Chapter 5

Alpha Ares’ POV

“Where has she gone?” I asked the guards, but they shivered, unable to give me a response. I had gathered all of them in the courtyard.

It turned out that one of the guards was passing through the cell where she had been kept, but she was nowhere to be found. “Alpha, Violet…” Colton, my beta, said, running into the room, panting. 

I closed my eyes, trying not to show my frustration at their incompetence. “I heard what happened to her already. Any news that might interest me?” I asked him, with my eyebrows raised. 

He had tried maintaining eye contact with me, but I knew that it was one thing that none of them could do. “Yes,” he nodded, hesitating. “Then what are you waiting for?!” He flinched immediately.

“There was a woman taking her out of the palace gates.” I froze, running my hands through my hair. Whoever took her was from the palace.

“Take me to where she had been kept,” I commanded Colton, and he led me to the fence where he had seen the woman with Violet in her arms. I sniffed in the air, and there was another scent mixed with Violet’s.

I was sure that I had smelt it before. Without a word more, I headed out of the palace and got into the car, following the scent. They quickly followed me. I hoped that things hadn’t gotten out of hand. 

But I was even more worried about my sickness. We couldn’t use Violet. So how was I going to get healed?

Violet’s POV

I had passed out again. A strong pair of hands touched my face. I looked around, trying to steady my breath. “Help!” I tried to scream, but someone chuckled in the background.

“Finally awake, princess?” the voice asked in a mocking tone. I tried to decipher if she was calling me a princess because she knew that I was really a princess.

We were surrounded by trees. The sky was grey, and there was no one in sight. “Who are you?” I asked, as my memory started flooding back. There was a woman here. 

She said they had come to sacrifice me to the goddess. It couldn’t be. The Goddess wouldn’t do something like that. She finally stepped out of the dark place she was hiding. 

I tried not to gasp at how beautiful she looked. Her hair was packed in a high ponytail, and she was wearing a tight leather trouser with a fitting shirt like she was off to war. 

“But why would the Goddess want to sacrifice me?” I asked her, as she went ahead to pick out one of the wood from the pyre. She was going to light it on fire. There was no doubt. 

While she was getting distracted with that, I managed to look down to see if I could untie myself from the ropes that held my legs to the wood. It was useless and tied tight. 

My back was hurting from all the pain that I had been through, and I was too weak to even try to heal. “The Alpha is sick. And you have the blood that we need for that.”

“You really don’t have any usefulness here, do you?” She leaned down to touch my face again. Her foxy eyes told me that she knew way more than she was letting on.

“Please just let me go. I won't come in front of any of you anymore. I won't even keep in touch with the Alpha.”

“You really shouldn’t be begging me, love. Tell your mother I said hi.” I was shocked. She knew about my mother? Nobody knew me. And even if they did, they chose to ignore. 

So how did this woman, another person from another pack, know about my mother and talk about her so casually? Before I could even bring myself to ask all these questions, she raised her knife in the air and laid it right in front of my neck.

“Goodbye, Violet,” she said as she lifted the knife in the air to strike. Just then, a heavy wind started in the woods, and she wasn’t able to see. Her hands were stuck in the air, and she couldn’t move them. 

The handle had become so hot that she had to drop it on the ground. I sighed in relief at the sight. She leaned down and wrapped her fingers around my neck. My eyes were starting to water, but her face was expressionless.

“What power do you have?” She questioned, her voice getting thicker. “None,” I managed to choke out. “I promise, I didn’t do anything. Just let me go.”

The wind wasn’t stopping anyway. “Violet!” a familiar voice called out in the rustle of leaves, and the lady’s hands immediately released their grip on my neck. Whoever it was that called out to her, his voice had extreme power. 

He was definitely her weakness. The winds had died down, and I saw Alpha Ares’ bulky frame coming in between the trees. He looked at me on the pyre and at the woman. Or so I had thought. She wasn’t there anymore!

“Who brought you here?” he asked me in his commanding tone. I didn’t know the woman’s name. I let out the tiny details that I could get from the time I spent with her. His eyes narrowed like he knew exactly who it was.

I turned my neck to him. I had heard that he was the wicked type, and he had proved that so far, but I wasn’t going to take my chances. He would at least listen to me in this state.

“Alpha Ares, I know that I had never offended you. So please, let me go.” I begged, with tears in my eyes. Just like that, he headed to the pyre and ran his hands through my legs as he started untying my feet. 

Shivers ran through my spine as his cold and calloused hands made contact with my skin. I didn’t know if there was anything more electrifying. He untied my hands next and took my hands as he tried to get me to stand. 

My feet betrayed me immediately, and I hit the ground in a pile. I looked up at Ares with pleading eyes. He carried me on his shoulders without a word more as he led us to the car. 

I didn’t know what I was thinking to expect him to carry me in bridal style. I saw the other guards who had looks of relief on their faces at the sight of me.

I couldn’t help but wonder what Ares was going to do with them once they found out that this woman had taken me away. “How did you find out that someone had taken me away?” I asked Ares and felt his body stiffen beneath me.

“You don’t have the right to ask questions.” I allowed myself a little smile. At least we were having a little conversation. He laid me on the chair in the back seat. 

I allowed myself to rest on the velvety seat. It was more comfortable. I had drifted off to sleep, only awakened by Ares when we got back to the pack estate. He carried me on his shoulders again without saying a word.

I held my breath, waiting for him to take me to the dungeon again. I was genuinely shocked when he headed upstairs to his own room. Even if I was too happy, I didn’t show it.

He laid me down on the bed and raised the hem of my long, dirty gown and inspected my feet. The place where the ropes were tied was now red angry marks.

I caught sight of myself in the mirror, and I couldn’t help but gasp. Tears were pricking the back of my eyes. My eyes had become sunken. There were red hand imprints on my neck where Belladonna tried to strangle me. 

My neck was thin and long, and my collarbones were the most prominent thing on my body. My skin was pale just like my hair. “It will heal,” Ares said in almost a whisper as he caught me staring at the reflection of myself in the mirror. I shook my head.

“I have stopped healing a long time ago.” He looked at me with an unreadable expression on his face. He stood up abruptly and headed to the bathroom, only to return with a bowl of water and soap. 

He slowly rubbed it against my wounds, and I tried not to move away from his touch. I needed his approval more than anything. It was the first time in years that anybody had cared about me, and I tried as much as I could not to ruin that.

“And the one on your back?” he asked. “I would get it cleaned up myself.” He nodded and looked around the room like he didn’t know what to do.

It was the first time I was seeing someone as collected as him look confused. “You can sleep here for tonight.”