chapter 4

Isabella’s pov

“Mate,” He said it again as it was not mortifying enough the first time, and to make matters worse my wolf was also leaping inside of me screaming out that same word “Mate! Mate!”

His deep eyes pierced into mine and the touch of his fingers on my skin was electrifying. After what happened to me in the past, my skin feels different anytime a man would touch me but that aversion was not present with him.

Rather, I wanted to lean into his touch, to burrow myself into his embrace and rest my tired head on his broad chest–what kind of thought was I entertaining? I must be out of my mind!

This couldn't be right, how could I…a mere maid be the fated mate of one of the Lycan princes? Surely there had to be a mistake somewhere, somehow.

“I think you've got the wrong per–” halfway through my sentence Linda started choking on her drink, and all attention fell on her again, as the entire banquet hall was thrown into panic.

I grabbed this opportunity with both hands and ran away before he could notice, my feet carried me out of the banquet, and into the garden which connected to the woods.

Shaky fingers reached for the lock on the gate, thanks for being forgotten as usual and I pushed its open running into the woods shifting quickly into my wolf. The only source of light I had was the full moon carefully passing through the gaps left by the leaves hanging on trees.

Unaware of the half hour I had run, I collapsed into a fallen branch, my heart was beating so fast it was ready to pop right out of my chest and my fur tingled thoughtlessly as I thought about the prince.

Why–just why? I had accepted my fate. So why this?!

One of the powerful princes of all people, someone that my best friend had been hopelessly crushing on.

My body slumped to the ground, paw grinding through the soil. I must really be full of myself if I thought that was the least of my problems.

I'm sure that right about now he was getting filled in about me, everyone was telling him that I was nothing more than a worthless whore, who threw away her life for a night of passion and was now left to work as a pitiful maid.

A tightening pain spread across my heart imagining his look of disgust when he'd find out, and how he would demand for them to find me so that he could publicly reject me and sever our bond.

I looked at the moon, then back to the ground. Had I…had I done something so horrible in my past life to deserve this? The wounds I thought were finally healing were now being a ript open again.

As I crawled deeper into a pit of self-despair, my ears twitched and there was something I couldn't dismiss. A light, subtle crack as though someone had stepped on a small, dry branch.

I wasn't alone.

And if I had learned anything in almost 30 years of life, for me, that normally spelled bad news.

But I wasn't stupid enough to reveal to the person that was watching me from the shadows, that I had picked up on their presence.

I would have to slip away naturally, and run back to the pack house.

I stood up, stretching my body as my fur shot up like needles and my paw pressed to the ground. I turned around, slowly, my heart beating faster in contrast to my casual movement.

But my facade shattered like glass when the smell of blood struck my nose. I fled in a panic and the one watching me followed right after, hot on my tail.

I ran so fast I thought my muscles were going to rip, but the other person chasing after me was faster, that was not the only thing I noticed too.

Whoever this person was, they were messing with me. They would come close enough, so close that they almost had me then intentionally slowed down. This cornered into a greater state of dread…was this person a psychopath? What was the point of all this mental torture if they were just going to kill me anyways?

And just when I finally caught sight of the garden gates and I thought that maybe I could take advantage of my pursuers cockiness to escape, it happened.

There seemed to be an eclipse of the moon, but that wasn't it. The larger wolf with dark brown fur pounced on me. I had never seen a wolf so large like that, he made our alpha look like a joke and he was the largest wolf in the pack!

He wasn't a rogue but he didn't smell like a pack member either, was he from an enemy pack?

Now that he had captured me, I thought he would kill me on the spot but his eyes glowed with wild curiosity before leaning down with his bloodstained fur and nuzzling my neck. A cold chill ran through my body, was he going to tear my neck open?

Struggling was pointless, he held me down making me defenseless and weak. Was I–was I going to die here?

No! If I was going to die like this then I might have just ended it all when I was 18, yes what was the point of enduring every painful moment if I was just going to die like this?!

I raised a paw and scratched my captors face, staining it with blood, he instinctively moved away after letting out a deep growl, an opportunity I seized to escape his hold. Then I ran again, shifting into my human form as soon as I made it past the garden gates.

“There's an intruder, somebody help!” I was too exhausted, and ended up collapsing into a flower bed before I passed out. I heard scratchy footsteps and a deep voice that said; “Hmmm, I never knew my mate would be so feisty.”