Anny anyh

Amelia's POV

Amelia's POV

I couldn’t let Johnson’s men take me away. I told myself.

Not even if that was my last option. I knew all too well how ruthless and heartless he could be and how far he was willing to go just to prove a point.

Like his own father, who hadn’t cared about family when he had his brother sabotaged and exiled, all so that he wouldn’t be crowned Alpha instead of him years ago.

I had heard the stories and worse, I had overheard him teaching Johnson how he was supposed to be merciless to anyone, regardless of who they were, as long as they threatened his authority.

I couldn’t let myself be at his mercy.

“Let me go, Johnson!” I snapped as his men had begun to drag me out of his room.

“I have done nothing wrong to deserve this. Why would you have me locked up simply because I rejected you?” I snapped, forcing strength into my voice, pretending not to see how he was struggling to maintain his balance after the rejection.

I was feeling severe heart burns myself, a sharp, searing pain spreading through my chest, but I couldn’t explain it.

This wasn’t even how I was supposed to act if I were rejected.

Rejection pains were never like this, so I couldn’t understand why and how mine was this way.

“You think being branded a rogue would be any better for you?” he asked, laughing mockingly.

“You’re an Alpha’s reject, Amelia. No one would want you after this. Were you really thinking that someone would? You’re an omega joke, a second-hand used product. It’s not even as if the Moon Goddess grants people second chance mates that often. Face the fact that you won’t be able to survive outside of this pack!” he added.

I used all the strength I could muster to push the two men holding me away, my body trembling but resolute.

I couldn’t be taken to the dungeon. Not under any circumstance. I kept telling myself that over and over again.

Johnson began to walk out of his chambers on seeing me push the men away, his anger flaring once more.

Jennifer tried to hold me back, her hands reaching for me as if she still had the right.

“We should leave her, Johnson. Send her away from the pack so that we can have peace. We—” she began, but Johnson shoved her farther this time, enraged by her words.

“Shut up, Jennifer! The only good you are to me is as a s*x bucket and an outlet to have my heirs brought into this world! Don’t tell me what I should or shouldn’t do!” he snapped.

As if that wasn’t enough, he went on, his voice sharp with irritation.

“Send her away? Don’t be such a dumb and jealous woman. If I do, who would handle the responsibilities of managing the pack? Do you know financing or businesses that can generate money for Moonstone? Do you know how to solve disasters when they arise?” he asked.

“You are practically useless in those aspects!" He added.

I was speechless, bile rising up in my throat as I heard that.

That was all I was to him.

And now that I wanted to leave, that was why he didn’t want me to go. Because he didn’t want to lose control over me or my contributions to his pack.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? Bind her and throw her in the dungeon!” Johnson ordered again, his patience snapping.

The men reached out to grab me once more but then they paused.

Even I did.

Because something was happening to my body.

It was stretching and elongating, my bones shifting, my muscles tightening in ways I had never felt before.

Pain exploded through me, yet beneath, there was something else.

Power.

My wolf was finally awakening.

For a fleeting moment, I thought she was going to be an omega wolf, just like I was. Weak and nothing.

But then, everything changed.

A surge unlike anything I had ever felt tore through me.

To my shock she didn’t feel like an omega at all.

Both Johnson and Jennifer almost fell to the floor when I shifted, their bodies reacting instinctively to the pressure that filled the room.

“I thought she was supposed to be wolfless? Why did she shift and why is her wolf white?” Johnson shouted at no one in particular, his voice laced with disbelief.

Jennifer’s mouth hung open in shock, her earlier arrogance completely gone.

“She is the prophesied white wolf every pack has been searching for! Don’t let her leave!” a voice shouted from the distance, and I turned to find Johnson’s father.

He looked so serious and I knew what that meant.

Without waiting for him to say anything else, I leaped over the window by the side of the wall. It was the only place I could escape through.

Now more than ever, I needed to leave this pack.

