Chapter Twelve

Jasmine’s POV

In all my life, I had never seen such a sight.

Lena’s words suddenly came to mind as I stood frozen in fear at the creature before me.

Creature was the best word to describe him.

A terrifying creature from nightmares.

Lena had not been exaggerating when she had described him as terrifying.

Rage, I remembered her saying, was his name.

I had no idea how I knew it was him.

Yet there was something inside of me that was left without a doubt that the terrifying creature that stood before me was the scary Alpha’s wolf.

He was bigger than any wolf I had seen or even imagined.

His fur was black as night with not one spot of color, and from the look of him alone you could just tell how dangerous he was.

But what made the blood freeze in my veins, more than his form, were his eyes.

His blood red eyes.

Those eyes watched me, as if being able to see into my soul and predict my next move.

It dared me to run in fear knowing that it would make no difference.

It would still kill me if it wanted to.

And it was for that very reason - or perhaps fear had made me take leave of me senses- that I did the exact opposite of that.

Rather than try to run away in fear like every instinct and every part of my being urged to do, I slowly dropped my basket of herbs and took a step forward.

Since it would make no difference, nothing I did would matter anyway.

Even as I took a step forward, he watched me intently, remaining in place.

I took that as a good sign and took another step forward before slowly lowering myself to sit on the floor.

I didn’t know what possessed me to act like that but since I was still breathing, I was not about to question it.

His eyes took on a hint of curiosity and he tilted his head slightly, still in place.

Just that little move had my heart thundering in fear but I decided to distract myself from it by doing the most foolish thing I could possibly do in that moment.

I began to speak, or rather, stutter.

“Y-y-you a-are R-r-rage, are y-you n-not?” I foolishly asked the terrifying creature as if it would reply.

Since I knew it was not going to reply -not that I would understand if he did since I didn’t have a wolf- I continued my one sided conversation.

“I-I have h-heard many things a-about y-you”, I said, shifting my eyes away from him to look to the ground and begin pulling out random grasses from it. “They s-say you are the m-most powerful wolf in the E-east”, I told him. “I always wondered what you would l-look like to be able t-to cause such f-fear in everyone”, I said, feeling my heart almost return to it’s regular beat. “N-nothing I would have imagined, would have done you justice. You are terrifying yet m-magnificent”, I said truthfully.

I must have said something to anger him because he suddenly began to move towards me, gradually closing the gap between us.

I immediately shut my eyes and held my breath as I waited for my death.

After finally finding happiness in this pack, I was very sad to go like that.

As I waited for him to bite my head off, I stiffened is fear when I suddenly felt the hot air of his breath before feeling something wet on the area of my neck.

It took me a moment to realize that he was sniffing me and I remained frozen, not daring to open my eyes until I felt him withdraw.

I opened my eyes slowly to see him laying on his paws in front of me.

Up close, he was even more terrifying.

His eyes watched me for a while before slowly bringing his head forward.

I shut my eyes in fear and froze again.

Perhaps he did not see the need to rush his meal since I was not putting up any fight.

I felt a heavy weight come to rest on my legs and thighs as I sat.

So he had clearly decided to start from my legs and work his way up.

I waited for the feel of sharp teeth and pain but it never came, yet the weight was still pressing down on my legs.

I slowly opened my eyes again.

And the sight that greeted me was enough to stop my heart from beating and instantly kill me.

Laying there with his huge head on my legs was the terrifying creature.

His eyes were shut and he looked to be taking a nap - on my legs.

Never had I imagined that this would happen.

Perhaps the scary Alpha had recognized me after all. He had probably told his wolf not to eat me since it might upset Lena and Nana.

I stayed completely still as he napped, not daring to move a muscle before he changed his mind.

While trying to withdraw my hands from under his weight, I accidentally brushed across his fur and he gave a growl that sounded suspiciously like he was purring.

One of these blood red eyes opened almost lazily and he fixed me with a look.

“S-s-sorry”, I apologized immediately but the look did not change.

Instead, he brought up a big pur and rubbed it across his head then fixed me with the same look.

There was no way he meant that he wanted a rub, the terrifying creature was not a pet.

But he couldn’t to fix me with that same look and was begging to look impatient.

I decided then that giving him a rub was so much better than getting killed by him.

So I slowly brought a trembling hand to his huge head and began to slowly pet him.

He shut his eye and resumed his previous position, purring every once in a while.

Upon contact, I noticed that his fur was so soft. And before I knew it, I had unconsciously started to run my hands through it.

He seemed to like to because he gave another purr of satisfaction, slightly moving his head to nuzzle closer.

I slightly tensed up but continued to do so, somehow enjoying the softness of his fur.

I began to wonder if anyone knew that the terrifying wolf enjoyed being petted.

Unconsciously, I smiled at the thought.

As time went by, my legs had gotten numb from the weight of his head.

