Chapter 15: AND IT WARMED MY HEART

**Ellen Evans**

My whole body ached over. I felt it, even in my subconscious.

I slowly opened my eyes as I roused awake.

The light of the sun instantly went into them and I quickly shut the both of them, wincing at the slight pain.

I turned slowly to my side and opened them again.

I was surrounded by lots and lots of green vegetations.

This was not my prison cell?

Where was I?

I raised myself into a sitting position and stared around me, taking note of my surrounding with my still sleep clouded eyes.

Why was I here?

A familiar wolf broke out of the woods, coming towards me.

I did not feel any fear because despite my sleepiness and muddle headedness, I knew that I knew that wolf and it could not harm me at all.

Then, I remembered the black wolf from last night. The one who had allowed me to ride on his back.

That must have been a door because the whole events of last night came pouring in after that.

I remembered everything instantly as I sat up straighter, the sleep in my eyes now gone, nowhere to be found again.

I remembered the jail break, all of it. I remembered how those wolves had rescued me from my prison cell and taken me away to the southern border.

Was that where I was now? The southern border?

It must be because I was still surrounded by the green of the forest.

I remembered striking my arm on a thorn of sleeping Landis and going straight into an unwanted slumber.

But there was no sleeping Landis here? I thought as I looked around again.

How had I gotten here now?

I rubbed the spot where the thorn had pricked me. I've been pricked by sharp objects too much of late.

The morning before I had felt sick and the prison guard had brought a doctor to see me. The old man had pricked me with needles too on various places on my body, like being sick and emetic was not enough. It had been so painful.

But, I felt really better after that. He was a good doctor.

I was instantly alert against the wolf which was now so close.

Then I remembered also who that wolf was.It was my brother, Zedd.

How did he find me?

No, wait! Was he the one who had brought me here?

I quickly stood to my feet, alarmed. He would be killed if he was found with me.

I was a traitor to the crown at this moment. And after an escape like that, I was a traitor to the entire kingdom.

If Zedd, the Alpha's Beta was found with me, the prince would not be able to spare him at all.

He would think that my family had been in cohort to fool him.

We may all also be accused of sabotage and treason as well.

"Zedd!" I called to him as he reached me. He shifted and I instantly looked away.

I hated to see my brother's nakedness.

I heard him take his clothes and the sounds the material made as he put them on.

"Nice going Ellen."

"Huh?" I asked as I turned around in confusion. What did he mean by that? Did he think I escaped by my self?

He had put on his trouser and was now turning his shirt inside out.

"You are so stupid that you got pricked by a thorn of sleeping Landis," he teased me. I realized he was irking me on purpose because he was angry about something, mayhap something that i had done.

"It was a mistake!" I defended my self before him. He pulled on his shirt and buttoned it.

"A silly one. I thought you were dead," he finally said what was making him angry. Oh! Had he cried? I did not dare to ask him because he would scold me badly.

"I am sorry," was all I said to him. He nodded at me.

"Apology accepted."

"How did you find out I was in the forest? Why did you carry me here? What if you are found here, with me?" I threw the questions at him in one breath. He raised a brow at me. "I promise I did not escape from the imperial prison on my own Zedd. I was helped by some wolves. They brought me to the southern border last night."

"I never asked you any of these."

"I know. I- I just wanted to let you-" he interrupted me then.

"Stop babbling Ellen," he instructed me. I closed my mouth and let him talk, leaving the work to him. "Your absence has been discovered and the prince has sent scouts out to find you and the other prisoners. And yes, you did not do it all on your own, that I know because I planned it. The jail break, your escape and every other thing," he explained to me.

"You did what?" I asked, astonished by all he had just confessed.

He had released other imperial prisoners just to have me get out?

This was treason.

And he could die, no, we could die, no, our family could be cleanly wiped out by the Alpha because of this.

"Zedd," I said to him when he gave me no reply whatsoever. He must have been thinking of what to say to me.

"Ellen, I never abandoned you," he said to me with solemn eyes. "I was just waiting for the right time to get you out. I could not do anything that would put all of us in any sort of trouble. That is why all i could do was send you food and clothes and make sure you were comfortable in that stupid place that the Sebastian put you."

"It was you?" I asked. He nodded. So it had been him who had done all those for me and not the Prince? Talk of high hopes. What had I been expecting?

"Look Ellen, I know this was all Elena's plan. You-"

"You know?!" I snapped at him fiercely, interrupting  him. "Then why did you not say anything in my defense?"

"Remember Ellen, I did not want any harm to be fall sly of you. Doing that would have had the both of you instantly killed. And that is why I have brought you here now.The Alpha is not in the Harné pack currently. He will be back soon. That is why you need to leave the pack now Ellen. That is the only way you will survive. Escaping has made you guilty already and no words you will say can remedy that."

"Where do I go then? I have never left the pack," I say to him. He shook his head and came to hold my shoulders.

"Ellen, I have prepared a traveling pack for you. There is as much money as I could get, clothes and food. I have hidden it at the southern border.I will give you a map little sister. You can decide where to settle."

"But Zedd," I began.

"We do not have much time Ellen. You could be found anytime. You have to leave."

"Zedd," I said as I embraced him. "I am scared."

"I know that you are. But Ellen, I know also that if anyone can pull this off it is you. Ellen, you can do this." I nodded as  I released him. "Come, let's go." He took off his clothes and handed them over to me before he shifted. I mounted him and he sprinted to the southern border.

We arrived soon and he shifted back. He wore his clothes and brought the traveling pack out of hiding.

"Here it is Ellen. Keep it well. I wish I could go with you. But if I do, the Alpha will know that something is up and come after both of us."

"I know Zedd."

"Thank you Zedd."

"Do not thank me. This is something that I must do for you Ellen as your brother. Do not ever contact anyone but me, do you hear me?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"Be safe," he said to me as I crossed over the southern border line. He stood there watching me till I was out of sight.

I knew it.

I felt it.

And it warmed my heart.