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Chapter 4

Elijah's POV

"You're finally back!" When I returned to the wolf pack, I saw a group of people all standing at the door waiting for me.

Their surprise at seeing me with a person on my back was simply written on their faces.

"Who is she?" One of the men asked bravely.

"She's my mate that we happened to meet." I took Isabella to the nearest house and put her off my back.

Her eyes were tightly closed and unresponsive, as if she were a delicate doll.

"She's passed out! Doctor!" I shouted anxiously. Someone soon ran out, and they went to inform the doctors in the wolf pack.

"She'll be our Green Creek Pack's Luna." I stroked her cheeks that were flushed from the fever. I was beyond heartbroken at this moment.

"Great! Our pack finally gets a Luna!" Those who were still gathered around me cheered.

Isabella's POV

My memories were still stuck in the forest, when I was still on Elijah's back.

Something was grabbing my arms and flipping me over, then I felt my clothes being peeled off...

I remembered the werewolf who had violated me earlier and snapped my eyes open and pushed through with force.

"Poof! "

"Ouch...," the werewolf sat on the floor, covering his knocked arm in pain. Soon, a group of strangers entered the house. The first thing they did was to help the man up.

"What's wrong with you? Oh my God!"

"We were kind enough to save you, and you actually hurt him!"

Amidst their accusations, I hugged myself tightly in pain, and my body couldn't stop shaking.

See, what can be done when I meet my own mate? I still can't escape the fate of being violated. This time I may not have that kind of luck again.

I shrunk myself into a corner, almost curled up into a ball.

"No, she doesn't look right. Go get the Alpha! I'm afraid he's the only one who can fix this!" A slightly older wolf hammered a fist into another.

Alpha? I looked at them skeptically.

Soon Elijah pushed the door open and walked in. I got up and flung myself into his arms. He was the only one who could reassure me here.

"Don't worry, these are all from our wolf pack. None of them mean any harm." He introduced them to me.

It was then that I poked my head out to look at the people. Those were completely unfamiliar faces, but I couldn't see any unfriendly part in their eyes.

"I'm very sorry, I shouldn't have done that earlier." I tried to sound as sincere as I could.

"It's okay, I can understand. After all, you're hurt like that on your body." The werewolf that I pushed down showed great generosity.

"Okay, you guys go get some rest. I'll be fine here." Elijah said to his people. They soon all went out, and once again the two of us were left in the room.

He pulled me along and we both sat close together.

"Don't worry, the people in my wolf pack are good. You don't have to repel them." His voice was very gentle, and it made me feel incredibly guilty.

"I'm sorry, I really didn't mean to." I bowed my head.

"You don't have to apologize, I know." He stroked my cheek.

"Don't worry, I'll never do that in the future, I'll get used to this place as soon as possible." I pretended to be calm, but my heart was still beating wildly and uncontrollably.

But Elijah just shook his head.

"Just as you know, I am your mate and I can feel the fluctuations inside you." He swept me into his arms. "No need to lie to me, believe me, I will always tolerate you."

"Hmm." I took a deep breath and calmed myself down as much as I could.

But I did have a hard time being calm. A day before I was a woman silently ready to become a warrior, but within those twenty-four hours I had first become a breeder and then met my mate.

It's really hard to be calm.

It was like first climbing up the mountain and then falling down hard. And now he took me slowly up again.

"Snap."

I wiped my face, I didn't know when I started to cry. I couldn't control anymore, and I directly cried out in his arms.

It was as if all my bad feelings would disappear after crying like this.

He just held me quietly and dropped another kiss on my forehead. Although he didn't say anything, I really slowly calmed down.

I knew that he was always going to be there for me.

In the following days, I still didn't want to have contact with anyone except Elijah. Although I tried my best to restrain myself, I still found it difficult.

The good thing was that he understands this. No matter how late after he finished his work, he would come back to this little room and cuddle with me in bed.

Under these circumstances, I recovered quickly from my injuries. With that, emotions no longer took over and I started to really think about things that had to do with him.

"Joanna, can you tell me a little bit more about Elijah? I feel as if I don't know him well enough." I tried to get words out of Joanna, the doctor grandma who was taking care of me.

I'd been under Joanna's care since I hit my first doctor that time. So she's kind of a werewolf who knew me better.

"Of course you can, after all, you are mates, it's only right to know more. I'm afraid he's the most powerful and most respected Alpha in the history of this wolf pack of ours." She chanted as she changed the medicine for my wound.

