{Isla’s POV}I followed closely behind Zitumi and I couldn’t stop the frown that claimed my face. Guess I didn’t like the fact that a frail old lady was saying she’d humiliate me. How?I was the Queen and other than that, I’m a young, strong, and healthy female. And she’s… she’s a fucking old lady.I didn’t say anything until we got to a sandy area in the middle of a vast field. Zitumi stopped at a corner and faced me while I stood at a distance opposite her. The crowd, a.k.a; Zitumi’s weird-looking people that had followed us, surrounded the area now, making the battle area more obvious.I still couldn’t believe I was about to fight an old lady.Well, she was an old lady who taunted me— Said I wasn’t worth her fear and worth my potential. That’s a very insulting thing to say.I trained my eyes on the Zitumi now. She removed a heavily beaded necklace that was on her neck and handed it to her niece, that young She-wolf that squealsZitumi took off some more beads and handed them to

{Isla’s POV}For the first time in my life, running felt hard. My legs felt heavy but my heart was heavier. It felt like..Cayden occasionally inched to my side to prompt me to keep running as it was obvious that I didn’t want to. I didn’t see the reason anymore.I felt like stopping and crying or dying— or both. I needed freedom from this pain, this guilt that was building up in my chest, knowing that I ran away from my duty, knowing that I sacrificed a whole pack for my escape.As a result of my sluggishness and staggering, some of the Lycans caught up to us. Cayden had to lose the Lycans in the woods and take me into hiding so the Lycans wouldn’t spot us and surround us— as their numbers was nothing we could face.— Well, he could face. I was going to fight even if it was the devil that wanted to kill me. I felt bruised emotionally and it made breathing seem pointless.We were currently cached inside a thick bush patch and while Cayden was on the lookout, I was busy tearing out. I

{Isla’s POV}My smile was made to vanish when the claws of the Rogue before me wiped it off and replaced it with blood.My blood.I stumbled away a bit— mostly due to shock and not the force of the blow but then the Rogues misunderstood my movements as two others rushed to grab my hands, seizing me to a standstill.The one that had bashed me stepped closer to me. He looked like their leader.“Are you insane, Rogue?” He asked me, glaring at me from my head, down. None of them recognized who I was. I must really look like shit!I stared between all of them before me. None of them looked familiar. They had dirt all over them and didn’t look anything like the Rogues I had seen over at the Lycan Hold. These were just regular Rogues.“You don’t speak?!” The Rogue leader gripped my jaw roughly and in the process. gripped the gaping wound on my cheek. The sting shot through me in hurtful waves and I couldn’t tolerate it anymore.I forced out one of my hands that was clasped behind my back by

{Isla’s POV}My statement stunned everyone. They had been expecting me to say something but hadn’t been expecting me to start like that.They were all confused but I continued nevertheless. I needed them to understand how serious our predicament was.“The Lycans would get to the Palace in the coming week and we need to be gone before that time.”“Leave the Palace, Isla?” My mum asked. “We can fight them here. The War Generals and Warriors have been training for this.”“Yeah.” Kayla said. “Leaving the Palace for them is a downing move.”Oh, she’s contributing?I don’t know since when she became interested in the matters of warfare. Maybe it's because this time around, she knows that lives are at stake— her life included. They were beginning to form distressing dialogues amongst themselves, wondering why I would say such a thing, so I called their attention back to me. “We’re not abandoning the Palace for the Lycans.” I said and everyone looked back at me. “We are only leaving for a re