As if he read my mind, he suddenly lifted his head and moved away to stand before walking towards a particularly big tree.

He went behind if before I suddenly began to hear the cracking of bones.

Finally realizing that he was shifting, I turned me head away and looked in the opposite direction as I began to massage my numb legs.

I tried moving them unsuccessfully and tried massaging them more.

I heard the crunch of leaves as the sound of footsteps came closer before coming to a stop in front of me.

I looked down at the bare feet before me then slowly made my way up to meet the frowning face of the scary Alpha.

I briefly wondered what I had done wrong to cause that frown on his face before remembering that he always frowned whenever he saw me.

Surprisingly, he stretched out a hand for me to take without saying a word.

After realizing that he meant to help me, I took the hand he offered and he pulled me to my feet as if I weighed nothing.

Since my legs had not fully recover from their numb state, it did not surprise me when they could not hold my weight and gave out from under me.

Expecting to fall, I was surprised again when he caught me with an arm around my waist and pulled me to him chest.

I gasped at the feel of his hot chest as my body make contact with his.

Since his shirt was big and loose, it left a good part of his chest exposed and my cheek was pressed against it.

I felt him stiffen and tried to pull away but he held me in place and sent a warning glare down at me.

As I looked up at him, I couldn’t help but notice the difference between the color of his eyes and that of his wolf.

While Rage’s eyes were blood red, his eyes were a brown so dark that anyone could mistake it for black - like I had done until now.

His hair however, reminded me of Rage.

Like his wolf’s fur, his hair was black as night and long enough that it brushed his shoulders.

Shorter strands fell forward, down past his forehead and over his eyes to give him that intimidating look.

His nose was straight and gave an air of arrogance to his already intimidating face while his defined jawline, dimpled chin and full lips completed his terrifyingly handsome face.

If he wasn’t glaring down at me from those eyes with thick eyebrows above them, I would have thought him the most handsome man I had ever met.

Noticing his glared made me notice the thick, long lashes that framed them and I unconsciously pouted in jealousy.

Something in his eyes changed and they fell lower to look at my pouting lips.

Realizing myself quickly, I immediately fixed my lips, sucking the bottom one into my mouth instead and looking away from his gaze.

When he remained in place, still holding me to himself like I weighed nothing, I looked back up at him to see him watching me.

On meeting his eyes, whatever expression on his face was instantly replaced by his usual glare and, still not saying a word, he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.

I gasped in surprise at the sudden movement, speechless for a moment as I hung upside down and he began to make his way out of the woods.

“Wait!” I called, suddenly remembering the reason I had come to the woods in the first place as I caught sight of the basket of herbs. “Nana needs those herbs for Lena!” I called and he stopped abruptly.

I noticed how tense he had become and waited for him to ask what had happened to Lena.

He did not.

Rather, he bent down a little to pick up the basket of herbs before resuming his walk.

With me still hung upside down from his shoulder, he made his way towards the pack house and gave the basket of herbs to a random she-wolf, telling her to take it to Nana at the healing house, before turning around and making his way towards our cabin.

Rather, his cabin.

I had found out that the cabin I had been staying was the Alpha’s home. He stayed there alongside his family and trusted warriors.

Once we approached the cabin, he made his way inside, taking turns and walking down hallways and past doors before coming to a stop at one and pushing the door open.

He entered the room I soon recognized as mine dropped me onto my bed. I immediately sat up when he did not turn around to leave but instead stood there glaring at me.

I knew better than to speak when he had that look on his face. So I waited for him to say what he was thinking.

“Are you a fool?” He finally asked after glaring at me for a while.

I looked up at him, surprised and confused by the question.

Still, I kept mute.

“Did it never cross your mind that you could have been killed?” He asked, his voice low and angry.

“Respectfully, Alpha”, I spoke up since he was asking questions. “As you can see, I am not hurt”, I told him.

“Because the Moon Goddess took pity on your foolish soul and held Rage back, by some miracle!” He snapped. “Do you realize how foolish it was to see a dangerous and decide to sit instead of running away? You could have been killed!”

“I would have been killed either way!” I heard myself snap back. The spirit that had possessed me to sit before a killer wolf must have still been in me because I continued. “Even if I had run, I would have still been killed”, I said. “But I am here, alive and unhurt”, I said and brought my eyes to his surprised ones.

“He did not hurt me”, I said, my voice coming out just above a whisper.

As the surprise at my response left his eyes, he made his way to where I sat on the bed and leaned down so we were face to face.

“For some reason, he decided to let you live”, he told me, his own voice just above a whisper as well. “If he had not, you would be dead”, he said and I grew cold at the ice that crept into his voice.

He waited for his words to sink in before delivering the final blow.

“And there is nothing I could have done about it”, he said the moved away from me and walked out of my room, slamming my door shut behind him and leaving me trembling with one thought.

I could have died.