#Chapter 7 A sweet little one aching to be our dinner tonight

Daphne's POV

He was insane. Dangerous, unstable, and obsessed with me.

I tired very hard push him away from me, "It's not about Carl! We just met a few hours ago, but lots of crazy things happened. I don't even know who you are. Who were those werewolves behind us? And why? How am I supposed to be with you when I don’t know anything?" 

“I-I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Oh goddess, I… I could explain everything. ” He stepped back, acting like a child who knew he made a large mistake.

I whimpered looking up at him as the rage and madness vanished from his face, replaced with panic and concern.

“But you were going to kill me!” I cried. Arthur’s face lost all color and he recoiled sharply.

“I’m sorry…”

His shoulders slumped and his eyes seemed glossy as if he was going to cry as he sunk to the ground and put his head in his hands. He trembled and his hands clenched.

"Do you love him? I mean your fiance?" He asked.

"Carl? Of course not! He was going to force me to marry him. That was one of the main reasons I ran with you."

"How wonderful! You don't love him! " He started to laugh and apologized, "I'm sorry. I-I couldn’t.  I couldn’t control myself. I thought you could help me... You can't leave me. You're my mate. Without you, I'd die—"

How could anyone’s moods shift like that? Was he mentally ill? Was it a werewolf thing or were all werewolves like this?

Regardless, I believed him when he said he couldn’t control himself. "So tell me about you. All of it."

Arthur nodded and filled me in with every detail of his pathetic life in Brown Valley Pack. 

I had no idea what to say. I felt sorry for him. But I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue this dangerous adventure.

Then he broke the silence, “…If you still want to leave, then kill me first.”

He was definitely crazy.

“Kill you?” I shouted.  “I’m not you. I can’t kill!”

He paused and lifted his head to look at me, desperate and hopeful, “Y-You said something about a human village, right? I could go with you.”

He stood and smiled down at me, “I’m sure there’s a village along the river. If we follow it, we’ll find one. Those clothes had to have come from nearby, right?”

I nodded stiffly and struggled to my feet to follow him carefully through the forest back towards the river. I wasn’t far behind him, but he kept looking back at me, trying to start a conversation, but I only replied with a few words.

If I had any doubts before, I didn’t any longer. I couldn't go to a human village with Arthur. He would be a disaster. His instability aside, bringing a werewolf into a human village was bound to cause problems. Still, I couldn’t say that. I had to find my chance to leave alone.

We walked all day, stopping for breaks occasionally without running into a village. I wanted to stop when pain shot through my foot. I shrieked and stumbled back, crashing to the ground and grabbing my foot. The sole of my shoe had been punctured by a rock. Blood gushed from the hole it created.

Arthur was at my side, tearing his shirt to make a bandage, but I recoiled.

Arthur flinched, “I… I just want to stop the bleeding.”

I took the cloth with shaky hands, removed my ruined shoe, then the other with a huff, and dipped my bleeding foot into the river to wash the blood away. The injury certainly wasn’t going to help me escape Arthur. Was fate really against me leaving him?

The puncture was bad, but it was mostly a flesh wound. I wrapped my foot and put my other shoe on the foot. It would have been awkward to walk on, but there was no way I would be able to keep walking with the injury.

“I-I could carry you—“

“No,” I said quickly. He flinched. “I mean… we should rest and eat. Night’s coming soon.”

Arthur nodded, “I could… fish?”

I nodded and gave him a tense smile, “That sounds great.”

Arthur built a fire and strung up fish to roast, but he didn’t speak. Night fell over us and I turned away from him to pretend to get some sleep. It was nerve-racking to wait until he decided to sleep, but it paid off as I heard him lie down on the other side of the fire. When his breathing evened out into a deep sleep, I turned just enough to peek at him to make sure he was sleeping.

He was still and sprawled on his back.

Carefully, I got onto my feet and backed away from the camp into the woods, keeping my eyes on him. I was careful of my injury and made sure to avoid any more rocks. He shifted and I froze waiting for something to happen, yet he remained sleeping.

Soon, I reached the forest and quickened my pace as I got farther away. A twinge of guilt went through me as I turned my back. Although I was afraid of being with Arthur, he wasn’t a bad person. He saved me, he trusted me, and he protected me, but as a human, I really had no way to deal with a werewolf who could lose control at any time.

I was safer away from all werewolves no matter what being mates meant. I ran into the forest until I reached a shallow stream. Carefully, I walked on the rocks downstream, hoping it would help erase my scent. When I got far enough to feel a bit at ease, I found a rock to sit on. Both of my feet throbbed and the makeshift bandage around my foot was red with blood.

I hoped I got far enough away before Arthur woke up that the scent of my blood would fade from the area. I lifted my foot and pulled off my shoe to get a better look at the injury. The bleeding had lessened, but it wouldn’t be stopping anytime soon.

What could I do?

I froze as something rustled nearby. My heart sped up and lurched in my chest as I turned my head. Another rustle came and I really hoped it was just a wayward rabbit or something, but there was no mistaking the glinting red lights moving slowly between the trees.

I thought back to the glinting lights that had surrounded my cabin. It seemed so long ago, but I remembered it clearly. They were red like Arthur’s but too numerous to be him, and they didn’t have the same qualities.

These eyes felt more like ravenous fires, glaring at me in the night, wanting to consume me. One appeared from the left, then another just behind it, and another from the right. Soon, there were twelve. The tallest wolf in the pack was light gray and the last to step into the moonlight spilling through the trees.

I shuddered as it looked at me. I could almost taste the death hanging around it like a cloak. With horror, I realized it was almost as big as Arthur.

Where was Arthur? Was he awake? Was he looking for me? Was he still sleeping? What was I thinking? After all this, couldn’t I have thought of a better way out than going into the forest bleeding like this?

The gray wolf snickered, "Behold, what have I found?”

I flinched at the wolf’s voice, masculine and hungry. The wolf bared his teeth in a gruesome grin that made me shudder.

“A sweet little one aching to be our dinner tonight.”