Chapter 3: Burned Down

Alpha Gregor remained standing. Though he was clutching his chest, his screams were far softer and less gut-wrenching compared to mine.

            Just as how fast I found my mate, it’s also how fast I lost him. With that mere rejection, Alpha Greg burned down the bridge that could have connected us. He burned down that bond that could have spelled a better future for us, considering that Elodie easily grows bored of a male. The rumor that my sister had twenty-five boyfriends even before the age of nineteen is no rumor.

            I kept the pain of rejection within myself. Wiping my tears with the back of my hand, I remained on the ground, cowering like a dog when it heard the sound of thunder.

            I sliced a glare in Elodie’s direction. She just shrugged it off. She even brushed off my threat earlier, mind-linking me that I was too weak to kill someone. That I wouldn’t even hurt a fly.

Maybe I won’t. But when it comes to her, she’ll probably be going to be my first kill.

“Oh, Evadne!” My sister immediately grabbed two glasses of champagne from the passing waitress. Everyone looked at me like I'm the source of entertainment tonight. Maybe I really am, maybe that’s what my father’s main goal tonight. “One for you, my lovely sister.”

I closed my fingers around the glass and immediately took a sip. Elodie didn’t waste a breath and kissed Greg in front of me, in front of everyone.

The sight of my sister kissing him passionately as soon as he handed me the drink turned the violent side of me on. She was touching him intimately just a few heartbeats after rejecting me. With the foul sight I’m witnessing, I let myself descend into madness.

I emptied half of the glass and threw the remaining wine to Elodie’s face, before shattering the wine glass before her feet.

Before she could scream, I forced myself up and sprinted far away. I ran far away from my birthday party, away from the music, away from my mate. I ran away from the Moonflame Pack, the home that has been my prison.

I forced my feet to run away as fast as I could until I found myself wandering in the woods. Damp earthy scent met the darkness of the forest that even the moonlight barely passed through the thick canopy of trees. Trees that were alive with its frost-covered leaves and snowy branches thanks to some ancient magic that rendered it unaffected by the Alpha King’s winter.

Even with all what happened on my eighteenth birthday, I still knew the road to my cottage—the place where I constantly ran to when my father or sister beats me up. It was the only place in the world where I could be myself, away from anyone’s eyes, where I spent lots of time healing myself since childhood.

I entered and unlocked the door with the key I always hang around my neck. The cottage was the same, it looked the same and felt the same: my home in the heart of nowhere. My warmth amidst the raging cold.

I don’t care what will greet me when I return. If it’s a severe beating, that is already a part of my father’s daily checklist. If it's my sister’s slaps and countless insults, it’s also a part of her daily to-do list.

I don’t care about my family anymore. I don’t hate them. Hating requires a lot of caring. It’s what my late Godfather and my favorite Beta, Beta Johnny, used to say. 

I crawled to the bed in the middle of the cottage even with this ridiculous dress after lighting the fireplace. With the cottage’s familiar scent and peaceful surroundings, there’s no use in wasting my tears further to what occurred today. Instead, I drowned my sorrows and anger into a nice good sleep.

***

I woke up to the smell of something burning. Smoky air stinging my eyes and rendering me breathless. Huge, bright orange lights were dancing in the corner of my sight—

Fire. The cottage was on fire. All around me was on fire.

“Help! Help me!” I cried.

I rushed to the door but it was locked from the outside. Shit.

I panicked and kicked every part of the door, hoping it would break.

But it never did.

“HELP!”

Hopeless, I crawled back to the bed. Every bone in my body screamed in pain. I’m too weak to move.

I can’t die here. I can’t die now. Not on the same night of my birthday. Obviously not on the same night when my mate rejected me and chose my sister over me.

My sister.

I blinked and realized that the last thing I drank was the champagne my sister gave me. Fuck. The champagne, the unexplainable pounding in my head, the lock outside the door...my sister did this to me. She sure did.

Taking my mate away from me wasn’t enough for her. She was willing to kill me.

This made me realize that perhaps being rejected by a mate is the lesser evil. Elodie is the greater evil.

“We’re a minute away from passing out,” Mara said to me, my wolf whimpering.

I was about to reply when I heard a scrambling noise outside. Then, a mighty kick sent the door flying open, revealing a towering male figure.

My sight was becoming blurry, but it was a pair of green eyes that met my gaze. He was instantly in front of me in two mighty steps.

            “Alpha Greg?” I felt my body being hauled from the floor by massive hands. I blinked at my mysterious savior. Those green eyes looked down at me and I could feel his warm breath on my cheeks. “Alpha Greg?”

His eyes were not my former mate’s forest green eyes though. They were bluish green, they were turquoise, as if the wildness of the frozen ocean met the mystery of the winter woods.

            And I felt immense power emanating from him. My former mate doesn’t feel like this. Who is he?

            “Evadne, she’s our...” I couldn’t hear further what my wolf, Mara, said. I’m losing all my senses, my strength, my consciousness.

“You’re...not...Alpha Greg, are...you?” But I didn’t hear the answer to my question as my eyes involuntarily closed and everything turned to black.

***

My eyes slowly fluttered open, a morning winter sunlight warmed my face. I can tell it just by the feel of it. I can tell it despite the heavy cold wind that swept across my face.

I looked around me and I was in a snowy forest clearing. The downside of having winter forever is that you cannot easily differentiate night from day. It always looks and feels and smells the same. But to someone who’s always been aware of my surroundings, I mastered the difference.

I brought my armpit to my nose. I smelled like shit; I probably also look like one. A mixture of snow and ashes and tears among others that my werewolf sense of smell can detect.

My green-eyed savior was nowhere to be found. Well, whoever he is, I owe him my life.

I rose from the wintry ground slowly. Every bone in my body screamed in pain. The pain from the mating bond rejection is still in my system along with the unexplainable pounding of my head perhaps from that champagne my bitch of a sister handed me.

I surveyed the sky. Snowflakes danced in my vision. How long have I been out?

            Shit, I should go back home now. My cottage is burned down. My true home is gone. The Moonflame Pack is the only place left for me to return to.

Even if it’s ruled by a monster.