“He claimed you as his!!! Do you even know what that means?” Makeala exclaimed in excitement and circling Selena, who is now sitting solemnly on a single chair, in her room
“Yes I do, Makeala. It means I’m just a mere property to them. That they can declare who owns me and who doesn’t anytime, may place they want as if I’m a slave in this pack. For your information, I am not anyone’s property!!!” Makeala jerked her head back in surprise at her point of view.
“Makeala, I am really tired. I feel like my head is about to split open. I need to rest for a while, if I am going to Lake Khalifa today” Makeala nodded and walked out of the room.
Selena thought tumbled free. For a minute, Orion was trying to talk her into eloping with him into the woods and Makeala had to come for protection. The next minute, Zaden interfered taking her away. The image of Zaden claiming her as his, only made her even more agitated. She doesn’t want to go to the lake or shift into a form where she is not in control of when they can puppet her in a form that she has control over. Soon she fell asleep.
Hours later, a knock on the door woke her up. She opened the door and Zaden was there, clearly pissed off.
“You were supposed to come down at 11 pm, baby girl. It’s 11. 45. I have been waiting for you” he kept his glare intense the whole time he talked. A protruding clear blue vein crept up his neck, he looked strained accompanied by a cold face.
“I’m not coming,” Selena said with almost the same intensity and pushed the door to close. The door stopped abruptly with a thud. Pushing it open by his palm, Zaden paced step by step into the room. His anger radiated throughout his whole body, intimidating Selena. She took a step back every time he took a step forward.
“Why?” his question came out with a low growl
“I don’t want to,” Selena said, subconsciously coming out low.
“You don’t want what? You don’t want to shift to a wolf? You don’t want to be a werewolf? You don’t want to go with me? You don’t want to be anywhere near me? You don’t want what?” Selena thud against the wall. She had reached the end of her room–helpless, terrified, claustrophobic. A part of her wants to believe he wouldn’t hurt her but then there is the logical part, the human part, that contradicts, saying he is a colossal wolf hidden within a human form. Accidents happen and if Zaden accidentally hits her, she will die.
“Or you don’t want to defend yourself when one day, Ozrain Samrat comes to stand in front of me and snatch you away because believe me when I say, he will. Are you telling me that you are killing the Ozrain Samrat within you and letting Elisa Mitkoi, live? A weak, fragile human, who was unable to defend herself, her daughter, and the unborn child in her womb…”
“SHUT UP!!!” in a snap, her wolf took charge, standing in a semi wolf form, her eye glaring with anger. Zaden let his wolf take control as well. Selena grabbed his neck with her nails digging into his flesh.
“How dare you talk in such a way about her?” the whole room turned chilly. Her wolf is extremely defensive over Elisa Mitkoi.
“Who do you refer to as weak? The person who is not equipped with the ability to fight back or the person who used her disability to kill her? Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘pick someone your own size’? One of you a pathetic werewolf decides to pick on her. Now tell me Alpha Zaden, whom will you pick to fight, Ozrain Samrat or Elisa Mitkoi?” she growled in anger, her grip didn’t budge and caused a slight strain to Zaden.
Her anger is overpowering that she is willing to hurt her mate. Her growl vibrated through the wall, waking up the whole floor. Zaden could have knocked her off in a second but as she said, he is not going to fight the weak ones, even if it means he getting killed. Instead, he tilted his head down against her restraining grip. His golden eyes glowed accompanied with a deep frown, looking straight into her pitch black and she returned him with a piercing stare as well.
Then, all of a sudden, she softened and flinched back. She had to admit that she really wanted to hurt Zaden, at least to herself. The realization was bitter and she let go of his neck as if she had been electrocuted. Her eyebrows frown, regretting what she had done, pacing back, hindering Zaden. He softened as a gut-clenching pain surged him at her retrieval. His mate-bond is teaching him to coddle her, even though it’s not his forte.
“Baby…” he stretched his hand grabbing her waist
“Baby… look at me…” he said softly, in a whisper.
“No… no…” she grabbed her head and slides down to the floor, slipping off Zaden’s hands.
Wailing cry for help ringing in her head, just like it did with the python but she is in no position to help. She is in her own conflict. She curled up on the floor, grabbing her hair into a fist, letting out a painful scream. Zaden kneeled next to her, worried as hell for her. He pulled her up and hugged her while rubbing her back to calm her down. His touch helped a lot to clear her mind.
These animals had done nothing wrong. Now, they need her and she must go. She shifted in a second, in Zaden’s arms, forming a wolf that is bigger than Zaden’s human form itself, resting chin on his shoulder. Zaden pulled himself back, looking at her in amusement. He caressed behind her ears gently and the beast cooed, rubbing her head under Zaden’s neck, causing him to chuckled at the overgrown puppy before getting to work, what he has to do now.
‘Pack of Mountain Manuka, get into your houses, NOW!!!”
Zaden mind-linked his whole village, alerting all the leader’s pack, including Orion as they rushed downstairs. They stopped abruptly when they saw a magnificent silver wolf squeezing through Selena’s room door, followed by Zaden.
“She shifted inside?” Orion asked in confusion
“Who is that?” Makeala asked
“Who do you think?” Orion
“Selena?” they all chorused and Orion nodded
Selena paced step by step forward, her shoulder blade moved in sync with her steps and a snarl edged her lips. Her eye is pitch black as usual but her eyeball is all red. She didn’t actually give out any order but she exerted a dominant aura that made everyone in her path bow in respect, not submissive.
