Chapter 4
Less than five minutes later, hurried footsteps echoed down the hallway.
Kaelen stormed in. He hadn't even had time to grab his coat.
Panic was written all over his face.
He crouched down, reaching out to touch me.
His movements were so gentle, as if I were made of glass.
Finally, he cradled me in his arms, holding me sideways with utmost caution.
His embrace was so warm.
There was a pleasant scent clinging to him.
I buried my face in his chest.
The tears I'd been holding back finally spilled out, soaking through his shirt.
He paused mid-step, squeezed me tighter in his arms, and hurried to the warm chamber next to his bedroom.
He set me down gently on a soft couch covered with bear pelts.
Then he poured a warm cup of honey water himself and held it to my lips.
He only relaxed a little once he watched me sip it slowly.
"If he bothers you again, call out to me in your mind." Kaelen gently brushed the dust off my face with his fingertips.
His voice was hoarse. "I'll keep you safe."
*****
Three days later came the yearly full-moon night, when lunar energy hit its peak.
According to the ancient traditions of the wolves, even the weakest werewolf had to go to the edge of the Forbidden Woods tonight to undergo the yearly moonlight baptism.
There, they would absorb the sacred power of the wolves, bestowed by the full moon.
Raymond pulled rank as the prince and held patrol duty for the night.
He'd bribed a few bully wolves who always picked on weaker folks in advance.
They ambushed me halfway and forced me deeper into the Forbidden Woods.
"Go on, get in there, you wolfless bastard." The leader spat at me and slammed his boot into my back.
I went sprawling into a patch of thorny bushes.
The sharp thorns raked my arms and legs.
Blood seeped out, dripping onto the decaying leaves.
They didn't dare to finish me off, afraid that the Alpha would find out and have them executed.
But they dumped me deep inside the Forbidden Woods, where feral, savage wolves ran wild.
For someone like me, a half-blood who couldn't even shift, there was no way I'd survive until morning.
All that would be left of me would be a pile of gnawed bones.
They could make it look like I wandered in by accident, and no one would suspect them.
Clinging to a nearby tree trunk, I struggled to pull myself upright.
I could only watch as their figures vanished at the edge of the woods.
The moonlight behind me was completely blotted out by the dense canopy overhead.
All around, the rising and falling howls of wolves echoed through the darkness.
Tonight was the full moon, when every werewolf's instincts burned at their strongest.
Even low-ranking werewolves that seemed gentle normally would turn wild and lose their minds once the lunar energy hit them inside the Forbidden Woods.
I pulled my knees to my chest and huddled behind an old oak tree so thick three people couldn't wrap their arms around it.
I shook nonstop from the cold, and I was starving.
The last half cookie I'd snuck out of the warm chamber got snatched by those guys earlier.
The mental link between Kaelen and me was eerily quiet today.
I couldn't sense him at all.
Later, I found out that Kaelen didn't want his own weakness from Raymond's earlier mess to drag me down, so he took a brutal, once-in-a-hundred-years backlash on purpose.
He ripped apart our fresh mental link and locked himself away in the throne room's secret chamber, coughing up much blood.
All so that, when I was teetering on the edge of life and death, I'd have no choice but to unleash every ounce of my potential.
I ran my fingers over the cool fate necklace hanging around my neck.
That faint cold touch was the only thing calming me down right then.
Every bit of hurt and unfairness I'd carried for eighteen years crashed over me all at once.
I thought I'd die here tonight.
Suddenly, there was a rustling in the grass at my feet.
Two weird green glows lit up slowly deep in the pitch-black woods.
It was a huge black-maned wild wolf, bigger than a full-grown male lion.
Fresh blood still clung to its sharp fangs, saliva dripped down its teeth, and a low, thunderous growl rumbled in its throat.
It locked eyes with me, a defenseless prey. Then it lowered its body, pushed off with its hind legs, ready to leap and tear my throat open.
My heart hammered wildly, and I was shaking uncontrollably.
I couldn't even muster the thought of running, but I squeezed my eyes shut, drowning in despair.