Chapter 3: How we are.

“She’s just around, find that girl!”

“Which way did she go?”

“Arrghh! You stupid creatures! She's only a weak girl, yet she still escaped? Three on the left, two on the right! Search the whole forest, idiot dogs!”

          Sarjao’s grumpy voice echoed all over the place. Sitting up from a tall tree’s branch, Denise and the guy simply munches on a bunch of bananas they got a while ago. Watching Rocco’s comrades shifts into their wolf form and start running in different directions.

“They're still not giving up on me,” she chuckled. 

“Don’t you wonder why they are so eager for the emblem?” the guy asked out of nowhere, chewing on a newly peeled banana. 

“No, I'm not interested at all. If they saw me as a threat to them, I might as well compel myself even more to get that position. I’m not a Shadowstone for nothing.”

“Is that really what you want? What if you can’t?” the guy replied without even looking at her. 

“I will.” She turned towards the guy and blankly stared at him. She notices his beanie covering and hiding his entire head, perhaps he is hiding something.

“Are you sure you wanna see what’s under this?” he suddenly uttered facing Denise with a teasing smirk plastered on his face.

          She tilted her head and replied with a playful smile. “Can I?” 

          "Know me first." The guy leaned over close to her and whispered. “I am someone who is your complete opposite.” Leaning closer and closer to her ears, as the moon shone to its brightest, the cold breeze blew, sending goosebumps on Denise’s exposed skin with bruises and cuts bandaged and covered with patches. 

“Ymir, as what you’ve said,” she grinned. Reaching on the guy’s beanie, wanting to take it off.

          But his hand blocked hers before completely taking it off, guiding it to his chiseled jaw drawing near his tempting red lips. “Know me, Darling,” he added.

          Meeting Denise’s confused gaze, she asked herself, ‘Is there anything more I need to know about this man?’

             

“Who are—” her sentence cut as she successfully pulled the black beanie off his head revealing his jet-black hair stained with red on its tips.

          In a flash, he takes over Denise’s place, carrying her on top of him. She gripped tightly onto his shoulders in shock. Keeping their mutual gaze at each other, his eyes suddenly turned red causing Denise to faint.

          Carrying the lady in his arms, the guy uttered strange clusters of words as he simply leaped down from the gigantic tree.

“Silaw di bulan, pandanan ay manpaila.”

         A water portal appeared in front of him, lying horizontally on the grassy plains. The guy stepped in without getting splashed even by a single drop of liquid contrary to what should be expected. Changing the way he carries the woman, he hangs her on his shoulders like a dead sheep.

          Appearing at the other side of the portal was a gigantic mansion filled with pine trees. Waving beige and black color of the entire infrastructure, a simple yet elegant scenery. Around were shades of purple flowering lavender filling the sweetest scent of the air. A large fountain standing with a fierce statue of a chimera on top.

          Two men in plain parkas walking toward him. One was with daring green eyes wearing a gray crewneck shirt partnered with rugged wrangler jeans. Beside him was a blonde man with stunning brown iris, cladded with a black sweatshirt. 

“You really are a possessive man, it's just a day of knowing, and here you are carrying her like a deer you caught hunting from the woods,” the blonde guy mocked seeing how his friend carelessly carries Denise with his left shoulder. 

“Tristan, open the fifth room,” he ordered the green-eyed man ignoring the other. Tristan hesitantly looked at him, “But Alpha, you just met her. What if—”

“There’s something wrong with her, she doesn’t recognize me.”

“And your solution is this? Forcing her? Are you out of your mind, Cole?” the blonde man protested.

“The seventh moon was only in a couple of months, Marcus. And I need a child—an heir, before the war breaks in. I need to secure the line. This is not the time for your sweet-talking.”

            Marcus and Tristan were left dumbfounded by the mansion’s entrance, seeing their Alpha walk away carrying the lady in a leather jacket. Amazing paintings hanging on the wall as Cole walks forth to the fifth room. Opening its wooden door, a king bed with velvet sheets therein. Around was completed with dressers and a chest of drawers. The whole room was dimmed, a single lamp was left open. 

          Cole dropped Denise roughly on the wide bed waking her up from unconsciousness. Opening her eyes in a strange room, she quickly gets up with her forehead creasing.

