Marked By The Vengeful Lycan

Chapter Five

The next morning I was woken up by the servants.

“Your father said you should prepare for your journey to the Iron Ridge.” A servant said. “The plans changed and Alpha Eugene paid half of the money this morning.”

The servants didn't even wait for me to respond before they swept through my room packing up my things into my luggages.

It all happened so fast and the next thing I knew I was being led downstairs to go on the journey.

Last night still felt like a dream to me. It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life but it instead turned to my nightmare. As we made our way downstairs, we passed the dining table and I saw my family having breakfast.

Elara and Lucas were seated next to each other, they were laughing and couldn't seem to keep their hands away from each other.

My sister’s eyes met mine and she gave me a cold smile before turning to face Lucas, she pulled him in and kissed him slowly.

Tears ran down my face as I turned away and headed outside. I saw Caden was already mounted on a massive black stallion, and he barely glanced at me as he tapped his finger against the hilt of his blade.

“Get in your carriage,” he commanded. “We have two months to make the journey to Iron Ridge.”

Two months. I would be a two-month journey away from home, or what I once thought was my home.

I didn't have the energy to say anything so I simply complied and slid inside the carriage, shutting the doors behind me.

And it was only when the carriage jerked and began to move did I turn to look back to the place I'd called home in the last fifteen years. Tears fell down my face and I felt my heart break all over again.

I didn't think I would ever heal from a betrayal this deep. It would've been better if my family had killed me.

When I woke up, my face was tear-streaked and it seemed we’d covered a considerable distance because we were now surrounded by the forests. Long trees flashed as we passed and the only sound was the hooves of the horses.

Ahead I saw Caden’s horse galloping through the air at a speed that was dangerous. I leaned back and thought of the life waiting for me with Alpha Eugene.

Maybe like his other two concubines, I would also face the same fate of death.

I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't recognize when the forest exploded.

A stream of arrows shot into the sky aimed at us, screams erupted in the air and instantly three men fell from their horses.

The carriage came to a screeching halt and toppled over, flinging me out. I felt my body slam hard on the cold forest ground and I let out a small whimper when pain flared in my sides.

I clutched thorns and fallen logs to help myself up just as someone screamed.

“Ambush! We've been…” the words died in his throat as an arrow flew and lodged itself in between his eyes.

I let out a cry as his dead body fell next to me.

Caden hissed and yanked me by the arm. “Shut up and keep your head down!” he roared as he dragged me along.

Shadows appeared from behind the trees, men dressed in black that moved with terrifying speed wielding their weapons against Caden’s and Eugene’s men.

Caden shoved me away. “Stay down!” and he pulled out his own blade, sliding in between the attackers with stealth grace.

I fell to the ground and began to crawl backward, fear and panic in my eyes. Who were these men? Who sent them? And what were they here for?

Caden moved like a demon, sliding as one with his blade. He pulled a second blade and sliced through men, felling dead bodies with ease that terrified me.

Blood splattered on his face and clothes but he barely noticed. As he moved, men died at his hands, his blade slashing and slicing them.

Nausea slammed into me and I turned away from the sight of blood, it was then I saw the archer in the trees, his arrow pulled back and aimed straight at Caden’s back.

Caden was too busy to see him.

Fear exploded in my chest and I shot up immediately when I saw the tip of the arrow was glowing with a soft light. It was silver.

I glanced at Caden and made to scream his name but it all happened in a blur. He was too occupied, he wouldn't turn away in time and the archer had already released the arrow, the weapon was traveling towards him at an alarming speed.

My body moved before my mind could comprehend what I was doing.

I threw myself at Caden!

The impact was instantaneous. Silver was like fire to werewolf blood and inside me, it burned forcing me to let out a blood-curdling roar as the arrow lodged itself in my shoulder.

“How irritating,” Caden sighed, his eyes filled with hate and annoyance. He turned and from the corner of my eyes, I saw him throw a smaller knife towards my left, where the arrow came from and almost immediately, the archer fell to the ground.

He swung his blade, finishing the rest of our attackers.

The poison was moving fast in my body, I felt it travel through my veins setting every nerve on fire. My heart felt like it was stuttering and failing.

Finally, Caden turned to me. He stood over me, his face splattered with the blood of the men he’d just butchered and I looked up, expecting to see a flicker of humanity in those cold eyes but there was nothing.

Caden didn't move to help me. He stood over me, his face a mask of cold fury. He looked at the wound in my shoulder, then back at my face with an expression of pure loathing.

“You stupid girl,” he hissed, his voice a flat, dead sound. “You've known all this while, haven't you? Did you think this would make me grateful after everything your family has done?”

He knelt, pressing his hand directly onto my injured shoulder and I let out a loud, broken scream.

He leaned closer, his eyes burning with the same lethal hatred I had seen fifteen years ago—the night my father slaughtered his family and stole their throne. I had seen him hiding behind the door. I had looked into his eyes and seen the hatred and I had never forgotten those eyes.

I knew exactly who Caden was the moment I met him as my father's special assassin. And he knew I had kept his secret.

"I hope you die slowly," Caden whispered into my ear. He released me, causing my head to slam into the roots behind me.

And the last thing I saw before everything transformed to black was Caden turning away, leaving me to die in the forest alone.