Chapter Three

Brielle’s POV 

I felt like letting go as the water pushed me towards a waterfall. I don't know how long I had been floating because I had passed out a couple of times as I bumped my head against the sharp rocks. 

 

“My Briellezon, ” I heard my mother's voice call out to me as I drew closer to what appeared to be my doom.  Soon, I couldn't just hear but also see the massive waterfall in front of me and there was no way I was getting out of it alive. 

 

I looked to my left to see a tree branch that reached into the water. I fought desperately to reach it because my life depended on it. 

 

I fought against the water's roaring currents, desperately stretching out my hand for the lifesaver. 

 

I reached out to it, grabbed hold, and used it to get to dry land. I lay down on the grass for hours panting and trying to ignore the unimaginable pain that was burrowing through my flesh. 

 

I had no idea where I was, but I knew something that made my heart leap with excitement. It was far from Chase and his acolytes. 

 

I marched into the woods in search of food or something that could help me build up my strength. 

 

The woods seemed weird with strange carvings on the body of the trees. It seemed like claw marks. 

 

“Shit! It's a park territory.” I thought out loud as I recognized the carvings. My eyes became fully awake out of fear because I had heard stories of how some packs kill and mutilate trespassers. 

 

I looked for the quickest route out of the woods and ran towards it as fast as my leg could carry. I thought of nothing else, only the desire to get as far from the woods as possible. 

 

I was just about to step on the hot river sand when I felt a presence right in front of me. I looked straight at it, noticing its blood-red eyes with its hot breath on my face. Its furs looked like they were drenched with blood. Saliva dripped out of its mouth as he took a sniff of my scent. 

 

“It's a…a… a,” I stuttered as I cowered on the grass searching for something that could help me out of the trouble I had stumbled into. 

 

Wild mountain lions were also known as the predators of the East Sun. They were as fierce as they were brutal.

 

So many werewolves lost their lives trying to eliminate them from their pack home. 

 

The scary part was that I had only read about it in books and now there was one right in front of me.

 

It drew closer to me, stalking me. It was obvious I wasn't meant to be food but entertainment. 

 

I shivered in fear, hoping to accept my fate because I knew I couldn't outrun it with my wounded leg. I had already lost too much blood and it was also sprained. 

 

“Can you run?” A thick masculine voice asked behind me, giving me a flicker of hope that I wasn't alone. 

 

“I asked a question lady,” The voice asked again, this time sounding almost angry. 

 

“Yes!”I exclaimed as I dodged the beast's first attack. His claw grazed my back, cutting my dress’s strap. I paid no attention to it as I ran towards the faceless voice. 

 

“Whoever you are, please help!” I exclaimed as I felt the beast getting closer. 

 

I was still running when I noticed a spear move past me at an astonishing speed that I couldn't follow with my eyes. It went past me, missing my ear by a hair. 

 

The beast made a screeching sound as the object pierced into its forehead. 

 

Mountain lions had thick skulls, so I knew that whatever threw that spear had unimaginable strength. 

 

I was standing in the woods alone with a dead beast and a busted leg but there was no one in sight. 

 

“Whoever you are? Please come out! I would like to say thanks.” I voiced, still shivering. 

 

A loud thump was made behind me causing me to fidget and scream in panic. I fell to the grassy floor of the woods, cowering in fear. I had thought it was another wild mountain lion.

 

“Who are you?” A voice thicker than the one that called out earlier asked. I turned around to see a tall masculine figure. He was so good-looking that his face glowed with the sun. 

 

“I'm Brielle,” I responded, still shivering like a wet puppy. 

 

“Well Brielle, what are you doing here? These woods are not safe!” He exclaimed. 

 

I tried standing up but I couldn't, my legs felt numb like they had no life in them. 

 

I could feel a sharp sting on it, so I checked to see what it was. 

 

When I saw a snake hanging on to a chunk of my injured foot. 

 

“Oh my God!” I exclaimed as the shock gripped a hold of me.

 

In an instant, someone came from behind me and chopped off the snake's head. 

 

I couldn't get a good look at who it was as my vision became fuzzy until I blacked out. 

 

 

I woke up chained to a tree, with no one in 

sight but a fire that was made close to me.

 

“No!” I cried out in pain. The pain of seeing myself in chains again broke my heart. 

 

“Who are you?” A voice asked. The voice was coming from a dark figure hanging from a tree branch. It was different from the man I communicated with in the woods. 

 

“My name is…” 

 

“Brielle. Yeah I know, you told my brother.” The voice said, cutting me short of my words. 

 

“I'm not a threat to you. Please let me go!” I pleaded as I began to panic from the chain wrapped all around me. 

 

“You aren't going anywhere until I get what I want.”  He responded.

 

I closed my eyes praying for a miracle from the Moon Goddess to save me from yet another captor. 

 

“What are you doing?” The voice asked but this time the voice sounded very close. I opened my eyes to a gaze from a blood-red eye fixated on me. 

 

The dark figure appeared to not be a beast like I had imagined but a hot-looking guy. With blazing red eyes and a muscular physique. 

 

“Alright, let me show you how an introduction works. I am Zane, what's yours?” He said with a smile. 

 

“Don't frighten our guest brother.” The strange man I had conversed with earlier in the woods emerged shirtless from the bushes. 

 

“What are you looking for in the Eclipse territory? We don't accept betas.” The man stated. I could see the resemblance between both men and I recalled the other man saying something about a brother. 

 

“I was on a trip but slipped on a cliff. I woke up by the shores, not far from here. I am sorry for trespassing into your lands. It won't happen again.” I voiced with tears rolling down my cheek. 

 

Zane laughed so hard that he fell to the ground. 

“Sweetheart, there is a Luna mark on your shoulder.” The shirtless man said. 

 

“So what is a Luna doing out here running from a wild animal in a parkland that she doesn't belong to?” Zane asked, drawing closer to me angrily. 

 

“Halt Zane! Don't be rash.” The man commanded. 

 

“Brielle? Who are you married to?” The man asked as he focused his gaze on me. I looked at his huge chest, noticing the scars that were all over him. 

 

“He asked you a question Luna,” Zane voiced. He walked beside me causing my body to shiver with fear as the thought of being killed by strange men haunted my mind.

 

“Chase, Alpha Chase is my husband,” I responded in tears. 

 

“Please don't take me back,” I added immediately as I noticed the shock on their faces. 

 

“You escaped from Chase’s pack?” Zane asked with his eyes widened like he had seen a ghost. 

 

I nodded in response. 

“It's time you know who I am, Brielle,” the man said, making my curiosity go into overdrive. 

 

“My name is Alpha Lucien of the Eclipse pack.” He voiced without breaking eye contact. 

 

I quivered in fear at the sound of the name that had been part of the dreadful story told in many packs. 

 

“Alpha Lucien, the butcher. ”