I thought about it, and it's really quite different from the White Birch Pack's Alpha.

"He doesn't overwhelm people with majesty, and everyone submits to him from the heart. He takes care of everyone well, like a friend."

"I'm giving you guys a hard time." I sighed softly.

"Not at all. He also knows that you have suffered a lot and need time to adjust your emotions. He has also told everyone to be tolerant of you. Don't be hostile to him and don't give up on yourself." Joanna tied a knot in my gauze. "There you go, it should be removed in a few days."

I was surprised at how relieved I felt the moment she said those words.

It was as if I was walking by myself in endless darkness and now suddenly there was a bright light in front of me. And that bright light is what he brought, he brought me out of the desperate situation I was in. And I was his mate, and I should not make things difficult for him, much less let his wolves down because of me.

"I want to go out for a walk." I looked firmly at Joanna.

"That's a good thing." She handed me my brand new clothes and smiled a particularly kind smile. "Go out and have a look around, you'll like our place."

I pushed the door open. It was a sunny day, and my whole body was comfortably illuminated by the sun.

The atmosphere here was really different from White Birch Pack. Everyone had different things to do and the topics they discussed were not set in stone.

At Birch Tree, the center of conversation was always just the Alpha. It's as if they can't continue to live without him.

"I feel like I've had a long nap." Mia complained in her head. "What did I miss? It looks like you've arrived in a new place."

"Yeah, it looks pretty good here." I walked slightly further away.

I would have liked to join the little kids in their game, but it was obvious they were avoiding me.

"Understandable, after all, I just woke up thinking someone was going to violate me, and I admit I scared a lot of people." I felt a little helpless.

It's obviously not easy to re-establish my reputation in this situation.

"It takes opportunity." Mia reassured me. "You can't be in too much of a hurry. But remember, kindness and sincerity are always the best medicine."

I certainly understood this, but the reality was that I didn't have the opportunity to show this.

So I remained that way for the next few days.

I came out in the sun and no one paid any attention to me. I tried to go over to help, and they all dodged in a hurry.

Only doctors Joanna and Elijah would really talk to me in a meaningful way.

Although I didn't think it's a good thing, I knew there's no rush in this matter.

"Hello? You're our Luna, right?" I heard someone call me from behind me.

I turned my head. A handsome boy was standing there, waving at me with a smile on his face.

But his expression was so deliberate that it was hard for me to ignore it. I was alerted.

"You are?" I sized him up, trying to spot a little something wrong with him. But apparently there was no flaws at all.

"I'm Alex, a regular caregiver at the Pack. while Joanna is off busy, I'll be in charge of your safety." He replied humbly.

"But don't worry, I won't bother you."

Only his gaze was averted, obviously with his own intentions.

Even though I couldn't find anything wrong with his answer, I still thought something was fishy.

"Thank you. I'd like to take a casual look." I answered him politely. "Will you accompany me?"

I crossed his line of sight and looked back. There were many people not far away, and it was as if they were watching Alex and me. At the moment their eyes met mine, they all ducked away.

It's like I was some kind of monster that eats people.

"Watch out for the steps."

I was still dazed, and he reached out to hold me.

I was a little surprised, but I did almost step out of the way just now.

"You are our Luna," He said with a smile that showed his tiger teeth. "I'm going to make sure you're absolutely safe."

"Thank you, once again." I shot a look at his expression.

This time I understood where there was a sense of dissonance.

As long as to the front of others, he would act as if he was very good to me. But once to the place where there were few people, he would rather stand far away from me, and do not even want to say a word to me.

It's like, all those parts that were nice to me were just him deliberately performing with others.

Even sometimes, he acted as if he hated me. I didn't understand why this was, but I decided to pay a little attention.

I thanked him as he reached out to me once again.

"Thank you, I can do it myself."

He smiled, still very gentlemanly, and retracted his hand. Just following quietly within a reasonable range.

Soon I was done with this boring trip. By the time I got back to my place, Elijah was waiting for me to have dinner with him.

"What's wrong? You look a little strange." He pushed a plate of roast meat in front of me.

"It's nothing, it's probably a little hot out." I thought about it, but decided not to tell him about it.

"Always remember to tell me, don't keep everything inside. Joanna should have told you that, that's really not good for your health." He suddenly became serious.

I felt much more comfortable, as if a suspended boulder had suddenly fallen. But this was still a matter I decided to handle on my own. So I just nodded at him.

The next day Joanna came early in the morning.

I saw her face full of tangled expression, so I curiously asked her what happened.

