Olivia’s POV
“Andre…”
“Olivia, what are you doing here? You need to hide. I told the nurse to hide you.”
Andre was dressed and ready. He knew leaving our room would make him an instant target.
“Andre, I can’t let you go alone. I want to come along. I want to help you. Please let me…”
He pulled me in and kissed me deeply. As his lips pressed against mine, tears streamed down my face.
“Olivia, I can’t explain how much I love you, and I would kill myself if anything happened to you. I want you to be safe, for me and our child. I need you to hide.
“but Andre…”
“I promise I’ll come back to you.”
The nurse walked up to me, took my arm, and Andre disentangled himself from my embrace.
He walked away and didn’t look back while the nurse dragged me into our room.
“Miss Olivia, we have to go. We must hurry to the secret bunker Miss Hailey told us about. You can’t be here.”
“But Andre…”
“Your beloved will be fine. We must hurry. Miss Hailey is waiting for us.”
I was reluctant, but I allowed the nurse to pull me along.
We met Hailey and she looked pale with fright.
“My family is looking for me too. We must hurry Olivia. They can’t find us else we’ll be done for.”
She grabbed my arm, and we hurried along the corridors. We soon got to Hailey’s room, and she locked the door firmly behind us.
She touched a tile on the floor, and a room appeared beneath us, deep into the ground.
“How did you find out about this bunker? Doesn’t your family know about this?
Hailey shook her head and urged me to enter the secret room.
“The house never originally belonged to my family. It is actually one of the houses that the Royals of Solvan had. I just discovered the secret room in my bedroom some years ago and it’s a good place to hide anytime I didn’t want anyone to find me. We must hurry. We don’t have time to waste.”
We all hurried into the secret room, and Hailey closed the tile above us.
No sooner had we settled, we heard a loud bursting noise above us and Hailey immediately clamped my mouth shut.
“Where is she?! That bitch betrayed us!”
My tears streamed down my face even hotter.
I already knew about the diversion. Jonas had agreed to meet Andre at the battlefield, and Andre knew that once he left, Jonas would send his guards looking for me.
The stomping continued, and the angry guards finally gave up and left.
We were finally able to breathe, but I was still unsettled, and all I could do was cry as I imagined the horror Andre was going through.
“Olivia, you have to stop crying. We can pray; we can pray to the Moon Goddess to ensure that your beloved wins.”
My body felt heavy, and I trembled too much to utter a word of prayer. I closed my eyes and prayed silently in my heart.
“Goddess, if this is really your wish, let Andre return to me. Let him return to me unharmed. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I found out that he was hurt. Please protect him.”
I was miserable, and though Haley had food stashed in the bunker, I refused to eat anything.
The Alvida grew concerned and worried.
“Crying will be of no use, princess. Remember, you are with a child, and this stress is unnecessary for the baby.”
I however refused their words of comfort and continued to wail. I wanted all this to be over. I wanted Andre to come back in one piece.
Hailey spoke up and placed her hand gingerly on my shoulder.
“I know you miss your mate, and I believe that there’s a way that I can help. Though, I don’t approve of you seeing the gruesomeness of war. There is a window, and I think through it, you can see the battlefield. I understand that you are worried about Andre and I think you can peep on what is happening through there.”
The tears in my eyes dried up quickly, and I urged Hailey to take me to the window.
“Absolutely not!” Protested the nurse. “She is with child, and the evils of war will be too stressful for her. We must protect the baby at all costs. Her beloved asked us to keep her safe. Her and his child.”
“I don’t care what Andre told you!” I yelled back. “I want to see him. I want to know that he’s okay and neither of you is going to stop me. Hailey”
I whipped my head back around and faced her.
“Take me there. I need to see what’s going on. At least now I’ll see Jonas for the monster that he truly is, and nothing will give me more pleasure than watching Andre crush him. He deserves to pay for all that he’s done.”
My tears had given way to anger, and Hailey couldn’t resist.
“Fine, I’ll take you there.”
She took my hand and dragged me through another door in the bunker.
I was taken to a smaller room, and there was a single window in that room.
“There. From there, you could see the battlefield, and you didn’t have to worry about anyone spotting you. It is a one-way window. You can only see what is outside from inside here.”
I looked through the window. It was well hidden among some thick bushes, but I could see what was going on.
It was a bloody affair, and heads dropped and rolled on the ground. Wolves were tearing flesh from each other, and blood was being spilled the same way a toddler would spill raspberry juice.
Pierre and Sephora were fighting ferociously, side by side.
I craved my neck as much as I could and tried to make do with the narrow range of vision that I had. Where was Andre? Why couldn’t I see him?
I peered through the ranks as hard as I could, looking for him, and the seconds that passed by and I didn’t see him, my hope began to waiver, and my heart became heavier. Had he died? Did the blood ritual not work?
No, it was working. I looked again and noticed that our men were winning, and the casualties were mostly from Jonas’ side. We had a shot at winning this war.
“Can you see him? Can you see your mate?” asked Hailey, looking at me anxiously.
I peered even harder, squinting my eyes, and tried my best to focus despite the other fighters’ range of motion.
“I can’t…”
I gasped.
“Andre!”
It was his black wolf. It was unmistakable. It had to be…
I saw him fall to the ground, and another large grey wolf stood over him. I was frozen in fear and watched the wolf sink his teeth into his neck and pin him to the ground.
“No!!!”
I felt anger brewing inside of me, and I felt the energy in me on the brink of exploding.
I left the window, pushed past Hailey, and ran to the other room.
“Miss Olivia, did you see your…”
I ignored the nurse and escaped the bunker, escaping Hailey and the nurse’s clamoring hands, desperately trying to fight to bring me back down.
“Olivia, where are you going? You have to stay here. You have to stay hidden.”
I kicked them off and left anyway. My eyes were bloodshot red, my muscles were tense, and tears were streaming down my face.
I didn’t care what Andre said. I was going to help him whether he liked it or not.
As soon as I got into the hallway, I heard a loud shout.
“There she is! Grab her!”
I lost control of myself, and Nima burst out of me in her brown-golden glory.
My wolf was massive, towering above the men. They tried to shift into their wolves as well, but I swatted them with my paw, and I slammed against the wall, watching them fall to the ground, unconscious.
I barreled through the guards in my way as I ran down the corridor. I only had one thought in mind. Nothing was going to stop me from saving my mate.