Chapter 6. Dangerous Wolves

*Princess Jasmin*

I didn't know how i did it but i managed to survived the night in that small room of the log cabin. I woke up thirty minutes before eight in the morning, just before breakfast time according to the old woman at the desk. I did my usual morning routine in the small bathroom, thankful enough that it had some hot water on.

Other than the small space and the slight smell of musty furnitures, i have no complaints with the cleanliness of the entire place.

"Good morning dear!..did you sleep alright?".

The old lady greeted me while standing at the same area she was, the first time i came to this place. It is already half past eight in the morning when i decided to come down for breakfast.

"Yes, thank you..Uhm, I'd like to have breakfast now if it's alright."

I smiled to her then turn my gaze towards the door that I'm guessing leads to the dining hall.

"Of course it is dear!..just go right in and join the other guests of the cabin. They were just here a few minutes before you."

Nodding my head towards her suggestion, i went inside the open door beside the reception area. I am immediately greeted by the smell of food in the air. 

As i walked in, i noticed the two tables being occupied by a group of people. There were three sitting on the first table, a couple and a man. While the other tables are occupied by four, three men and one woman. All their eyes darted towards me, as i moved forward to the breakfast buffet.

I glanced back a little when i felt the heat of their stares behind me. The man sitting on the first table raised a brow and stood up from the table. I quickly diverted my eyes into the food in front of me. A waiter standing beside the long table offered me an empty plate and smiled.

"Let me know when you need my assistance, my name is Andy. Thank you for staying at Wolf's Lair."

I give him a little smile back before i took the empty plate. "It's ok Andy, i know just what i needed".

I put some beacon and fried eggs into my plate then added a slice of freshly baked bread. I took some cheese too and decided to pour a cup of coffee from the coffee maker. I was about to find an empty seat when a clearing of someone's throat disturbed me.

I turned around and find one of the men sitting on the first table to be standing in front of me. He's tall and well built, must be around six foot with black hair and dark eyes. He's not bad looking but I don't like how he looks at me.

"Hey there beautiful, this is the first time i see you in this place. Are you new in town?".

He gave me a genuine smile, showing his perfectly set of white teeth.

"Yeah, but I'm just passing through. I am actually heading out to the next city so I won't be staying long in this place."

His smile faded and his dark brows furrowed.

"Oh, is that so..? Well guess what?..i could tell by your smell.” He paused and sniff the air. “I know exactly what you are".

He took a step near me and made our distance from each other even shorter.

"What do you mean?".

I took a step back, slow heat of fear suddenly crawled inside my head. He is not human!.. When i looked closely at his eyes, i saw a shadow of his wolf hiding inside of him. He’s not human, he is a wolf! But from which pack is he? I know the wolves from the other regions to be friends with the Royal pack.

"Come on..she wolf, quit pretending and join our table for breakfast. I am the leader of this group, my friends and i would be happy to have you".

My eyes widened with his bold invitation to me. How dare him! I didn't like what i am seeing when his friends behind started to laugh and cheer towards us.

"No, i prefer to eat alone. Please go back to your own table."

"Oh, but I'm not taking no for an answer!".

His face suddenly become fiery and the muscles on his jaw flexed. He looked at me with his eyes that suddenly turned darker than before. I could feel the slow rising of my heartbeat inside my chest. I was not expecting to encounter a group of wolves in this place. And by the looks of them, they seemed to be not anyone from the four regions of wolves.

They might be...rogues!

I took in a deep breath and started to think on how i could avoid his presence. The waiter whose standing beside the buffet table is not even paying a slightest hint of recognition towards us.

The man followed my gaze and let out a chuckle.

"Oh, don't even think of getting help from the people working here because they are all under my group."

"W-what group?".

I took a few step backwards until I hit an empty table behind me. My two hands holding the tray of my coffee and food shook, I broke eye contact with him and placed the tray on the table.

"My name is Charles and I am the leader of the..rogues, welcome your majesty! Princess Jasmin of the Royal Pack!".

He made a sarcastic bow in front of me which earned the looks and laughter of his men sitting.

