SIERRA

"Hi, lyubov moya. Are you ready now?" asks Xanthos entering my cell making my hackles rise. After yesterday night's incident, I don't know if Xanthos has also planned anything for me. I look slightly to my left to see if the flickering light is still there or not but find that there's no light there. Not even a slight movement on the other side to indicate the presence of someone.

Was I hallucinating or was there someone talking to me a few hours ago?

"Answer me!" Xanthos shouts all of a sudden and I jump in freight. I scurry away from his imposing figure and try not to feel the terror at his intentions.

"Don't come closer, Xanthos. Stay away," I say surprisingly without stammering and feel a little confident at that.

"Your mate's dead and now Xavier will also die fighting the remaining of the Prince's army. No one can stop me from mating with you now," he says, smirking at me in that evil manner and I shiver in dread.

What?! My mate's army is out there? Fenris is out there! I refuse to fall prey to Xanthos's tactics and believe that my mate is dead.

I need to escape, need to get out of here and help them kill this filthy excuse of a werewolf. I think of a way to distract Xanthos. Maybe then I can escape? Now that I know that my mate is near, I feel a burst of energy through my body, helping my mind work in planning my escape.

"No. Think of your mate. She's out there somewhere. Don't hurt her like this, Xanthos," I try to distract him with this and scoot a little closer towards the door. The door is open, wide enough for me to escape if Xanthos would just give up on me.

"No, my mate is useless. She doesn't even hold a candle to you. You are an Alpha Female, just like my mother and that's why I want you to be my mate. Our pups would be powerful than any other being in this region," he says dreamily and the image he paints in front of me is so scary that I barely control my urge to scream.

The way he speaks, it's clear that he has found his mate, then why hasn't the mate bond kicked in? Is it possible that his mate is younger than him and not 21 yet? I hope she's alive and not sacrificed for this evil rogue's plans.

I notice Xanthos has moved closer to me but fortunately hasn't noticed me inching closer to the door. I move back a little bit closer to the door, making it look like I am just moving backwards from him and not trying to escape from this cell.

"Listen, Xanthos. I am not your mate and the thought of you mating me is abhorrent to me, so why don't we just split our ways and you go mate with your mate," I try once again knowing how silly I must sound, pleading to this bastard. He growls but otherwise doesn't acknowledge my words.

I inch a little more towards the door trying to seem as scared as I am whenever I think about their intentions. He suddenly holds a syringe in his hand, eyeing me evilly.

"I am going to drug you then seduce you and you will respond to me, my darling," he cackles like the mad dog he is before pouncing on me. I am pushed back with such force that I lose my balance and find myself on my back with a stinking Xanthos on top of me. Goddess! His teeth are yellow and ghostly while his tongue drips with saliva. I quickly avert my face away from his drooling mouth and focus on the syringe in his hand.

Without any preamble, I start moving my hands all over his chest and the hand holding the syringe. I feel like I am cheating on my mate, touching this wolf-like that but I have to distract him. His attention shifts a little and his eyes widen. Taking advantage of the situation, I go to take the syringe from out of his hand but he tightens his hold, growling over my face.

Ugh! Stinky breath.

"We won't need it anymore," I manage to speak confidently and pouring as much dominance in those words as I can muster. He relents and then allows me to take the syringe. Not shifting my eyes from his, I twirl my fingers remembering how my mate once twirled his mother's knife in front of me to show off his skills. I then, stab Xanthos with the syringe. His eyes widen and his mouth opens in a silent roar but with quick reflexes, I manage to push the liquid into his muscles.

Giving it a few seconds, I wait till Xanthos's unconscious body slumps on me and then start working on getting out from under his stinking body. After what feels like an eternity and with a lot of efforts, I am finally out of his hold. Not waiting for anyone else, I quickly dash out of the cell. The bright LED lights out of the cell blind me for a moment but I quickly adjust myself and run. A very loud roar is heard from behind me, not from my cell so, I don't stop to acknowledge it or investigate where it came from. I just run as if my ass is on fire, literally.

I don't know where am I running but observe that I am now in a long corridor which has similar cells like mine on either side of it but they have bars instead of steel doors. In these cells, there are many people and from the looks of it, they are severely malnourished. They look at me as I run past their cells but no one speaks, neither do they ask who I am or what am I doing here. Is this so normal for them that they aren't at all worried or do they not care?

Soon, I reach a dead end and here, there's a cell with a lady inside it. She's alone. She's unusually frail and very delicate looking with matted hair and with only a dress covering her body. The dress looks like it's overused and has lots of stains on it, blood stains from their appearance.

"Don't look at me like that, dragocene devojčice. Runaway," she mutters all of a sudden that I gasp. The sound that slips from my throat echoes in the corridor and I look around hoping that no one comes here searching for me.

"Who are you?" I ask unable to give up. Something about her makes me want to question her. She radiates hopelessness and loss so much that my heart cries for her.

"I am the world's unluckiest mate, child. No one should get a mate like mine. I am here because of him," she speaks in a hollow voice and all I want to do is hug her and soothe away the hopelessness from her voice.

"Who's your mate," I ask.

"You know him, child. Aren't you the princess?" she asks and I can only nod as she looks at me with her brown eyes. Those eyes speak of years of abuse and sadness. My heart cries for her now and unable to help myself, I go towards her cell and grab the cell bars, putting my hand inside and call her to me. She just shakes her head and then grimaces, clutching her head.

