Chapter 4 | The Murderer

~Nyla~

"Where are you going?" Maya asked the midwife in a surprised voice.

She stammered, "I-I'm sorry but I have to g-go. I don't want to d-die today."

She looked at me with a guilty face and continued, "Your baby is the heir to this kingdom and a potential threat. He will kill the baby the minute he gets here. Trust me when I say that today would have been the proudest day of my life, helping birth the future king, if things were different. But the kingdom has fallen and most people are either dead or taken prisoners. I hope you can forgive me." 

Maya pulled out a dagger and stopped the midwife from leaving. I asked her to let her go. I told Maya to leave as well, run for her life while there was still time, and not worry about me.

"I'll never leave your side, Nyla. I'll protect you until my last breath, even if death is inevitable for us both."

The pain took over, and my eyes were soddened with sweat trickling from my forehead.

"One last push, Nyla. Don't forget what a strong woman you are," she said, with tears escaping her eyes.

Just when I was about to faint, I heard my baby's cry. Strong and resonating through the empty palace walls.

"It's a girl! And she looks beautiful." Maya wiped the blood off her forehead.

I took my precious little baby into my arms, held her near my heart, and closed my eyes. Her cries felt like music to my ears. Just then, we heard a loud crash somewhere far, raucous voices and footsteps approaching our way.

I waited quietly, listening to the men's voices, while Maya climbed up to open the trapdoor hidden in the roof. We let the baby cry because it was a soundproof tunnel. The door was hidden and hard to find unless someone knew where to look. I double-checked that it was locked.

"Fuck this, I can't!" Maya let out an exasperated sigh. 

"Is the door stuck? We can't be in these tunnels forever. Those damn werewolves might smell us even if they can't hear us." I started panicking again, holding my baby close.

"I don't know what's wrong. We just opened it two weeks back, didn't we?" Maya tried again and failed.

"Let me help." I put my baby down on the thin mattress that Wyatt dragged into the tunnel for me. I reached for my dagger to cut the birth cord when a sudden pain pierced through my heart.

"Maya..." I doubled over in agony and howled at the top of my lungs. "Wy-Wyatt!"

It felt like someone had squeezed my heart hard and pulled it out mercilessly. Shudders of pain ran all over my body as I rolled over into a fetal position, waiting for it to pass. It only got more intense as seconds passed by, making it feel like hours. 

"He's dead... he's dead, Maya. They killed him. They killed my Wyatt, and I couldn't help." I sobbed loudly and punched my fists against the floor in anger. I felt sad instead of relieved when the pain left me. It meant that Wyatt had left me for good.

"This is not the time to mourn, Nyla." She hugged me tight and patted my back in a hurry. Cutting the birth cord, she separated me from my baby. I wrapped the little one with a blanket.

"Your dad left us in this shitty world." Seeing the clueless baby's red, wailing face brought a lot more tears to my eyes.

"Do you smell that?" We heard a deep male voice that was different from what we heard before. I wiped my tears and walked closer to the door to hear them better.

"Smell what, Alpha?" Another voice asked.

"That delicious smell... of raspberries, and of rain when it hits the parched soil I think."

There was silence for a bit, and then the one they called Alpha talked again.

"Can none of you smell it?" His voice appeared closer than before.

I ran back immediately.

"Is he able to smell one of us?" I asked Maya, wondering if the moon goddess blessed her with another mate because Wyatt's cousin and beta, Vance, was her true mate. But he rejected her and chose his girlfriend Riley, who he was with for years before he met Maya. 

"We can only smell blood and piss." I heard someone say with a chuckle.

"I think it's coming from here. Dang it, you see this? There's a door here."

"Fuck! The fucking Alpha found us," Maya said and ran to the trapdoor again as the men started banging against the tunnel door, trying to break it.

I climbed up to help Maya, feeling dizzy and scrambling for footing. We used all of our strength, but it won't budge. The banging got louder and more persistent.

"That door is quite strong, but it won't last for long if they hit it so much." My voice cracked with anxiety.

