CHAPTER FOUR-THE NIGHTMARE BROUGHT TO LIFE

Gretchen's heart began to pound against her chest as a hooded figure came into view while he approached from the darkness beyond the ruins. A flash of a memory from one of her nightmares came back for a fleeting second and Gretchen became very afraid.

As her wolf took over and forced Gretchen to shift, her bones snapped and her body contorted. She could hear Rhett's voice in her head telling her that she was in no danger, but Gretchen was no longer in control.

The wolf was crazed on brand new life-blood, lack of sleep and finally being confronted with the three men who have been stalking her for days.

As soon as her four paws hit the ground, Gretchen gnashed her teeth and snarled at the mysterious cloaked man. Damien put up his hands and shook his head. "No! Stop! It's me. Everything's alright now."

As Damien put his hands to his head to remove his hood and reveal his face to Gretchen, trampled footsteps and snarls could be heard in the distance to her right. Her wolf senses told her danger was near. It was a new and different kind of enemy- Not Lycan. Not witch. Not human.

Gretchen turned and sprinted towards the invaders. They were unlike anything she had ever encountered before on Earth- pig like man creatures with axes and long knives.

As the first of them barreled towards her, Gretchen bound through the air and tackled the goblin to the ground then began clawing and biting at its face. The goblin tried to push Gretchen off of it, but she held on tightly and ripped out its throat out. Spitting it to the side she growled at the oncoming herd in warning. She was done playing around and ready to tear someone apart.

The next goblin ran at Gretchen with his axe raised to strike when a black wolf leaped over her body and tackled the goblin before it had a chance to reach Gretchen.

Another black wolf ran into the remaining crowd. Gretchen's wolf loved a good battle, so she prepared to follow her rogue tormentors when she was grabbed by the scruff of her neck and slammed into the ground onto her side.

The hooded figure held her steady against the ground as she struggled to get back to her feet. "Shift."

Gretchen rotated her head towards the man and sank her teeth down onto his arm. Damien grunted as he tried to break free from her bite. With no other choice to free himself without hurting her, he pushed his arm forward into her mouth forcing her to gag and break her hold on his arm.

Damien wrapped his fingers around Gretchen's snout firmly and put his knee on her hind leg to keep her pinned against the ground. "Shift back, now!"

Gretchen snarled and struggled to break free as she clamped down again on his arm. As the man gritted his teeth and pushed down into her bite, his hood fell off his head.

Damien gazed down into Gretchen's eyes and the breathtaking, heart pounding feeling returned to her, but she pushed it away and continued to fight him.

Given no other choice to calm the raging wolf, Damien whispered the spell that would ingrain in her mind just how evil Damien was. "Shh!"

As Gretchen fell under Damien's spell, she began to quickly shift back to her naked self. Damien hurriedly took off his cloak and wrapped Gretchen in it as he lifted her up in his arms and carried her back to the ruins.

Damien knelt by the fire and gently laid Gretchen down and sat beside her on the ground. He looked over his wounds then huffed through his nose as he wiped the blood onto his pants. "You know, this isn't how I saw us meeting again, my love."

He glanced over at Gretchen and smiled as he wiped away the goblins' blood from her mouth like a mother wiping away a speck of food from her child. Even after her bites and scratches, he looked at her like she was the most wonderful creature he'd ever seen.

Rhett came back to the fireside after getting dressed again, still fired up from the battle. He ducked and punched at the air as he laughed at the scene he walked in on. "She is a beauty, Damien. Bad fucking attitude though. I wonder what pack she belonged to."

Jason reappeared and sat down beside Damien and wiped the sweat from his brow. "I'd know that scent anywhere- She's a Hexom. She must be heading for the North Woods to her family."

"Well shit," said Rhett. "I didn't catch it. Damn, she must be one of Stella and Teddy's kids."

Looking Gretchen over slowly, Damien chuckled at the irony of how close they had been this whole time. The Hexom's had been guests in his kingdom many times. "A Hexom, hmm? Well, that certainly explains a lot doesn't it?"

Laughing at Damien's luck when it came to women, Rhett squatted down on the other side of the fire and rubbed the back of his neck. Of all the people in the world for a man like Damien to try to pin down, a Hexom would be a lot of work. "No shit. I wonder how she got here."

Pushing her hair off her face as the wind swept it over, Damien sighed as he told them the truth. "She died."

"Awe, man! No wonder she's in such a bad fucking mood," said Rhett.

Sliding his fingertips across her forehead, Damien tried to connect with her mind, but she was more than a little angry. "She doesn't remember anything yet. Once we get her back to the castle and she's safe, I'll help her get her memories back."

Jason rubbed his hand over his head. He knew Gretchen's family well and if she was anything like the rest of them, keeping Gretchen from her family would only lead to disaster. "She's not going to like that Damien. She wants to see her family, and they're probably expecting her now."

Damien shook his head at Jason. "I don't care. I'll let them know where she is."

Rhett stood up again and swung his arms back and forth as he slapped his hands together in the front. "You going to try to wake her up or what? I just want to know first so I can hide behind one of those pillars over there. If she's Teddy's daughter, that means she's Tessa's niece and I don't think I want any part of that kind of fire starting craziness."

