Three: Attack.

KAYLA.

I snapped my eyes open but this time I found myself slumped beneath a warm lavender blanket. The night was cold and short and although I still bled, at least I could feel my legs. I was a lot better than the previous day and I woke up to the sun rays burst across my face.

I was unchained and put down and I wondered in my head why and who had released me. Ever since my father walked down into the basement to see Rafael had been freed, I had become the enemy—the traitor of the pack. I hadn’t eaten in days but somehow it was the least of my worries.

The last few days had been rough but it didn’t stop me from thinking about Rafael. I didn’t regret saving him because I was punished for it, my only regret was never seeing him again. I tried to sit up against the bed but my whole body resonated in terrible aches and pains. Then all of a sudden the door ahead of me drew open and in came my father.

Archer had ruled the Blood Moon pack for more than three decades and he’d done so in strict discipline and order. Anyone who dared cross him would face his treacherous wrath and I was no exception.

He walked into the dark room and sat across from me. My father never looked into my eyes out of the fear and hurt that he might see my mother.

They always told me I looked like her but I didn’t think so from the pictures I’d seen. She had bright blue eyes and mine were slightly green. She was alot taller and our blonde hair and curved nose were the only eccentric features that we shared.

My mother, Beth was the most beautiful woman I’d seen and I understood why her death seemed to hurt Archer and everyone else so much.

He walked towards me and then tossed a plate of food across. My stomach growled in starvation but ironically, I didn’t have an appetite especially as he then took a seat by the edge of the bed.

This was the man who threw me across the room the previous night.

He was never this close—never this silent.

And the air between us grew thin and intense.

“How are you feeling?” He asked and the sound of a lump thrusting through his throat was audible. He reached for my greasy hair and and I flinched out of my accustomed fear for him. “I’m okay” I muttered.

“I’m sorry for hurting you, Kayla”

His apology dawned shock in my eyes but I steadfastly turned away. “I’m sorry for the way the pack has treated you all these years. You deserve better, Kayla” Archer said and his words melted my heart. He’d never said more than a few to me, except when he was screaming at the top of his voice at how useless I was.

“Drink this mint. It’ll help you feel better in no time” He commanded and reluctantly, I reached for the potion. It was like water but with a sour mint-lemon taste. I closed my eyes as it went down my tongue.

And almost immediately I could feel the effect.

Archer curved his lips in a smile and then met my eyes. I was robbed my whole life of ever having a father who cared for me and a mother who was alive. Most days it felt like I was orphan.

It was then he stood to walk out the dungeon doors but our eyes remained fixed. “You can escape, Kayla” Archer said and they widened in shock.

“What?” I didn’t desire to leave, I had no intentions of becoming rogue and being endangered to the hostile forests. Having a pack was not just about family, it was about protection.

There was a particular scent that followed the rogues which often put you in the path of danger. For you to be one, it could only mean you were a traitor and had been exiled. It was a death sentence with a mark carved into your back.

“I don’t want to leave” I pleaded but his eyes were void of any emotion. “I’ll be killed dad” I whispered but all he did was fling me to the floor.

“It wasn’t a question, Kayla. Neither was it choice. This is the punishment for betraying your pack and it isn’t fair that I let you go when I wouldn’t have done the same to anyone else”

“But father—“

“It’s final. You leave here at dusk” He cleared his throat before walking out. Of course he was never genuine to me. I sat across the floor on the verge of tears—I couldn’t believe he could do this.

There was no way I could survive as a rogue.

And so I dreaded the night fall but it couldn’t have come faster. I’d processed my feelings and had my luggages packed by the doors—this was the day I say goodbye to the people that have hurt me my entire life and I should be happy but I wasn’t.

Slowly and with distraught, I scowled my way through the doors like a peasant beggar and there were jeering mutters and fingers that pointed to me. “There goes the traitor!” They bickered.

“She deserves to die at the hands of our enemies!” They yelled even louder, proclaiming the worst of the things to befall me. I tried so hard to hold back my tears but when I was outside and the cold winds breezed into my face, they fell down so easily.

The chill hit me with a shiver and I figured I’d better make it into the forest before the night got any colder. I started my travail up the hill but alas, before I could get any further, there was an abrupt explosion that rocked the land behind me.

The earth quaked with a light sandstorm and I fell to my knees to realize it came from the chambers of my pack. Ash suddenly filled the air as I abandoned my bags to make my way down the same direction.

Only this time, chaos had ensued and there was a fire which broke out in several places of our cavern. “Shit” I cussed as I breathlessly made way down the hill.

My home was in flames.

“What happened?” I was caught halfway by people who tried to flee and one of them reached to my shoulders. “We’ve been attacked!” The elder beta yelled with fear in his eyes and a crinkle appeared between mine. “Attacked?” I echoed.

This was the first time I’d seen something like this.

I scurried through the fallen debris and walked back into the building—the guards had left the posts and no one could stop me. The wolfs of our warriors were out and there was a whole battle in the passageway where blood was shed.

Trembling, I carried on with my eyes set on the door to my father’s chamber. He’d forsaken me for the longest time but Archer was still my father and I’d hate to be more orphaned than I already was.

There were noises from glass shattering and tables being knocked over, creaking flames that burned through the walls and agonizing screams from our slaughtered soldiers.

We were losing this battle.

“Dad!” I exclaimed immediately I burst through the doors and there he was. Archer was on his knees with his sword surrendered right beside him and there was also Rose and Leonard and the entirety of the pack leaders. But something else caught my eyes in the furthest corner of the room.

“Kayla” Archer cried out to me in defeat. “Why did you come back?” I stepped forward towards him with an arch between my brows. There was a creature whose eyes flowed in the dark and the moment I halted, he turned to me like a six feet tall beast and everyone else in the room was terrified.

He was standing on two hefty limbs and steel gray claws extended from his hands. A thunderous growl submerged from his tight lips as he walked in my direction. He was unlike any my wolf I’d ever seen.

His black fur stood straight up the moment his eyes met with mine and it sounded crazy but I could feel something awaken inside of me like we were tethered.

There was only one person I felt that way with.

“Rafael?” My eyes sparked at the unrecognizable beast and I laid my slender hands along his snout. Ivory teeth appeared between his jaws but he didn’t bite, rather he rubbed against the nap of my neck.

“Is that you?” It was.

He closed his eyes in a way that confirmed my assumption and my heart suddenly stomped in my chest.

Rafael lowered his head while the amber eyes of his wolf watched every motion that I made before swiftly, he transformed back into a mortal state. But even as he was, he was not the Rafael I recognized.

Dressed in a glittering gold and with a sceptre in his hands, he brought his humanly gaze to fall on me.

“You came?” A lone tear left my eyes and across his lips was a very alluring smirk.

“I said I was going to come back for you, didn’t I?” His decadent voice reverberated in the depth of my stomach as I turned around to face my father and the entire wreckage that had become of our pack.

We had already lost this battle.