lingering like a shadow. His leg, too, had taken a brutal hit, and his muscles screamed in protest with every movement.
The rush of blood, now staining his shirt, was more of a reminder than a concern. He’d been hit hard, but he wasn’t dead. Not yet.
If it weren’t for his accelerated healing, he would be.
The impact of the car had knocked him to the ground, but it was the wolf inside him that had reacted—had shifted without his consent and thrown itself into the path of the vehicle. A part of him was angry, frustrated. He didn’t want to be bound by anything, not even by the instincts of the wolf that shared his body. But it had happened. The wolf had made the choice for him.
Why?
Ryker's chest tightened as he pushed on, moving through the underbrush. The weight of his unanswered questions pressed down on him. Why had he protected that human?
The memory of the car screeching to a halt, the way the wolf had thrown itself in front of her, flashed in his mind. He had acted on pure instinct, but it didn’t make sense. He didn’t know her. He had no reason to care. He didn’t get involved in human affairs.
But there he was, feeling something stir deep inside him—something more than just the physical pull of the wolf’s instincts. Something that made him want to stay, to protect her, to make sure she was safe.
He grimaced at the thought.
He’d always been a lone wolf, a creature who answered to no one. He chose his own path, and he liked it that way. No pack. No loyalty. Just survival.
No one had ever told him what to do. He was a free agent, answering to no one, He was never bound by anything.
Him throwing himself in front of a speeding car for a complete stranger...
Well it's either delusion or...
It must be fate .
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