Chapter 3

Astra pov...

Hopelessness was an almost alien feeling, something I thought I would never come across after I got mated to Noah. Now it had happened again, and it had wrenched my only source of joy away and left me adrift and alone, like a flightless bird on a deserted island. I wanted to scream at the misery life was forcing on me, to scream and scream until I lost my voice the way I'd lost my mate.

Noah had been my support system. Without him I felt naked; a plant starved of sunshine and warmth.

Somehow, in the midst of my hopelessness, I found myself at the door of the room I usually occupied in Noah's house. A guard was standing at the front of the room, his face grim and unwelcoming.

"Please..." I said, gesturing weakly at the door. The guard shook his head and stepped in my way as I moved forward.

"No can do, Miss Astra." The guard almost snapped at me. "The alpha specifically ordered thay we shouldn't let you into this room to take aby personal effects."

I stared at him with eyes blurred by tears. Then I sniffed back the tears and gathered my emotions. "What then am I allowed to take along?"

"Only a horse, so you can find your way away from this pack as fast as you can." He said.

I nodded. "Alright then. Take me to my horse."

He led the way to the grand staircase as I moved behind him, almost going to pieces with despair. I managed to hold my head high as we moved through the house, as all the domestic staff stared at me and whispered behind their hands, speculating on my fall from grace.

The guard took me to the very back of the pack house, where the stables stood side by side. We stopped at the very last, where a scrawny horse stood, and the guard jerked his chin towards it. "That's your ride," he said.

I nodded listlessly and shuffled towards the horse. Then I stretched out my hand inside, patting its neck lovingly. It was a sorrel mare; a very common, brown-furred breed. The only companion I had left.

"It's just you and me, horsie." I murmured while the guard watched. Then I opened the stable door and reached in to lead the horse out. I climbed the horse and led it slowly towards the gate of the pack house. Once there, the gate keeper opened up for me and I moved outside on horseback, devoid of luggage, the ache in my heart keeping me company.

Once I was a safe distance away from the pack house, I turned back, sparing another glance at the house that Noah and I had lived in in harmony for so long. I could no longer feel his heartbeat or smell his scent; those intimate things that I'd been privy to as his mate were gone the moment he had said those words.

I reject you...

I turned and kicked the horse into a gallop before the tears could come again. Together we raced unbridled, fighting against my tears and the wind, unsure of where to go but anxious to leave my past. I wanted to forget Noah the same way he had forgotten me, but I knew that would be impossible. For as long as I lived, I would always ache for his touch, his scent, his heartbeat.

I continued eastwards, towards the pack's borders. Soon I crossed the border and entered dangerous woods, known to house rogue wolves and other deadly creatures. I wasn't scared—the fear in my heart was enough to warm me—but I didn't miss the deadly eyes that seemed to follow me as I moved through the trees.

I slowed the horse into a trot as we kept moving. I was thirsty as hell; the ankle-length dress I was putting on and the race on my horse had made me spent and tired. Thankfully I found a stream close to a cairn, and I stopped the horse, then climbed down from it. I moved towards the stream, trying to ignore the rustles that had started around me, and crouched to take a few handfuls from the water.

Suddenly I heard a twig snap somewhere to my right and I choked on the water. I coughed and spluttered, gripping a nearby tree, and tried to gather myself. When I came to, I looked around me suspiciously, fear coming alive in my chest. I moved towards the stream again, still not satisfied, and continued to drink.

Then I saw him—or them.

Figures gathered behind me and I saw them through the reflection from the water. I frowned and raised my head, but before I could do anything else, something knocked me upside the head and I went tumbling down a few metres, stopping at the foot of a tree. I raised my head, panting, and looked around for my attackers. They seemed to have disappeared, as only my horse stood there, whinnying nervously.

"Show yourself!" I yelled through the trees, but only silence answered me.

Hell, no.

I moved towards my horse, and a hand suddenly snaked from behind me and clamped down on my mouth. I screamed hard and tried to bite down on the person's fingers, but he was resolute. Struggling hard, I reached behind me and grabbed the person's neck, but it was like grabbing a tree trunk for all it was worth. 

His other hand—for I assumed my attacker was a man—moved to grab my neck. And with abrupt speed, the person deftly turned my neck sharply to the side. I screamed as I heard a crick in my spinal cord, and soon blackness creeped through my vision. I slowly gave in to unconsciousness as I felt myself go limp in the stranger's arms. It was easier to.

********

When I came to, I found myself at the back of a hay cart. I coughed and spat some dead grass from my mouth, then sat up and looked around.

I was in a hay cart, for sure, on a dirt road, several miles away from the forest.

I turned to look at my kidnappers—two men who were whispering to each other, steering two horses. One of them was my sorrel mare.

I sniffed once; the men smelled like werewolves.

"Oi!" I yelled. "Who are you guys? Why am I here?"

Both men turned to look at me, but only one answered. "We should be asking you those questions, girl!"

"Let me out of this thing!" I yelled, hitting against the side of the hay cart. "And give me my horse back!"

 "We're taking you to our alpha." The second one shouted over the clip-clop of the horses. "He'll decide your fate."

Oh, no! What crime did I commit this time?

"I didn't do anything!" I protested, hitting my shoulder against the cart again. "Let me fucking go!"

"Nuh-uh, woman! You were found close to our border, and you smell like a rogue wolf. You could be a spy."

Heck, I'd forgotten. Noah had rejected and banished me; I was a rogue wolf now.

I fell silent as the cart was led into the borders of another pack. I watched with boredom as we passed several houses with several werewolves going about their business on the main street. We passed the settlement and moved to a large house with wide, sweeping lawns, which I knew from instinct was the pack house.

Silently, the men led me into the pack house's compound, and we stopped at a garden, where I could see a man from afar. I watched as he raised his head, then began to walk towards us.

The men stepped down from the cart, then led me down from it. They pushed me forward and I stumbled, then fell at the foot of the man. I slowly raised my head, and my eyes met a pair of beautiful brown eyes.

The sun seemed to catch his irises at an angle I could not explain. The irises were ringed with black, speckles of gold caught within them. My eyes traveled up the man's face, taking in his wind-swept black ponytail and his furrowed eyebrows. Then he opened his mouth, and my life seemed to come at a standstill.

"Who's this?"