"It's not that important, but I thought about it and should tell you." She seemed a little embarrassed.

"The legend out there is that you're a poor porcelain doll who needs help to even walk. They don't think you have what it takes to fill the role of Luna. You shouldn't get low self-esteem because of their words, we all know you're the strongest girl."

Eventually she took a deep breath and finished recounting these things quickly.

Was that it? It wasn't even half as much humiliation as I had received back in the birch wolves. I gave her a gentle hug to show my appreciation.

"You can rest assured that I will do my best. But about this...I think I probably know who said it." I thought about that obnoxious Alex.

He must not only have done it for them, but I was afraid he's also talking badly about me behind my back!

No Pack likes a weakling, so Alex really wanted me to get out of here now. However, when did I piss him off exactly?

"Don't put too much pressure on yourself." She probably saw that I made up my mind that I didn't want to talk about it, so she didn't ask any more questions. She just carefully applied the salve on my wound and carried the stuff again to get ready to go out.

Before she left, she turned around and put another handful of candy on my cupboard.

"Tomorrow is a little holiday and there may be children coming to see you then. Just give them these then. Maybe then those kids will like you better."

"Thank you, Joanna," I said sincerely. She was just too attentive.

"You don't have to thank me. If you want to thank, you might as well thank yourself." She smiled and looked over at me. With that, she turned around and quickly walked out.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Joanna wasn't gone long before there was a knock on my door. I opened the door and a furry head burrowed in.

"Ah, it's you, our Luna," Alex's voice still sounded a little arrogant. "Where's Alpha? I have something for him."

"According to Pack rules, I'm also available for urgent matters." I narrowed my eyes.

I knew he would definitely mess up. Then instead of waiting for him to plan how to get me in trouble, I would rather just give him such an opportunity. That way there might even be a chance to catch him in the act.

Alex obviously didn't expect me to say that. He froze, and then smiled again.

"All right then. Our Luna, would you like to go find some chicken thighs for me? It's for the holiday celebration tomorrow."

"Sure. Find out and where to send it?" I stared into his eyes.

Alex explained it to me carefully. I got up and walked out the door, not forgetting to take the handful of candy Joanna had given me with me.

What holiday celebration would require only chicken thigh meat? But then I quickly remembered that it's a holiday for children. But hardly anyone inside the White Birch Pack would celebrate it.

The children were happy for the snacks they were about to eat. They laughed and joked next to me as I carefully avoided them and walked to the makeshift kitchen.

I walked over to the huge dining table. The table was covered with ingredients, but the only thing that was empty was a large area. I could hear people around me saying that the chicken thighs that were supposed to be delivered today were nowhere to be found.

If I went to slaughter the chicks at the moment, I might miss the time. Then I would be making a big mistake.

"That wouldn't be good." Mia sighed in her head. "Maybe I shouldn't have said yes to him then."

"Alex, I always thought he wasn't some pure badass. Maybe I can bet on it." I pondered. "What do you think, how about I go ask them where they hid the chicken thighs?"

"Then you need to find a kid who isn't gregarious and doesn't fit in" Mia understood what I was trying to do.

If Alex just hid something that was meant to be delivered here, it made no sense that it would go undetected.

"How are you? Kid? Do me a favor, and these are all yours." I stopped the kid furthest away from the crowd.

"Do you know where all that chicken thighs went?"

The kid was backing away in fear, but he saw the large handful of candy in my hand and almost drooled with excitement.

"I know, but, you must not tell anyone that I took you there."

I nodded and placed the dagger at my waist a little more concealed. I wasn't entirely sure if the kid was Alex's accomplice, so it was safer this way.

The boy led the way, and I followed him closely. Soon, the two of us walked inside a cave. He led me on down and eventually arrived at an iron door.

"I can't open it, you do it." The kid gave me a section of space.

"Do you want to go now?" I turned my head and looked at him with a smile on my face.

"I did want to go just now, but now I don't dare. They all say you're weak, and I admit I did want to trick you, but...it hurts." He grimaced in pain.

I just let go of him. Just now I was tightly gripping on his arm, so that can actually reflect my strength.

"Don't conclude the truth about a person just by a few comments from other people's mouths." I touched the iron door.

"The real me is probably nothing like what you think."

The child was full of panic and sat down on the floor with a poof.

"Squeak!" I jerked the door open.

It was a well-operated cold storage. Those chicken thighs were frozen just fine not far from the door. And further down, there were some other ingredients.

