Chapter 17

Nellie jumped from the bed frightened, she had slept off crying. Looking around, Nellie could tell she was not alone in the room, she wondered if it was Earl. No, she had left him in the hall and she knew he did not come after her. Nellie began to panic, she was still drowsy from sleeping, she was not half awake either. Nellie was awake but she couldn't see, she wondered if it was night already,she didn't know how long she had slept for.

Feeling the bed with her hands, Nellie decided to use her powers, as a werewolf she could smell, hear and see things in a way normal humans could not. Nellie hated awakening her wolf because it was often difficult to control her, Nellie damned all odds and inhaled, she listened carefully for any unusual heartbeats and she heard it- two heartbeats. Alarmed, she immediately raised her hands to feel her eyes,her fear confirmed- the rogues were here for her and they had blindfolded her.

Why did they not bind her hands? Were they still in the castle? Will Earl come to save her? Who was she kidding? Earl had put her in her place just this evening, she knew he will be very grateful if they took her away. Nellie sighed in frustration, one thing was certain, the Rogues were going to kill her as soon as they stepped out of the castle, what she couldn't understand was how long it was going to take and why they were still inside the castle. Using her powers she tried to get into their minds, Nellie knew they were in the room but she just didn't know where…from the distance she could hear the faint heartbeats.

‘Lets kill her and leave her here'

‘How do we leave here without alerting them'

Nellie could tell why they were still here now, she contemplated giving up and just following this Rogues willingly, there was no point being here when Earl regarded her as nothing less than a servant. She weighed the odds, ‘lie back down and wait for them to take you away' or ‘fight and call for help' Nellie considered the later option, if she screamed she was sure there were guards outside wh will probably come to rescue, she was still their Alpha's captive anyway.

Groupling the dark, Nellie reached out for the ink and pepper on the dressing table, the only reason she was going to write was to let Earl know she was not leaving on her own. She considered writing what had happened in full but her adrenaline began to pump and before she could even write the first word one Rogue was standing by her side and pulling her to her feet.

With her eyes still in blindfold, Nellie could still make out images in the dark, one Rogue dragged to her feet roughly, her wolf was still fight to come out, Nellie followed them quietly, they dragged her towards the window and easily flung her out, two other rogues were waiting for her to land. She landed with her back on the empty flour, they made no attempt to even catch her.

"Let's go!" One Rogue shouted immediately as he landed.

"We should kill her here! She will be a burden to take out without being discovered" Another one chipped in.

"There's no time for that, let's go now!"

Nellie felt her leg, she was bleeding from a cut she had sustained during the fall. She decided she was going to fight these Rogues, she couldn't let them take her like a piece of chicken.

While they argued, Nellie slowly retreated into the darkness. She backed away quietly, careful not to draw their attention. Once the darkness engulfed her, she hid behind a wall and breathed in relief. Nellie examined her wound, it was a deep cut on her ankle. It hurt so bad but she held in the pain and tried not to cry, she was losing blood and she didn't know how long before the Rogues discovered she had escaped.

With her super vision, she studied the dark hall. It was a part of the castle she had never been to, probably because it was the outer part of the castle, walls and huge pillars. Suddenly the hairs on her neck stood up and the sudden increase in her heart beat indicated what she feared; the Rogues had noticed her absence. Nellie listened to their thoughts and she could tell they were furious, probably going to kill her as soon as they caught her, she made a mental note to remain where she was and pray they did not find her or go out and let her wolf take control. No, she couldn't risk it, there were four Rogues out there and even more and she was wounded, chances were that she might bring down all of them but that will drain her energy before she could go back into the castle.

The sudden realization that they could easily trail her because she was bleeding hit Nellie like a wave, if there was anything very enticing to the Rogues it had to be blood. Nellie did not have time to think because she was roughly grabbed by the arm from behind. With all the strength left in her, she yanked the hand away and charged towards the Rogue who had held her, when she landed on him it was not her human, it was her wolf. The force with which she landed on him took them straight out into the field illuminated by moonlight, reaching out for the first Rogue's face, she tore out the flesh of his face. Scratching and biting off at the same time, the Rogue soon gave up the ghost.

It was not long before two other Rogues came charging towards her, Nellie fought hard but she was losing it, her strength was failing her due to the bleeding from the wound. Before long she had torn the two Rogues down. There were no guards around this part of the castle and no one to help her, Nellie quickly dashed into the darkness, she had to get help before she lost consciousness, transforming into her human form, she moved into the darkness with the speed of light, she had to get help.

'Earl, save me'

Nellie could feel her energy draining, she was getting weaker by the minute, she reached down to check out the wound and was surprised at the amount of blood that was dripping. She could hear the two Rogues chasing from behind but she couldn't tell how close they were since her senses were very sensitive at the moment.

'Earl where are you?'

Nellie came across a hall hall and ran into it with a flash, she was still running when she pumped into someone. Her heart dropped in her throat but her nerves suddenly calmed when she inhaled the familiar scent. She recognized it even before she looked up into the hazel blue eyes that looked down at her. He held her up so tenderly and whispered in;

"Shhh. You are safe now"

For a split second, Nellie could swear she had seen something in his eyes, something soft and soothing, but she shook the feeling aside and blamed it on the dizziness she felt.

