STEFANIA

Chapter Three

"Running has taught me, perhaps more than anything else, that there's

No reason to fear starting lines...or other new beginnings."

-Amby Burfoot

I'm EXHAUSTED. She always defended herself and stepped back at the right timing, but this time she didn't have the courage to defend herself or the experience to avoid it. She was stuck in between.

No matter what choice she makes, he would always be a dark cloud over her, a stain she can't wash out and could turn out to be her greatest regret.

It has been two days and eight hours since her breakdown after running from the lycan king, but still, she has not been able to persuade Mitzi on leaving.

Mitzi has been so adamant with a deep feeling that this would be a good start for something new for the both of them. Manya isn't scared of new beginnings or changes because that has been her life up till this moment but changes like this ends up taking so much from you. And in the end, you have to learn how to be strong alone.

With a plate containing scrambled eggs, bacon, and bread on a tray also with a glass of water, she enters Mitzi's room." I made you breakfast in bed." She asserts, placing the tray on the nightstand before planting a long tender kiss on her hair.

"I would like to take a bath and brush my teeth first." Mitzi signed.

After dressing her into a kneel light dress Manya placed her on the bed softly letting her rest her back on the headboard before placing the tray on her lap. Then sat beside her, it only took a second before she was drowned by her thought once again.

The two days of being locked in have been nerve-racking, her dreams were as usual. Last night she traced in her sleep, only to wake up in the forest she was abandoned. She didn't want to tell Mitzi because it would only make her worried.

No matter how much she wanted to run away from here, somewhere deep within her soul a new feeling and a strange longing clawed at her with painful pressure. An illusion of safety and assurance of something promising.

"what is this feeling? Why do I feel this way." She voiced absently.

She rubs her fingers against her forehead trying to ease the tightness she felt. She almost flinched away in shock as Mitzi's hand rested on her shoulder. Turning to meet her gaze she forced a smile."You're done, let's move to the living room." Taking the empty plate away, she helps Mitzi seat on her wheelchair.

Leaving Mitzi in the living room, Manya walks into the kitchen to prepare a cup of coffee for herself. Slowly sipping from the cup she pushed the curtains letting sunlight into the living room.

Just as Mitzi is adamant to leave, Manya was still strongly bent on her decision. Their parked bags were still in the living room and Manya had no intention of unpacking them because she would make sure they leave today.

Yesterday, she took a short trip to the frail part of the country, where she got things they would need to move with." Mitzi, I have something to show you." She placed the cup on the coffee table and then traced to her room.

She grabbed the three shopping bags on her bed and then traced back into the living room."Mitzi, remember I told you our next home would be on a beach." She plastered a smile on." I am taking you there if only you agree to leave this place and I also got all these things for us."

Moving close, she plants herself tailor-fashion on the floor beside Mitzi's feet."I need you to think of it as a short trip away from everything, like a short vacation." She pulls out two packed wigs, and a pack containing two different contact lenses, from one of the shopping bags. From the other two bags, she brings out new clothes.

With the cheerful smile still plastered to her lips she picked up the two packs of wigs. A red and a coffee brown wig."I got this because it would help hide our identity. See this one." She lifts the wig on her left hand higher." this is for you, it's coffee brown, it would go perfectly well with the brown contact lens I got you and this is mine." The hot red wig would blend with her pale skin and with the blue contact lens.

"Let me get a brush and a mirror, so we can test the look." She traced to grab a brush and a mirror. After placing the wig and contact lens on Mitzi, Manya's eyes lightened."You are beautiful." Manya notice as Mitzi tries to hide her smile by tilting her head.

"Tell me what you think." She held out the mirror, so Mitzi would see her reflection.

"Are all this necessary?" Mitzi pins her face on Manya's face instead, a gaze filled with dissatisfaction.

"They are." She states simply, picking up the items on the floor she moves towards their packed bags." Mitzi this is all for the best, staying here would only hurt us." With her back turned to Mitzi, she slowly folds the new clothes in silence.

Mitzi knew Manya was stalling and Manya knew Mitzi was confidently doing this because she knew Manya would never force her to leave if she didn't want to and Manya won't leave without her.

The tension around them or Mitzi's burning gaze, didn't stop Manya until she was done folding the clothes into their backs. As if gathering all her armor for battle she rose to her feet. She needs to persuade Mitzi from her tenacious wiles.

She cuts the distance between them, she returns to her previous position on the floor."I might be his mate but he isn't mine, we are different in so many ways." She says, soft and gentle."This is my life, I can't depend on someone else's instinct. Until I'm ready, please let's leave."

"Don't get scared in advance. I'm not asking you to love him but to give this a chance." Mitzi gazed bores into her soul.

The corner of Manya's mouth pulls into a disappointed frown."How can I give him a chance? You think everything would work out if I let him in?" Not waiting for a reply she continued."A person like me can't see things to the end with others. Even letting anyone close is hard, so how can you expect me to stay with him to the end?"

"But you don't seem to realize that he will find you and when he does it won't be good." True.

Manya understands that for a long time he won't find them but you can't underestimate a furious ego-beaten lycan king searching for his mate. And when he finds her, it won't be pretty.