An angry Samrat’s wolf with Alpha Zaden backing her up–a deadly combination. She stepped down the stairs, reaching the ground floor, and head out of the house. The silver wolf rolled her neck and concentrated, trying to narrow down the location of the wailing cry. Then she snapped her head east and started running. All the leader’s pack shifted and ran behind her.
‘Territory pack, disperse, NOW!!!”
Another mind-link boomed out. She ran along the mountain foot, already crossed 5 mountains and heading to the sixth, which is the boundary between 2 villages
‘Young Village residence and territory pack, disperse, NOW!!!”
On the 7th mountain, Selena started to run uphill, maneuvering through the trees as if she is familiar with this forest, moving a tad faster than the rest. Approaching the tip of the mountain, she started sniffing around and let a snarl. Zaden smelled it too, rogues. Selena jumped off the ground, thud her paws against a large tree, twisted her body towards another tree, and thud her paws again, moving in a swift zig-zag, till she reached the top of the tree and shut down as if she is hiding. The other wolves are not good at climbing trees, not this fast anyway.
‘Shift’
Zaden ordered so that it will be easier for them to hide too. The whole pack is naked now, and they hide behind large trees. The surrounding vicinity became silent. Only cricket chirping can be heard. All of a sudden, a low grunt of what sounded like a gorilla came from nowhere. The pack looked around but they can see nothing.
‘Nobody move’.
A deep husky voice invaded their mind-link, it was Selena. They stayed in the position for an hour or so, before twigs started snapping, and out came 2 rogues from behind the bushes with a human– poachers. They came standing right below Selena and looked at the ground, crouched down. They seemed to be happy
“Well well well…look who is here, an uninvited guest,” one of the rogues said as he tilted his head up, looking straight at Selena. The human followed his head and pointed his gun, as soon as he saw Selena.
The pack leaders agitated but another stern order from Selena put them back in their place. The hunter fired a shot. From far, they can see that it was a silver bullet glimmering through the air, made to kill a werewolf. Selena remained calm standing on all four legs above the tree. Just when the bullet was about to hit her, she jumped to the next tree and zigzagged down to the ground, stretching her paws hitting the hunter directly on his face. He dropped his gun but the rogue, with a cocky look, took another gun and pointed at Selena. She remained calm. The rogue waited for her to make a move but she didn’t budge. Finally, he lost his patients. The pack heard a shot but Selena still haven’t made a move. Tension was rising as all of them started breathing heavily. Maybe she got shot. Another shot was heard. A few seconds later, they heard her commend
‘Shift…’
They shifted into wolf form and jumped out only to see Selena dragging one of the rogues by his ankle, his head hitting every tree and rock on the way. Selena’s eyes filled with rage and snarl on the mouth biting the ankle. She headed straight to Orion and dropped the rogue in front of him. She nudged Orion and turned back to get another rogue. Orion looked close at the rogue, his hand was holding the gun and his chest was bleeding, which means he shot himself. Selena dropped another rogue at Orion’s feet and went back for the hunter, dropped him to Orion’s feet as well.
She then went back to the spot where she climbed up the tree previously and jumped downwards to the ground. All the other wolves except for Orion came rushing to her. There is a huge pit dug down there, a trap enough to fit an elephant but today, a mountain gorilla fell into it, with her baby, wailing to save her baby. Selena stood chinned up in front of the gorilla, poised and glorious. The gorilla bowed to her with not much hesitation. She then grabbed the baby gorilla and jumped out of the pit, placed the baby down, and jumped back in for the mommy. The mommy was a bit heavy for her that she couldn’t jump out with her on the back and so, Zaden jumped in to help. He laid down for Selena to climb up him with the gorilla. She did and the others helped from above to pull out the mommy.
Zaden looked at Selena and with a graceful posture, she bowed thankfully to Zaden, for the first time. Something pulled the alarm in him and he didn’t want to let her bow, even to her Alpha. He snuggled his head against her neck, lifting her chin, inhaling her wonderful smell and cooing soothingly. When they had jumped out of the pit, Selena didn’t pay any attention to Orion. Hence the rest of the pack followed her, walking past Orion.
Images of his mate bleeding from a silver bullet in her heart flash again and again in front of Orion’s eye. His blood started boiling, his eyes turned red. Zaden and the pack heard a painful scream from behind them. They paused for a second but then resumed their walk, heading to the brick house.
Orion had ripped each and every joint of the 2 rogues and a human hunter. He is now covered with blood, looking like a Satan rose from hell, yet a sense of peace surged within him. He could feel the wind blowing against him better, he could smell the air around him better and he could run a tad faster, as he felt lighter than ever. They might not be the same person who killed his mate since he never saw them. At this moment, he is grateful that he never saw the poacher who killed his mate or else, his rage would have been focused only on that particular one but now, every rogue and poacher feeds his anger.
The walk home was awkward for the leader’s pack since they couldn’t take their eye off Selena. Orion came thudding behind them, covered in blood and they all scrunched away from him. Selena looked over her shoulder at Orion, examining his state before switching course and headed to a river nearby and jumped in. All 5 joined in and the night went by just like that. They reached home and climbed upstairs in their room before shifting to human again. They all slept at 4 am in the morning and woke up late the next day, missing their morning resistance training.