2

My eyes are open.

I get off the bed seeing how the sun is almost up and I sit in silence for about ten minutes before I start doing the most. I take out my tooth brush from my bag and head into the bathroom to freshen up.

In total, I use thirty minutes to get ready to be on the move once again. After putting my hair in a bun, I wear the hood over my head and say something to my heart that no one gets to hear.

I unlock the door of my room and right before I can step out. There is a figure right in front of me, I haven't taken my eyes to stare at him but I know he is a wolf because of his growling.

Slowly, I raise my head and they are about eight in number. I move back in fear as I realize that I have been caught by them. I cannot run and I cannot hide.

"Good."

"Get back in, Luna." He says as his voice is thick, vicious and I recognize him very well to be my dead mate's friend. The look in his eyes shows that he will spare me no mercy and I am on my own in this very moment.

I don't know what to do or whom to call. You would expect that a werewolf should have some kind of power and strength but I'm different because it the very curse that will kill me today.

He pulls me out of the room in one go and I almost slip off from my feet. I look from one side to other, scared out of my wits for what they are all going to do to me.

"Move." He says and I obey.

He is right behind and I can hear them snarling, mimicking and disgracing me as I walk through. I am too close to my cousin to be caught. I am too close to escape.

What can I do? How can I save myself?

I think as I walk in the direction that they head me. It pains me to know that I am using my own legs to walk into the direction that they want me to be in. I am still holding my backpack; I made sure to keep a well-founded hold on it when he dragged me from the house.

In a second I muster courage and put my hands into the zipper of my backpack to pull out a taser. Since, I am not able to use any of my wolf strength; I have to hold onto items and instruments that would weaken those that attack me.

I breathe the moment I am able to feel it and it gives me a flicker of courage the moment my hands touch it. I pull it, slowly, out of my bag and right when I am the vehicle they have purposefully brought me to.

He is called Beast, the one who has led the pack members here and he is the same one who carries the vicious look in his eyes, right behind me. I am to enter into the vehicle when it is opened but right when he thinks I would enter I press the taser onto his neck and he shouts staggering behind but not falling to the ground.

They did not expect it and the moment I do it, I run for my life without looking back. The other pack members waste no time in coming for me. They know that I cannot acquire the strength of my wolf but they underestimate me. They always do.

But unlike them, I have learnt not to depend on the strength of my wolf but on mine only. That is what has brought me this far. It is my own strength that I use to clean my cheeks, fighting to survive this.

And it is all I have.

I run in such a manner that I cannot feel my legs any longer, I can't feel my heart beat, nothing. I run straight into the forest because I would not be able to hide in the common area where civilians move.

I can hear the snarling, the excitement they have to catch me. It is evident and near. There is tears in my eyes as I run, my feet hurts, everywhere hurts and I have no control when my knees bends and I come crashing down.

I am on my knees and I try to get back up. And when I do,  I can feel the throbbing pain in my legs because I have been running for too long. I can hardly remember a time when I wasn't sprinting over rocky surface.

I know well that I will soon come crashing down but I have to hide. I will soon run out of strength because I am depending on myself. The wolf in me is never activated and I depend entirely on my strength.

I scout the forest looking for a place to hide that would hide my body and scent. The only thing close by is a river and I could stay in it, long enough till they pass. It would likely mean my death but I would rather die in the way I choose than let them do it to me.

So, I jump into the water with my bag and I remain there holding my breath for as long as I can. The water is cold just like my situation and I feel like nothing.

“I can feel it surging through my bones and I cannot hear anything that is going on.” Slowly, I begin to drown. I am trying to catch a hold of myself and remind myself that I must wake up, to free myself in due time.

"Maria."

I can hear my grandmother speaking to me, I hear her sweet voice and she is speaking to me like she needs me to remember but I have gone too far.

I close my eyes, seeing the clouds, feeing water leak into my throat. So, this is what death feels like.

___________

I can see a man jump into the water and swims into the deep lake. I cannot see get a clear view of his face but I think I've seen him before. Is he doing this to save me? I am still conscious and I know when his hands grab a hold of me by my waist and he swims upwards after taking me.

I feel someone pressing chest and all the water deposited in my lungs come pouring out. I open my eyes and turn over to cough out the residue of water in my throat, nose and everywhere.

After doing that, I look up and there is he, looking at me and before I'm about to say anything. I see Beast, right behind him.

My heart is deactivated in this moment as I figure what is about to happen. They caught me. They saved me so they would kill me themselves.

"Beast, you have been too brutal to my brother's mate." Just look at her, she has suffered too much. He says and I gaze at him with a shocked expression while sitting on the ground.

Brother?

He grabs a hold of my bag that I buckled around me when I jumped into the water and he is about to search it when I try to take it from him. Beast steps forward when I do so but the man who saved me from the water tells him to step aside and leaves me as I stop him from snatching my bags.

I am Dane, alpha Dane of the ancient moon pack and I believe you were a Luna? He says, he takes off his shirt while saying this and squeezes the excess water out if it.

My lips are trembling in cold, fear and the fact that I have run out of all options.

Does she speak?

He asks Beast who watches me like I'm some spectacle as he twists his neck before he answers.

"I believe so."

"I'm not going to hurt you." I know it may be hard to believe but I have actually come here to save you. Your life as it is reeks of danger!

"Every pack is out there to have a look at this Luna who is said to bring bad luck." You are not safe at where you think you could run to.

Lakecity? The Wolfsbane pack will be waiting for you. I'm here to invite you back into the pack as tribute to my brother for you were his Luna.

Alpha? Beast stops him, wondering how he can say that. I, myself wonder why he would be saying all of these. They have tracked me so far to invite me back into the pack?

As she looks at him, she knows why there is some familiarity. He has a scent that reminds her to of the man she met at the store, the one who grabbed the hoodie at the same with her.

He is the one. He has seen her since then and he failed to capture her. Knowing this, she grabs a hold of her bag tighter not understanding what to believe anymore.

"We can't keep her." She is a curse and will bring it wherever she takes her feet to. Beast says.

And yet, my brother proclaimed her to be his mate even after knowing this. Isn't it so? The man who is supposed to be called Dane says and he looks at me.

"Your brother is dead." I am free from that! I say, I stare back at him in his eyes, holding my stance even when I am afraid, breaking and losing every hope that my life would ever be normal.

You stupid bitch! Beast says to me with aggravation but he does not step further to hurt me.

"I don't want to be a Luna or a member of this forsaken pack." If you bring me back, I will make sure my curse gets rid of everyone and everything. I say meaning every word that escapes from my mouth.

“I have never once used it as a weapon or even let my lips spell it but at this moment, I will use it than to go back with them.”