Immediately her lips move to form words, and the sounds of a car rushing down the dirty road stop her. The cars were headed this way.

Dread sparks up within her, standing on her feet she crossed towards the window.

Peering through the window, she finds two black cars driving towards the house. She knew why they were here even before the cars came to a stop in front of the house.

To survive we can't always be the predator, sometimes we become the quarry. Then you have to create a fallacy, even though you have to play dead to ensure you live for one more day.

She has always defended herself and stepped back at the right timing, but this time she has been caught without an escape plan.

Just as the car door pulls open she hastily moves away from the window, knowing she has not much time she tugs the red wing on, and ties it up into a bun in a way that covers the white vein scar. She puts on the green contact lens, and lastly, she covers her hair with a black beanie.

Precipitously she packs up the bags."Mitzi, some sentries are outside and they are here to take us to the royal packhouse. . ." A soft knock on the door stops her. Ignoring the knock as it continues she lifts the bags, one on her left shoulder and the other on her right.

Manya stoops in front of Mitzi and frames Mitzi's face with her hands."Don't be scared, okay? I promise to take care of everything." She plants a long tender kiss on Mitzi's hair.

SHE HAS BEEN among the werewolves for so long to know how the process of the mate bond works. First, the scent hauls them together followed by the locking of eyes, and then a force would make them acknowledge the unique bond between them.

The werewolves are known to imprint their mate, it's like a form of a wedding band used by the frail. It normally doesn't take a week for the mate bond to be completed because it's sacred to them.

But she sees a mate bond as a bully, it coerces a person into having feelings for someone you would never consider sparing a glance at, it makes you feel all these emotions that cloud the truth and puts you into a world of a fairytale. Loving someone and being loved back in return it's adorable but letting this chemical reaction known as the mating bond cloud your choice and senses is not okay. it is a veneer.

The moon was already out, illuminating through the vest window into her new room in the royal pack house. She couldn't remember the last time she saw the moon so explicit and bright, or the last time she saw a moon. She had forgotten the moon existed just as she had forgotten ever being a child.

Time always moved so fast, she didn't even realize that time had passed, and before she knew she became an adult. To her time was just a blur, something that just passes by. But now she noticed how slowly the time moved, a second felt like an eternity, and with each minute agitation grow within her.

The sound of the door opening catches her attention, without even turning towards the door she knew who walked in, from the raw power that illuminated the room.

She turned her body to face King Kazimir. Kazimir, that is his name. She drinks him in with her gaze as he closed the distance between them. Every step was low, smooth, and controlled, and his golden, watchful eyes scanned her. His soft amber-brown hair was put neatly into a low bun while his broad shoulders appear tense, making his muscles bulge and his black T-shirt seem tight on him. Power hummed around him, and he emits dark, primal, animal energy.

It felt like an eternity had gone by since their first meeting, and strangely it felt like she was seeing someone she missed. She hates this feeling.

She's taller than an average female lycan but he was towering over her as he stops in front of her. Not once in her life had she felt such a powerful, intoxicating draw to another person. I hate him so much.

Manya almost traced in terror as an authoritative voice snapped her out of her trance." Manya." He looked formidable, alluring, and deceptively relaxed.

Manya's irritation was outweighed by the ardor creeping over her and his appraisal of her was so thorough and intense that she felt as if he'd touched her. His gaze was filled with determination, and a look she couldn't decipher. I hate him so much.

"Are you angry?" She didn't only watch the smirk appear on his lips, she also heard it in his voice. Now she remembers the words she read about him. Cold, immorally ruthless, and calculating.

"It's my face." She retorted nonchalantly."Are you going to change that too?" The plan was to irritate him.

"I won't change anything about you." He says simply, not missing a beat.

"You don't know me." She wished to grab something heavy and hurl it at his beautiful face. She wouldn't have cared if he had left her alone, and decided not to push the mate bond but the moment she saw those men standing at the threshold of the house she started to care. She loathes his presence in her life and what he could be to her.

He leaned forward, bringing their faces only a few inches apart." I'm your mate." Although his voice sounded gentle, there was steel in his words.

His closeness and the steel fuelled the eroticism burning within her, this male emits authority and is a walking temptation with his powerful lean muscular build body, sensual mouth, and penetrating orbs that demanded her total attention.

Giving herself a mental slap, she returned her focus to the conversation. Meeting his gaze, unfazed she uttered."And I have eyes. See irrelevant. I don't care."

She almost gaped amazed as she watched the red tint in his eyes spread but before she could see the red spread over his golden orb he turns away." Manya." he growled out her name sending shivers through her body. When his gaze returns to her, the golden orbs were back." what you need is time, right?"

She closed her eyes, feeling her throat bob with a swallow. She stepped back three steps away from him."No, I need you to reject me." She announced with finality.

"What?"

She took a step back creating more distance between them."I need you to reject this bond between us."

He doesn't answer right away as his eyes switch between the golden orbs and red. He rubbed a hand across his face."Have a good sleep, Manya." She winch as he slams the door behind him. She is only being defensive about her already not beating heart knowing fully well the minute she lets her guild down he would crush her not beating heart with his fist without a care in the world.