Chapter 9 What Are You?

• It was a long and bumpy ride filled with dread. I didn’t know these men or where they were going but as long as they took me far away from Red Lake, I didn’t mind. It may be foolish and impulsive but desperation blinded me as I hid among their luggage. They had a means of transport and I needed a means of transport. I was prepared to take care of anything that happened after that.
• Squeezed between piles of luggage in an unventilated box while holding my breath for fear of being discovered, it did not take me long to pass out.
• “What in the name of the goddess is this?” That shout dragged me back to consciousness. I’d been found out.
• I opened my eyes and raised a banging head to see ice-blue eyes. A light-haired man with a sneer on his lips stood next to the quivering coachman who held the luggage compartment open.
• “Hello,” I spoke in the calmest voice I could muster despite my heart beating loud enough for them to hear.
• The aura around this man screamed power and he carried himself with an air of importance the kind of which I’d never seen before. His scent reached my weak nostril and I perceived the sandalwood scent peculiar to betas. Despite being a beta, he oozed more power than all the alphas I’d ever met.
• “Hello?” Amusement flitted across his cold eyes. His light colouring gave him a pretty boy look yet his aura warned against underestimating him. “Is that all you have to say?” Although his presence stifled me, I nodded my heavy head. I’d gone over the details of everything that happened so far but I foolishly did not think of what to say when found hiding amongst someone’s luggage.
• “I don’t –“ I didn’t know what to say. Thrust into the world for the first time in my life, I was confused and apprehensive.
• “Even if you’re Killian’s admirer, don’t you think it’s a bit much to hide amongst his luggage? You could have suffocated.”
• Despite this man’s overpowering aura and imposing personality, he had a smirk tugging at his lips that put me at ease. Mere seconds ago, he’d been glaring at me but it wasn’t every day people opened their carriage to see strangers hiding inside.
• “Killian?” That name came up again. “Who is Killian?” Just as the words slipped from my lips, goosebumps rose on my skin.
• “Orion, did you –“ A man taller and more menacing than the one interrogating me rounded the side and then stopped when his eyes fell on me. “There’s a girl amongst the luggage.” His voice and words were calm but the aura around him had me fighting to breathe. His eyes and expression hardened in the blink of an eye and my instincts to flee jumped out.
• “Why is there a girl in my luggage?” The intensity of the annoyance in his gaze catapulted me into lockdown mode. I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak and could barely breathe.
• Black hair the colour of midnight and eyes so red they looked like rubies. Red eyes. Red eyes. There was only one man in the kingdom with such an appearance.
• “Killian, you’re here.” The blonde man said to the newcomer. He rummaged through the luggage compartment while the coachman helped me out. Then he took a small pouch and slid it into his pocket.
• Alpha Prince Killian. The famed murderer. He was staring at me with those blazing red eyes that were a symbol of the royal family, a gift from the goddess that signified they were the purest-blooded alphas.
• Stupid, stupid Carrot. How did you not know the name Killian? I may be a bush girl from a little nameless pack but it was impossible not to know the name of the Alpha Prince. He was a lunatic. A lunatic that killed his brother for the throne. I hid in the luggage of the future Alpha King and from his darkening gaze, he wasn’t impressed.
• “You.” Realization dawned in his eyes and the rubies turned to flames of fire. “Did you faint in front of my carriage for this stupid stunt?”
• “Oh, it’s you.” The man beside him faced me with a face full of recognition. “Ah, I totally forgot about you.”
• “Who are you?” Cold and callous words. The twin embers of fire burning in the prince’s eyes made me recoil.
• The rubies burned brighter and I swallowed. Black dots spotted my vision again. It was the worst time to faint but I would welcome any reprieve from the gaze burning into my skin
• “C – Car –“ I opened my mouth and almost vomited the truth but I paused at the right time.
• In the Alpha Prince’s luggage, I’d thought of the best way to live life before I got the resources to pull Red Lake to the ground. I planned to work as far away as possible from them, living as if I were dead because I knew Noah would be looking for me.
• “Amethyst,” I muttered, my head falling forward and my ears reddening.
• “That’s a pretty name,” Orion said, his tone friendly. “Now, Amy, why were you hiding in a royal carriage?”The friendliness disappeared from his tone.
• “Do I – Do I have to answer that?” I gulped as the air turned frigid. “I – I needed a ride and I - I’m not –“,
• “You conveniently fainted in front of my carriage, snuck inside and hid but you want me to believe you did all this because it’s the only way you know of getting a lift?” Sharp words cut through the thick skin I thought I’d built from years of being degraded and they pierced my heart.
• This man –
• He carried power like a second skin, wore it as if he was born to be powerful. When he spoke, his words, which, although were spoken in a quiet tone as if he could not be bothered to raise his voice, carried across the vicinity.
• “It’s all – I didn’t mean to faint.” It was the truth but I knew he wouldn’t see it as more than a lie. Why – why did it have to be this man? How could my one impulsive decision lead me to the path of a man who killed without a second thought? Someone who murdered his brother in cold blood!?
• “Cut her some slack,” the beta defended. “She fainted and found herself in a strange pack so she did something crazy. Besides, we did take her to Dark Moon and promptly forgot about her.”
• While Orion spoke, the prince’s eyes bore into me. I wouldn’t dare look into the eyes of a man so powerful. Even the gaze he had on me seared my skin and dried my throat. I’d never been this terrified in my life and a lot had happened during this period for me to be terrified. All this man had to do was look at me and I felt the ground underneath me shift as if about to open up to bury me.
• “I – I am – I am sorry,” I stuttered when the gaze did not fall from my face. “I promise –“ Words bubbled up from my throat but I couldn’t make sense of anything. The urge to apologize, to fall on my face and beg for forgiveness overwhelmed me. I may be wolfless but I never quite mastered the submissive part of my position. I didn’t know how to beg but standing before this man, words of apology flowed out.
• “Amethyst.” He tested the name on his tongue. It was a name I’d envied as a child, a name so precious I wished my mother had given it to me. Why did it come to me at a time like this? “You have hitched a ride to the capital.” I knew the journey had been long but – the capital!? “Now what?”
• “Sir – I am – a job –“ Distorted words fell from my lips. “My f – my alpha – I’m running from him. He - cruel man –“ He hadn’t asked but I felt I needed to give a reason for my need to hide in his carriage.
• “If you need a job, the palace is hiring,” Orion butted in. “You can apply –“
• “Orion.” A single word that shut up the beta and made me freeze. I noticed then that the area around us was unnaturally quiet and I knew it was because of this man. “Amethyst,” he called my fake name again then I heard a cruel chuckle. “You’re not a wolf, are you?” My gaze unwittingly snapped to his.
• “W – What?” My mouth rounded. “Of course –“ Of course, I was a wolf. I hadn’t shifted but it didn’t mean –
• “What are you?”
• Those words plagued my mind for days after that. He left me with them but the words did not leave me. For the first time, I wondered if I was a late bloomer or if I was not a wolf in the first place. My identity dangled at the point of crashing to shambles but it was just the beginning of the thorough shift my life underwent in a short time.
• I got a job, alright. The palace hired me to clean and then things went to flames.