17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ASHER’S POV
Trembling lips.
Teary eyes.
Tattered clothes.
Unkept hair.
Just to name a few.
The shock in her eyes is inevitable and I wonder why.
Why is she so shocked to see me in my own pack?
Wait… that isn’t the question I should be asking right now.
Why is running away from her pack at such an hour and in tears?
Is someone chasing her?
I look around and listen if I would here footsteps approaching but I don’t hear any. I turn to look at her again and my heart shatters in to a million pieces when I see the tears in her eyes.
“Alpha Asher” She calls yet again.
“Astrid, what are you doing here at this hour? What is going on?” I ask concerned and she starts sobbing gently as she plays with her fingers. She bows her head down and her unkept hair conceals her beautiful face much to my disappointment.
I like looking at her beautiful face and I love the way her eyes charm me every time I look into them.
“Astrid, I have asked you a question, now stop playing with your fingers and answer me” I command with my Alpha voice and she jumps in fright as she looks up at me.
“I’m so sorry for invading your territory Alpha Asher, I … I .. just needed to get away from that pack, from all of them” She says within hiccups and that catches my attention. I give her a piercing gaze and she immediately understands that I want her to ride on.
“Just earlier today, Tyr tried to rape me, but his father, Alpha Adolph intervened and I got saved, but just this evening, Alpha Adolph came into my room and tried to rape me as well, I …” Sniffles tears. “I… had to do something, I couldn’t just let him have his way with me, so when he got distracted, I hit him with a wood and fled away. Please Alpha Asher, don’t take me back there. I don’t mind becoming a slave in your pack, I would do anything you ask of me, just don’t take me back there.” She pleads holding both my hands as the tears keep falling from her eyes like a water fall.
Rape!
They are not just monsters, but they are horny monsters.
How dare they!
“Please…” her tiny voice comes through again and I look down at her in pity.
She must have been through a lot in her life. First she had to watch the tyrant murder her father before her eyes, then she served as their slave for fifteen years and now, they tired to rape her.
I’m glad she knows it was about time she fled that pack.
I stare at my hands in hers and clear my throat so she can let go.
I hate being touched unnecessarily but I don’t want to be rude by seizing my hands away form hers.
“I’m so sorry…” She apologized as she lets go of my hands.
“Come with me” I say quietly as I turn around and lead the way out of the woods.
Earlier, I was mad because Freya her postponed the visit to her father to the next day. I had expected her to bring Astrid over tomorrow and as her servant, but the moon goddess has sorted it all out for me. She has brought Astrid right into my arms and she would not have to work as Freya’s servant. On this basis, I will treat her like my guest.
The Moon goddess is indeed mysterious in her ways.
Once we get to the castle, I take her to one of the bedrooms in my chambers where she will be spending the night.
Tomorrow, I will ask the servants to arrange it to her taste.
Once in the bedroom, I notice she is staring at the room in awe with her mouth partly open. Her eyes are no longer teary but the dried tears on her cheeks do not fail to announce that she had been crying.
Her hair is no longer covering her face as she has stuck a few stands behind her ears. Her big ocean blue eyes keep scanning the roomed while a shy smile spreads across her cheeks. Her pink lips are quite dry but still look very beautiful. The white blouse she has on looks decent but the skirt on her waist is exaggerated.
It’s so big, that three dresses can be made from it.
I look down at her feet and that’s when I notice that she has no shoes on and her feet are… bleeding.
Shit!
“Sit on the bed” I order and she looks at me confused.
“Huh?”
“I said sit on the bed” I repeat with a much calmer tone and she immediately obeys. I walk over to the bed cupboard where I open one of the drawers and take out a first aid kit.
My mum always made sure to keep a first aid kit in every room in the castle. Now that she is gone, it’s Arya’s responsibility and she never failed to do so.
“Alpha Asher, you really don’t have to worry…” She starts to talk but a single stern stare gets her to shut up.
I take a chair and sit close to her while she keeps looking at me like I’ve lost my damn mind.
Once I’m settled before her, I tap my left thigh and look up at her.
“Place your right leg here” The moment those words leave my mouth, she pokes her head forward with her eyes wide open and suddenly blinks.
“You… you… want me to put my leg on your thigh?” She asks shocked.
“I believe that is what I said”
“But… you really…”
“Astrid Tiva Tarlishi! I do not have all the time to sit down here and attend to you. You would be doing both of us a favor by doing as I have instructed, immediately!”
“Oh… sorry” She whispers as she reluctantly lifts up her right leg and place on my right thigh. I put on my gloves and take out the bottle of alcohol from the box and some cotton.
