Running from the shadow

Luna Zeta followed her while she walked out of the hall to her room. She ignored her calls even as she yelled her name.

"Zelda, please stop. You can't just cancel this union, you don't know how important it is to every single one of us."

Zelda wasn't listening. She was sure she had fully entered her room, she slammed it hard.

"Zelda?"

"Just go! Go away, mom, I don't wanna talk to you."

"Please, sweetheart, I can explain."

"I don't need your explanation." She covered her ears with her pillow, not wanting to listen to whatever her mother's got to say.

When Luna Zeta noticed she wasn't going to listen to her, she left back to the ceremonial hall but it was already empty. Every one had gone home disappointed.

She went to ask the guards where the Alpha king was. "Where is the alpha?"

"He left with Alpha Kent to his office." Replied the guard.

She left for Alpha Mason's office and met him with Alpha Kent discussing. From the look on their faces, their conversation wasn't going pretty well.

The both men glared at her the moment she walked in. "How is she?" Alpha Mason asked.

"She doesn't want me to talk to her."

"So, what now, Mason?" Alpha Kent asked. "We had a deal, a deal can't be broken."

"Please, you have to give us more time to convince her. Zelda is a stubborn child, it will take a lot of effort to change her mind." Alpha Mason explained.

"You have twenty four hours to do that." He finalized.

"Twenty four hours is too small to change her mind, please give us forty eight hours." Luna Zeta pleaded.

Alpha Kent looked at her for a while. "I won't entertain unnecessary excuses once your forty eight hours elapses." With that, he left the room.

"What are we going to do, Mason? Zelda has refused to let me talk to her. She's gonna put us into trouble." She said bitterly.

"We'll let her be for now. Why don't we give it a try by tomorrow?"

"How many hours do you think we are left with?"

"It doesn't matter. We'll get this done before forty eight hours is over."

Meanwhile, Zelda has been crying her eyes out. She couldn't believe this was happening. She couldn't believe her parents could do such a thing to her, to sell her off for their selfish gain without consulting her?

She picked her phone, dialing on Victor's number but he wasn't picking her call. She called again and again but yet, it kept ringing but he wasn't answering.

It was hurting that she had lost the very soulmate she had longed for. After meeting her mate after what seemed like eternity, she was going to lose him. Just like that?

She threw her phone to the wall, not minding if it crashed. She just couldn't take it any more.

She screamed, pushing every thing to the ground. After what happened tonight, she promised herself never to forgive her parents.

******

She woke up with a loud groan, her head singing songs of alarm. She had cried her eyes out the previous night, now they were looking swollen and red.

She sat on her bed, searching around for her phone. She doesn't remember throwing her phone on the wall, but when her eyes met the shattered phone on the floor, she grunted.

She left her room to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee for herself, she met her father in the sitting room. She didn't acknowledge his presence, she made her way to the kitchen without saying a word to him.

She was going to leave for her room when he called her back.

"Zelda?"

She stopped, but didn't turn to him.

"Come have a seat, I wanna have a few words with you."

"To talk about last night?" She finally turned to look at him. "Dad, there's nothing to talk about. You and mom sold me off and you expect me to pretend like it's nothing? What the fuck is so special about him that you want me to get married to him?"

"Zelda, it was never our intention to arrange a wedding without your consent, but you've got to understand why we had to do this. Alpha Kent wants to take over our pack, and the only way to stop him is to give you to him as a bride. If I don't, he will seize every thing I've ever worked for."

"Not minding how I feel? Now that you've done this, what did you guys gain? Victor is now avoiding my calls and that's all thanks to you," she points at him, "and mom."

She turned, walking away.

"We have barely forty eight hours or he claims the pack."

"Even if it's in the next one hour, nothing's gonna change my mind." She said as a matter of fact.

Luna Zeta saw Zelda walk to her room, she guessed she must have spoken with her father. Luna Zeta goes to the sitting room to meet the devastated Alpha Mason looking thoughtful.

"What happened?" She asked, not expecting some thing new. She knew that as long as Zelda is concerned, there is no way they can convince her in just two days.

"I told you, there's nothing we can do about it. Maybe we should let Alpha Kent have the pack instead."

Alpha Mason threw her a hard glare. "There is no way I will give Kent my pack. Whether she loves it or not, she is going with him. Unfailingly tonight."

"Mason, you can't do such a thing to your daughter. No matter what, she is still your daughter, we can't just sell her off just like that. She deserves the best. She deserves to be respected too."

Zelda stood by the hallway, listening to their conversation. It was getting worse hearing her father willingly ready to give her off to Alpha Kent. She went to her room to get her car key.

"Where are you going, Zelda?" Her mother asked as she walked past them.

"I wanna get some fresh air."

She left, knowing quite well she wasn't going to return home.