Chapter 4: The Psychotic Wolf

I lay on my side watching the full moon in the dark sky through the tiny window, feeling a mix of relief and sadness. I was relieved that my mate would not walk to his death to find me but sad that things had to be like this between us.

I can't help but wonder: what if he were the only one to survive my curse? The happily ever after I'd always dreamed of? Yet, I'm afraid to take such a big risk.

I barely survived when I killed my parents; I doubt I'd still be alive if I murdered my mate as well.

------------------------------------------------------------

I felt someone shaking my body, urging me to wake up.

"You were having a nightmare," said the nameless wolf standing over me.

I sat up, wiping away my tears. Every night I was tormented by the same nightmares of murdering my parents and everyone else my curse had taken from me.

"You had a horrible life out there, didn't you?" the nameless wolf asked as I rose to my feet.

I stayed silent as I glanced at the young she-wolves. Huddled together, traumatized, they stared back at me.

It was daytime, and the two men from yesterday had returned.

"Good morning, rogues, Are you excited to see what your outside life will be like from this cell?" The older men teased.

"More guards appeared behind them and into the cell, forcing the young girls to step out of the cell."

They screamed in terror, and some even attempted to flee, but the guards caught them and held them until they could no longer escape.

"Where are you taking them, you pedophiles!" I yelled angrily at them.

For that, I received a slap in the face and immediately fell back to the ground.

The girls had already exited the cell by the time I got back up.

Only the two guards were with us now. They aimed their sharp claws at our necks and led us out of the cell, making sure we didn't attempt to escape.

As they led us through a passage, I saw more she-wolves like us, as well as men. Some of them were battered and bleeding, likely due to their attempts to flee.

A pregnant she-wolf, seemingly on the verge of giving birth, tightly grips the iron bars of her cell. Tears streamed down her face as she begged the guard escorting us through the passage to let her go.

The guard responded with a vicious growl, causing her to nearly stumble to the ground in fear.

I felt a pang of sympathy as I watched her sit against the wall, placing a hand protectively over her large pregnant belly, just as any concerned mother would for their child's safety.

As I walked from her cell, I hoped her child would be a blessing to her and not a curse as I was to my parents and everyone else I'd ever loved.

I soon started to believe I deserved to be in this horrid place for killing my parents and everyone I'd ever loved, rather than the poor pregnant she-wolves and teens.

The sunlight hurts my eyes as we're outside. I paused to take in the new surroundings: a vast green field surrounded by walls. Within those walls, there were red brick barrack houses and several sheds with unglazed windows located farther from the barrack. I gathered they were meant for us, their slave workers.

"Move it, scoundrel," the guard gave me the hardest shove to walk, and for a moment I thought my soul had fallen from my body.

He grabbed me by my ponytail before I could fall face down, drawing me back to him. I reached for his hand, gripping it tightly, wincing in pain.

They led the nameless wolf and me into a large area, where werewolves like us gathered in rows. They pushed us into the same row to stand together. I looked for the teens who had shared a cell with us, wondering if they were there also. There was no sign of them or the men who had taken them, standing among their kind before us, waiting for their leader to arrive.

I wasn't afraid of what was going to happen to me here. I'd planned to take it with open arms as a punishment for the innocent lives I'd taken. I deserved everything that happened to me here.

I was only sorry for the ones who didn't belong here, the teens and the pregnant she-wolf. What was happening to them now was no different from the curse inside me, and I alone deserve this punishment for all the pain I'd inflicted on my loved ones just before I cold-heartedly took their lives.

Sometimes I wished my curse had killed me instead of the lives of everyone I'd cherished. Why did they have to die instead of me?

When they captured and brought me here, my only thought was to escape, but now I no longer want to. If I die here, my curse will no longer harm anyone.

Tears brimmed my eyes, and I immediately wiped them away. Sweat mixed with dirt on my hand burned the inside of my eyes as I wiped them away.

On my left, I saw a young couple holding hands. They appeared to be new mates. The beautiful blonde-haired she-wolf wept softly and shivered in terror. I closely observed the man's lips as he assured her that he would get them out of that there soon.

Suddenly, it dawned on me: what if my mate was one of the captured rogues? I could rescue him; he could be the only one I'd saved, and that would make me feel less guilty about dying here, knowing I had managed to save someone. A wistful smile spread across my face.

My hand trembles as I reach out to touch the necklaces, and I hesitate to see the spine-tingling image of a monstrous wolf walking within. Blood drenched his fur as if he'd bathed himself in the blood of his dead victims before coming here. The sharp, raw scent of the blood was so strong that I wanted to throw up.