"What the hell is wrong with this door?" Maya held onto the sturdy ladder and kicked at the trapdoor hard in anger.

I yanked at it hard one more time. Opening it would lead us to a dense forest path that was hidden, and most of the pack members were unaware of it. 

"It can't rust so soon, right? No matter how much salt is in the air. It worked perfectly last time." I was puzzled.

"I don't know, but I'm so done with these fucking werewolves and their pack wars. I'm going to kill every motherfucker in my way and go home." Maya spat in frustration.

She had hated to stay back when she was rejected. She was very bitter about the whole mate concept and cringed when Wyatt and I or Skylar and Michael kissed in front of her. Riley was almost dead when Maya overheard her conversation about Vance and his horniness.

Maya had stayed back for me all these days. But I can't ask her for any more favors. She was in this situation because of me, because I wanted to be with Wyatt, and she didn't want to leave me behind in a strange world. And now, I can't return home because I don't know my baby's identity yet.

Werewolf pups were born without the werewolf gene sometimes. If my baby was born only with the werewolf gene and without mine, she might die if I tried to take her home.

I was lost in thoughts while working on the trapdoor with Maya when it suddenly gave in.

"Thank God!"

"Phew" 

We still struggled to lift it, although it seemed to have moved just a second ago.

"Bloody hell!" Maya shouted at it and kicked it again, and the door came off at its hinge, letting the bright sunlight seep into the dimly lit tunnel. We had only opened it on full moon nights before. 

"Ralph?! Crap, Maya...!" I stumbled over his lifeless body, with another man lying over him, dead and bloody.

"No wonder we struggled so much to open it."

"Quiet." I pulled Maya closer. "It means this path isn't hidden anymore. Let's run." I said, and she immediately collected the blanket in my hand and we ran towards the ocean, not sure what to do or where to go.

A sudden loud growl ripped through the air as a large golden brown wolf charged towards us.

"Oh, shit! The tunnel was better." I clutched my baby tight and ran back towards the tunnel, only to see that the tunnel door was crashed open and the men crowded the tiny space. 

Maya had already taken care of the wolf. We both ran towards the ocean again as we heard men coming out of the trapdoor. A tall, menacing man blocked our way as he was running towards us, growling fiercely.

"Oh no, no!" I looked back to see men emerging out of the forest clearing. We were trapped from all sides, with the ocean on the third side and the palace on the fourth.

Maya attacked the menacing man before he leaped into the air, halfway through shifting. She stabbed him in the heart in under thirty seconds and was off guard when a gray wolf came pouncing at her.

"MAYA... no!! Watch out." I forgot about the crying baby in my arms and placed myself on an impulse between the wolf and Maya.  

I expected to be mauled and dead in a fraction of a second, but instead found myself in warm, comforting arms while Maya took care of the gray wolf. Broad shoulders, toned chest, and ripped biceps; his embrace felt heavenly and his physique was just like Wyatt's. 

I hadn't made peace with his death yet and believed that it was Wyatt. He had come back to save me from the gray wolf.

I looked up with tears rolling down my cheeks uncontrollably.

"Wy---" I didn't see my Wyatt's clear blue eyes and ash blond hair. Instead, I was staring into intense green eyes which held a myriad of emotions, with confusion being the only one that I understood.

I moved away from him, confused as well about the way my heart was beating. Something inside me was telling me he was very special to me and my existence. This was exactly how I felt when Wyatt's eyes met mine. Why was I feeling that way with this man? My mate was dead.

Just like Wyatt, this man smelled divine to me. He had a strong, defined face with a perfect jawline. Splashes of blood covered his face and clothes all over. He was holding a knife in one hand, dripping with blood, and a gun was in the holster.

"Alpha?" I heard another man approach us and the one with the green eyes pushed me away as fast as he could.

Realization dawned on me suddenly. The man I thought smelled divine and delicious was Alpha Kian.

"Murderer!" I yelled hysterically, and pulled my dagger out when he least expected it.