Zarelle's POV
I ran through the dense forest, lungs burning, with my heart thundering a frantic rhythm against my ribs, matching the desperate beat of my feet.
I was finally free from that castle… I was free from Lucien, my stepbrother's castle.
For a month, the Devil Lycan King made me his prisoner, keeping me by his side in his gilded cage. Today, he was my prey.
My feet ached from the cuts and scratches inflicted by the rocks and thorny plants that had torn at my skin as I dashed through the rugged and shadowy forest, each step a painful reminder of the wild landscape surrounding me, but I couldn't slow down.
Not now, not when the borders of the Lycan pack were in view. I only needed to cross the border to the freelands, cross the swamps, and finally reach my pack.
If I had a wolf, I could have shifted and blurred through the trees.
If I weren't a "defect," I could have teleported to safety. But I was the pack's disgrace—wolfless, fragile, and forced to rely on two human legs that were currently failing me.
And now that I have finally completed my mission, now that I've done something that is going to make Tyler and my pack proud of me for the first time in my life, I was over the moon seeing the border so close.
'I'll no longer be the unworthy princess. Alpha Asher and Tyler would be proud of me,' I inwardly cry in joy, but my joy was short-lived.
Angry voices echoed through the forest around me, voices I recognized so well: they belonged to Lucien's men.
"Keep looking; I don't think she has gotten far," Trevor, Lucien's beta, yelled.
'Shit!' I inwardly cursed, looking around for a shortcut.
I should have known my plan was going too smoothly… The moon goddess never liked me. It wasn't a surprise that I was the cursed one in my pack.
"This way!" Another voice yelled.
"There are traces of blood here," said another.
I tore through the foliage, taking a shortcut to reach the border.
"Over there!" Someone shouted just a few steps behind me, but I couldn't stop.
I dash forward blindly, the air in my lungs burning from exhaustion, but I push myself to run faster because I know the fate that awaits me if I am caught.
Lucien would never forgive me this time… My sins were too much. I was the traitor who had betrayed and drugged my stepbrother, the devil Lycan king himself, so my people could finally claim victory.
I can already imagine those cold eyes locking with mine again. That suffocating aura of power.
Those dark orbs staring at me without emotion as he strangles me for my betrayal… no remorse, no hints of gentleness… until I'm a cold corpse.
After all, I finally proved to him I was an enemy.
The thought fuels my legs. I ran faster than I ever thought possible because I didn't only fake being in love with him to gain his trust, but I also took advantage of his trust in me to gather information and betrayed him.
The morning coffee had been the killing blow. I'd laced it with Shadowthorn Venom, a lethal neurotoxin that turns a Lycan's greatest strengths into their undoing.
Right now, Lucien's legendary senses would be a distorted nightmare of hallucinations. I had crippled a king to save a pack that hated me.
It was a necessary evil to make the attack of the werewolves on the Lycans much easier. If the Lycan king is weak and cannot fight, the morale of his men would be affected, giving the werewolves a higher chance to win.
After spying on King Lucien and the Lycan pack for the past month, I reported every piece of information and security detail to my adopted father, Alpha Asher, the alpha of the werewolves, and today was the day of the ambush.
Alpha Asher and his warriors had infiltrated the Lycan pack to put an end to Lucien's rule once and for all, and the first thing Lucien did was to task his beta to keep me away from danger by locking me up in his room.
It was a highly secure room, but as impatient as I was, I had escaped and used the forest route to flee since it was mostly deserted, and I couldn't wait for the fight to end before seeing Tyler.
I missed him so much, and seeing him again was all that mattered. However, I didn't expect Lucien's beta and his guards to notice I had escaped and come after me when their pack was surrounded by enemies and in danger.
After 30 days of making sure Lucien believed I still saw him as my beloved stepbrother and also making him believe I had finally accepted his forbidden feelings for me, gathering information about the Lycan kingdom despite their hostility towards werewolves became child's play.
It was finally time to return home to my pack, and I couldn't wait to see Tyler again, but with the guards hot on my trail, I was beginning to panic.
A strong hand grabbed my dress, bringing me back to my senses. "Got you!" he snarled.
Not bothering to see who my captor was, I stomp on his foot with all my strength and pull away when he's distracted, causing my dress to rip, but I don't even pause and tear through the dense trees.
Unfortunately, I didn't make it far before my leg caught on a half-buried root.
I crashed forward, a cry tearing from my throat as I saw the jagged iron spikes of the border fence.
I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the impact. For the end.
But instead of pain, I felt weightlessness. The world folded. The wind died.
When my eyes snap open, I gasp in horror at my surroundings.
The forest was gone. I wasn't at the border. I was staring at the heavy oak doors of the master suite.
I was back in the devil's lair.
No… No… Why am I back where I started?
For several seconds, I couldn't breathe, couldn't move… I could barely think. I ran back towards the door, yanking it open to start all over again, but froze when I saw who was before me.
King Lucien Storm.
He stood there like a god of ruin. His black attire reeked of copper and death, and his silver-spun hair was matted with fresh blood.
He didn't just look angry; he looked like he had clawed his way out of hell specifically to drag me back down with him.