Three: The Caring Prince

LAYLA

I drifted in and out of consciousness, nothing making sense and that terrible nightmare replaying itself in my head.

Aunty Kayla and Uncle Nate.

And blood. Too much blood.

I woke up screaming.

I flew from the bed wildly, my hands clutching the sheets before I made a beline to dive out of the bed and out of the room to help Aunty Kayla and Uncle Nate, to stop the bleeding, to...

Strong hands held me back, pulling me back towards the bed.

"You need to calm down," the masculine voice whispered close to my ears, the soothing voice doing nothing to calm the erracticness that was going on in my body.

"Nooo," I screamed, thrashing against the stronghold, "I need to go to them, I need to help them, they're bleeding, they're..." my words dissolved into mindless cries and screams when the reality of what happened dawned on me again.

They were dead.

My foster parents were dead.

Just like that.

The darkness took over again.

Several days passed, blending into a blur as time seemed endless and limitless and I was forced to live with that nightmare.

They were really gone.

Alpha Arnold have been visiting and staying with me every day since it happened. He'd come bearing fruits and food and even though I had no appetite, he'd force me to eat.

Even though we weren't in his pack, he made sure to investigate their death thoroughly but we only got a dead end. Nothing has been gathered except what happened at the crime scene.

Uncle Nate's heart had been ripped out of his chest with just one stroke killing him instantly and Aunty Kayla's jugular vein had been cut off. From the brutality of the murder, it has been concluded that a rogue did it but why?

For what reason?

That had been the question I'd been asking myself since it happened. My foster parents were the most peace-loving and friendly people I've ever met, they never kept grudges so I didn't get why anyone would hurt them that way.

Was their murder perhaps related to the fact that we were running away? I guessed I'd never know the answer to that too because there was no way to find out.

Prince Arnold helped in arranging the funeral for them and when I saw my Aunty's eyes as she was being lowered to her grave, I lost it and I couldn't stop crying.

If only I had known that was the last time she'd hold me, touch me, I'd have allowed the moment to last longer than it did, I'd have trusted my intuitions that night and stopped her from leaving my room or I'd have even followed her.

And what? You'd have gotten killed with them?

And wasn't that better? Being dead was simply better than living in this nightmare.

Even Nena had withdrawn completely, saddened into a state of total despair because of the death of the only people we call family.

I passed out during the burial and when I woke up, it was Alpha Arnold by my side again like he had been doing since the day they died.

"You should drink some water," he told me in that soothing voice that he had been using since he found me that morning after they died and before I could even tell him no, that there's no way my stomach would be able to hold anything, he already handed a glass of water over to me and when I shook my head to tell him that I couldn't drink, he didn't stop holding the cup out to me until I took it and he didn't stop looking at me until I drank the whole content.

"Well done," he commanded before putting the cup back on the table.

"Thank you," I managed to grit the words out even though my throat felt dry and scratchy and a thousand pins seemed to have lodged themselves in the confines of my throat.

Apart from the darkness and grief that had been threatening to swallow me, he had been the only constant K. It's the death of my foster parents that made me realize how lonely I've always been, how I literally have no one, no friends, no other family members to rely on.

After a couple of days since their death, neighbors stopped troping in to pay their condolences and that was when I realized that I had no one else.

That I knew no one else.

I didn't even know who I was.

This Blood Moon pack was Uncle Nate's pack and since I come from Aunty Kara's side, that means I didn't belong to this pack and Aunty had never told me the name of our pack so I had no one to turn to now.

No relative, no loved one, no nothing.

I was utterly alone.

Days after I became a girl with no family, I spent my days in unending darkness and slowly, the will to live started to leave me. I had nothing to live for so I might as well kill myself but it was Alpha Arnold whose presence kept soothing me.

He kept coming every single day, kept bringing fruits and food for me, and he even brought maids to clean and wash my clothes. He was like my anchor during my days of insanity when it was time for him to leave in the evening, I'd feel a strange sense of panic overtaking me. I was starting to lean on him.

He never left me alone though, he'd order two guards to stay with me overnight and even during the day. He was the Prince of Wandercoast but he had made time out of his busy schedule to come and stay with me almost every day for the past 14 days. It made me feel seen, made me feel like I was something more than I was.

But still, I was living in the fear of the day he'd get tired and stop coming and even withdraw his guards. I wasn't sure what I'd do to myself then. Even with the guards guarding the doors 24/7, I still relive that ugly day, the terror in my Aunty's eyes, the lifelessness of Uncle Nate's body, and the blood that was soaking everywhere.

