“Hayden, no! Please, no!” she begged as she clutched onto him; he had shifted back to human, and his body was badly riddled with holes from the bullet attacks as he shifted back.
The entire forest had gone silent from her piercing scream as hot tears spilled from her eyes as she held Hayden’s body in her trembling arms. “Why? Why, after what I’d done to you, I deserve this instead, so why did you block that shot with your body?”
"I told you, I would give my life for you," he sent down the bond. "I know I cannot fully have your heart or you in this life, but I will have you in the next," he said.
Elise shook her head, her eyes filled with tears of regret and sadness. “You can pull through; I know you can; please don't do this to me,” she begged. The sky darkened, and a storm brewed closer as they lay on the ground.
Rygan watched, distraught and shocked, at Hayden's bloodied body, yet his eyes scanned as he heard the humans gaining closer again. They had taken out over 40 men, but their weapons and poisoned rifles were far too great in numbers.
But Hayden couldn’t talk, only raising an arm to push away her wet, battered locks from her face to admire the beautiful face he ingrained into his brain. “You know I can’t; the wolfbane would have killed me if the bullet didn't... So save our boy Ethan and be happy,” he told her.
“I love you,” he muttered as blood sputtered from his lips, and Elise could only watch as life drained from his eyes. A whimper left her throat as she reached down the mental link for an answer or even a flicker of life. Nothing.
Her whimper turned to cries as she let out a scream filled with anguish to the skies. "Elise, we need to go; they are coming,” Rygan warned with a hiss, struggling to push himself up with silver shards embedded in his burns.
“I’m not leaving him here,” she called, cradling his body. Hayden, who loved her more than himself, landed a painful hit to her chest, curing her heart of loving another man more.
The heavens began to cry as rain pelted her skin, her screams muffled by the wind and rain that began to fall, and Rygan knew they were instantly surrounded. He saw another bullet aimed at her and ran to cover her. He was shot with a heavy tranquilizer.
Elise felt numb all over, only to see Rygan’s body hit the ground. She looked up. “R-Rygan?” she muttered with horror, but it was too late, as she felt a pinch on her nape as she was hit with a heavy tranquilizer too.
"Finally, the bitch is out!” she heard a male snicker as her body weakened and she fell to the ground. “We need both of them alive, boss's orders." She could barely lift a finger. But her eyes watched them draw closer, trained on the humans who surrounded them. “And the third guy?”
“We left him; the orders were to kill him, and we did that,” the man muttered even as her eyes blurred and her body was immovable. She heard it, and hatred and anger brewed in her that someone had deliberately killed him—the same people he had trusted to give him Ethan back.
Her eyes glazed back at Rygan, who was still heavily wounded by the blast, but she had healed him to an extent, and now he was unconscious. She tried to pull her fingers to reach for him, to reach for any of them, until she felt a heavy boot step on them.
“Look at her struggling; this bitch gave us such a hard time." They snickered, and she looked at them, her eyes glazed with the promise of death in her gaze. The males felt goosebumps as one raised the head of his gun and landed a jarring hit to her temples until her body finally fell unconscious.
Her eyelids closed from the heavy impact as her tears were mixed with the rain and the cries of her regret.
🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
“You betrayed me, Elise,
” she heard Hayden's voice echo through the dark mist as she saw a figure and ran to it.
“No, Hayden, please.”
“And because of you, I’m dead,” he muttered, and she looked at her hands to see them glazed with blood. “Because if you are dead, we are both dead!” Rygan and Hayden chorused together.
“No! No!” she shouted as her eyes shot up from the nightmare. It took a few seconds for Elise to recognize her surroundings, as panic filled in when she saw herself in a cage, a dungeon with silver collars on her neck and feet.
The sound of heavy doors opening drew Elise up as she adjusted her sight into the darkness. She felt goosebumps on her skin as she was left in her bloodied vest and her shorts.
It took another second to register that she wasn’t alone, but another harsh breath filled the room as she looked down to see Rygan, completely chained up, his chains heavier than hers.
She crawled to him, her eyes filled with panic as she shook his unconscious body. “Rygan, Rygan, please wake up,” she muttered with trembling fingers.
The feel of Hayden's dead body was still cold on her skin; she had no time to mourn him, and they didn’t give her the mercy of taking his body. Her self-wallowing was cut short when the doors of the dungeon opened.
“So this is the great alpha female the whole realm had been going crazy for, the she-wolf who destroyed my men time and time again,” a man said from the shadows. “I am Marcus Newman, the leader of the guild; you like what I did with the chain? I had to contact a couple of witches; it was very expensive but worth it,” he introduced himself with a wicked smirk.
Elise looked up with a snarl, her body covering organs in a protective mode, but as she tried to show the depth of her powers through her eyes, the chains burned her the moment she tried to make a sudden move. “Augh agh!” she groaned from pain and shock.
“You murderer!” she snarled, her hands holding the bars of the cell as hot tears of anger spilled from her eyes. “Where is he?”
“Now you know how it feels to lose a loved one after you killed my son.”
“I don't even know who the fuck that is. Your son came after me, and I defended myself by grooming him, so where the fuck is Hayden?”
“I had his dead body burned in the pit like all monstrous filth should be,” he muttered. “The only reason I’m keeping you alive is because of the hefty price of your son being delivered to me,” he muttered with a wicked chuckle.
Her body stiffened in response to his words as she looked up at him. “What did you say?”
“Don’t worry, they will be arriving at any moment, and soon enough you will be reunited with your son, and you will be here to bear witness as I kill him slowly, an exquisite addition to your torture!” he said darkly.
And Elise's rage grew with his words; she was barely holding on to her sanity at this point as she heard Rygan's breathing slow down.
It's felt the world was closing in on her, she couldn't stand losing another person, but what what to do?
There was no way out.