"Are you serious?" Glancing back over his shoulder at Gretchen, he realized that a lot of things were different this time.

Damien picked up Gretchen's bag and found her a change of clothes then nodded towards the darkness. "Alright turn around and walk away."

Jason stood up and followed Rhett to the other side of the ruins then turned out towards the darkness.

Damien looked at Gretchen's face then squatted down beside her head and held her clothes out to her. "Right. Here's how this is going to go. I'm going to let you wake up and I'm going to turn around and let you get dressed. Are we clear?"

As Gretchen's subconscious answered back in his mind, Damien rolled his eyes away at her curse word laden tirade. "Alright, if you're quite finished, I'm turning around." Putting up his hands like a bank robber that just got caught, Damien turned away from Gretchen. "You can wake up now."

Gretchen's eyes snapped open, and she gasped in a deep breath.

Crossing his arms on his chest, Damien spoke over his shoulder. "Get dressed, we won't look. I swear."

As Gretchen grabbed her clothes and started putting them on, she stared into the back of his head. "How dare you use your magic against me you fucking coward!"

Waiting for her to finish so they could finally meet face to face, Damien glanced around the darkness in front of him. "You didn't leave me much choice."

Gretchen zipped her pants then picked up her shirt. "Where I come from, that kind of bullshit gets you killed. Not exactly the most honorable thing a fucking witch can do."

Not meaning to come off so arrogantly, Damien regretted it before it left his mouth. "Is that what got you here?"

"Fuck you," she said as she pulled her shirt down. "If you can't fight like a real man you should get back on your bike and go home to your Mommy."

Damien clenched his jaw as Gretchen continued to berate him. This wasn't going at all how he'd imagined it. "Are you quite finished?"

"Not even close." She threw herself back to the ground on her bottom then picked up her shoes and started putting them on. "I don't know what you people do here, but on Earth you don't use magic against your own unless they're your enemy."

Damien turned around and looked down over Gretchen. "I'm not your enemy."

Chuckling to herself, she glanced up to Damien. "You are now."

Damien clenched his jaw and shook his head as he turned his attention to his friends in the darkness. "She's finished."

Gretchen tied the strap on her boot then stood up and crossed her arms and glared at Damien. His face seemed so familiar to her, but she couldn't place it. She turned her head slightly as she searched around in the darkness trying to remember.

Damien smiled as he saw the questions in her mind. He nodded and stepped closer to her. He knew she was almost there. "Yes. That's right. Just keep looking. You'll see it."

Gretchen scrunched up her nose. "I know you. I've seen you before. You're..." Gretchen breathed out through her nose hard and shook her head as she gave up. She was tired, hungry and disgusted with the three idiots surrounding her. "I don't know." She shook away the thought and looked back at him. "Stop playing games with me and tell me who the hell you are."

Before Damien could answer, Rhett broke into their conversation. "Are you Stella's kid?"

Gretchen's eyes traveled over Rhett slowly from head to toe earning an irritated scoff from Damien. "Yeah, who the hell are you?"

Rhett pointed his finger at Gretchen before he crossed his arms and squared off to her. "Like I said before you went all fucking badass werewolf on those goblins, I'm Rhett. I used to be the alpha the next territory over from yours."

Grabbing her bag off the ground, Gretchen looked back to Rhett and squinted her eyes. "Well, fuck-a-doodle-do! It's been nice chatting it up with you pricks. Have a nice life." Gretchen pushed her way through them then started to walk out of the ruins.

Smirking to himself as she shook his head and watched her walk away. "Where in the hell do you think you're going princess?"

Gretchen lifted her hand in the air and flipped up her middle finger as she continued walking.

Damien sighed and misted in front of Gretchen. "I can't let you leave," he said as he reappeared in front of her.

Ignoring the handsome man, Gretchen put her hand in his face. "I'm not asking for permission asshole."

Damien stood directly in Gretchen's path, so she tried to walk around him, but he ducked in front of her. Rolling her eyes at him, she tried to go the other way, and he ducked that way too and walked backwards in front of her. "Where are you going?"

Thrusting her face forward, Gretchen shook her head and drew down her brows. "None of your business, now, move out of my way."

"I can't do that," he said as he stopped and walked closer to her. "See, I'm Prince Damien. So, it is my business who you are, what you're doing here and where you're going."

Twisting her lips to the side, Gretchen shrugged her shoulders and threw up her hands. "I don't give a damn who you are Damien, you can either get the hell out of my way, kill me or put me back to sleep, but you're not stopping me."

Damien looked down at the ground and licked his lips. There was about a million things he wanted to do with Gretchen and spending the whole night fighting wasn't one of them. "Come back to the castle with us. I'll send for your family."

Pushing him out of the way, Gretchen continued to walk into the darkness. "I'm not going anywhere with a traitorous witch like you."

"You can do what I tell you or I can throw you in the dungeons and you'll never see your family again. It's up to you, really." Damien didn't want to threaten Gretchen, but he couldn't let her speak to him like that, not in his kingdom and definitely not in front of his family.

Fearing she'd never get to her family again, Gretchen stopped in her tracks and turned around to walk back to the ruins. As she passed Damien, she put her finger in his face. "I fucking hate you."