“Te amo, mi amor”

“Stop!” I look back to see three guards hot on my trail before turning around. It’s been almost an hour since I parted with the masked man at the cave. Thanks to his distraction, I was able to move undetected for a while before I was spotted by the three guards who were now behind me. There was no way I could out run them and if I was caught, I was going to be killed immediately. They had already made that clear by the arrows dipped in poison that they had shot at me. It seems the council decided I was to be killed immediately.

The rain had started to fall heavily now and the forest had become very muddy. It made the guards’ job of catching me hard but made my escape harder. My wedding dress was ripped and stained with mud and I had lost my shoes somewhere during my escape from prison. My arms and feet were covered in wounds and gashes but still I ran. I was in so much pain but I had to get away even when I felt my strength failing me. An arrow stabs me in my shoulder and I fall to my knees as the guards form a triangle around me.

My tears mix in with the rain. I look the sky as the rain falls down harder. “Moon goddess, help me!” I cry out. “Surrender now or we will have to use force.” One of the guards says. “Ida! Ida where are you!” I call my wolf but no one answers. I sob loudly now, my grief evident for all to see. I had not heard Ida’s voice since Derek had rejected me, it seemed my wolf was still grieving. This was the end, it seemed. My mind flashed to the green eyed stranger who helped me escape. I didn’t even know his name. “I’m sorry.” I whisper.

The guards took that as me surrendering and lowered their weapons. One of them brought out a silver dagger and approached me as I closed my eyes and waited for the killing strike. Then I heard it, a growl. My eyes opened and the guards stepped back as I felt myself transform into my wolf. Ida goes after the guard with the silver knife and I lose my consciousness.

“Genevieve. Can you hear me? Open your eyes.” I know that voice. My eyes fall open and I look around. I don’t recognize where I am and the guards are nowhere to be found. I’m also back in my human form. “Ida, what happened?” “We’ve been hit by an arrow dipped in poison. You’re losing blood fast and I can’t heal you because of the poison. You need help and fast. I saw a light just east from here, help could be there.”

I pull myself to my feet and start my journey towards the light Ida saw. All the way, I keep muttering to the moon goddess to help me. Somehow I make it to a shed that has a dim light coming out of it. “H…he…elp m…m…me p...pl…ease.” Then everything goes dark.

“Are you feeling better?” My eyes snap open and I look around. I’m in a white room that looks very unfamiliar. There are no trees around and it looks like I’m in a house. I move to sit up but cry out when a sharp pain pierces through my right shoulder. “Whoa easy there. You’re still injured.” “How long was I out?” “Three days. You almost died, lucky I found you in time.”

I stay with the woman, Sue is her name, for almost six months. She doesn’t tell me much about herself except that she’s a seer for another pack. For the whole six months, I don’t stop having nightmares about that day. Some days I dream that Derek kills me, other times its Alexa literally stabbing me in the back and once in a while I get saved by the green eyed masked man. I still think about what he told me back in the cell so I go over the day of the murders.

I’m taking a stroll down the beach thinking about the green eyed man when I bump into someone. “Oh, I’m sorry.” I begin to move away but the person’s hand clamps down hard on my arm. “Hey what are you…” “Hello, Genevieve.” I gasp at the sight of Derek’s smiling face. “I’ve been looking for you.” I stand there frozen as he reaches behind his back and reveals a silver dagger. The same dagger that was used to kill my parents. “Goodbye Genevieve.” He raises the dagger as I scream.

I jump out of my bed, my heart still racing from the dream I just had. “Another dream?” I nod at Sue. She comes to sit beside me. “Maybe you need a holiday. Why don’t you follow me to La Vida tomorrow?” I freeze. “What did you say Sue?” “Vida? You know, the popular restaurant in New York?” My mind flashes to the day of the wedding, the last thing my mother said to me before she was killed. I thought she had said ‘te amo mi amor’ as she always said to me but the more I think about it, the more I realize she said Vida. “You okay?” “I’m fine. Good night Sue.”

Two days before the wedding, my mother had told me she and my dad were going to Vida’s to get a cake as my gift for the wedding. According to what Derek had said at the wedding, the murders had taken place two days before, meaning my parents weren’t even around when it happened. Someone had framed my parents for murder. But who?

“Liana had said you were a liability to Derek, what if they planned all this together?” “Derek wouldn’t Ida.” “After everything those two have done, they are capable of anything.” I hate to think that Ida’s right but what if this was just a plan by Derek to not marry a maid, to not make a maid the Luna of one of the greatest packs in the region.

The pain, grief and heartbreak I’ve been feeling all this while suddenly gets buried under a wave of anger. “You’ll pay for this, all of you.”