Chapter 45

I screamed in pain. Dominic’s blade was stuck between my ribs and he wasn’t in a hurry to take it out.
My dress began to soak with my blood. Mattias was beginning to cry harder while still clinging to me.
“How could you do this to me,” I gasped. “In front of my child!”
“I don’t give a shit about you or your child,” he replied angrily. “You will return to Apex Woods with us to answer for your crimes.”
“What the hell is this?” A man asked nearby. “What’s going on here?”
It was Sahid the pimp who had tried to woo me to become one of his girls on my first day here. He was dressed only in a pair of pants and his naked torso was sweaty.
“Mind your damn business,” Dominic hissed at him.
“I know the redhead,” said Sahid. “And that makes this my business.”
Dominic unceremoniously removed his sword from my body, cutting my flesh in the process. I cried out in pain again but he ignored me.
A small crowd of spectators was already gathering around us but Dominic was unbothered. He waved his bloody sword at Sahid as a warning.
“You’re a wolf aren’t you?” Sahid asked him.
“An Alpha wolf,” Dominic replied.
Sahid shrugged. “A Beta Lycan is just as good as an Alpha wolf,” he said.
“We’ll see about that,” said Dominic confidently.
He went after Sahid but the Lycan dodged his sword swiftly. The crowd which I now realized consisted of Lycans, began to cheer the fighters.
“Let’s go,” said Mattias, tugging at my skirt.
I clutched my wounded side and limped away with him. We were completely ignored because all eyes were on the fighters who had since shifted into their wolf forms.
I hoped Sahid and everyone else fighting to defend my life would survive the anger of the Woods Alphas. Their obsession with me was indeed a source of concern but I couldn’t worry about that now.
The others had since disappeared into heavens-know-where, leaving me and Mattias to figure out or escape together. I didn’t want the poor boy to be separated from his sister again, so I started to call out to my pack.
As I limped past a house with Mattias beside me, a woman stuck her out through a window when she heard my voice.
“Jade! I knew that voice sounded familiar,” she said.
It was Freya, Nana’s daughter. I nodded at her and continued walking.
“Come here!” She called me. “Where are you going?”
“We have to find the others,” I answered with a groan. My wound was deep and that meant it would take a long time to heal.
“Not like that,” she said and came out of the house. “Come, let me help you first.”
“Don’t worry,” I said and pushed her hands away when she tried to hold me.
“And who is this?” She asked when she saw Mattias.
I ignored her question and kept walking.
“Come on, Jade. Let me help you,” she insisted. “If you’re running away from someone, you’re doing a terrible job at it. You’re dripping blood everywhere.”
“I need to find the others,” I repeated.
“Sure, you will. Come with me first.”
I gave up arguing with her and followed her instead. I needed to rest and focus my energy on healing this ghastly injury that was wearing me down.
She took me into her small but tidy home. We entered through the kitchen and Freya got to work as soon as we sat down.
She got a towel and some water and cleaned my wound. She told me to lean back on my chair and relax my breathing.
As soon as she began to wave her hand over my injury, the cut began to seal up. I felt my flesh and muscles joining back together. As my skin began to close up, so did the pain evaporate too.
Within a few minutes, I was back as new. No cut, no pain. It was amazing!
“How did you do that?” I asked in awe.
She smiled and shrugged. “It’s my thing. That’s what I was born to do.”
“Thank you,” I said gratefully.
“Any time,” she replied. “Who did this to you?”
I told her about the Woods Alpha and how they had descended on my pack barely an hour ago.
She sighed and shook her head sadly. “They’ll never stop, Jade. They’ll keep coming after you until either you or they are dead.”
“What do I do? I’m tired of being hunted like prey,” I complained. “I just want them to leave me alone.”
“Then destroy the necklace. That’s the thing that keeps bringing them back to you. They’re obsessed with you. They don’t want you but they want you.”
“That’s confusing!” I said.
“I know. If you ever get your hands on the necklace again, bring it to me and I will destroy it for you. That’s the only way you can be free of the triplet Alpha.”
I sighed. “Mattias and I have to get going. We need to find his sisters and the rest of the Gypsy Pack.”
“You need to leave them alone,” she said quietly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The longer you remain with them, the more you expose them to danger.”
“But what about Hycinth? I can’t just abandon him again. He is out there right now, risking his life to save mine.”
“Jade!” Someone called from outside and I almost jumped out of my skin.
“I know you’re in there. I heard your voice just now!”
“Who’s that?” Freya asked me.
“That’s Gertrude, Hycinth’s mother,” I replied wearily. “Come on, Mattias. Let’s go.”
When I reached the door, Freya put a hand on my shoulder and said, “If you ever get your hands on that evil necklace again, bring it to me and I will destroy it for you.”
I nodded and left. Outside, Gertrude was standing there with the meanest frown on her face and a bloody axe in her hands. A handful of Gypsy Betas stood behind her, looking exhausted and angry.
“Get the boy,” she commanded one of them.
He stepped forward immediately to snatch Mattias away from me. The boy yelled in protest but his grandmother silenced him with a look.
“I am going to give you a chance to escape with your life,” she said coldly. “And that’s because Hycinth loved you.”
“Loved me? Where is he?”
She swallowed hard and blinked away the tears that threatened to betray her. “Those demons that came after you killed him. They killed my son because of you!”
I sank to the floor in shock. “No!”
“Yes, Jade. Yes!” She shouted at me. “My Hycinth is gone because of you. They tore him apart! I can’t even bury him because there’s not even a piece of him left for me to grasp.”
Every description she gave, cut me like a blade. My beloved Hycinth was gone! He had died while trying to protect me.
“Now that you have done your worst, I think you can finally leave us alone now,” said Gertrude. “Take your bad luck with you and leave us alone.”
“But the children – “
“Will be fine without you,” she said sternly, cutting me off.
“Please, Gertrude,” I begged her. “They need me.”
“No, they don’t,” she snapped. “We will be migrating to the north right away. If I see you even ten miles near us, I will have you killed instantly.”
I gasped. “But – “
“No buts, Jade,” she hissed. “As the Alpha of the Gypsy Pack, I declare you banished from our pack. Never show your face near us again. Consider yourself warned.”
She turned around and walked away. The Betas followed her and all I could see was poor Mattias who looked terrified and helpless.
“Jade, come inside,” said Freya. She helped me to my feet and brushed the dust from my dress.
“No,” I said and stepped away from her. “Thank you, but no.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to put you in danger too,” I said. “You heard what Gertrude said. I’m bad luck and cause death anywhere I go.”
“Don’t say that, please,” she said softly.
“It’s true,” I replied. “Perhaps I should let the triplet Alphas kill me and end all this terror. I’m tired of running away, Freya.”
“So what do you plan to do?”
“I’ll go back to them,” I said flatly. “Please, don’t try to stop me.”
She sighed. “If that’s what you want. I’ll be waiting here when you finally find the necklace.”
I chuckled. “Don’t worry about that. You wouldn’t need to destroy it after I die.”
“And who says you’re going to die? You haven’t met your third mate yet, remember?”
“I don’t want a third mate. I want to be left alone.”
“Don’t bite my head off, I’m just the messenger,” she said with a sad smile.
“Whatever…” I said and walked away.
I had no idea where I was going but I kept walking. Gertrude hadn’t told me if she succeeded in killing the brothers or not, so I’m assuming that they were still alive.
If that’s the case, they would find me soon enough. I wondered what happened to Sahid. Did he survive his clash with Dominic?
“There she is!” A familiar male voice said near me. “I was wondering when you would finally show up again.”