Chapter 3. The assault on the castle: A Hasty Wedding

Irina Bykow

"Malcon McDonald was definitely insane," I thought, looking at the outskirts of McDonald Castle. Thousands of clans were stationed there, waiting to storm the castle and claim their loot.

Rumors soon spread that Malcon wanted to ignore the instructions given by the Moon Goddess to female wolves like me and the other Gamma wolves. He believed that if I agreed to marry him, the moon goddess would accept him as my mate and give him the power to control me. What the Scottish idiot didn't understand was that, as with all couples established by the moon goddess, there had to be an initial attraction between us. In that respect, I was no different from the other female werewolves.

"This will turn into a river of blood. You know that, right?" Bella said from within.

My strong wolf had tried countless times to protect me from the desire for power or the madness that came with having a Gamma wolf in our clan. On the contrary, many Alphas had decided that they wanted to find out. This caused all the clans on the continent to go crazy trying to capture me.

I was about to answer my wolf when a knock at the door distracted me.

"Come in," I said to whoever was behind the door. I assumed it wasn't Alpha Malcon since he was too arrogant to knock before entering. He simply assumed that I, like everything else in that castle, belonged to him.

I wasn't surprised when Ava McDonald, the Alpha's half-sister and daughter of his father's mistress, the former Alpha, appeared at the door. For that reason alone, and because she was an omega, everyone in the pack used to abuse this beautiful, weak she-wolf. I had taken her under my protection since arriving at the castle, claiming that I needed an assistant to become the new Moon. This ensured that the harassment and torture Ava suffered at the hands of her brother and every member of the pack would cease immediately.

"Future Luna, the situation is getting worse. There have been several incursions by our enemies in various parts of the castle. To prevent them from getting here and kidnapping you, the Alpha has decided that the marriage will take place in two hours: quickly and definitively." For a second, I was paralyzed.

I thought I had more time to prevent the wedding, but now that it was going to happen, I was terrified—and so was Ava. I felt that Ava was also scared to death.

"Luna, you shouldn't marry my brother. He's a despicable person. He's had several partners who have all disappeared under strange circumstances. I know he hasn't been able to do that with you so far because you're a Gamma, but once you're marked, you'll be like the rest of the women. You'll have to submit to the union,” Ava said with concern.

Honestly, the way she put it made me even less inclined to take the plunge, but what could I do? I was trapped in that castle, surrounded by hordes of enemies, and I was their trophy. If I escaped, the slaughter between the different clans outside would be the most atrocious thing I had ever seen.

"If you're willing, and if you take me with you, I have a way for us to leave the castle without anyone knowing—not even the people outside. You see, I've been in this castle for so long, and I've heard so much about the torture of its members, just for being the daughter of a mistress and an omega, that I found a way to escape some of the atrocities they did to me. Down in the dungeons, under a wall tapestry, there's a door that leads to a secret passageway into the forest, far from the clans that have us under siege," Ava said excitedly.

"You know that if I take you with me, you will have to break your bond with the pack. I can tell you right now that it is very painful. You suddenly feel alone. You stop hearing the voices of everyone you've heard since you were little, and the emptiness inside you is enormous. I told her, explaining what I had felt when I made the decision to leave my family after being rejected by the alpha of my pack.

"I know, but it's better to be alone and at the mercy of the rogues in the woods than to stay here and be treated like trash by your own family and people," she said sadly. I felt her sadness as if it were my own.

"Well, it's decided. We have to leave within an hour. How do you plan to do it?" I asked Ava, determined to flee.

“First, put on this cloak and cover your hair. I know it smells awful, but it's the only way to disguise our scent so they won't find us.

You should also put on your shoes, which I've impregnated with the same unpleasant smell to disguise our footprints. It's important that you don't touch anything while we're moving through the forest, or else they'll be able to track us." I was surprised by Ava's intelligence and let her know.

"How do you know all this?" That's very clever of you," I said as I put on the stinky cloak and changed my shoes. Even Bella complained about the smell.

"It's called survival. I can tell you that in my twenty-two years of life, I've learned a lot." I didn't know exactly what atrocities this attractive wolf had endured, but I knew about the resentment and hatred she felt, and above all, the terror inside her.

We carefully descended the service stairs, knowing that almost all the men in the pack were busy ensuring that the castle walls were not scaled by any outsiders, as Ava had confirmed. There had already been several incursions, so the warriors' focus was naturally on the battlements and the castle gate rather than the catacombs.

It wasn't difficult to reach the dungeons. As my clever friend said, we soon found the tapestry hiding the door to the passageway that would lead us away from the castle. As we walked through the passageway, the humidity and the smell of our cloaks became unbearable. Bella complained several times that the smell overwhelmed her senses.

"Calm down, my dear Loba. We must get as far away as possible. Once we're far enough away, I promise you that I'll jump into the first lake I see, cape and all, to get rid of this damn smell," I said.

We made our way through the forest at a fairly fast pace, hiding in the shadows of the trees. Several kilometers in, a loud noise from the castle made us fear the inevitable. We climbed to the highest hill in the forest where we could see the castle. As if in a movie, we saw that the entire building was in flames. Apparently, the herds outside had broken in. The slaughter going on inside was unimaginable.

I looked at Ava, who was watching the scene with sadness. I put a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, and she looked at me.

In her green eyes, I saw pain mingled with other feelings that I soon felt as if they were my own, thanks to my empathic ability. The mistreated omega mourned the loss of her roots—the place where she had grown up—but was also glad that those who had made her suffer had gotten what they deserved. It wasn't because it had happened at her hands, but because of their selfishness—the selfishness of an Alpha who didn't know how to forgive but knew how to hurt others.

"Do you know how many times I wished that castle would burn down like it is now?" she said, tears running down her cheeks.

"Don't worry. I don't know what the future holds, but I promise I won't let anyone hurt you again," I said, hugging her.

After that, all we had to do was travel to the first large lake we found. Without thinking twice, we threw ourselves into it, clothes and all, to get rid of the smell, since we had no other clothes. We couldn't go around transformed into a wolf all the time either because then we could be quickly detected.

While we were bathing, I suddenly caught an exciting, sweet scent, like cinnamon and sea breeze, which made me shiver. I felt Bella getting nervous, so I got out of the lake to see what was going on. I hadn't noticed Ava leave the lake at some point, as if driven by an unknown force.

"What's going on, Bella?" I asked.

But she couldn't answer because someone hugged me tightly from behind and pulled me toward a solid, massive body like a block of iron. I was pushed toward a large tree and cornered against it.

The smell of cinnamon and sea breeze became so intense that it made me dizzy. At the same time, it was an incredibly delicious, intoxicating, and attractive smell. "You're mine!" A deep, hoarse voice made me tremble, and an excited, crazed scream from Bella echoed inside me.

"She's our mate," the voice continued, and my trembling intensified until I lost strength in my legs. Only his strong arms held me up as he sniffed deeply at my neck. I was the prey of a werewolf I had never seen before, and he had already caught me.