Chapter 7

Harlyn It was late but people were still walking around. The only place I had a little fear about was the alley I passed when I was looking for a place to eat. Because of that, I retraced my steps and started walking back to the hotel. “Hey, beautiful, want to spend your night in my arms? I promise that I will treat you right,” A drunk-looking man said, stopping me on my track. I tried to avoid him and moved to the other side of the road but he followed me. “Don’t look so scared, I don’t want to hurt you I just want to pleasure you, I know you would love it,” He tried, I looked around and there were few people walking around and the man didn’t really look like he could harm me, he just looked drunk and out of his mind. Plus, he was human. I could tell because I couldn’t feel any kind of divinity in him that I would usually feel to distinguish between humans and shifters. I don’t know how I could tell but I just could. “Why? Don’t you want me to give you pleasure? I promise I will make you come so hard that you will forget your name,” He went on, trying to invade my personal space, I tried to push him out of the way but he was persistent. “I am sorry, please ignore him, he is drunk and out of his mind,” Another man said, coming to get the man who was trying to get me before I could say anything. I bowed to him and walked away from the both of them as fast as I could. I didn’t realize just how far I walked away from the hotel area until I started walking back and the further that I walked, the fewer people I saw, and soon, it was just me walking in the dark streets. I started walking faster and looking behind my back at first, there was nothing out of place but then I could suddenly feel someone behind me, I increased my pace, thinking it might be the drunk man but when I looked back, there was no one there. I continued walking while berating myself for thinking it was a good idea to leave the hotel when it was already late. I should have ordered their food, no matter how expensive it was. It would have been better than this. My fear increased when I felt even more presence, I knew for a fact that whoever was following me wasn’t human. I could feel it. I felt more presence around me and realized that whoever was following was not alone. At this point, my heart was beating so hard in fear, that I broke into a run but the more I ran the more they followed. As I reached the alley that I passed earlier, I came to a halt, considering my option which wasn’t much. I could risk going through the alley and arrive at my hotel in five minutes or run in the other direction and probably get lost because I didn’t know my way around. I chose the former and ran into the alley. Bad idea. As soon as I entered, I noticed a lot more presence. It was too late to turn back because when I did, I finally saw the ones who had been chasing me. There were four of them, I turned and saw another four. “God,” I cried. I already knew this was the end for me, I stood there waiting for the worst to happen. I couldn’t help myself in any way and even if I could, they outnumbered me and they were males. They started circling around me, not so close that I could see them but close enough that I could feel their presence around me. “She is mated,” I heard one of them say, they knew, even though I already bathed twice, I still carried his scent. The scent of the one who rejected me and sent me out of the pack. Suddenly dying didn’t feel so bad. it was the end of me anyway, I carried his mark and all shifters would know at once that I was already mated, if not by his scent that he left on me, they would know by the mark he left on me. He made sure to ruin me before he sent me out of the palace and the pack. I didn’t even offend him in any way, I didn’t seduce him. He did everything and still, I was the one that was being punished for it. If he hadn’t called me into his chambers that night, I would have been sleeping in my small bed by now and my only problem would have been not being able to shift and Princess Sophie and her stupid friend Ava. “Yes, his scent is strong on her. must be pretty recent,” Another voice said. “Must be a crazy mate, he let her out of his sight, this is why I hate wolves, they act all mighty but can protect their mates,” Another said. I turned to where the voice came from, I couldn’t make them out but their eyes. I knew what they were. Panthers. My fear increased when I realized what they were. Panthers hated werewolves as much as vampires did, even more, if I was being honest. Why did I have to be so unlucky? Dying at the hands of the Panthers was the worst possible way to die. I looked around trying to see if I could find my way out of here but who was I kidding? There was no way out. “She is ours now, his loss our gain, we are going to have so much fun tonight, I can’t remember the last time I had a wolf.” Fuck, they were not just going to kill me, they had other plans for me and none of the plans were good. “Let me go, please,” I pleaded looking around as they finally started revealing themselves. They were huge, and they didn’t look like they were going to show me any mercy. “We are not going to hurt you, okay? We are just going to make you feel good, I know you know how good it feels because you were recently mated but we will make you feel even better,” One of them, who might be the leader, said as he walked close to me and grabbed me, I let out a loud scream before he covered my mouth. I struggled to be free from him but he was stronger. “She said to let her go, why are you still holding her?” I heard another voice say as I continued to struggle, this voice was different, he wasn’t one of them but that doesn’t mean he was any good either. “Fuck, we saw her first so she is ours, look around, I am sure you will find another unsupervised female wolf, this one is ours,” The leader who held on to me said and the others with him growled in response. They looked like they were ready to fight. “What to do, she is one of my kind and I can’t let you fuckers take her,” I let out a small cry when I heard it was a wolf that was talking, maybe I wasn’t going to die after all. The one that held me growled even louder and refused to let go of me, his hold on me got even tighter. “You will have to fight us, and look, you are outnumbered,” He growled and before I knew it, I was dropped on the ground with so much force that my head hit the ground and I felt dizzy. I tried to get up as they started fighting around me but I couldn’t, I felt the darkness taking me away, and I tried to fight it. to try and run away while they were distracted but I couldn’t and slowly, I gave in to the darkness…