His Wolfless Bride

CHAPTER 9: The Sudden Shift

Captain Haile’s rejection is like a thousand daggers stabbing me all at once. The one part of me that’s incurably hit is my weakening, battered heart. Tears cascade like rain to my heated face. My vision blurs, but my throbbing head can still see Captain Haile’s equally pained face.

“No,” I mumble while my quivering fingers brush his cheeks. “This isn’t what you want. So stop doing this.”

“This is what’s necessary.”

His response solidifies that my well-being is not and never will be necessary to anyone, not even to him. I’m done with being unwanted!

Unable to unwind the sickening sensation, I sprint out of Emelia’s house. Though I can’t see well, I can feel that pairs of inquiring eyes are turning to me. My wounds throb again as I keep propelling to somewhere I haven’t thought about. The sensation that’s hurtling in my chest flees out of my mouth. Sobs, which are more profound and wrenching than Captain Haile’s, boom.

I didn’t have a life. Captain Haile gave me one. All this time, I’d been clinging to that life, but he suddenly let go. He thinks what he did was to protect me, but he just did that for himself!

The loose, sandy ground under my bare soles soon becomes wilted, reedy grass while the array of houses become gnarled, almost leafless trees. And a few more steps ahead is an agonizingly beetling cliff.

Perfect! My life has always been meaningless and worthless from the start! This isn’t a coincidence! The Moon Goddess wants me dead, so she leads me to my final destination!

The notion fills me with indignation.

“Moon Goddess!” I shout, still convulsively sobbing. “You know how much I cursed you for not giving me a wolf! You know how many times I questioned your purpose for bringing me to this wicked world! I thought that you got tired of my cursing and questioning so you sent Captain Haile into my life, but I’m wrong! You only temporarily gave him to me so you could hurt me more! Why did you make me suffer for so long when this is still the ending you want for me?! Why?! What have I done to deserve this miserable life?!”

The echo of my voice thumps against the restless crashing of the ocean waves underneath.

Slowly and fearlessly, I thrust my legs forward and only stop when I reach the edge of the cliff.

That’s right. This is better. Once I die, I won’t be abused, punished, starved, disrespected and rejected anymore. Dying is my best and my most convenient choice.

Thankfully, my once raging heart is now calmed, my once disjointed mind is now focused and my once throbbing wounds are now numbed.

I take a step, then another. Just when I’m about to make my fatal move, sudden blazing mad howls and growls grip me, hampering me. I turn to the direction where the chaotic noise is coming from. Then, I peer through the trees to get a grasp of what’s going on.

The wolves are fighting. But who and why?

The noise captures my interest, prompting me to leave the cliff. I rush through the forest, darting at several lifeless trees. Before I reach the forest edge, my body freezes while my mouth hangs open. Baffled, I hide myself behind a gnarled tree, watching as wolves from another pack infiltrate our territory and battle my packmates to death.

I’m too demoralized to even care about the well-being of my pack and our members. I’m more worried about choosing which kind of death will be better for me - jumping off the cliff or getting eaten by one of these wolves?

“If you don’t intend to fight alongside your pack, move out.”

I gasp and my shoulders draw close. That monotonous voice and that woody, leathery, smokey scent make my heart pitter-patter again. Why am I feeling this way whenever he’s around? I turn my gaze over my shoulders to see the tall, caped man, who'd given me a pouch of gold coins days ago, standing high and mighty. His face, though unbelievably handsome, is emitting a sinister aura.

“You!” I say. “What are you doing here and what’s going on?!”

“The Main Alpha of this pack and his officials committed the most unforgivable crime. Me and my men came here to ruin them.”

“Crime? What crime?”

My question doesn’t get an answer. The man directs his dangerously furious eyes to the chaotic, bloody scene, then to me. His fiery red left eye captivates me while his piercing gold right eye intimidates me.

“Are you gonna fight to protect your pack, wolfless girl? Tell me now, so I could kill you first.”

The deadliness in his voice shakes my core, forcing me to take tottering steps back. Why am I agitated now? I wanna die, right?

I swallow hard while setting my chin up and my shoulders back. “Fine, I’m about to commit s.uicide. You could do the honor of killing me.”

I close my eyes, draw a nervous breath and wait.

“There’s no honor in killing a weak and innocent werewolf.”

My eyes open, then clench. He preserves his deadly-looking expression as he walks past me. Weak! Weak! Weak! Anger boils. My fingers curl into my palms so tight, whitening my knuckles. I grab the man’s cape, then say with clenched teeth.

“Just because I’m wolfless doesn’t mean I’m weak!”

He smirks, the very familiar mocking smirk he gave me once before. “Didn’t you say you’re about to commit s.ucide? Isn’t that a form of weakness?”

