CHAPTER 4: PIERCED

***KAYLA***

The morning dew brushed my feet as I ran with no particular direction in mind, morning was approaching already and I was still running, I had been chased like a criminal all through the night, and my body was weary already but I knew better than to stop.

I kept running in the woods all sense of direction lost as different men chased after me, men who were once my protectors, neighbors, and friends now seemed to want nothing but to catch me for a murder I didn't commit.

With the look of things, surrendering wasn't an option, I'd be killed before they heard I had nothing to do with it, I ran as fast as my wolf could carry me.

I lost count of the number of pack territories I had passed, but one thing was sure, I was still in the borders of packs friendly to Ravenclaw, and that was why they could openly chase me even though we were in other territories.

The reasonable thing to do now was to find our rival territory, Crescent Pack, that was to be my safe space, I wouldn't be killed in a rival's territory, but I also would only be a slave, but I guess that was better than dying.

I stopped running and tried to remember the direction to the Packs we were warned to never wander into.

"Was it north? Or south?" I impatiently growled in frustration, I never really paid attention in class and now my fate depended on a silly class I had missed.

"There she is," a man said, and another howled, signaling to the others I had been sighted.

"Shoot, how are they so fast," I was already getting weary, pregnant with a child, hungry and tired from all the running, but I knew I had to keep on going, I had to save myself, save my child.

I started running again, my body began to give up, then, I stepped on something sharp, a sharp metal that pierced through my feet, the pain was out of this world, with both feet stuck in a trap, I could not move, I was bleeding profusely and my eyes began to shut, but no one was catching up, as my eyes closed, I could see the men chasing me standing still, then turned their backs and began to walk back, they were retreating.

I smiled through my teeth knowing what their retreat meant, then allowed the darkness to envelop me.

***

"She's waking up," I heard a female voice say as my eyes fluttered open, I blinked once, twice, or maybe thrice, I wasn't so sure, it was in reaction to the brightness of the room.

"Who are you and why did you cross our borders" a young handsome man gruffly asked me, beside him stood a lady who was about my age, smiling at me, with no one else in the room but the two of them, i figured she must have been the owner of the female voice I had earlier heard.

"Come on, Caleb, the poor girl just woke up in 13 days," the lady said as she chastised the handsome man, then what she said sank into my brain.

Wait, what?

13 days?

I had been asleep for 13 days?

I immediately tried to get up but was drawn back by some force, I was in bondage.

"I told you this would come in handy, I knew she was going to try to run immediately she woke," the man called Caleb said smiling to himself, but the woman gave him a look that said, "Not now!".

"Help me get her out of these," the woman said.

"But why Carla" the man groaned, he was acting almost like a whiny baby.

The woman's name who I now learned was Carla gave him a sharp look and without a word, he swiftly got into undoing the chains that bound me to the bed.

I wiggled my wrist as I got relieved of the chains.

"Do you remember how you got here?" Carla asked.

"N….o," my voice croaked as I tried to talk, well no surprise there, I hadn't talked in 13 days.

"You stepped on one of my dear brother's 'protections', it hurt your feet pretty bad and you passed out, we thought you were not going to make it when we found you lying lifeless in the bush around noon, but you and your baby made it just fine," she said, smiling at me.

I didn't feel any pain around my feet, but as she mentioned it, I remembered, I looked down and saw I had completely healed, my baby was fine too and all I had to do now was get up and leave this place.

Carla handed a bowl of water to me, urging me to drink, I drank it and I felt so much better and refreshed.

"Thank you," I said more in a mutter, but she heard me, and she smiled back.

"So why did you cross our borders, your dress speaks of your origin, it clearly shows you're from the rival lands," Carla said in a gentle tone, her brother just watched as we conversed.

"Yes, I am of Ravenclaw, but I am an orphan and now, an outlaw, I've been chased out of my land," I said bitterly, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill.

Carla patted my back, rocking me up and down like a baby.

"And what are you called?" He asked.

"Kayla, my name is Kayla," I replied to her.

"Well, if you have no place to stay, you are always welcome here," she gently said as she continued to caress my back.

"And on whose order is that? Now the alpha doesn't mean much here, does he?" Caleb grunted out, scoffed and rolled his eyes.

He was the alpha of wherever it was I found myself in, only that he didn't look like one.

"If she wants to stay here, she'll have to pay, we already saved her life, and now offering her shelter? how does she intend to pay us back?" He rolled out the words as though payback was all that mattered.

But I wasn't ready to back down, I wasn't ready for defeat, I'd gone through so much than to lose it all and be chased out of here, so I boldly asked, "How do you want to be paid back."

Carla wanted to say something, but before she could, her brother beat her to it, "Marry me." He said, or had I heard wrong?