“I’ll offer ten thousand gold silver coins to whoever captures her and brings her back to me alive or wounded! Don’t kill her! The white wolf is useless when dead or severely injured!” he added, his voice echoing behind me.

Dozens and scores of warriors poured out, their footsteps thunderous as they chased after me.

I didn’t need to be told twice.

I needed to escape, now more than I had ever wanted to before.

I was just a lowly omega. An orphaned rogue who had been a nomad until I had heard about the Moonstone pack and their recruitment for servants and had decided to try my luck.

How could I be the white wolf?

I couldn’t understand it.

They were said to only come once in a thousand years and to be special individuals. Royals and those from powerful families.

I was none of that.

So how could I be the one to shift into it and immediately after I had rejected the fated mate who never claimed me?

Thousands of questions churned in my head but I had no answers.

All I knew was that I had to get away from the warriors chasing me.

I was almost at the border that separated Moonstone pack from the rogue kingdoms.

I couldn’t go back there, I told myself. I had helped Johnson provoke his uncle too many times for me to run there now.

At the same time, I couldn’t run to any other pack.

I knew exactly what awaited me if I did.

They would all covet me. To use and exploit me for whatever power the white wolf held.

I just needed to get as far away from all of them as I could.

I didn’t get to finish that thought when my foot slipped.

The ground vanished beneath me.

I tripped and began to fall down the cliff, my body tumbling uncontrollably as the wind rushed past me.

Mid-air, I shifted back, my white wolf receding as if she believed she had already brought me out of danger.

“No… no no…” I whispered, panic clawing at my throat as I kept falling.

Until my back slammed against a tree, the impact knocking the air out of my lungs and stopping me from rolling further down.

Pain exploded through me.

I couldn’t be in the rogue kingdoms nor could I stay here.

Because Johnson and his men were still closely behind me.

I forced myself to get up, ignoring the pain screaming through my body, and tried to continue running on foot.

But I had barely taken a step when I froze.

Johnson’s men had already encircled me.

“Well, well, well…” Johnson mocked, stepping forward slowly.

“You’re surrounded by my men. Where do you think you can run to now?” he asked, his tone dripping with satisfaction as he approached me like a predator closing in on its prey.

My heart pounded violently in my chest.

Then suddenly, one of his men dropped to the ground dead.

An arrow had pierced through him.

Everything stilled.

“The central plains is a free land, and all wolves are free to make their decisions on their own here,” a voice said from behind us.

Every single one of us turned toward the direction the voice had come from.

“The lady is in the free plains. You do not get to try to control her with this number of warriors,” the voice added as the figure came into view.

I shuddered, fear crawling up my spine.

It was Duncan.

Johnson’s uncle.

The man I had been trying to avoid.

Johnson’s face twisted into rage, though he tried to mask it beneath a forced calm.

For so long, Moonstone pack and the rogues had been at war with each other.

They never crossed each other’s borders.

And now we had just done so.

“Let’s go, Amelia,” Johnson tried to whisper in my ear, leaning closer as if to say something more.

But Duncan stopped him.

“Free plains, remember?” he said, his gaze locking directly with Johnson’s.

“I’ll leave with my mate. We only came here by mistake,” Johnson responded, reaching out for me.

I refused.

The moment my body shifted away from his touch, something in him snapped.

Angered by my insolence, he tried to force me but Duncan pushed his hand away, pulling me behind him as he prepared to fight.

Johnson’s anger flared, his control slipping as he was about to command his men to attack but then, everything stopped.

A shimmering white light began to glow between us.

A red string formed around my wrist and connected itself to Duncan’s.

Neither of us could stop it.

Neither of us could break it.

“No…” I whispered, my voice barely audible as I raised my head slowly.

Johnson looked mortified.

While Duncan’s face remained completely unreadable.

How…?

How could he be my second chance mate?

How could the Moon Goddess bind me to Duncan, the rogue Lord.

And johnson’s uncle, of all people?