CHAPTER 5: The Refugees

Clara's POV

“Are you all fucking blind!?” I shouted at the warriors dragging villagers across the courtyard. “How could you let her escape? She was RIGHT THERE! One woman! ONE!”

None of them even glanced at me. They kept rounding up terrified Evergreen members, pushing them toward the pack house like cattle. Children cried, women begged, men looked defeated and here I was... apparently screaming into the night air for nothing.

“Hey!” I stomped closer. “The Luna escaped, you dumb mutts! Do you understand what that means? Leon is going to...”

My sentence died when a giant hand wrapped around my throat hard and I choked with my feet almost leaving the ground.

“Shut it,” the invader growled into my face and his breath smelled pretty bad too. “Just because you’re the Lycan King’s new fuck toy doesn’t mean you get to open that filthy mouth around us.”

“I... I wasn’t...” I wheezed.

He squeezed harder and for a moment, black dots danced in my eyes. My claws twitched, ready to lash out but even I wasn’t stupid enough to attack a Redmoon warrior. These men weren’t normal wolves. They were the violent and dreaded lycans. They were killers raised on war.

He finally dropped me like I weighed nothing and I fell to my knees, gasping and rubbing my sore neck.

Another warrior snorted.

“Should chain her somewhere. She talks too much.”

“She’ll get herself killed,” someone else muttered. “And not in a fun way.”

“Ohoho,” I snapped, though my voice came out scratchy, “you wish you could kill me.”

The closest warrior glared at me and I quickly cleared my throat.

“Not that you should,” I added. “Just… hypothetically.”

They ignored me again.

Ugh.

I straightened my nightgown, smoothed my hair, wiped a smudge of dust off my lip and stomped back to the pack house.

Idiots… all of them.

Leon was in the throne room, examining Evergreen’s Alpha chair like it was a piece of fruit he wanted to bite and the firelight made his dark hair look even darker and the calm way he moved made him even more annoying.

“Leon!” I called.

He didn’t turn.

“Clara.”

“She escaped. Isabella escaped and she knew it was me. I.. I might have slipped and told her I did it.. I let you in and if...”

He raised one hand without looking and I shut up instantly. Finally, Leon turned with eyes cold and unreadable.

“You talk too much,” he said.

“I’m just giving updates!”

“No,” he said softly. “You’re giving problems.”

I blinked.

“…What?”

“Keep your mouth shut. If anyone realizes what you actually did tonight, you’re useless to me.”

“I helped you,” I hissed. “I opened the gate. I killed that guard. I..."

Leon stepped closer with his voice dropping lower.

“And no one must ever know that.”

Before I could answer, his fist crashed into my face.

“OW! WHAT THE... LEON!”

He flicked his knuckles like punching me was a mild inconvenience.

“It’ll look suspicious if you walk around without a scratch. Now you match the scene.”

I pressed my hand to my cheek.

“That hurt!”

“Good.” He turned to his warriors. “Bring me Alpha Edmund. I want to address my new puppet.”

Great. Just great.

My reward for loyalty was a bruised face and getting strangled twice in one night.

I hate everyone!

***

ISABELLA’S POV

The tunnel was dark... dark enough that I had to run with one hand against the wall so I didn’t smash my face into something. My breath echoed, my heart pounded and my feet barely hit the ground.

All I could see was Magnus. His smile, his laugh and his tiny hands grabbing my cheeks every morning and then Clara’s claws at his throat.

My stomach twisted and I whispered under my breath, “If I ever get my hands on her again… Goddess help her.”

But I needed to survive first.

The tunnel spat me out into the forest and cold air immediately slapped my skin. The night was still like even the trees were holding their breath and I didn’t know where I was going but my legs kept moving.

At some point, I stumbled into a group of maybe ten Evergreen survivors... men, women and even a teenage boy clutching a broken sword.

“Luna Isabella!” a woman cried.

Before I could say anything, they rushed around me.

“Oh thank the goddess you're alive!”

“Luna, what do we do?!”

“Did you see the Alpha? They took him! Or... did they kill him?”

“We saw bodies... so many bodies...”

I raised both hands.

“Stop. Please. I can barely think.”

They quieted with their eyes wide and hopeful. I hated that look.

“I’m not your leader,” I said softly. “I’m just… trying to survive, same as you.”

“But you’re the Luna,” one of the men insisted.

I looked down.

“Not anymore.”

A woman stepped forward hesitantly.

“My Luna… what happened inside the pack house? How did they even get in?”

I swallowed, tasting bitterness.

“Clara.”

They gasped.

“Yes,” I said. “Clara opened the gates. Clara let them in and Clara…” My voice cracked. “Clara killed my son.”

Shock went through them at once.

“No…”

“My goddess…”

“That maid?”

I nodded and then someone said, “Where do we go now?”

I opened my mouth to answer but something sharp stung my shoulder.

“Ah...!”

I reached back and pulled out a dart.. a tranquilizer!

“What...”

All around me, my people were dropping like stones with legs buckling and eyes rolling back.

“No,” I whispered. “Not now. Not again...”

Another dart hit my thigh and my vision blurred while the forest spun.

I stumbled backward and tried to shift but my wolf felt like she was moving through mud.

“Run…” I told myself. “Run, Isabella, run...”

But my knees hit the ground.

Boots appeared in front of me heavily and silently and too disciplined to belong to Evergreen wolves and too dark to belong anywhere but nightmares.

A hand grabbed my jaw and forced my face up as I blinked through the fog.

A man’s face sharpened into view... handsome and strong with hair black as shadows and eyes darker than anything I’d ever seen.

It was emotionless, cold, royal and it was the face of the Lycan King…!