CHAPTER 4
THREE DAYS LATER
“Open it up,” Dylan ordered the pack house guard that had followed him all the way down to the underground vaults of this large mansion. The vaults contained not only valuables, but the most treasured of items in the whole of Lycan territory; home of the goddess’s royalty stone.
Part of the Lycan’s duties has always been to keep this stone within these walls and ensure that anyone having different bloodline from the Ri descent must never be in possession of this stone.
For many years being an alpha, Dylan would visit these vaults daily to make sure that this stone, passed down to him by his ancestors was always in it’s place.
After the vault doors were opened, Dylan entered. He walked past the huge stacks of gold, diamond, silver, rubies, emeralds, and many other precious stones stored here. He walked past the ancient amulets, relics, artifacts, and antiquities that were of great value to the Lycan’s which also told their story.
He went to were the precious crystalline beauty was seated in all of her glory. Untouched, unscathed, still in it’s rightful place, even after so many centuries had passed, and it would remain so, as long as Dylan remained the alpha of this pack. Until he passes it to his offspring, he would follow suit in line with his ancestors duties to keep this stone and make sure that in forever remains in this territory.
He would guard this stone with all his life.
Even after three days had passed, Mona still felt shattered. One never knew a rejection could hurt so much. She had looked forward to the perfect union, and not only did she get the mate she least wanted, she also got a handful of disappointment thrown at her face.
She has been unable to communicate with her wolf since that day too. Her wolf isn’t sleeping, but the rejection has made her so reserved, she doesn’t come out like she used to. It will take some time to get over all this, but Mona had no choice but to do so.
It wouldn’t have made much of a difference anyway, as the last thing Mona would have wanted was to be mated to such a monster. She would have still rejected him anyway, but why does it hurt so much even though it’s what she wanted?
Mona sighed.
Times like this, she needed a break from everything surrounding her. She needed to force her wolf to come out and at least go for a run, and she would do so, today.
Mona then got up from her bed and shrugged off the thoughts pulling her down, she needed to let go of all that weight if she needed to move on from all this. A rejection is nothing more than it is; a rejection. Thanks to the kind goddess that ruled over this world, there were always endless opportunities to find a mate. There will be other mates, other chances. Mona is sure of that.
For the past 3 days, she’d refused to do much. Normally, she’d be engaged with some house duties, spending time with her friends, or something other than lying in bed all day, but the pain she felt weighed her down so much, it was hard to want to do anything, but she’s not letting that spirit take over her again today. It’s time to bury the past.
She left the house and wandered to the nearby forest. This was the same forest where her mate had rejected her, the one which led to the neutral territories. Normally, she would have avoided coming here to prevent flashbacks, but apart from this place being the closest to her location, the forest was also big enough for her to exercise her wolf legs till the day ended. As Mona needed something else to distract her from all this hurt.
As she reached the edge of the forest, she made an attempt to shift, but,
“No,” her wolf protested. She was not in the mood to come out or talk today, just like the past few days.
But Mona wasn’t going to tolerate any of that. All this lying around and sulking was not good for her, and it needed to stop.
“You’re going to come out today, whether you like it or not.” She decided to do a force shift, using her human strength to grab her wolf as much as possible. It was physically painful, and that moment, Mona began releasing loud shrieks, as the pain was similar to that of a human in real life, trying to grab hold of a stubborn wolf with it’s sharp claws and teeth. Imagine the level of tussle involved in such a feat.
Mona had never force shifted before. Even though she knew the process, she had never tried it because she rarely had disagreements with her wolf, but the evil luck that Ri Dylan possessed had just caused a rift between girl and wolf who had been closest of pals for many years.
Mona knew she had to do something about this, and finally, she succeeded. She took control of her wolf and shifted gradually, her bones cracking and bending, taking a different shape, until the human took it’s smaller canine form.
She let out a loud howl before disappearing into the bushes, increasing the pace of her legs as she ran deep into the forest. She took a different path than the one she did when she last came here, for reasons best known.
She didn’t have a particular direction in mind, as the only thing she knew was that she would keep running until all thoughts of alpha Ri Dylan escaped from her mind.
As she ran, she thought of all he had said to her during the rejection. The manner in which he spoke.
No doubt, the rumors are true. How could one be so cold-hearted as to hurl out a rejection just like that? He is not just inconsiderate, but also selfish, his entire family in fact, same way they are with the stone.
The poor wolf had been so lost in thought, she relied on her extra senses to keep track of her direction. If only she’d sensed danger ahead. She’d unknowingly stepped into another territory, not just that, but also a wolf trap. The metal had caught one of her front paws; it had sharp blades that penetrated her fur and skin. It hurt like hell. The wolf howled loudly as she made her stop, unable to go any further with a badly injured paw.
Now Mona could see that this was why her wolf was against coming here. She realized she should have listened instead of having things her way.
The next thing she saw were two guards walking towards her, they both had smiles on her faces.
“We didn’t even need to stress ourselves much. The prize came running to us instead.”
“The boss will be so pleased to see this one.”
And then, she was taken away.