Elena's POV
It has been over three hours since I started wandering around the thick forest while looking for an ideal place to spend the night. After wandering for over three hours, I finally found another cave, similar to the first one; once I came down from the horse, I drew it by the rope and led it inside the cave before going out and gathering some straws that I gave it to eat.
Afterwards, I sat down beside one of the rocks before opening my luggage and bringing out some fruits that I had gathered while wondering around the forest.
As I was eating the fruit, I started feeling some pains around my abdomen. With that, my heart skipped. I didn't need to think twice before knowing what was about to happen. In some fractions of seconds, the pain intensified, and immediately I started feeling some liquids streaming down my laps. That was when it dawned on me that my water had already broken. Not knowing what next to do, all I could do was shed tears as the pain kept on intensifying with every second that passed by. Deep down, I could feel the baby's head hitting my vagina, and this even made the pain more intense. Even though I didn't, I didn't know what to do next. I kept on having this inner urge to push. Closing my eyes, I held on to one of the rocks and tried pushing, but the pain I felt while trying to push made me brush away any idea of pushing. It felt as though my vagina was going to tear apart if I tried pushing again. Deep down, I knew that the only way to get over the pain was to push, but the pain was unbearable for me. As I sat there panting heavily, I felt as if I was going to run mad in no time. I couldn't tell the pain that was more severe, whether it was the pain of pushing or that of not pushing.
After some minutes of hesitation, I held the rock once more, closed my eyes, and tried pushing again, but I still couldn't due to how agonizing the pain was.
As I was still sitting down there with hot tears and sweat streaming down my cheeks, the only person I could think of was the moon goddess. Even though I knew that right from the beginning I had never loved or believed in her existence due to my numerous misfortunes, it was at least the perfect timing to put her to the test in order to know if she really exists.
"Moon goddess,I know that I have never trusted in you or believed in you, but if you are really out there, save my baby and me." I muttered in the midst of pain and agony before holding on to the rock and pushing with my energy while ignoring the agonizing pain. After what seemed like forever, I felt the baby coming out and a bright light engulfing the whole cave; the baby wasn't out completely before my vision started failing me, and immediately I passed out.
Darian's POV
It has been over a month since my men and I have been wondering about the thick forest looking for Elena, my mate; after consulting the priestess, this was the place she told me that I could find her, but it has been a month of unfruitful search and still nothing. If someone had told me in the past that I would leave my palace for a whole month and wander around the thick forest for a complete month looking for someone, I would never believe it, but here I am doing it, and it seems like the moon goddess too is also taking advantage of the situation to punish me for all the evil things I did to Elena. Through out the whole time I have spent in the forest, it has been from one problem to another, from one group of rogues to another, and due to that, I have lost all my soldiers that came along with me, remaining only two, and still I haven't found my mate, and each day that passes by, the thought and feeling of something bad happening to Elena and the unborn baby keeps on hunting me over and over again.
"Why is the moon goddess punishing me like this?" I screamed in frustration before punching the tree right in front of me, and immediately the tree shook violently.
When I looked at my hand, I could see the bruises all over my hand due to the violent punch I gave the tree, but in just a flash of light, my hand healed immediately. Actually, as werewolves, we have the ability to heal instantly, especially when you are an Alpha.
"Are you okay, my lord?" One of the soldiers asked me, and I nodded positively.
"Let's move; we can't spend the night here. I have a bad feeling about this place," I said to him.
Actually, since we got to that side of the forest, I have been perceiving the scent of blood around, but I can't tell where the scent is coming from.
Without hesitating, the soldier approached the other that was sitting beside the tree and informed him about what I said, and immediately he too stood and brought me my horse. With that, each one of us climbed on our different horses and started moving forward while keeping our guards because it was already dark, but despite that, we could see clearly due to our wolf visions.
As we were slowly moving forward, the scent of blood I was perceiving started becoming stronger, and from the facial expressions of my soldiers, I could clearly see that they too had perceived the scent.
After some minutes, I started perceiving another scent, but this time around, it wasn't only the scent of blood but that of werewolves too. With that, I signaled to my men to wait. As I was still looking around to see where the scent was coming from, I immediately saw two arrows coming in my direction. With my fast reflexes, I flipped up from the horse, dodging the arrow, but it shot my two soldiers on their arms, and immediately they groaned in pain while falling down.
Once I landed on the floor, I immediately tried to run towards my soldiers to see if they were alright, but it was too late. I was already surrounded by many archers who were only waiting for the permission of their Alpha to shoot.
As they were all pointing their arrows at me, their Alpha, who was an old woman, started approaching me while grinning ear to ear.
"Hello, Alpha Darian, it's been a while," she said to me with a wicked grin.