The tightness of my face loosens and so does my grip on his cape. He’s right. Choosing to die is a form of weakness. But accepting Haile’s absurd decision is also a weakness. What should I do then?

“Do me a favor,” the man says. His smirk is gone and so does his scary expression. “Prove me wrong.”

With that, he turns around while tossing his cape off him. The next thing I see is a light-gray wolf leaping forward onto the battlefield.

‘Do me a favor. Prove me wrong’. Does he want me to stay alive? But why would a stranger want a hopeless, wolfless, worthless someone like me to be alive?

My eyes continue to follow the light-gray wolf. He sprints past several fighting wolves as if he has a specific target in mind. He jumps high and lands on top of a brown wolf. They roll over the ground and the instant I get a glance at the brown wolf’s brown eyes, angst bubbles through me. The brown wolf is Umber!

“Captain Haile,” I murmur.

Relax, Marguerite. Captain Haile is a skilled werewolf. He’s the Chief Captain of the Gammas for a reason. He’ll definitely beat that wolf with bizarre-looking eyes!

It’s stupid to silently cheer for a former mate who has just rejected me, but I still love him. I want him to win his every fight and this one is no different.

Umber fights gracefully. But no matter how marvelous his combat skills are, he’s nowhere near the level of the light-gray wolf’s. The light-gray wolf moves with swiftness and strikes with accuracy as if fighting is all he does his entire life. Umber’s brown fur is now stained with his blood. He’s limping and breathing through his mouth. While the light-gray wolf only has a single scratch on his right front leg.

“Captain Haile!” I yell, hoping he could hear me.

I wanna rush to his side and fight alongside him, but what help can I offer to him?

‘Do me a favor. Prove me wrong.’

Right. Fighting without the ability to transform into a wolf could be proof that I’m not weak!

“Stupid!” I grunt, quickly regretting my thought.

If I fight, I’ll surely die. Dying in battle without even making your opponent sweat is a weakness too! The caped man’s statement is so ill-defined that it absorbs most of my attention for a moment. When I return my attention to Umber and the light-gray wolf, they stop fighting and just stare at each other, motionless. I wanna believe that they only get tired of fighting, but by looking at Umber’s opponent, he doesn’t look near tired at all. In fact, he is ravenous for more bloodshed.

I watch with bated breath, anticipating what’s gonna happen next. Soon, Umber coughs blood, then judders. Panic gobbles me. I move out of the gnarled tree to rush towards Umber, but after several steps away from the forest edge, I stop when he suddenly, wrathfully waggles his body in an unspecified direction. His saliva spills between his jagged canines. And the liveliness of his eyes dulls as if his soul is sucked out of him. In a nutshell, Umber is like a deranged wolf, who has no other purpose but to prey. He goes on a rampage and anyone who doesn’t dodge him, gets injured or killed even if they are our packmates - the ones whom he swore to protect and serve. All the wolves have stopped fighting when Umber distracts their attention. My body trembles as panic escalates to fear.

Howls and growls squirm at the petrifying, bloody scene as Umber continues his killing spree. A much smaller brown wolf runs towards him, then shouts in tears,

“Please stop, my son. It’s me, Emelia!”

The depressing plea of Emelia is hurled to the side. Umber lunges at her. His canines plunge through her neck. He then violently shakes his clasped mouth, ripping his mother’s skin and flesh apart. When he’s certain that his mother is dead, he tosses her bleeding body to the ground. His next target is whoever his lifeless-looking eyes lay on.

How did this happen? Umber was just staring at his opponent when… I pause after realizing what might be the cause of the frightful change in Umber’s behavior. Could it be that the light-gray wolf uses some kind of magic? I've never heard of or seen a werewolf who’s able to wield magic before, but I cannot exclude that possibility coz it’s the only explanation that makes sense!

I’m so unfocused and I fail to realize that Umber’s next target is none other than me. His glare buckles my knees that when I attempt to step back, I stumble down to the dry grass. I was ready to die earlier, but now that death is presenting itself to me again, I’m reconsidering my thought of dying.

He bares his canines at me while growling. Fear congests the airflow in my body, making me wheeze. Soon, that fear immobilizes me. All I could do is scream.

“No, don’t kill me. Umber… Captain Haile, it’s me… Marguerite!”

Before Umber could make his next move, several wolves managed to hurl thick, silver chains at him, pulling him down to the ground and controlling his movements. The parts of his furs and skin that come into contact with the chains bleed. His harrowing howl reverberates through the abominable atmosphere. Not long after, the light-gray wolf comes closer.

“Make sure you properly secure that criminal,” he says.

Criminal?! Why is he calling Captain Haile a criminal?! And what did he do to Captain Haile?!