"No..you are wrong! I..i am not the Princess. I'm just a lone wolf in the city who decided to travel on my own. Please don't hurt me, I swear I have no idea about the Royal pack or any other pack in this world."

I focused on his eyes that looked down at me. He didn't blink and that made it easy to transfer the heat of my stare slowly persuading him to believe every word that I say.

His emotion changes from crude to a hint of confusion. "You are not the Princess of the Langstone Palace? But how come you have the same scent of blood running through the Apha Kings veins?..i could never make a mistake with my sensitive sense of smell, you know I fought with you're brother once and it didn't end well.”

His eyes looked at me up and down and sniff the air around me once more. I grimaced involuntarily, and that made him growl. He felt insulted or challenged by my reaction. Our eye contact broke.

"Don't fool me Princess, they said you have many tricks under your sleeves that's why you can come and go in the Palace without your brother's permission."

A smirk cross his lips and he moved forward to corner me in the table. His right hand moved slowly to my face. No...i don't want his filthy hands to touch my skin. I gritted my teeth and hissed.

"Whoops! Easy there princess."

The smirk on his face turned into a grin, which made my heart boil in annoyance.

He is inching his hand closer again when a loud growling of the wolves disturbed the air inside the dining hall.

"Get your filthy hands off the Princess..Rogue!, or I will chop them off myself!".

The thundering voice of someone echoed across the room. Somehow that voice sounded familiar. I gasped and didn't expect the next thing that the man in front of me did. He grab my arm forcefully and slammed me against his chest with his body behind me, his right arm with sharp claws threatened to choke my neck.

" Fuck you Zero!.How did you come to this place!Don't come any closer Beast! Or the Princess of the Royal pack dies with me!".

Now I am more scared than surprised to the fact that it is Alpha Zero’s voice that interrupted us.

A loud and furious growl came from him as his body froze to the ground. I am unable to moved feeling the sharp claws of the man behind me grazing my neck. His other hands wrapped around me and squeezing me tightly. I tried shaking him but I couldn't get out of his hold.

My gaze turned towards the people around. The rogues are clearly outnumbered by the Cold Mountain pack but they have me. As I scan the looked of anger in Alpha Zero's face, I noticed how he stood there like he owned the place. His tall and intimidating figure made the rogues in their tables tremble in fear.

"What do you want Rogue! Let the Princess go or I will slaughter you're useless members one by one in this room."

"Huh! You can't do that Beast! I know how significantly your alliance to the Alpha King is, you maybe have a chance of killing us all today but I will make sure this woman over here dies with me!".

His sharp claws became tighter around my neck. I could feel the blood which flowed down slowly and came out of my broken skin.

"Stop!! I will let you go this once! But leave the Princess alone".

Alpha Zero’s voice is laced with concern once he smelled my blood in the air. My heart felt a subtle feeling of delight that he is concerned towards my safety.

An irritating chuckle vibrated from the man who's holding me still.

"Go ahead wolves, get the car ready for our escape. Me and the princess will follow behind shortly. I'm not finished dealing with the Beast!".

As instructed, the rogues stood up from their tables and quickly went out of the door. There were six warriors from the North inside the room and a few outside, but all of them just watched angrily at the rogues who went out of the dining hall and waited for Alpha Zero's command.

"Now that you're filthy wolves have left. Let the Princess go and run for your life rogue! Before I tear you to pieces and burn your remains to ash".

"Not so fast Beast!..that's not how this is going to end. You should stay here with you're men while I walked outside with the Princess, and once I get inside my car safely, I will let the Princess go."

He started walking backwards while dragging me with him. I couldn't make a sound of protest due to the pain against his hold and my neck under his sharp claws. We slowly went outside and into his car.

"Quickly boss!.. Are we taking the Princess?". One of his member asked while holding the door of his car open. The others are already seated into the second vehicle behind.

"Are you stupid!? Do you want us to be hunted down again!".

He finally pushes me hard away from him. So hard that I fell to my knees in the ground. 

"Goodbye Princess! Till we met again!".

The next thing I heard was their laughters and the loud engine fading in the air. Then everything turned black all around me.