Prologue: 'I'm about to be raped'

*Warning: This chapter contains material that you may find distressing, including coarse language and depictions related to themes of rape, abuse and violence. 

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             “There are no accidental meetings between souls.” ~Sheila Burke

I'm Rose Cintilar. Eighteen this year. 

And I'm about to be raped.

But I don't know it yet. Because right now, I'm knocked out. 

The thing about being knocked out is this: you think you're awake—you feel awake—but you're logged out of memory, so it registers nothing except darkness. Black darkness. 

But you feel things. 

And I feel that something bad is about to happen. I can feel it in my bones. They are trembling with a chilling sense of fear—the kind that you want to escape from, because you know it'll give you permanent damage… but you're too helpless to run. 

Or perhaps I'm dreaming… and it's the cold, damp air of the hour blowing through the open window of my bedroom. 

A cold wave washed my chest. And a hyena—no, hyenas... there are two of them—they are laughing.... 

They’re always laughing. They stole what belongs to me and then they called me a thief. They lied to me and yet they called me a liar. 

Daddy… I failed you. Mum… I’m sorry. I should’ve stayed with Aunt. I should’ve listened to her and not give up school. I should’ve stayed in class and not attend that fan meeting. I should be happy with that birthday cake and not ask for more. I should’ve told you two that I love you before you left the house. 

Should I even be here? 

Yes. A voice—so tiny to be remembered—whispered inside me. You're here because of him. You're here to save him....

Save... him? Who’s him? 

I'm the one who needs saving. 

No. I deserve this. The voice is right. This is where I belonged. Here. This hellhole. 

The hyenas are eating me… they're feeling me for flesh… they're gonna devour me. 

So this is it, huh? This is the end for me. Shall I surrender? No one will help me anyway. I don't deserve help anyway. 

…. hmm?

Not a hyena?

A ray of light seeped in. Blue. No, white. Round… no crescent. What is it? It wants me to open my eyes. 

That strange glow… it wants me to push open up my eyelids.

Mmph! 

My eyelids felt like boulders. I can only open a slit. And then closed. 

Not a hyena. No. It’s a wolf….

... 

“Sweet Jesus… this one’s pretty,” the first thug breathed, carefully stroking the rosy cheek with his knuckles, then sliding them down the beautiful jawline of perfect skin. “Fucking pretty.” 

“Mmm…,” moaned the drugged girl, her brows knitting in worry. 

Thug number two was anxiously watching the entrance of the small lane, keeping a lookout. He heard his partner in crime and glanced over.

The face of the girl arrested his senses, and his nerves instantly vanished. His gaze widened and he stepped away from his post as though in a trance. “Man, she looks like an angel. Why she wear those damn specs? Those thick ugly specs nearly scammed us, hee, hee, hee….” A cackle slipped from his charred lips. 

They saw her alone, face down, walking down the street, and decided then and there. And they followed her. 

They hurried behind her, watching her every move—that jumper seemed to swallow her, the skinny jeans looked too loose for her scrawny legs, and those sneakers seemed to have come from the sewage. 

Everything about her spelled disaster for sex. But the two thugs didn't care—so long she has boobs and a pussy, they want her. 

What a hot chick she turned out to be!

“This one’s better than the last one, Carl.” Thug Two licked his upper lip at the thought of that bombshell red-haired college student they had nabbed into their van last week.  

They’d accidentally smothered her yesterday. And now, she rests at the bottom of the sea, in a potato sack to keep her warm. 

“Told you this is more exciting than the back of a van, eh Nick?” Carl leaned in to the slender neck peeping from the gir’s jumper. He took a whiff and sighed in a daze. “Fuck… she smells good too.” His flustered fingers started unbuckling her jeans. 

The girl’s hands suddenly grew stronger and pushed the thick hands away. “Stop… please stop….” 

SLAP!

"Mmph!" the girl shrieked in pain and spilled a sob. 

“Shut up, you whore!” Carl barked.

And the girl began to whimper in helpless distress while Nick hastily pinned the girl’s wrists above her head. 

“Stop that, Carl! Someone will hear you! Hurry!” He was breathing heavily from the fear of being caught and the excitement of what he was about to taste. 

Carl impatiently yanked down the girl’s jeans. “Stop rushing me, motherfucker!” He pushed up the hideous jumper and planted his filthy lips on the soft, rosy skin. “Mmm… She tastes like milk and honey. Fucking bitch. Playing hard to get. Let’s free those damn tits.”

“No….” The girl squirmed in a fruitless effort to stop those lustful hands as they pushed the cheap bra up. 

Two perky rosebuds stood proudly in the dim light. 

Nick swallowed hard at the perfect round globes, aching with lust. “Fuck….” He was stroking himself faster inside his pants. “Damn it, Carl! HURRY!”

“Alright! Fucking weed whore….,” grumbled Carl as he pushed down his own pants. “Hee, hee, hee….” His eyes fixed on the beautiful creature, her exquisite features strained with distress. “Daddy’s gonna make your pussy feel reeeally good….” Carl nervously positioned himself at the entrance—.

“Grrrrr….” 

An animalistic snarl rumbled over their heavy breathing and the girl’s pathetic moans. 

Nick squealed, “Erm, Carl…?” 

“Shut up, Nick! I need to concentrate!” Carl pushed aside the girl’s panties and moved closer. 

“GRRRR… GRRR!!!!”

His thing couldn’t go in. Impatience skyrocketed in him and Carl jerked up a furious face.

“ARGH! WHAT THE FUCK, NICK! Wait for your fucking turn, man! What are you, a fucking werewolf?”

But Nick was shivering in the corner, his feet shuffling and sliding backwards frantically to press his back against the wall, as though he was desperately trying to get away from something.

“WHAT NOW!” Carl slapped away the shaking finger that was pointing at something behind him. “ What the fuck is wrong with you!”

“Not me… him… a giant wolf,” Nick continued in a tiny squeak, barely audible amidst the loud ferocious, animalistic growl. “A GIANT ASS WOLF!” He looked like he was about to pee in his pants.

“GRRRRRRRR….”

Then Carl heard it. 

The air around him turned deathly cold. A chill seized the hairs on his arms—a chilling sense of premonition that his throat was about to be slashed wide open and blood would spurt from it like the fountain of death. 

Slowly, he turned around… and his heart jumped to his throat.  

A giant wolf. As dark as the shadow from which it emerged. Three times the size of a full-grown lion with fangs as sharp as icicles. Its blue eyes were glowing in the dark like the devil's gaze… burning with rage—cold, killing rage. 

A scream of pure terror ripped from Carl’s lips… 

High up above the dark alley, in the vast curve of silent darkness, the wispy cloud drew apart like the curtains of a stage, revealing the divine beauty of the round, silver moon—glowing warmly, shining peacefully as it watched over all those borne from her strength and kindness. 

Finally, the lost wolf had reconnected with his Moon Goddess.

Come home, Keithen... The deity's whisper of motherly love silked through the breeze, becoming vapour as it lowers to the surface, condensing to morning dew everywhere. Come home to us... We're waiting for you... We need you... 

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Hi dear reader, hope you like what you’ve read so far. Let me know what you think! 

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