Chapter 2

            The sunlight burns my eyes through the window and it almost seemed like I'd been set on fire.

            

            I remember everything. I remember Alpha Maverick hitting me and pushing me against the walls. I remember how I almost died.

            

            I must've woken up because of the sunlight on my eyes or because of the inaudible whispers coming from the hallway.

            

            "We cannot have her here, Celeste!" A man's voice speaks "we are in a hideout damn it!"

            

            He's upset because of me.

            

            "She's pregnant for fuck's sake, Alerik! Have some pity on her! She has been through too much." 

            She's sympathetic for me.

            

            I think I'm forgetting the part where she said that I'm pregnant?

            

            How can I be? This cannot be. 

            I tried to get off the bed but I find myself falling back, my head nearly falling off. 

            When I finally manage to get off the bed, I'm facing a mirror by the side. I've had change of clothes and I feel much warmer. My hair is still dirty but it's better now.

            

            I watch my reflection on the mirror, the two voices falling behind me.

            

            My eyes looks shallow and my neck looks thinner. My eyes falls on my stomach and I instinctively put my hands over it, cradling it

             How can I be pregnant? After our mating ceremony, Alpha Maverick had only mated with me a few times. And those times he never seemed to enjoy them. So how could I have gotten pregnant?

             

             But how long will I continue to pretend that I didn't see this coming? I'd expected to get pregnant and to carry the Alpha's heir sooner than later, and I'd thought he would love me more when I give him a son. But right now I am just being in denial based off my current predicament.

             

             

             Just then, I heard footsteps getting closer and I turned around to see a woman walk in, a man behind her. I recognize her face a little. She was the one hovering over me last night. She saved me.

             

             She seemed stunned to have seen me standing.

             

             "I can leave...." Was the only thing I could think of saying.

             

             "Of course not! You're in no shape to leave. Not in your condition." She brushes me off quickly.

             

             "I'm carrying a child......" My voice breaks but I manage to complete my statement. "right?...."

             

             I don't know why but seconds after saying that I'm crying tears.

             

             "How did you get here?" The man asks me, irritation in his face, almost like he wanted me out of here right now.

             

             "Alerik, give the woman a break." The woman warns him.

             

             "She needs to leave, now," he says "I am the leader of this group and I decide who stays and doesn't."

             

             "I can leave." I say again.

             

             "You cannot," the woman says "those bites can be poisonous and if you do not get them treated every day, it will be bad for the baby."

             

             "How did you get bit by those blood thirsty dogwalkers.?" Alerik says to me

             

             "The what? I don't.... I don't know... I found myself here." I manage to say.

             

             I thought about leaving after that, and maybe get rid of this baby. I'm free now and I do not want a constant reminder of Alpha Maverick. But something in me just couldn't kill my own child. 

             

             So I stayed at this pack.

             

             Days later, I discover this was a rogue pack and they were in hiding. 

             and I remain with them for months until I had my baby. Alerik remained spiteful of me. He would glare at me wherever I went. Celeste remained nice to me, and took care of me.

             

             When I had my baby, it turned out to be two boys. I felt happy and sad at the same time.

             

             Celeste had let me stay in her inn as there's no much houses on the camp. So she helped me give birth to my boys in her house. It was the best experience ever.

             

             Two weeks later, Alerik got me my own place. He said it was his way of congratulating me. I was happy that I could finally have a place I could call home and be with my sons. 

             

             Unknown to me he had other plans.

             

             Five days after moving into the house, I was seated around watching my sons sleep when I noticed him entering my room.

             

             "Alerik, I didn't know you were coming." I call, standing up immediately.

             

             "Yeah, I'm just checking in." He says as he looked around.

             

             I started having a weired feeling. It's late in the night and it's unlike him to care so much to come to see us.

             

             "Do you need anything?" I ask him.

             

             He started towards me, his hands tucked in his pants pockets as he shrugged "no." He said.

             

             I step back before he could reach me, my back hitting the wall. His eyes watched me in a way that felt uncomfortable. His eyes watched my eyes, and I don't miss how they dropped to my lips, then my swollen breasts.

             

             "I asked if you needed anything." I repeat.

             

             He moves closer, almost closing the thin line between us before saying "I think you know."

             

             "What......" Before I could get a word out, he's turning me around forcefully, binding my hands behind me and whispering into my ear "if you scream, I would slit your throat right here with this knife and have your babies tossed into the river before the day breaks," I feel the cold metal of his knife sliding along my neck "and nobody would ever know."

             

             I tried to fight him off me but he presses the edge of the knife on a vein on my neck.

             

             "Get down." He commands and I slowly lower myself to the bed, my eyes moving over to see my babies moving in their crib.

             

             When I started feeling him undoing his pants behind me, I felt a tear slide down my eye.

             

             When he forced himself on me, I struggle not to scream in pain. I'm still healing from having these babies and now he forces himself on me?

             

             After that night, it became a regular routine. Alerik would come into my room in the night just to force himself on me and he wouldn't let me go to my babies when they're crying. The pain was overwhelming and I realized I wasn't even strong enough to fight him anymore. 

             

             I cannot report him to everyone at the pack not just because of the threats he never fails to remind me every time, but because he's a man feared by everyone in this pack and wouldn't dare to challenge him.

             

             This continued for two months until I realized I couldn't do it anymore.

             

             So one night, before he could make it to my house, I took my babies and left.

             

             

        ***

        

        I hear dogs barking in the distance as I continued to run. 

        Nolan and Kieran are crying in my arms as I run through the snowy forest.

        

        A moment ago I'd gone across a group of lycans in the middle of the coast. Big, feisty men that looked nothing like men I've seen before, with big, hefty war dogs in their midst.

        

        Maybe I shouldn't have run. Maybe these dogs wouldn't be chasing after me now.

        

        I continue to run, my breath threatening to stop. 

        My eyes catches sight of a cliff up ahead. There better be land below that or if I make that leap, I'd be dead. 

        

        I'd be killing my own sons.

        

        As I get closer to my freedom, a long spear comes crashing towards me, the tip of it grazing my cheek before landing on the ground. 

        The agonizing pain forces me into an abrupt stop, giving the war dogs the perfect chance to pounce on me. 

        

        I fall over, my hands going frantically to cover my babies just before I hit my head on a tree. They're awfully quiet now and it scared me.

        

        I hear one of the men laugh from the distance as I crawled with my babies against my chest to reach the tree.

        

       Strong hands grabs me and drags me back, then tossed me over. My head is heavy and I could feel lood trickling from underneath my hair from the tree impact. 

       

       I come face to face with a man with a scar that looked too deep on his face. He laughs again and moves back.

       That's when I saw the other men that moved closer. 

       One particular one continues walking towards me. It's hard to see his face from all the fur he had covering his body.

       

       I try to speak but my mouth felt paralyzed. 

       

       His face looms closer over mine before he said "is it true that you stole from my men?"

       

       No...... 

       

       "Let's see what you have there." He says as he reached for the clothes covering the babies and pulls it away.

       

       I notice him moving back immediately at the sight of them as my head started hurt more.

       

       "A baby? She has two babies..." He says.

       

       I'm slowly losing consciousness now. 

       

       Surprisingly, he stretches his big hand to me and says "come on, you don't get to die today."