004: Regrets

Celeste

“I thought you suddenly grew some backbone. Alas, you’re still as cowardly as a mouse.”

Tabitha’s taunts filled my head, but my gaze was fixed on the writhing middle-aged woman lying on the floor. Her blood formed a pool beneath her, and I could tell she was in excruciating pain. 

“What did they do to you, Nanny Zelda?” The words flowed out of my lips like someone who had the authority to put these people in their place. Alas…

“Tsk! Playing savior now, huh? Take one more step, and I’ll snap her neck.” Luna Fiona’s words were just above a whisper, but I didn’t dare defy her. I couldn’t tell what they did to Nanny Zelda, but I wasn’t ready to put her life on the line because I wished to find out.

All Nanny Zelda wanted was for me to run away from this pack and never look back. In her words, “It was better to be a rogue than remain a punching bag in the Moon Howler Pack.” 

I regret it so much. I wish I had listened to her. 

“I’ll go to the Iron Fang Pack, but Nanny Zelda must come with me,” I spoke as if I was negotiating with the Luna, but my eyes were pleading at the same time. I didn’t wish to leave the only family I had with these people. They might just kill her at the least provocation. 

“Celeste, my dearest,” Luna Fiona walked toward me, leaving Nanny Zelda to fall face-flat onto the ground. Even though it wasn’t too loud, I still heard her low whimper. She was really hurt, yet I still couldn’t tell what they did to her. 

With her left hand grabbing the back of my neck firmly, Luna Fiona’s right hand reached for my jaw. Her grip was so tight that any more force could cause it to snap.

“The only reason you’re not bleeding right now is because you need to be delivered intact. After all, you are the Alpha’s favorite daughter.” 

I was finally freed from her grip, but she pushed me away as if she just held something filthy. I didn’t know when Tabitha joined us, but they just couldn’t mock me enough. 

While the two laughed like maniacs, I could only hold the places she just held, massaging gently to relieve the pain.

I didn’t even look toward the mother and daughter pair. My gaze was only fixed on Nanny Zelda. 

“Tsk! I heard you say you wanted to take this wench away.” Tabitha taunted, as if asking would make it sound less ridiculous. I knew it was a difficult request, but it wasn’t impossible, after all. 

Tabitha stepped on Nanny Zelda’s right leg with so much force that she let out a heart-wrenching scream in agony. Unsurprisingly, a cracking sound soon followed, and my nanny passed out. She was the closest person I had to a family, yet these two devils didn’t give a damn about hurting her. 

“This is just a small injury, and we both know she would heal under the care of the pack physicians. However, she would remain here.” 

Tabitha spoke with so much authority that I could tell she wasn’t speaking for herself. She was always cocky, but this was different. 

“W… What do you mean?” My voice came out shaky, as my whole body trembled from pain and frustration. I felt so useless seeing Nanny Zelda passed out in a pool of her blood, yet I could only look away. 

Luna Fiona also looked toward Tabitha with a probing gaze. “Mom, Dad wanted me to remind the bitch that he would keep this wench safe as long as she behaved herself in the Iron Fang Pack. After all, Nanny Zelda was part of her mother’s dowry, and Father couldn’t just let her go like that.” 

How ridiculous! They wanted to control me with Nanny Zelda. Wasn’t it bad enough that I was going to the Iron Fang Pack as payment for the warriors Alpha Holmes murdered? He also wanted me to be his spy in the pack? 

Did he think I wouldn’t die fast enough, or did they take Alpha Horres for a fool? What sort of joke was this? 

Celeste Holmes, could you be any more pathetic than this? 

“I’d run along and pack up if I were you.” Luna Fiona didn’t even wait for me to say anything in response. It’s not like anything I said mattered, after all.

“I hope you’d keep your word and let Nanny Zelda get treated by the physicians.” I couldn’t even look at the mother and daughter. The words I spoke were for whichever of them cared to take care of my nanny. 

If I lingered any longer, she might just face a fate more difficult than what she was experiencing now. 

…

For two days and two nights, we were on the move, only stopping to eat and sleep. Along the journey, I cried my eyes out in silence until my head began to pound like crazy. I couldn’t even stomach any food.

The fear of Nanny Zelda’s safety wasn’t less than my fate as a spy in the Iron Fang Pack. I was soon to be a spy Luna in a foreign land. I knew for a fact that my days in the pack wouldn’t be good; hence, I relished in the peace that I enjoyed along the journey. How the days ahead would be, I couldn’t tell.

I didn’t know when I fell asleep while clutching my head, but I was woken up by a bone-chilling coldness that seemed out of place. It wasn’t winter yet, so I shouldn’t have been feeling this way.

When I finally made sense of where I was, I noticed a small crowd gathered around me, and a man who looked so imposing and scary stood in the middle. 

I wasn’t sure who he was, but I was almost a hundred percent certain that he was the alpha of Iron Fang Pack. His alpha aura wasn’t particularly hidden, after all.

“Tsk! Is this the peace offering Alpha Holmes exchanged with the heads of seven warriors? A wolfless trash like you?” 

His voice was cold, and I could already feel the anger behind his words. Even the onlookers looked like they could tear me to shreds, if only the alpha commanded it.

It was at this point when I began to shiver from the cold that I realized something…

They doused me with cold water. Which alpha would humiliate his Luna like this? 

A well-deserved welcome for a nobody, huh? 

Celeste Holmes, didn’t you just jump from frying pan to fire?