After staying awake for so many hours, it’s finally midnight, and Cassie stands up from the bed. She has arranged some of her clothes and tied them up with one cloth earlier in the evening after she was sure that Zoey was asleep.
Carefully, she stands up from the bed and tiptoe to where her cloth is, and picking them up, she holds them firmly to herself and takes a deep breath. Glancing back at Zoey who’s fast asleep on the bed, her heart hurts badly that she’s going to be leaving her dear friend, but does she have a choice? It doesn’t seem like she does.
Her attention is driven to Milo, who’s also fast asleep on the floor, looking so tired. Cats are not deep sleepers, but it’s unclear how he has been sleeping without knowing that she is awake.
Taking a deep breath again, she wipes the drop of tears that just slid down her cheek. Many questions run through her mind as she stares at her innocent friend. She wonders if she’s doing the right thing. Will she regret this later? Will she not get herself into trouble with what she’s about to do? But recalling that she’s not worth anything to the alpha, and imagining the war that’ll occur between the two brothers if she decides to stay back, she made up her mind that there’s no reason to stay back here.
She strides to the door and pulls it open. Shockingly, the door didn’t even make a sound as usual, and her footsteps is muffled under the floor. She peeks right and left in the hallway once her neck is outside, and realizing that she has all the chance to run away as there’s no guard around, she steps out of the room and closes the door behind her, before making her way to the garden.
She finally arrives at the garden and as expected, Astrid is already waiting for her there.
“You’re finally here. Come on, let’s go already, we don’t have all day,” Astrid whispers to her, and she nods her head.
“Where are you taking me?” She suddenly asks out of the blue, and Astrid halts her walk abruptly. For the next thirty seconds, she stands on the spot without looking her way.
Staring at her unmoved, her heartbeat increases rapidly. Now she regrets making this decision in the first place. How could she have trusted her? Isn’t she stupid to have trusted her?
“I… I… Don’t want to go again,” She wanted to yell, but her voice rather comes out in a whisper, and her eyes slowly widen in shock as she wonders what was wrong with her.
Finally, Astrid turns around to face her. She removes the hoodie cap from her head, revealing her deadly face but the person is not Astrid… It’s another woman entirely. Someone she has never met all her life.
“Wh… who are you?” She stutters nervously, terrified by the sight before her. Slowly, the strange woman’s smirk slowly widens into an evil grin, as her eyes turn bright yellow with a touch of greenish color.
“I finally get to meet you. It was simple than I thought. Welcome to your new home, Cassie,” The woman says to her, and her heart sinks into her stomach. Her legs wobble on the ground.
“Somebody help me! Do… don’t come close to me…” She stutters, taking slow and steady steps backward. Now, the realization hits her hard that Astrid had set her up to be captured by this female monster.
“Don’t bother to call for help… Nobody will hear you. The guards are all asleep, and the alpha… I have covered my scent, so he won’t know that I’m here. Nobody will save you. Do you want to come with me willingly, or should I force you?” The woman whispers.
Turning around, Cassie picks up her heels and starts running to the door that leads out of the garden, but she suddenly feels dizzy before she gets to the door. She tries to keep her eyes open, but the more she tries to, the heavier they become. She tries to move her legs, but they feel stuck. Slowly, she turns around to see the woman walking slowly toward her, and with every step that she takes, she feels herself getting consumed by her dark aura. The smirk on her lips makes her feel as though her soul is leaving her. All she sees around the mysterious woman is danger. Her aura, smirks, her walking steps, all scream nothing, but doom. Her doom is standing right before her, and ready to consume her.
“You can’t run away from me, Cassie…” The way the woman calls her name, no one ever called her like that all her life. She gives special intonation to her name and also makes it sound so scary.
She slumps to the ground when she feels her leg too heavy and weak to carry her again. Her heart beats rapidly against her ribcage as if it’s going to force its way out of her anytime soon. She wants to scream out for help, she wants to cry her eyes out, but her voice failed her, and tears refuse to come out of her eyes. She gulps down the lump that keeps forming in her throat almost every second.
The woman finally stops in front of her. She stares down at the scared Cassie for a few seconds, squatting down in front of her afterward.
Having the monster so close to her, Cassie finally loses it. Her breath stops abruptly, and her eyes blank out. That’s all she remembers…
The next day inside Damien’s room…
His body feels numb as he forces his eyes open. It feels as though he had sleep paralysis over the night, but he knows that’s not the case. Someone must’ve done something to him, but he can’t bring himself to wrap his head around what’s happening to him right now.
He tries to stand up from the bed, but his whole body feels so weak that he can’t move. Slowly, he touches his forehead and shut his eyes tightly, taking a deep breath.
Still trying to get his strength back, he suddenly hears a voice outside, wailing.
“Please I need to see the alpha. There’s a problem…” He quickly recognizes the voice to belong to Zoey. Strangely, he stands up quickly as if nothing happened to him before. Depriving himself of thinking about what happened to him, as all he can think of now is Cassie, he scurries to the door and pulls it open to see the guards stopping her from breaking into his room.
“What’s going on here?” He asks her.
“My lord… Cassie… She… She’s gone…” Hearing this, his mouth drops open as his face dilates in shock.
“Gone where?” He asks confusingly, pulling a questioning look.
“All her clothes are gone, and there’s no trace of her in the castle,” Zoey replies worriedly, almost in tears.
Hearing this, his heart tighten in pain as anger spur through him. Slowly, he clenches his fists and grits his teeth…