REALM OF THE LUNA

CHAPTER 4

“ARGH!” I screamed on top of my lungs as the wolf bit through my legs and clawed at my arm.

“No, no, no!” I cried out, the pain making me unable to focus on anything else. I raised my uninjured hand and grabbed the wolf by its ear, pulling as hard as I could, but the wolf fought back and clawed at my arm.

“Oh goddess, please! Please, no!” I sobbed, my throat turning raw at the pain as I thought of all the ways this could have been avoided.

The pain got so intense that vision started to turn hazy, and I was starting to fall unconscious. As my vision blurred, I saw a flash of movement in front of me just as the weight of the wolf on top of me was lifted as if it left abruptly.

Before I could figure out what was happening, darkness surrounded me.

~

I squinted as I opened my eyes to the bright skies. My head ached, and I didn’t know where I was.

“What am I…” I trailed off as I sat up and found a wolf a few feet away from me. It was lying on the ground, bleeding with its eyes closed. It was dead. And it was the same wolf that had attacked me earlier.

At the reminder of what had happened, I looked down at my leg and gasped when I realized that it had completely healed.

“What happened to me? How did it die?” I muttered, placing my hand over my mouth in shock. From how mangled the wolf looked, it most definitely didn’t die from natural causes. It was killed. How was that possible?

“You’re finally awake,” a voice said from behind me.

I gasped and stood up hurriedly, turning around to find a man with piercing green eyes staring at me with an amused look on his face.

“Who are you?” I asked as I got into a defensive stance. I didn’t know if I could fight this man off if it came down to it, but I would take my chances now that I had healed quickly.

“My name’s Riven,” he told me, crossing his arms and giving me a once over. “I saved you from that rogue wolf over there.

I looked between Riven and the dead wolf, and my defenses fell immediately. This man had saved my life, and here I was, trying to fight him.

“You killed him,” I muttered.

“I didn’t want to. I mean, I’m a rogue myself, and I understand what other rogues have to do to survive. I tried to talk him out of it, but he kept resisting. And then, he attacked me. I had to fight back, and I ended up killing him.”

As he spoke, I recalled the quick flash of movement I had seen before I had fallen unconscious. It was Riven, and he had come in at the right time.

“And you? Who are you? What’s your name?” He asked as he stepped toward me, his arms still crossed but his eyes curious as he took me in once again. “You don’t seem like a rogue. Did you run away or get lost?”

“My name is Anaya.”

That was the only thing I could manage to say to him as I started to recall why I had landed here in the first place.

“Anaya,” Riven said slowly as he walked toward the dead wolf and kicked it slightly. “You’ve been unconscious for three days, you know that?”

My eyes widened, and my brows shot up. “What do you mean three days? You’ve been out here in the woods with me for three days? Why didn’t you leave me here?”

I didn’t want him to leave me there, but it was shocking that he had waited out there for me to heal and wake up for three days.

“You would have died. The last thing I wanted was for your blood to be on my hands, even if you’re a stranger. I stayed here for those three days and nursed your wounds. I have to say, you heal pretty fast,” he said.

“Do you live out here in the wild, or do you have a home that you could return to?” I asked, wondering why anybody would stay out here for a stranger instead of heading home for three days. If anything, he could have taken me to wherever his house was.

“You seem a little too curious. Let’s save all the information about me until you tell me about yourself as well,” he said with a smile, c*****g his head at me.

Before I could speak, he added, “I believe you’re hungry. You should be. You haven’t had anything to eat in the past three days.”

“I know.” I closed my eyes as I placed a hand over my stomach and was reminded of just how hungry I was. “There’s really nothing to eat around, and I’m not going to eat the rogue wolf you killed.”

“I wouldn’t even let you eat him,” Riven replied as he approached me again.

“So, tell me something, Anaya. You never really gave me an answer when I asked if you ran away or got lost,” he said. “Which one is it? I have to make sure I didn’t walk into a trap you set out here.”

“Neither,” I answered. “I was framed for something I didn’t do. My mate rejected me, and my family turned their backs on me. I had no other choice but to leave the pack because I knew I had become their number one enemy.”

He raised his brow at me as he stared. Perhaps he was trying to figure out if I was telling the truth.

“And right now, you have nowhere to go?” He asked, and I nodded as shame filled me up. I hated having to admit that to a total stranger that had just saved my life.

“You’re going to tell me everything about yourself before I determine whether or not to take you to my hideout, and that’s only if you want to go. Do you understand?” He asked.

“I understand,” I answered. “And I would like to go. I have nowhere else. I can’t stay out here on my own.”

He crossed his arms and waited for me to start explaining everything about myself and why I had been framed.

“Before I start, I have to tell you thank you for saving my life. I can’t believe that’s not the first thing I said to you. Thank you for staying with me all these days and taking care of me. I don’t know how to repay you for…”

I trailed off as I raised my hand to rub my neck nervously but was met with soreness and a texture in my neck that was never there before.

“What is this?” I asked as I rubbed my neck and traced the texture to figure out what it was. And when I did, it felt as if someone had kicked me in the heart and had pulled it out of my chest.

“Riven?” I called his name suspiciously. He wasn’t speaking. He was just staring at the spot on my neck that I was touching. “Please tell me you didn’t do this.”

“If I hadn’t done it, you would have never been safe from the unmated male wolves that pass these woods every day. They would have sniffed you out, and I can’t fight them all off,” he said, indirectly confirming that he had done it.

Riven had marked me. I was his mate now.