All in all it could fully support such a dinner party.

"All right, let's go back and get some help. What are you still doing here on guard, do you expect me to be able to go and move them all up myself?" I poked the kid's shoulder in amusement.

The party was finally able to continue.

Just as I thought. No one would encourage me for getting this right, but rather Alex was grinding his teeth in anger.

I looked at him with a calm expression. I knew that this was not enough to tame such a vicious wolf.

Soon, the celebration came.

I stood quietly in the corner in a modest dark dress, holding a glass of juice.

According to the rules, this was a festival for children and women today. So Elijah would not be present here. He would join the other warriors and compete in the moonlight.

Originally, I should have gone over to the site of the tournament, but after all, I was a newcomer then who was not familiar with any process, so I was better suited to stay here.

I chucked up a piece of meat for myself and made a face at the kid from yesterday. With a frightened look on his face, he pointed with his eyes to Alex not far away and quickly slipped away.

I knew that all I had to do was to behave myself and not bring troubles for Elijah's. So I just hid quietly in the corner. I watched each person carefully, thinking about who they were closer to.

But I overlooked the one closest to me.

"Wow!"

Before I could react, I was splashed with juice on this long black dress.

"Aww, I'm so sorry, useless porcelain doll. Are you going to catch a cold because of this?" A girl laughed loudly, attracting the crowd around her. She was even more pleased with herself in this situation.

"You are not qualified to be a Luna here. even if you become a member of the ordinary ground you are still far from it."

"Yeah?" I shrugged it off and lunged up, hammering a fist into her face. Immediately afterwards I lunged in my entirety.

I wasn't going to tolerate her insulting me like that. Since they didn't know how they should live among this group, it was necessary for me to teach them the rules by force.

Elijah's POV

"The fat is in the fire! There's a fight at the festival!" A girl ran towards us in panic. "That Luna hit someone!"

At this moment, I was supervising two warriors competing against each other. Hearing this, they were not in the mood to continue the competition. Everyone put down their weapons and looked in the direction of the building.

Immediately after that, there was another scream from over there.

"What? I told you about that outsider..."

"No, don't they all say she's soft like a doll?"

The warriors murmured.

Isabella! Oh no!

I ran towards the house as fast as I could reach.

When I arrived, Isabella was holding a girl down on the floor. The girl's mouth was still bubbling with all kinds of words that clearly expressed disrespect.

But Isabella's aura was so strong that no one around dared to go up and tear the two of them apart.

"You're just not qualified to be Luna! I'm just not convinced!" The girl still wouldn't let up. "Even if you're not weak, you're not a good person!"

"Who do you think isn't qualified?" I coughed.

"Alpha, I..." the girl looked at me in horror, and then wailed out.

I sulked and looked to the crowd next to me. Soon someone came forward and told me the situation.

"I don't know why Luna just started hitting the girl, hitting her so hard!"

"She threw the orange juice on Luna first! It wasn't Luna who struck first!"

"But hasn't Luna always had bad reviews? So how did..."

I could generally see why this was the case. Many people had a bias against Isabella, so they prefered to believe that she struck first.

So I actually needed to find a way to catch this person who was walking around behind the rumors.

"You are the one who broke the rules, so you don't need to justify yourself anymore. You will spend the next month in the brig."

She hung her head and obediently obeyed the order. But I knew that the matter was far from simple.

"As for you, Isabella, you will also be grounded for three days. As punishment for the same rule you broke." I looked at Isabella.

I was feeling sorry for her, because as a mate, I didn't even protect her. But the emotions in her eyes were complicated, and I couldn't tell what she was really thinking.

But what I was sure of was that these people must have caused distress for her.

My heart felt like it was being grabbed and hurt.

Isabella's POV

"Then Alpha sent someone to investigate. Those rumors that had about you were all put out by Alex's group. He himself is a friend of that doctor who treated you at the beginning, so I think there must have been a misunderstanding at that time." Joanna brought me medicinal tea.

Alex looked very young, and I didn't think he's a naturally bad boy.

"In that case, then it's actually true that I'm sorry for them." I took the tea and sighed.

If I hadn't hurt his friends, then there wouldn't have been so much going on. In the end, all of this happened because of me.

"But this is good, Alex's gang will have to get a lesson sooner or later. They're young and cocky, and they've gotten into a lot of trouble before. Now they need someone to clean it up." Joanna slipped me some more dessert.

"Don't comfort me. I know I struck too hard and broke that girl's ribs." I sighed. "It's time for me to reflect on that."