I still haven't been able to enter their room since that day and when I move around the house, I always feel like someone was watching me at night, sleep would fail me and I'd spend the whole night reliving the details of how I think they might have died.

The only time I've been able to sleep soundly was whenever Alpha Arnold was around because of reasons that I didn't even know and now, the fact that he'd eventually stop coming and...

"You should move into Crescent Valley," he dropped the bombshell one evening when he was about to leave and I stared at him with wild eyes, unable to believe what he just said.

What? He wants me to move to Crescent Valley.

He must have seen the shocked expression on my face because he was quick to continue.

"I mean staying in Crescent Valley will be better than staying here, there will be more people around you and I wouldn't have to come all this way just to see you... I don't mean it in a bad way but it really hurt to leave you behind every evening."

I felt the damned waterworks brewing in my eyes again. The way he had been there since my foster parents died was surreal. He had never even for once after like he was an Alpha to me, he had treated me like we were friends, like he was someone of my caliber, like he genuinely likes me when he barely even knew me.

"No, I can't... I'm not sure..."

"I won't pressure you into moving to Crescent Valley, just take your time and think about what you feel might be the best for you."

And he kept true to his words. He didn't pressure me, he didn't even bring it up again after that day. He seemed completely different from the same Alpha who came to our house over a week ago and insisted he was going to take me to Crescent Valley without the tiniest bit of acknowledgment of my foster parent's disapproval.

So I made the decision up to me and before he arrived a couple of days after that day, I had packed my clothes into a bag and I dressed in one of the gowns Aunty Kayla bought for me when I insisted that I must have something that'll make me feel like a girl.

He looked surprised to see me dressed like a girl when he arrived and I didn't miss the brief look

of complete adoration as he looked at me as if I was the Moon Goddess personified.

"You... Are you going somewhere?"

"Yes," I replied to him, my lips stretching into what felt like a real smile since the nightmare happened, "I'm going to Crescent Valley with you."

He looked surprised for a while before his lips stretched into the widest and most charming smile and he did the last thing I expected him to do, he grabbed my hands and pulled me closer to him to plant a kiss on my forehead with his lips lingering for a while on that spot.

"You did the right thing, Layla, I promise you that you'll enjoy Crescent Valley."

I smiled at him, not wanting to talk because I was afraid that my voice might betray me and it was only after the guards had helped packed my bags into the chariot and we were driving away from the house that I've always called home that I allowed myself to think of the reason why I was really going to Crescent Valley.

"Aunty Kayal," I screamed in panic as I rushed to her and I touched her almost lifeless body with blood gushing out of a hole in her neck. She was using the last energy left in her to press against the hole, to reduce the blood that was flowing out of it.

"Aunty Kayla," I screamed, disbelief making my tears freeze in my eyes. Beside her, her husband was lying there, hollow space in his chest and what used to be beating there on the floor.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

"What?" I cried, "what happened? Who did this to you? Why are you..."

"Run... Run as...as... Run as far away from here as possible..." she choked on her words as she coughed out blood.

"Aunty, stop talking, I'll go out and look for help, don't..." I started to get up but her bloodied hand on mine wouldn't allow me.

"Run away from here, Layla... Stay... Stay..." all the energy was draining away from her and it was a struggle for her to keep talking while I couldn't stop crying.

Just a few minutes ago, she was holding my hands and promising me that she'd tell me everything I need to know about myself and now, she was lying in the pool of her blood.

"Just run, stay away from Crescent Valley, from the King and... And Alpha Arnold... Don't ever go to Crescent... That should be one place you shouldn't..." she coughed out more blood, energy-draining completely from her.

"Aunty Kayla!!"

"Heed to my words, Layla, please do..."

And she was gone.

That was when I started screaming. When I couldn't stop screaming.

My Aunty had used her last energy to beg me in her dying moment to stay away from Crescent Valley, to run when I see Alpha Arnold but that was one thing I couldn't do.

I didn't know what Crescent Valley had to do with their deaths and my life and how Alpha Arnold was involved in the whole thing but Crescent seemed hugely connected to figuring out who I was and why my foster parents had hidden me like that.

I wasn't the type to run away as Aunty Kayla had pleaded with me. I was going to go to that Crescent Valley and seek out answers and I would not stop until I got what I was looking for.

Nene growled within me and I wasn't sure if she was agreeing with me or she was thinking that I was being stupid.

Either way, I was going to Crescent Valley.