Chapter 2

DRAX'S POV

Moments later, I woke up and the reality of what had just happened hit me right in the face, My heart sank to my stomach. My mind raced to a billion places and back in a split second. The whips of guilt lashed me unapologetically as I realized what I'd just done.

I'd just murdered my soon-to-be mate!

What the hell have I done?! I exclaimed in my mind, as my heart pounded heavily against my ribcage.

I was scared! 

I pinched myself instantly, so I could try and wake up from what I thought was only a nightmare.

But no! This was real. 

Suddenly, I heard a familiar male voice that sounded like someone was delivering a speech.

"We would no longer allow this brutality and unprecedented anarchy to continue in our pack and in our village." The familiar voice shouted, followed by a loud clamour from what seemed like a large crowded audience.

I must have been blacked out for a long while. I opened my eyes, but it was too bright, so I squinted to allow my eyes slowly adjust to the brightness.

I placed my hands on the floor of my metal cage to support my weight as I pushed myself off the ground and stood up, and to my surprise —

"...and we can definitely not have a homicidal brute as our Alpha." the voice continued, and the uproar from the crowd became more deafening as my senses gradually awakened from their slumber.

My brain still tried hard to understand what was happening. The speaker's voice sounded very similar to my uncle's.

"...We must avenge the death of our own people and give the murderer capital punishment."

My senses immediately opened up completely upon hearing those dangerous words and I rubbed my eyes vigorously with the back of my hand and opened my eyelids wide to see what was going on. Circled round the cage was an angry mob of humans and werewolves. Nearly the entire pack had assembled together at the palace compound, and it seemed like I was the subject of their gathering.

The ones that remained in their human form were carrying various weapons and they were all pointed at me, and the wolves in their midst were already snarling at me with murderous intent. My uncle was pacing in the center of the mob, near my cage and charging the people into what seemed like a violent execution.

Why was my uncle was giving a pep talk to stimulate the people to kill me? 

It wasn't my fault. I didn't plan for any of this to happen. I can't control it. He knew this. He knew very well how uncontrollable my wolf was. He was also aware that sexual arousal could awaken my wolf. So why did he persuade me to have sex with her in the first place?

I swallowed the giant lump in my throat as the uproar from the people kept getting louder and louder with the end of each of his sentence.

"Avenge the pack!!!" Damian yelled, raising up his fists in anger. The mob responded, matching his enthusiasm. "Avenge the pack!!!" before charging towards my metal cage to kill me.

"Uncle!"

"Uncle!" I called out to him, as tears welled up in my eyes.

"Please... Uncle! Don't do this..." I stretched out my arms from my cage to try and talk with him.

He ignored me, turning his back on me and started to walk away towards the charging mob.

"Uncle, please... Don't do this to me. Don't leave me." I sobbed, pleading for my life. It was all a mistake. I never meant for anyone to get hurt.

"But sir... You surely can't do this to him. He's your brother's son." Barton, my father's beta pleaded in my defense. He was my father's right hand man when he was alive. My father trusted him with his life, and I do the same with my life as well. After my father died, he became Damian's Beta. Although, I don't think he liked that very much. He and Damian were not really friends from the beginning.

"Shut up! Or do you want to join him?" Damian rebuked him and he lowered his head.

"Sorry Sir!" He apologized before giving me a helpless look while shaking his head slowly. I could tell he wanted to help, but it was impossible.

The charging mob kept getting closer and closer, rushing towards me in their numbers until they surrounded the cage. I could see my uncle's silhouette in the distance behind the mob, walking away without any trace of hesitation in his steps. It didn't seem like executing me was a hard decision for him to make. He looked very much okay, without a shower of regret in his body language.

Some wolves climbed the top of my cage and stuck their claws through the openings around the cage, swinging at them at me. I fell to the ground by reflex, trying to dodge their sharp claws coming at me with deadly speeds.

The angry mob opened the door of the cage and dashed in and I crawled backwards in fear. My heart pounded thunderously. At that point, the entire town of Eligor was against me. Thanks to my uncle for encouraging, and leading them on.

As current Alpha, he had the power to make and overrule any decision whatsoever. He easily could have protected me from any danger, but instead he led the campaign for my death.

I needed to know why. Moreover, this was all his idea and not mine. He was the one who convinced me to have sex with Sonia. Why would he do this to me? I felt betrayed by my own blood. 

Suddenly, a lot of large hands were all over me. They grabbed my ankles and pulled me across the cage, bruising my head against the hard iron floor of the cage. I winced in pain.