"Go, now! He's coming. Take a left and then you'll see the woods. It will lead you straight to Crimson Shadow. Go to your mate," she instructs and I don't stop to tell her that there's no one living in Crimson Shadow anymore. Following her instructions but vowing that I will come back for her, I am soon greeted with the sight of the woods and I let out a ragged breath, thinking about my next step.

Where should I go?

Suddenly, my wolf whimpers from inside my mind and I close my eyes to let her come to the surface. It hurts a little but I bear it knowing that it's my wolf battling to overcome the drug's effect on my body. I wait a few seconds but she doesn't fully merge with me. Feeling defeated now, I look around myself.

I don't know whether the sun is rising or setting but have an assumption that it is dusk and not dawn. The weather is cold but it isn't snowing heavily. Goddess!

What is this month, March?

I turn to look back at the place from where I crept out in here and see that it is a medieval era's castle. There's a staircase from where I climbed up that leads to the dungeon but above it is a huge foyer from which two staircases are leading to two floors above the ground.

It had to be something grand once when it was in its prime but now it's completely in shambles, perfectly matching with Xavier's personality. His evil sense has cruelly brushed off all the beauty from this once elegant castle.

The roaring startles me from my rather keen observation of the castle. Xavier must have been informed, I guess from the way the ground on which I am standing starts vibrating.

Not thinking of anything else, I quickly turn to the right sprinting into the forest not looking back to the house where all my nightmares came to life.

~~~~~~~

Running past the trees in this dark forest, I finally accept that I am lost. I can't see around at all. The forest here is very dark, not allowing any residual sunlight to enter through the heavy foliage. I hear birds' and animal voices but nothing different from normal forest land. Still, the way these trees look familiar makes me suspicious that I am trapped in here. Somehow, I have been running in circles not able to get out of this area.

Urgh!

Not having the energy to walk even a step more, I sit on the snow-covered ground against a tree and lean my head against it. Feeling utterly drained, I start shivering, the cold numbing my toes and fingers. Drawing my knees up to my chest, I lean my head on the top of my knees and close my eyes, drifting into an exhausted sleep.

The last thought that crosses my mind is that I at least escaped from the claws of Xavier and his son.

~~~~~~~~~

I wake up abruptly to the sound of horns blaring in the distance. The vibration of the ground unsteadies me and I go to stand up. But as soon as my body moves, I feel the bile rise in my throat and I barely control the urge to puke. What the hell? Must be because of dehydration. I shrug and put these thoughts to the back of my mind.

Taking note of my bearings, I stand still and focus on the sound. Hope blossoms in my chest at the thought of Fenris, finally reaching to rescue me.

Taking a deep breath and sorting out the different smells, I locate the smell of the people. Werewolves!

Yes, my mate's here!

Elated, I sprint towards them, forgetting about the bruises and wounds or the case of my tired legs.

Soon, I can see the outline of different wolves. I make my way closer and then stop, rethinking about this. What if they are Xavier's rogues? So far, I am successful in hiding myself from those fighting wolves but can't spot any familiar one to confirm that these indeed are Fenris's people.

What if it is someone else?

Why would the rogues fight amongst themselves?

My doubts vanish when abruptly one of the wolves stops and settles his gaze directly on me. I do not waste any time wondering that he's looking at the tree. No, the wolf is looking at me, straight into my eyes. I stare into his blue-black ones and almost shout out in ecstasy to see that my mate has come to save me.

Yes, it is Fenris. I am overwhelmed when my heart starts beating wildly in my chest, almost trying to burst out of my ribs. I want to shout out my elation.

"My mate, my Fenris is alive, you fucking asshole!" I want to shout these words on the top of my lungs so that they reach that Xavier but finally realise that my throat is sore and parched.

I don't know for how much time we stand there. Me staring into my mate's wolf eyes and him, staring into mine. But before, I could run towards him, a huge being running on two legs dashes into my mate. As Fenris had his eyes trained on me, he is completely derailed by the rogue and they both land in a tumble on the ground.

Goddess! I can't believe it.

Is it real!?

There looming over my mate's form is Xavier in his half-man half-wolf form. He has so many long teeth poking out of his snout like face. His claws are twice bigger than that of a normal werewolf. Fenris's wolf is almost half in height to Xavier's mid-transformed form.

Even when Xavier first showed me his true form, he wasn't like this. He's bigger and looking more feral tonight.

I stand still behind the tree, not at all knowing what to do but then see Xavier literally clawing out a huge chunk of my mate's shoulder and that quickly my decision is made.

I move out from behind the tree and closer to the fighting wolves. All around us, there are rogues and Fenris's wolves fighting each other but no one dares to interrupt Fenris and Xavier. Taking advantage of this, I walk closer and closer almost at a distance of a few feet from the duo. Then, I shout on the top of my lungs, distracting both of the wolves.

At once, they turn their heads to look at me and I restrain myself from shivering at Fenris's anger-filled gaze, clearly warning me from doing something stupid. Well, I can't just let him get injured, can I?

So, I pay attention to Xavier and wave at him. His attention is now solely on me like that of a predate

or in hunting mode. Assured that Xavier's attention is on me, I start walking backwards away from Fenris. Soon, I start running in the opposite direction with Xavier following me and Fenris following Xavier. I wanted to distract him from my mate but don't know what to do now that I am successful in distracting Xavier.

What to do now?

Oops!

~~~~~

Köszönöm!

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