"You came"

That was the last thing Nellie whispered before she fell into a deep sleep.
••••••••••••••••••••••

Earl was boiling with anger, he was grateful he had found Nellie in time before the Rogues could get to her, he glanced at her unconscious form in his hands. She looked so quiet and peaceful when she slept, in a flash he was in his room. He gently placed Nellie on his bed and on impulse, he planted a soft kiss on her forehead, he removed a few strands of hair from her face and patted her cheeks softly.

Earl could tell her wounds were deep from the way she was bleeding, she observed the wound, a deep cut on the ankle and a few scratches. It was going to take longer for her to heal and something had to be done about the bleeding.

"Go get the healer!!!" He yelled at the guard who was standing outside the chambers.

He should have taken Nellie to Astrid's apartment but he couldn't trust Astrid with Nellie's life judging from how much Astrid hated Nellie. He sat beside her with her hands in his. He could hear her heart beating faintly and for some strange reason he could feel his wolf struggling to be let out. It almost felt like he could feel Nellie's pains.

Earl blamed himself for allowing her to go back to her room like that, he should have apologized and gone riding with her. Hel was grateful he had found her on time, he had followed her scent and her heartbeat led him to her. He still couldn't understand why, among thousands of people he could easily pick out Nellie's scent and heartbeat, it had been different even when Ina was here, her heartbeat was the same with every other person's, but Nellie's was different. Was it because she was an Alpha? The knock on the door brought Earl back to reality.

"Come in!" He half yelled.

"My Lord" Astrid bowed when she got into the room.

"Nellie is injured, treat her immediately" Earl barked, he was surprised at the state of urgency in his voice.

"My Lord, it would have been better if she was brought to my chambers" Astrid stated, she didn't like that the Alpha had brought Nellie into his room and worse still,his bed.

"Treat her there and immediately!" Earl half yelled.

"But her blood will stain your bed and…"

Astrid did not complete the statement before Earl yanked her by the neck off her feet.

"Your life depends on this, if Nellie dies from that bleeding, you die!"

With that, he dropped Astrid and she landed with a thud, rubbing her neck. She looked up at Earl surprised, he was willing to hurt her because of this stranger wolf, Astrid knew she was in trouble, there was no denying Earl had a soft spot for Nellie, but she had to do something. What if she infects the wound and makes it take longer to heal?

As if reading her thoughts, Earl turned around and gave Astrid a hard glare and a brow was cocked questioningly.

"If anything goes wrong, you die"

Astrid immediately got to work cleaning the wound, Earl watched her carefully. Nellie was as still as ice, her face looked so pale from losing so much blood. She didn't move or blink and her eyes were still shut. She looked like she was sleeping.

Earl ran a hand through his hair in frustration, how did the Rogues manage to come into the castle over and over again without detection, The Witcher was still not done with the antidote to sharpen their senses and repel the Rogues. Charlie was not back yet and he didn't know what was going on outside, he knew he could trust Charlie to handle the Rogues so he was not worried about that. He just had to stop them from coming in again, Earl paced the room in frustration, Ma'am Dodda was still recovering and now Nellie.

"I am done, My Lord" Astrid's voice cut through Earl's thoughts.

"What's her condition?" Earl moved closer to observe the wound now.

"She lost a lot of blood but she will do just fine with a few herbs to help her regain the blood, her wounds will heal"

"Good, you can go. I'll call for you if need be" Earl did not spare Astrid another glance.

She bowed and left. As soon as she closed the door, it burst open again.

"I thought I told you to lea…" Earl swallowed his words when he saw who stood before the door.

"Calm down, man" Charlie raised his hands in surrender.

Earl rolled his eyes at him.

"What is it like out there?" He asked.

"They were five, pretty brave of My Lady here, she killed three" Charlie breathed.

"That explains all the cuts," Earl sighed.

"She is a brave one and a brilliant warrior, I bet she would have finished them off if they had not dropped her from such height"

"What height?" Earl sounded surprised.

"You didn't know? How do you think they got her out of her room without detection? They dropped her from her window!"

Earl stood up immediately, "what? They dropped her from the third floor! Where are they?"

"Calm down man, the guards killed the remaining two"

"How the fuck do they keep getting here? What is that damn Witcher doing about all of this?!"

"It takes a little time to get every required ingredient for that antidote, My Lord," Charlie said in a calm voice.

"Just how long until he gets it all, until we all fucking die?"

"Earl, calm down, none of us is dying anytime soon"

The sudden knock on the door brought an end to their discussion, Earl looked up to Charlie, motioning him to usher the person in, he moved to the window and looked out, he imagined the pain Nellie was going through and the first wave of pain she must have felt on landing from that height.

"My Lord, I've come to clean My Lady. I brought her new clothes"

Earl turned around, it was Ariel, Nellie's maid.
He observed her for a while, contemplating.

"How about you let me do that?" He didn't know when he said that.

"What?" Charlie sounded very surprised.

"My Lord…"

"I said I'm going to clean her up"