Chapter 1

Elise POV:

Things have been weird lately. I have been feeling off. A lot of things have been hazy and I feel as if I were in a dream. I just celebrated my 21st birthday. I recently found out I am adopted. There is no information on my birth parents. I was found in the woods. I had a talk with my mom before I went to bed. I had a weird feeling once I got off the phone. But I chose to ignore it and went to bed.

Morning came way too fast for my liking. But something seemed off. My body felt entirely too cold and I was uncomfortable. I open my eyes only to come to the realization that I’m no longer in my room.

I’m surrounded by trees, laying in a bed of flowers. “What in the fucking hell,” I say to myself. Am I dreaming? There is no way I’m not. What the hell is this? Such a weird dream for me to be laying in a random forest.

I sit up and look down. I’m in a black and red dress. There is a slit on one side going all the way up my leg, stopping at my hip. Black combat boots cover my feet.

I stand up but almost lose my footing. I grab onto the nearest tree so I don’t fall over. This is so strange. I start walking, trying to find my way out of this place. I finally see a clearing up ahead. But as I get to the edge of the tree line I come to an abrupt stop. I hear voices but they aren’t ones I recognize. I mean it's normal to have strangers in dreams but something just doesn’t feel right.

“Do you think we’d be able to find this girl the dark prince is looking for? I mean if we can get her before the faeries do then we’d have an advantage,” says one of the voices. I take a tiny step forward to see if I can see them.

“Ezra would try and destroy werewolf kind if we got the girl before he did. But honestly he can try all he wants. This girl seems to be someone special. I heard rumors that he spoke very highly of her beauty,” says another voice. This time I can point them out several feet from me. If I took one more step forward they would be able to see me.

From what I can tell there are four of them. Each one looks worse than the other. They kind of creep me out. I go to take a step back but there is a crunching noise underneath my boot. I silently cursed myself, hoping they hadn’t heard it. But of course life is never on my side. The men suddenly appeared in front of me.

“Well well well. What do we have here,” one of them asked as he took a step closer. My veins pounded with fear but I tried not to show it. I took another step backwards. They all continued to take steps closer to me. I continue to back up then I turn and run away as fast as I can.

I can hear them chasing after me. I continue running, I don’t even dare to look back. Branches slam into my arms and legs. It stings but I don’t stop. “You should just stop. There is nowhere for you to run to. We will eventually catch you but the chase is fun. You don’t run nearly as fast as us,” one of them yells at me.

I feel fingers graze my arm. I let out a small yelp as my foot catches on something and I feel myself falling to the ground. I put my hands up to help catch my fall. Pain shoots up my arms as my hands hit the ground. My body shakes with fear.

“You’re exactly where we want you. Who would have thought that we would get to have some fun so early? And not only that but you came to us,” one of them says with a roughness in his voice.

“Don’t touch me,” I yell as I feel one of them touch my back. They don’t listen and soon enough I feel hands wandering all over my backside. I try to wiggle away but I get pulled back roughly. This is not good. One of them grabs hold of my thigh and pulls me aggressively towards him. “No. Please stop,” I beg.

Before they can do anything more I hear grunts and what sounds like them being thrown to the ground. I don’t have the courage to look. But I don't feel them touch me again. Maybe I’m finally starting to wake up from this strange dream. I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for that familiar pull into the real world. I can’t wait to get out of this dream. Minutes seem to pass before I realize that I’m not waking up.

I open my eyes and listen closely. I’m too scared to look around but my curiosity gets the best of me. I use my hands to help me sit up, wincing as they touch the rough ground. Once I’m sitting up I take a few seconds to gather any courage I could muster up before I look around.

I look up to see a man standing to my left looking down at me. He’s handsome but looks cold, especially with that glare he is giving me. I cower into myself but then remember those other guys. I look around and see the other men sprawled around completely knocked out.

“You should know better than to just be hanging around in these parts of the woods. There are always creeps laying low in these areas,” says the guy scolding me. But it just confuses me even more. What the hell does he mean that I should know better? This is just a dream so why should I know these things? This is just getting weirder and weirder.

I look up at the guy and he scoffs at me. Annoyance fills me and I roll my eyes. I look back down at my hands, they are bruised and scraped. I’m starting to question if this is real or not. I can feel pain and I’ve never felt pain in a dream before. I shake my head trying to get out of my thoughts. I go to stand up but end up stumbling.

“Fuck,” I say underneath my breath. I right myself and looked up just in time to catch him rolling his eyes at me. Well isn’t this just great? He saves me just to end up annoyed. I guess I should thank him even if I really don’t want to. “Thank you for helping me. I don’t know how I would have gotten away from those men.”

“No need to thank me. You should have just stayed home,” he said with annoyance. I cross my arms over my chest with irritation. I see him take a peek down at my chest before he looks back up.

“I don’t live here. Besides, this is just a dream and I’ll be waking up soon,” I say. I hear him snicker and look over at him. He tries to hold in his laughter but fails. I roll my eyes.

“I hate to break it to you but this isn’t a dream,” he says as he finally manages to stop laughing.