CHAPTER 4

It was a mother who was lingering on. She asked me to take her child away. I didn't want to care, but when I thought about losing my own parents when I was much younger, my heart softened. I met her badly injured almost at the point of death and with signs of rogues approaching, I quickly took the child away.

Not long after, I passed by the home of a classmate who had bullied me. Their house was stained with blood. The girl fell in a pool of blood on the porch, her eyes wide open and out of focus. I wanted to turn around and not look at her eyes, but I felt that she was looking at me.

Once, I was forbidden by the pack not to transform till I find my mate and my classmates laughed at me for this. If I said I didn't hate them, it would be a lie. But in the face of life and death, they were innocent. 

The further we went, the more brutal the battle became because the rogues attacked suddenly, the pack was not prepared in time and was obviously losing the unexpected battle.

There was more and more blood in the places we passed by, and the residents begged me to take their children away. Their pleading sounded as if they didn't know that they once thought of me as a murderer. Their desperate eyes looked as if they were going to die today. 

Finally, I made up my mind because I couldn't stand the tragic scene in front of me. Ana, my wolf, was getting more and more agitated and I was about to lose control of her. I put the children in the home of an elderly couple that were hiding safely and whose injuries were not too serious, and I pleaded with them to take care of the children for the main time. Then, I turned around and walked towards the fighting scene, where my brother and other pack warriors and young pack members were defending our pack from the numerous rogues. If the fight continued for long, we would indeed be completely wiped out because we were clearly outnumbered. 

I couldn't just stand there doing nothing. I was at a distance from the center of the fight and was watching how the rogues attacked my pack mercilessly. I was hungry and weak from the severe starvation my pack was making me go through and even if I decided to shift now that I've finally found my mate, who is none other than the Alpha, my wolf wouldn't be at full strength either and she wouldn't be a match for any of the rogues. With or without me, we were clearly outnumbered, still, my wolf was desperate for us to join the fight and prove to the pack that I was not as weak and lazy as everyone thought of me. 

Alpha Kol was injured, my brother was injured and so were many of my pack members which was clear evidence that we were losing the fight. No one knew the offence of my pack as the rogues wasted no time in attacking us all of a sudden, without any reason.

'Shift and fight' Ana screamed in my head. I summoned courage and shifted. My wolf took over as I ran towards the fighting scene.

Beyond my expectations, immediately I was spotted by a rogue, the rogue stopped fighting my pack member and fixed it's stare at my wolf form. Soon enough, as I got closer, some of the rogues made a noise and others, including their leader, stopped fighting my pack members and they were instead losing the fight.

My pack members became stronger and fought back as the rogues kept retreating slowly, to our greatest surprise. Alpha Kol looked at me and recognized my wolf due to our mating bond. But he didn't seem amazed or impressed, maybe because I was not helping the fight as no one was attacking me.

The way the rogues were frightened at my presence was strange to all of us. Only Alpha Kol recognized my wolf, my other pack members were wondering who it was because they've not seen me shift in years. 

The rogues were in total surrender as they started running away all of a sudden. The more I approached, the further they retreated till they all ran away cowardly.

"Shift" Alpha Kol commanded me.

All my pack members, some merely injured and some close to death with severe injuries, looked at my wolf form curiously. 

I shifted reluctantly and all my pack members that were still in their wolf form also shifted back to human. Everyone, apart from Alpha Kol, gasped with surprise to see that it was me.

"Are you so lazy to just stand there doing nothing to defend your pack?" Those were the first words of him. 

"But I...." 

"Katerina, those rogues ran away because of how ugly your wolf looked. Guess they've never seen such an ugly wolf before." There was a sudden burst of laughter from some of my pack members, to my greatest frustration. Others couldn't laugh due to their severe injuries but they smiled, finding the Alpha's words funny. Ana was so infuriaed by Alpha Kol's statement. 'He damn knows I'm beautiful' she yelled in my head.

"There couldn't be any other reason. You are not better than anyone of us in this pack. You are not strong, you are weak and lazy. What is it? You wanna tell me you have some special powers like some super hero that the rogues were afraid of? If you want to show your strength Katerina, you fight, rather than scaring people away with how ugly you look." Another round of laughter rose from some of my pack members. 

"With all due respect, my wolf is not ugly. She's very beautiful." 

"How dare you talk back at the Alpha."

A pack warrior that was merely injured, approached me with the intention of punishing me for talking back at the Alpha.