          Impassively, he pushed her back lying on the bed, stripping off her clothes. “What are you doing?” Denise screamed and repelled the dangerous man now madly taking the fabric covering her body.

“You should know me,” Cole’s raspy seducing voice echoed. Pinning her down the velvet sheets, she tried to fight and flee from him but he firmly grasps onto her making Denise whimper in pain. Her strength was no match for him at this rate.

*****

         Covered in thick blankets, Denise silently shed her tears. Messy hair and naked under the sheets. After what the guy did to her, he just walks away as if there’s nothing happened between them. 

          She didn’t waste ten years in that bloody academy just to let a man desecrate her. She knew she was that tough enough to defend herself. But when it’s her against her mate, it was a hard thing to win. 

          When Cole told her he was her mate, she didn’t instantly believe him. Without the now existing feelings and her grudges against him, it was hard to believe a stranger popped out of nowhere and did that ‘thing’ to her to be her mate. 

          Suddenly, the door creaked open. A brunette teenage girl with stains of red on the tips of her hair entered the room, she was holding a robe and a set of clothes. 

“Brother said you can change now,” the girl uttered.

Denise stared at her and laughed sardonically. “Tell him I greatly appreciated it. Thank you.” Shifting her gaze to the window by the side table and shut her mouth as streams of water drips again. 

“I-I’m sorry about what Brother did to you, it’s just that we badly need—”

“Get out.”

“B-but—” The girl just turned away and cut her own words realizing this is not the time to talk to her. Leaving Denise in the room. Disgusted with herself, the uneasy and frustrated feeling added by messy thoughts ran through her mind.

          She buried her face in the blanket and screamed loudly.

          But she then stopped when the door again slowly opened. Enters a man who she curses to the depths of the lake of fire. “Get up,” he commanded carelessly and darted a stare, meeting her drenched eyes.

          A smirk slowly paints on the woman’s lips as she wearily stood up from the bed. She walked towards the guy, didn’t mind facing him naked, making Cole’s eyes widen in shock at her sudden action.

          Denise’s fist balled and reaches Cole’s jaw without any warning, “Are you happy?” she questioned which she quickly answered on her own with a sarcastic laugh. “Huh, why did I even ask this question, the answer’s very obvious!” she yelled, punching Cole’s face again.

“Let me—”

“I don’t pay attention to any of your f*cking explanations!” Denise’s words thundered, slicing his sentences. Amidst her repeated punches and slaps to him, Cole stood silently. Letting her do whatever she wants until Denise eventually stopped, sliding down to her knees. She cracked up, burst into tears again.

“D*mn you! You’re a sh*t sealed in that body!”

          With her cursing filling the entire room, Cole walks past her grabbing the blanket. He gently wrapped it around her, intent to carry her but she refused. Raising her right palm, she gave him a mighty slap across his cheek. “I loath you. Whoever you are to me, I don’t give a d*mn thing!” she growled and hurled a deathly glare at him, turning her back away from Cole who still stood firmly emotionless.     

          On the room’s left side, a sliding glass door leading to the balcony was locked. Upon glancing at that possible exit, Denise quickly ran towards it. She knocked down the glass, shattering it into pieces.

          She endured every pain that’s almost in every part of her body, those bruises, and wounds that were exposed when she let go of the fabric wrapped around her. Touching the cold limestone pathway with her toes, she shifted into her wolf form. 

          She ran towards the forest, twigs and leaves swatted her face. Ignoring another batch of scratches on her. However, her speed suddenly decreased when a familiar voice popped up in her head. ‘Run, Baby. Run before I catch you.’

          She growled in annoyance, ‘Then run after me. Once you caught me, you'll regret seeing my face again!’ she replied.

‘Really?’ 

          A loud crashing sound disturbed the forest’s silence, followed by a sudden collapse of an enormous tree in front of her. Out of the dark, a fierce black wolf marched towards her. Red highlights on its fur become visible as it steps under the moonlight. 

          Denise’s wolf gritted her teeth, recognizing the one in front of her. Claws ready to attack, she steps backward. Flared, she leaped slitting her own mate’s flesh. Blood starts to squirt out of its neck.