ALPHA RYDER'S LUNA

MAYA'S POV

The morning slight rain brushed my feet as I ran with no particular direction in mind. Morning was approaching already, and I was still running. I had been chased like a criminal all through the night, and my body was weary already, but I knew better than to stop.

I couldn't stop; I kept running in the woods, lost all sense of direction, as different men chased after me. Men who were once my protectors, neighbors, and friends now seemed to want nothing but to catch me for a murder I didn't commit.

I gasped in fear! With the way I'm seeing things, surrendering wasn't the best option; I'd be killed before they heard I had nothing to do with it. I ran as fast as my wolf could carry me.

I lost count of the number of pack territories I had passed, but one thing was sure: I was still in the borders of packs friendly to Ravenclaw, and that was why they could openly chase me even though we were in other territories.

One reasonable thought that kept reeling in my head was to find our rival territory, the Mooresville Pack. That was to be my safe space; I wouldn't be killed in a rival's territory, but I also would only be a slave, but I guess that was better than dying.

After a few minutes, I stopped running and tried to remember the direction to the Packs. We were warned to never wander.

"Was it north? Or south?" I impatiently growled in frustration; I never really paid attention in class, and now my fate depended on a silly class I had missed.

"There she is," a man said, and another howled, signaling to the others I had been sighted.

"Shoot," a voice uttered.

"Eh! How are they so fast?" I was already getting weary, pregnant with a child, hungry, and tired from all the running, but I knew I had to keep on going; I had to save myself, save my child.

I was jolted. I started running faster than I could; my body began to give up. Then, I stepped on something sharp, a sharp metal that pierced through my feet. The pain was out of this world. With both feet stuck in a trap, I could not move. I was bleeding profusely, and my eyes began to shut, but no one was catching up. As my eyes closed, I could see the men chasing me standing still, then turning their backs and beginning to walk back. They were retreating.

I calmly smiled through my teeth, knowing what their retreat meant, then allowed the darkness to envelop me.

"I think she's waking up," I heard a female voice say as my eyes fluttered open. I blinked once, twice, or maybe thrice; I wasn't so sure. It was in reaction to the brightness of the room.

"Who are you, and why did you cross our borders?" a young, handsome man gruffly asked me. Beside him stood a lady who was about my age, smiling at me. With no one else in the room but the two of them, I figured she must have been the owner of the female voice I had earlier heard.

"Let her be, Ryder; the poor girl just woke up after 13 days," the lady said as she chastised the handsome man, and then what she said sank into my brain.

"What!" I couldn't control myself. "Wait, what did you just say? 13 days? I had been asleep for 13 days?" I immediately tried to get up but was drawn back by some force; I was in bondage.

"I told you this would come in handy; I knew she was going to try to run immediately she woke," the man called Ryder said, smiling to himself, but the woman gave him a look that said, "Not now!"

"Please assist in getting her out of these," the woman said.

"But why, Amelia?" the man groaned; he was acting almost like a whiny baby.

Now, the woman whose name I now learned was Amelia gave him a serious look, and without a word, he swiftly got into undoing the chains that bound me to the bed.

I wiggled my wrist as I got relieved of the chains.

"Do you remember how you got here?" Amelia asked.

"Uhn...uhn! I let out a quick cough and cleared my throat. "N...o," my voice croaked as I tried to talk. Well, no surprise there; I hadn't talked in 13 days.

"I'd like to inform you that you stepped on one of my dear brother's 'protections'; it hurt your feet pretty bad, and you passed out. We thought you were not going to make it when we found you lying lifeless in the bush around noon, but you and your baby made it just fine," she said, giggling and smiling at me.

I didn't feel any pain around my feet, but as she mentioned it, I remembered. I looked down and saw I had completely healed; my baby was fine too, and all I had to do now was get up and leave this place.

Amelia handed a bowl of water to me, urging me to drink. I drank it, and I felt so much better and refreshed.

"Thank you, miss," I said more in a mutter, but she heard me, and she smiled back.

"I think it's time you tell us something to hold on to." She spoke softly, "So why did you cross our borders? Your dress speaks of your origin; it clearly shows you're from the rival lands," Amelia said, maintaining the gentle tone. Her brother just watched as we conversed.

"Yes, I am of Nightshade, but I am an orphan and now, an outlaw. I've been pursued out of my land," I said sadly, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill.

"It's alright!" Amelia patted my back, rocking me up and down like a baby.

"And what are you called?" She asked.

"Maya, my name is Maya," I replied to her.

"Well, if you don't have any place to go or stay, you are always welcome here,'" she gently said as she continued to caress my back, but I think her brother might disagree.

"And on whose order is that? Now the alpha doesn't mean much here, does he?" Ryder grunted out, scoffed, and rolled his eyes.

The symbol on his shoulder and wrist shows he's the Alpha; he was the alpha of wherever it was I found myself in, only he didn't look like one.

"Of course she can stay," His next words soothed my mind for a few seconds until he spoke again. "But if she wants to stay here, she'll have to pay. We already saved her life, and now we're offering her shelter? How does she intend to pay us back? He rolled out the words as though payback was all that mattered.

But I wasn't ready to back down; I wasn't ready for defeat. I'd gone through too much to lose it all and be chased out of here, so I boldly asked, "How do you want to be paid back?"

Amelia wanted to say something, but before she could, her brother beat her to it: "It's simple, marry me." He said it, or had I heard wrong?