Originally I actually did not need to be grounded, but who asked me to be too strong. Looking at her hurt like that by me, it's much acceptable to be only grounded in confinement room.

So the legend that "Isabella is a porcelain doll" was indeed a rumor.

"Alpha couldn't come over for a few days. But he explained to me to ask you why you didn't talk to him about this." Joanna sighed.

"I always have to deal with this kind of thing myself, don't I? I can't count on him for everything." I balled my hand into a fist and hammered my chest to represent myself as a competent warrior.

I was able to take responsibility for myself.

"You are truly an admirable Luna," Joanna exclaimed from the bottom of her heart. "I'm old enough, old enough that I've seen different Luna's from different Packs. but really none of them have your kind of gravitas. In another twenty minutes, you will be ready to go out. Be careful then."

I knew, she was worried about those people's retaliation.

But this kind of thing never scared me.

"Don't worry, I'm ready to go." I said to her with a smile.

I walked out the door at the right time. It was still a sunny day, and the long-awaited sun shone on me, making me feel good. I lazily stretched my back.

"Help him, the boy is about to be blown into the river!" I suddenly heard a shout from the side.

An old man was standing by the river waving anxiously at the crowd.

But everyone else was a little distance away.

A child was sitting on a wooden tub. It looked like he was supposed to be playing in the water, but apparently the wind was bad today, and if it continued, he would soon be blown into the big river. That would basically make it difficult to pick him up.

I took a survey. In fact, his current position was close enough to me. And just as I was thinking about these things, my body had actually preceded my thinking and rushed towards that side.

"If you're going to rescue him, you'd better bring that log over there with you." Mia suggested. "You can't just scoop him up."

I quickly picked up a log and rushed across the river, barely approaching to the child's side.

"Help! I may not be able to catch it myself." I shouted to the people coming up behind me.

They hesitated, and finally it was the old man who was the first to join me. Immediately after that, the rest of them followed along. Together we tugged on the log to make sure it didn't blow away, and the child gathered the courage to grab it with our comfort.

Soon we dragged the child and the wooden tub back together. The child returned to the shore began to cry, I squatted next to them and watched carefully as the old man coaxed the child.

Coming from an orphanage, I was envious to see this scene.

"Who saved the child? We should be grateful to her."

"Ah, it's her, but isn't she kind of hard to get along with?" I didn't know who muttered in the crowd.

"What are you guys talking about? I think she's pretty good." The old man muttered discontentedly. "Your prejudice is also too strong."

"Our Luna!" She faced me and waved her arms high in the air.

The old man's tone was so incendiary that more people soon joined her camp.

They shouted at me, "Luna!"

I knew that from now on, they really accepted me.

And just then, I saw a familiar figure in the crowd.

The little girl whose ribs I broke was standing in the crowd, looking at me with a red face. The moment she met my eyes, she turned her head away again in embarrassment.

When the crowd dispersed, she slowly moved to my side.

"That's my little brother." Her voice sounded particularly hoarse. "My mother had an accident while giving birth to him, so my grandmother and I are taking care of him."

"Oh." I didn't quite understand why she wanted to talk to me about this.

"Would you want to save him even if you knew he was my brother?" She laughed a few times in pain.

"After all, I humiliated you in public earlier."

"I'm just going to get him up, does it matter who he is?" I looked at her.

"This is my Pack, and I have an obligation to protect everyone."

As if she was surprised, she sighed again leisurely. By the time she looked up at me once again, her expression had clearly changed.

"I shouldn't have listened to Alex, you really are a good person. You're an amazing Luna. I apologize to you for what I did before."

"No, it's not your fault." I thought about it and gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"It's just a misunderstanding, let it go."

I just thought it could be a good lesson for them.

Alex and his doctor friend were standing in my doorway. The doctor's face still didn't look good, and Alex had his head hanging.

"Luna's here, you should apologize to her." The doctor squeezed Alex's head and made him lower himself.

"Don't force him," I waved my hand in a rush. "I..."

I would say it's useless to force such things, but only if he felt it himself.

"I'm sorry. It was me who misunderstood you before, and I apologize to you. We all saw your kindness and bravery, and I should not have been prejudiced against you. I hope you can forgive me, my most beloved...Luna." Alex's tone sounded particularly sincere.

His ears were flushed, and I knew it was shyness.

"I accept your apology, Alex. from today onwards, we're considered friends, right?" I reached out my hand to him and shook it tightly with him.

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