Involuntarily, I retreated from the grotesque image of him, filled with horror at his presence and the sight of blood. The other rogues did just the same. I was left stunned when his members also withdrew.

"That's him, the stone-hearted leader," the she-wolf whose name I still didn't know whispered to me. Her voice shudders in fear.

I turned my head to see her face, which was as pale as if she had seen a ghost. More like a satanic wolf, my head averted back to him.

"How many rogues have you gathered for me?" inquired the blooded, gigantic wolf I now recognized as the one I'd been warned about. His attention raked us as he did. His voice was without any emotion and so frigid that I felt a strange wave of coldness coursing along my skin, though the weather was hot.

"500," fear laced one of his member's voices as he answered.

Without a response, the Alpha drew closer to us. We all continued to step back as he did.

"I apologize to those who wish not to be here." He paused and swept his gaze across our faces.

There was something within his voice and the way he walked that didn't make his apology seem sincere.

"Anyone who wishes to not be a part of my pack, you may go, and again I apologize for my men carrying you here without your will."

Every rogue exchanged a skeptical stare, doubting the alpha's comment.

"What? We're free to go," a male at the front of the row questioned.

The alpha slowly shook his head.

Unconvinced that he was willingly releasing us after he had allowed his men to capture us, I stayed in my position.

"Aren't you coming? "We're free to go," the nameless wolf tugged at my hand.

"I don't think we should," I warned her.

"But he's letting us go; why shouldn't we?" she said excitedly.

"I think he's testing us," I replied.

Not wanting to believe, the nameless wolf walked away with the others.

I watched with concern, sensing that something awful was about to happen.

They all were about to walk through the door, and I was starting to think that what if my gut warning was wrong and the Alpha was genuinely letting them go?

But if he was willing to let them go so easily, why did they call him the stone-hearted alpha?

I wish I hadn't been curious about that question when I saw him dash towards them, bringing every one of them down limb by limb and neck by neck with his bare teeth. Blood spurted everywhere, spilling more onto his coat.

The nameless wolf's Nordic blue eyes met mine with deep regret when the alpha bit off her neck. My eyes widened, and I could see in her eyes how badly she regretted not listening to me when her head fell to the ground, for she would be standing next to me now, alive, or probably a bit longer.

Her head smashed under the alpha's large feet as he leaped to his next prey. The alpha was quick

that none of them could dodge or escape his attack.

Their screams were piercing, reminding me of the first innocent life I had taken, my mother, who screamed so loudly before she died.

I wanted to feel less bad before it was my turn to be slain by the alpha in saving my mate if he's here, but I don't have the heart to do so anymore, fearing he might be a number among the dead ones who were now before me in a pool of blood, pieces by pieces, like an unattached body part of a pup's toy.

As if he hadn't killed several innocent lives just minutes ago, the hard-hearted alpha sauntered and stood in front of us, the remaining rogues.

"Who else refuses to be a part of my pack?" he asked once more, this time posing his genuine question.

Everyone was too afraid to answer.

On my left, a she-wolf fainted; she attempted to cling to me as she fell, ripping off my necklace. I quickly knelt to retrieve it, recalling the warning the witch had given me. It was too late to wear the necklace before it revealed my mate. It had already placed within my heart who he was: Alpha Gunner, the cold-blooded and stone-hearted alpha.

I froze on the ground, my blood running cold upon realizing that the psychopathic wolf was my mate. I struggled to digest the thought and I promptly put the necklace back on, remembering the witch's next warning.

The alpha fur dripped with blood from his freshly killed, sauntering my way; I thought I'd put on the necklace too late, and he was coming to kill me, like his other mates, knowing we were fated mates, but he was attacking the she-wolf who had fainted by ripping open her chest; I realized he didn't.

Her blood splashed across my face as his mouth dug into her for a kill. I went rigid onto my knees, shaking uncontrollably, horrified at the blood on my face, which was now on my hands as I tried to wipe it out.

"Blood, blood, blood....," I kept repeating in my head, traumatized and wanting it to get off my face and hand.

I throw up instantly at its awful raw scent.

"I am your alpha now; you will obey my command," I heard the alpha.

I lifted my head, wiping away the vomit from my mouth as he strutted out, and I immediately went back to vomiting at the sight of his bloody fur.

For two years, I had searched tirelessly for a witch to help me protect my mate from my deadly curse. After receiving the witch's help, I realized that it wasn't my fated mate who needed protection from my curse, but I from him.