In a moment, I was outside with a crowd of people and wolves over me. They raised their clubs and weapons and began to hit me. I raised my hands in an attempt to defend myself. I felt pain all over my body causing my wolf to react.

Suddenly, my large wolf emerged and took over. In a swift second, I shifted. He leaped up, sending a number of them flying to the air. When they saw that I had shifted into my wolf, they rest of them that were in human form shifted also and they attacked.

I ran. There was an army of wolves behind me wanting to take my life. My own pack. My own family. My own blood. I didn't know what hurt more, the actual blows and bruises I was receiving, or the fact that my own village wanted me dead.

I didn't blame them though. I choose not to hate them. Even my uncle. Sometimes I imagined myself in their shoes and wondered what I would have done if there was someone like me around. Would I have loved them? Would I have considered what they were feeling inside? Or would I be different. I couldn't tell, but one thing I know is I definitely wouldn't treat them like shit.

I've lived in this village all my life. I played with my friends on these very grounds. I remember one time when I hurt myself while playing football. I ran home to my mum and showed her my bruised knee, then she applied first aid on it, bandaged it and gave me a lollipop. I remember her asking me to go inside and rest to avoid another injury, but no! I was stubborn. I went back out and continued playing with my friends. Those were happier times. 

But now I didn't have any friends anymore. Their parents told them to stay away from me after the entire town discovered my problem.

Sometimes I just wish mom hadn't died during the birth of my younger brother and dad hadn't had that accident years ago. Things would have been easier if they were still in my life.

But No... They left my brother and I to face this cruel world alone. Yes, we were living in the palace, but we were only 'glorified' prisoners. We weren't enjoying real freedom.

When my uncle took over after my father's death, he basically turned the whole system into a dictatorship. Because our pack had more economic, financial and military strength compared to the other packs in the region, Damian was able to control the affairs of the other packs under our umbrella.

He overturned the laws put in place by my father to ensure the peace, safety and well-being of every werewolf under his rulership, and he changed them and put his own laws.

Nobody could challenge him, because it was a taboo to go against the Alpha's orders. That was why I was eager to take over as the Alpha, so that I could return the packs to the blissful glory it was when my Father was in charge.

How would I do that now? I'd just murdered my supposed Luna, the only person who'd truly loved me for who I was. My uncle had turned the entire village against me. They no longer believed in me as their Alpha. And my untameable wolf didn't help matters. Well, to be fair they never did have confidence in me taking over as Alpha from the start.

The elders always had their doubts. Of course I had the strength and capacity to become alpha, no doubt. My wolf was big, in fact the biggest in the village. I had Alpha blood. I studied the ancient traditions of the pack religiously. I was also well-to-do academically.

My isolation from society gave me time to study well to become knowledgeable in various fields. I knew I was capable of doing the job, but the elders always saw my condition as sign of the chaos that would ensue if I ever became Alpha.

To make matters worse, my wolf just killed some members of the family, and now I'm being hunted down by the people I intend to lead.

My wolf ran fast for his life, but they were just too much. The pursuit was intense and scary. They chased in different forms. Some chased in their wolf forms, some got into their cars and pursed. Some got on their motorcycles. They threw different weapons and stones at me. Their intent was not to injure or capture me. Their purpose was to kill.

Well, they did receive an order from their Alpha to give me capital punishment. I guess they wouldn't want want to disobey their Alpha.

I ran deep into the forest for my dear life. Well, my wolf did the running, but I guess he understood the assignment. We haven't agreed on anything together in a long while now, but I guess since it was a matter of life and death, our thoughts processes aligned without hesitation. Funny, but I guess my violent wolf also loved his life.

I thought I was losing the mob, but the farther I got, the louder I heard their violent war cries. I picked up the pace. I ran into territories I never knew existed. I guess I must have even passed the borders of the lunar dusk pack. If my instincts were right, I think I have just entered rogue territory.

After running for nearly two hours in the thick dark forest, my wolf got very exhausted. He could no longer keep up. I began to shift from wolf to human to wolf to human and so on. Finally, I became so fagged out, he refused to shift anymore. I continued running in my human form.

Thankfully, I think I lost them. The noise of the mob grew fainter and fainter until I could no longer hear them.

Suddenly...

*Snap!!!

I felt a sharp pain on my leg. It sounded like something caught my leg. I looked down, and there was a large iron mechanism wrapped tightly around my left leg. It was an animal trap. I'd just stepped on a trap. The pain was so severe as the metal pressed firmly around my leg. I fell to the ground and fainted instantly.