“When werewolves are trying to escape from danger, they shapeshift into their wolf forms to avoid issues like this. Don’t you know that?”
“I know, I just didn’t want to come into another pack in my wolf form. I could get killed immediately, but in human, any one with a good heart will take pity on me, like you have” She explains and it actually makes sense.
If I had met her in wolf form, I would not have recognized her and considered her a rogue who has come to cause trouble and I would definitely have injured her.
Tss… may the moon goddess forbid I ever do such a thing.
There is a pin dropping silence as I gently take care of her wounds. She keeps flinching and wincing every now and then as I use the alcohol to disinfect her wound.
They are not serious wounds though, just a few bruises and cuts, everything would be gone by tomorrow. We are werewolves, so we heal fast.
When I’m done, I keep the first aid kit in it’s position and turn to face Astrid.
“You take a bath before going to bed. You’ll find everything you need in the bathroom and there’s a pair of pyjamas in the wardrobe, you can wear it to bed. I will check on your first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Thank you very much Alpha Asher, I appreciate you taking me in”
The only thing I do is smile and walk out of the bedroom, gently closing the door behind me.
I lean by the wall and let a heavy breath I didn’t even know I was holding.
Why does she affect me this much?
From the first day I set my eyes on that girl, I have not been able to get her off my mind.
It’s scary how all of a sudden I want her to be nothing but happy and comfortable, her tears take me two years closer to my grave and I automatically hate everyone who has ever made her suffer.
I have this urge to protect her, to make sure that she’s living comfortably, but I can’t explain why.
What is the moon goddess up to this time around?
I exit my chambers and walk over to that of my late father’s.
I need to go into his office and think. I do that every time I am faced with a challenging situation and mysteriously, I always figure out solutions when ever I come in here.
I wanted to get Astrid out of the Black Wood Pack, away from that tyrant of a man called Adolph. I intended to use Freya to do so, but right now, she has ran straight into my arms.
I’m happy how all had turned out, but I know it won’t just end here.
Alpha Adolph will come for Astrid, he will ask me to send her back to his pack, which I will not do. Right now I need to figure out how to keep her and my entire pack safe as well.
One thing for sure is that, Astrid is not leaving this pack for the Black Wood Pack or for any other Pack at all. She is here to stay.
“Dad” I whisper as I take a seat on his office chair and spin around with my eyes closed. “I’m feeling things I can’t explain, things I don’t think I’m supposed to feel, but that is not the problem right now. Father, I need you to tell me what to do, how to ward Adolph off. I don’t want him to take Astrid away from me, if you were here, you wouldn’t let that happen either. That’s why I’m here to ask you what I should do. Please father, show me a way out.” I whisper with all seriousness with my eyes still closed as I keep spinning the chair around.
I swear, being an Alpha is not at all a days job.
I bring the chair to a halt and the moment I open my eyes, they fall on a table drawer. The first drawer up, on the right.
I very well know that drawer.
My father forbade anyone from touching it. It always had its key in the lock, just hanging there, but none of us ever had the audacity to open it after the warnings given by our father.
I crease my brows and inch closer to the drawer. It still has the key in the lock and all I need to do is open it up and see what it is that my father has always forbidden us from seeing.
I let out a heavy breath as I stretch my had forward and get a hold of the key.
With utmost caution, I turn open the lock and once it opens up, I pull out the drawer and behold, what I see takes me off guard.
A dagger.
There is a dagger lying in it and it doesn’t look like any ordinary dagger.
“A dagger” I whisper as I cautiously pick up the two edged sharp sword that features a cross guard to prevent the hand from riding towards the sharpened blade edges.
I rotate my hand and scrutinize the blade with an awed expression on my face.
So all these years, my father forbade us from seeing this dagger?
What is so special about it?
I look closer on the brown wooden cross guard and that’s when I see a writing on it which reads, “The dagger of purity” scribbled in italics.
I want to chuckle, but I don’t, because I believe that this is serious.
My father was not the type to make such a fuss over something unimportant.
If he didn’t want us get any close to this dagger, it means there is more to it than what meets the eye.
It is no ordinary dagger.
I quietly place the dagger back into the drawer and lock it up.
I’m going to discuss this with Rowan tomorrow.
We have to figure out why our father kept that dagger away from us.
Who knows, it might have a vital role to play in redeeming this werewolf world of ours.
Just great!
I came to my father’s office to get answers to questions that keep buzzing on my mind, but now I just found something that seems even more disturbing than the current issues at hand.
I don’t feel too good about this.