Chapter 2: Attacked In The Woods

Scarlet's pov

I turned to Alpha Alex with desperation, waiting for him to refute her claims, but he remained silent.

"Tell me she is lying?" My voice cracks, but I don't care.

The chapel is deadly silent, and I can feel the eyes of all the pack members on me, but I still do not care.

"Tell me it isn't true!" I screamed when Alpha Alex remained silent.

His silence spoke volumes, and I could feel my heart cracking with each passing second.

"You were going to marry me and mark me when you had already marked another?" I asked with astonishment.

It wasn't a secret that wolves could only mark one person whom they chose to spend the rest of their lives with.

Marking another person while your marked mate was still alive would cause pain, excruciating pain on the second wolf being marked, and he or she could run mad or even die if they were unable to bear the pain.

My heart cracked a little more when I realized he was ready to do that to me.

He was ready to put me through all that pain.

"Kayla and I have been lovers." He admitted without remorse and I felt the ground falling from under me.

My utopia, everything I thought was perfect, comes crashing down.

"Then why marry me and not her? Why put me through this sort of humiliation?" I clutched my chest.

"Our marriage was prearranged since our parents were alive." He revealed, and I recoiled like I had been slapped.

I never knew there was an understanding between our parents.

Here I had been for years, pining away at someone who only viewed me as an obligation to be fulfilled.

Flashbacks of when I tried to engage him in conversation and get him to open up to me popped up in my mind, and I cringed.

"Our marriage was an arrangement, one which I couldn't break off, but my heart belongs to Kayla." He turned and looked at her with tenderness in his eyes.

Raw pain and betrayal welled up within me.

"You knew more than anyone how much I loved him, Kayla. How could you do this to me?" I whispered brokenly.

"You were too self-centered and self-absorbed. If you took a minute and thought about me for a moment you would have realized it." She sneered.

I scanned her face, wondering where my best friend, who promised to fight the world against me, was.

"You are despicable." I spat out.

"I am with child for Alpha Alex, I am in a delicate condition, and I refuse to allow the heir to the alpha bloodline to be ignored and tossed aside." She informed me.

"Why are you doing this, Kayla? Why are you doing this to me?" A sob raked through my body.

"You took everything away from me. I'm merely returning the favor." She shrugged with an evil glint in her eyes.

"Alpha Alex, you knew how much I loved you," I whispered as tears clouded my vision.

" I cannot marry you, Scarlet, I do not love you." Alpha Alex retorted.

My head was spinning, this was all too much for me to bear.

I turned to the pack members, and they gazed at me with sickening pity.

I felt like the walls were closing in on me, and my wolf scratched within me, begging to be set free.

Kayla had moved towards Alpha Alex, and he cradled her in the nest of his arms.

The sight was too much for me to bear, and I did the only thing I possibly could.

I jumped off the altar and ran.

I ran as fast as my feet could take me, fisting my gown in my hands so that I wouldn't trip over it.

Air caressed my face as I ran, and my vision blurred with unshed tears.

I felt stupid, naive, and humiliated.

I had no idea where I was running to; all I knew was that I had to get as far away from this pack as I possibly could.

Along the way, I ditched the ridiculous heels and ran barefoot.

****

Night had begun to fall as I stumbled around the forest, unsure where I was or where I was headed.

My feet hurt, my whole body hurt, and my heart bled at the betrayal of not only the man I used to love but my best friend.

A twig snapped behind me, and I turned, my wolf perking up at the sound.

"Who is there?" I asked, my voice hoarse from crying.

I hear another twig snap to the side, and the hair behind my neck stands on high alert.

It is then that I smell them.

Rogues...the vile and unmistakable stench that seems to follow them wafts in the air.

I growled as one slowly stalks out of the shadows.

"Don't come any closer." I bared my canines, trying to scare it off, but it was undeterred by my warnings.

One by one, they come out of the shadows, and it is painfully obvious that I am outnumbered.

My stance becomes defensive, and when the first one leaps at me, I am ready and claw at its face, sending it whimpering to the floor.

Adrenaline surges within me, and when all of them pounce at me, I do everything I can to fend them off.

I wasn't going down without a fight.

I sunk my claws deep into their skin and ignored them as they tugged on my once-white gown.

A howl of pain leaves my lips when one of them bites into my side, dragging my flesh apart.

I drop to the floor as blood slowly stains my fabric.

Now they are slower and more deliberate in their movements, almost as if they wanted to instill fear in me.

One, whom I now identify as their leader, howls into the night before baring its canines at me, his intention written on his face.

He is going to kill me.

And suddenly, Alpha Alex and Kayla's betrayal is the last thing on my mind.