CHAPTER 5: THE ATTACK. 

~HERA

Biting hard on my lower lip, I tried muffling a groan as Eugenia massaged my arm trying to locate the broken bone back to its original position. Once she successfully did it, I loudly hissed out in pain.

“The swelling will lessen before dawn tomorrow, you will be okay". She said while rubbing ointment in the affected area.

As she retrieved a long piece of bandage from her bag, tying up my arm to maintain its position when the healing begins, I got curious and jokingly asked."You really were prepared to run away from the castle, how the hell did you know I would need a bandage?”

“Not really, I saw what happened in the ballroom and I assume you'd get a few bones broken after seeing you fall that hard". 

“Oh, yeah. About that–"

“You don't have to tell me what happened, Hera. You did the right thing. He's not worth you". She cut in on me standing up to her feet.

"But you did screw up by thinking he'd suffer from the rejection pain”. She added with a chuckle. I joined her. “Yeah, that's so stupid of me"

"Thanks once again for bringing me along with you”. I felt the word ‘THANKS’ wasn't good enough yet I can't even find the perfect word to express how grateful I am for her help. If not for her brave move, I would probably be lying on the cold floor in tears, violated and empty. Or maybe dead. But here I was, far away from hell and living free like a bird.

This was my dream—To be free from the shackles of the pack, though with my mate beside me nevertheless, I was free and that was all that mattered at this moment. 

She waved off. “Oh come on Hera. You don't need to thank me. We both want the same thing and we made it happen. That's just it"

"No. You made it happen”. I clarified but before I could say more, she cut me off. “Fine, fine. Whatever. You're welcome, missy".

"Let's go get some wood to make a fire. The night is quite chilly”. She added, turning around. I quickly got up and followed her.

Our surroundings turned darker as we walked farther away from the clearing into the forest. I felt a chilling sensation crawling under my skin as the eerie breeze faintly hit my body, occasionally lifting my hair to my face. I noticed the bizarre height of the trees, they were quite frightening and it got me shaking in my boots. Also, the creepy sounds from the birds or whatever was lurking in the dark weren't helping my sanity at all. 

Eugenia was just a few steps ahead of me yet I was gravely frightened. Finally, I broke my silence.“Can we just go back to the clearing? I think we've found enough wood, they could last us for tonight”.

She turned around and studied me for a whole minute before saying.“Oh, come on, Hera. You look hungry, don't you want meat for dinner?”

Yeah, I do want dinner but what if we turn out to be the dinner if we go farther than this just because of calves? “I do, but we've come too far, let's go—” My words trailed off as I heard a twig snap from behind me making my hair stand on its end. 

Seemingly, Eugenia also heard the sound as she intently watched my back with a smug look on her face.“I guess that's our dinner coming" 

Releasing the breath I didn't know I was holding, I quickly walked over to her side. As we both faced the direction of the sound, waiting for our prey to emerge from the dark, I had a sneaking feeling something wasn't right.

Am not paranoid, the feeling was too nagging to ignore. I grasped Eugenia's hand, stopping her from moving forward. She looked at me, frowning. 

“I don't think that—” My words fell off on hearing a growl. We snapped our heads in the direction again and a rush of shiver shot down my spine on seeing the seven-foot black wolf baring his sharp fangs at us. 

Eugenia took a step back, I followed suit. 

“RUN!” We said at once.

He lunged at us covering the distance between us in one leap as we turned on our heels, running. Perceiving he was close, my heart hammered in my chest automatically turning my legs weak.

Eugenia had turned all fours and was ahead of me, quite safe from the wolf. As for me, I was still on my two legs and it wasn't helping at all. I was lagging and struggling to shift, I guess it was because my arm was broken.

The thought of his proximity and the afterthought of ending up getting skinned with those sharp fangs kept gnawing at the back of my head making me lose focus on my path as I tripped on a dead branch of a tree falling squarely on my stomach. Before I could pick myself up, he beat me to it, grasping my ankle, and threw me against a tree nearby. The hit against the tree was heavy, it was like a lethal blow to my chest. It took the light off my eyes in an instant. 

*****

The first feeling that signaled I was still alive and hadn't ended up being shredded by the wolf was an ache in my head, a feeling I wouldn't wish upon my enemy, it was that excruciating.

Still, in my unconscious state, I could hear a few faint disarrayed voices which at first I thought were only in my head and would wander off soon but the more my consciousness crept in, they became loud and clear. The voices were all accusatory, it prompted me to battle with my sight, fluttering my eyes open to behold where exactly I was.

With the familiar stink of blood, it took less than a minute to register my location. I was at the pack's field. I was back in the hell I ran from, and… Oh no, Lucien was my attacker?! 

Why can't my cruel fate give me a break for once? 

Gazing past the faces before me with tears gathering up my eyes, I couldn't help but notice how massive the crowd was. Likely, the entire kingdom was present.

The look they had on their faces evidently showed contempt against my existence as most of them glared daggers at me while others fearfully stared at me like some wild beast—It was kind of understandable since I was heavily chained like one—Even the feral wolves in the basement didn't have so many chains on them compared to the ones I on me but the scared looks were confusing. 

As far as I could remember I only rejected Lucien, so why the hell were they scared of me?