Chapter 2

Madeline’s POV

When I turned around, I gasped and was frozen to my place as I watched the massive brown wolf shift back into its human form, and Felix’s figure emerged before me, his clothes torn into pieces and his face tense.

“Madeline…” he called out in between breaths.

He tried to reach for my hand, but I stepped back in anger. “Get away from me!”

“I’m not here to hurt you,” he sounded desperate as he extended his hand to hold my arm, but I snapped it away.

Hearing that, I scoffed in disdain, looking at him in utter disbelief. “Oh really? Because you sure didn’t seem to have a problem with that when you promised Amanda, you’ll reject me tomorrow!”

Guilt glinted in his eyes. Looking around in worry, he gritted his teeth, frustratedly saying, “I… I didn't know… they’d try to–”

“She’s over there!” His words were cut off by a loud, furious voice, followed by several pairs of footsteps rushing in my direction.

My breathing hitched.

Looking at Felix with disbelief, I asked, “You lured them to me, didn’t you?

Couldn’t he just set me free?

“No! Of course not!” he denied. After looking behind him in panic, he rushed beside me and grabbed my wrist tightly, snapping, “You need to trust me! Right now!”

Struggling to pull my hand from his grip, I sceptically looked at him. “Trust you? After everything I heard? Do you take me for a fool!”

With that, I managed to pull my arm away from him and turned to go in a different direction, but he blocked my path, frustratedly brushing his fingers on his hair and messing it. “I… I didn’t know what to do, alright? I never wanted any of this to happen. I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“Well you already did, so–”

“I swear, Maddie!” he called out in frustration as he cut me off, holding me on both my shoulders to force me to look at him. Taking a deep breath, he softly spoke, “I really didn’t mean it to be this chaotic.”

Chaotic?

I narrowed my eyes at him, and that’s when I caught a glimpse of more and more palace guards rushing toward our direction, getting nearer.

They were looking for me. No… By the look of it and the aggressiveness in them, I’d say they're hunting me down. Me… A princess, being hunted by the palace guards.

How ironic was that?

“What’s happening?” I asked in confusion, my heart pounding hard in my chest.

I knew they’d try to look for me eventually if they noticed me gone. After all, I wear a title. But I didn’t know it to be too soon or too aggressive. By the looks of it, it’s almost like I’m some kind of criminal on the run.

Felix looked back again in frustration. He momentarily pointed behind him before begging me, “I’ll explain later, okay? But right now, if you don’t come with me, they’re going to kill you!”

My heart stopped beating。 “K-kill me?”

He nodded grimly, eyes shaking with guilt and so many more emotions I didn’t catch on. “Mark and… Amanda… they… I don’t know, okay? All I know is they learned that you rejected me, and Mark’s got the palace convinced that you’re dangerous now.”

“Dangerous, how?” I voiced out.

Mark’s my father’s Beta and his cousin, making him my uncle. He’s been respected by the entire royal clan and pack members for his awarding duty… but now he’s telling them that I’m what…?

Breathing heavily, Felix explained hastily, “You ran, and they thought you went Rogue. They think if you stay alive, you’ll threaten the kingdom.”

I swallowed hard, having difficulty processing his words. “They wanted me dead?”

“Well, wasn't that surprising?” I thought sarcastically. They always thought I killed my mother and treated me like shit. The majority of the kingdom’s members were probably rejoicing now.

“Yes! Now, please… just let me get you out of here, and then you can do as you please…” he begged in a low voice, eyes locked behind us as he watched over the direction where the footsteps grew louder.

Guards’ shadows flickered through the trees, closing in on us.

Seeing as I didn’t have much of a choice, I looked at Felix with uncertainty, “If I go with you… how do I know you won’t just hand me over?”

“Because…” His words went softer, even with a hint of regret in it, as he pleadingly said, “Because I can’t just stand by and let you die.”

He shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know what’s happening anymore. I don’t know what to believe… but I know I can’t let this happen to you.”

I locked eyes with him, studying him for a little while.

Indeed, he might have sounded like an asshole earlier, but he had always been good to me. A friend to me. Something only he was willing to do.

Defeated, I sigh. “Fine…”

Wasting no time, he grabbed me by my wrist and pulled me deeper into the forest. We weaved through trees, dodging branches as the guards’ voices behind us grew louder.

“She’s close!”

Gritting his teeth, Felix turned to me. “Faster!”

Forcing all my strength, I ran faster with him until we had enough gap between them to have a second or a minute of the window. But as much as we wanted to make that gap larger, we found ourselves cornered at the edge of a steep cliff.

Staring down the edger, a few rocks dropped, and it took too long before it reached the bottom, sending panic within me.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I panted.