Chapter 131

Chapter 131
Samara's POV

I was convinced my heart was going to explode with the way it was beating so rapidly against my rib cage. I had to leave this place, run out of here forever. With all of their eyes on me, it felt like I had been exposed—like they could see right through me and see the dragon-wolf that they feared so much. And yet with Lucian’s eyes on me, I could do nothing. I was frozen in place.

He jumped up from his seat and walked toward me, bending down to take care of my leg. When I looked down, I saw there was blood everywhere. A shard of glass was lodged in my foot, but I could not even feel any pain. Carefully, he removed the lodged glass. The second I was free, I turned and rushed away from the council hall, but I could feel Lucian’s heavy footsteps following close behind me.

“Where do you think you're going off to? You're just not going to say anything?” I heard Lucian's deep voice behind me. There was a mix of anger and betrayal in his tone. But how dare he really? He was the one who messed up and somehow I was obligated to give him an explanation?

“Really? What do you want me to say, Lucian? Your Beta threw me out of your pack! No, actually... she sold me off to the rogue king—to the damn rogue king!”

The hurt and anger I had felt in the time I had been sold to the rogue king came flooding back.

“I have gotten rid of Freya,” he replied like it was enough to fix things between us, “I did not realize just how evil she was then. I'm really sorry for everything. Please come back.”

“Never!” I yelled at him furiously. “I will never go back to your pack! You... you…”

And then something broke within me and I began crying. I could not stop the tears from falling; they just continued pouring down my face in torrents. And when Lucian pulled me into his chest and I inhaled his musk scent, I cried even more. This was what I had wanted from him then. To feel secure in his embrace and now…

It was just too late.

And I was panicking too. My secret about my dragon wolf could be exposed in a heartbeat. I had to leave here.

So without warning, I jerked away from him and marched deeper into the spiralling hallway until I could not hear footsteps behind me anymore.

I was out of breath when I stopped running, but I knew that my running was not over—and I was not talking about just running from Lucian. I was talking about running from it all. Lillian was right. She was always right. There was no point living like this. I had to make my own future, create my own destiny, and take a chance at life, even if for the third time.

So I began running again, searching through corridors and opening and slamming doors, looking for the only friend I had within these walls. And then I found her. She looked at me, and my agitation bounced off her face.

“What is wrong, Samara?” she asked me, her voice trembling slightly.

“We need to leave,” I said.

She stared at me for a few seconds, and without any words, she nodded once. “Okay.”

She did not ask any questions. She simply grabbed my hand and ran in the direction of her room, throwing a few clothes and items into a bag before grabbing my arm again and sprinting out of the palace.

There were several carriages, horses, and even cars to choose from. We exchanged a look, and she did her trick, unlocked a car door, and we hopped into it.

“We’ll have to make do!” she called out.

At the speed of light, we traveled together. We passed the palace gates and passed the parking area until we reached a point where the car suddenly ground to a halt. I stepped out of the car to ask Lillian what the problem was, but the moment my feet hit the ground, I already knew.

She looked at me, her eyes filled with sheer terror. We were completely surrounded by armed men. They looked fearsome, with dark dragon tattoos winding up their arms.

Nyla! I screamed in my head, desperate for my wolf to answer me. They looked dangerous, but I knew Nyla could take them all out with a single breath. Nyla! I screamed again, but there was only dead silence.

We would have to face this head-on by ourselves, without any help.

“Who the hell are you people?” I screamed, my voice echoing off the trees.

This time, I was going to fight to the end. I was not going to allow my freedom to be snatched away from me like the previous times—like when I had fallen into Lucian’s pack, or when Freya had sold me off to the Rogue King. I was not going to let that happen to me again. I would rather die right here than be taken away as a slave.

“We are not here to harm you,” one of them said, stepping forward. He was clearly the leader among them. “We are just here to take you to our king.”

“I do not know your king, and I do not wish to be taken!” I screamed back at them.

They looked at me as if I were kidding. “Trust me, you do not wish to go that route.”

Lillian immediately stepped in front of me, shielding my body with her own. “How about this? You take me instead and leave my friend out of this.”

The men laughed, revealing their sharp, jagged teeth. “We are not interested in you at all,” the leader said coldly, pointing his weapon directly at me. “We only want her.”

I had made a mistake running away without a plan. I felt hot tears burn behind my eyes. The most painful part of it all was that I had dragged Lillian, completely innocent, into my twisted fate.

It meant that I would have to put my fighting on hold because I did not want any harm to come to her. So I did what I could. I stepped in front of Lillian and said to the man who appeared to be their leader, “Take me then, and leave my friend.”

To Lillian, I whispered softly, “Return to the palace or go somewhere else. Thank you for being a good friend to me.”

Lillian shook her head stubbornly. “Wherever she goes, I follow. I will not leave her side.”

The man looked bored at the display of our friendship. “I care little about things like this, but my lord is waiting, and we must leave now.”

The leader stepped forward and grabbed my arm firmly, but I noted that his touch was not rough. It felt as if he was being exceptionally careful in handling me.

Who the hell was it that wanted me now? Had I not suffered enough with Lucian and George? Was it not possible for me to just live my own life? Why wouldn’t fate just let me be?

We were placed into a carriage, and that was when I noted that a lot of them appeared to have stepped out from some ancient era, carrying an air that had certainly no modernity to it. I was not sure how long we traveled for, but I tried to keep track of the time so that if I ever escaped, I would know just how much of a distance I would need to return to the places I knew. Lillian, sitting beside me, looked like she was trying to keep note of everything as well.

I whispered to her, “I’m really sorry. It’s my fault. I should never have—”

She shook her head and stopped me from speaking. “No, no, this is not your fault, Samara. If you had not made us run, I would have. You know I’ve always been talking about leaving and finally living our lives for ourselves.”

But in my heart, I still felt guilty for putting us in this situation. I was desperate now, more than ever, to find Nyla within me so that she could put an end to this. I knew that Nyla was capable of fighting these men with their crude weapons.

When the carriage finally stopped and we hopped out, the first thing that escaped my mouth was a gasp. I realized we were in a different world entirely from anything I had ever known. The skies looked like cascading chandeliers with streaks of swirling purple and bright orange. There was no sun or moon in the sky, and yet it appeared bright—though not in a way that blinded the eyes.

“Where the hell are we?” I asked aloud, staring up in awe and terror.

The man who appeared to be the leader turned to look at me. “Welcome home.”

“Home?” I repeated, stunned.

“I shall escort you to your father,” he said to me, his tone grave. “He has been waiting for you and searching for you for a very long time.”

My father...

That single word echoed through my mind, eclipsing everything else. What the hell did that even mean? I had a father who was still alive? And if so, why now? Why was he looking for me now? Why not when I was being turned into a slave in my grandfather’s pack? Why not when I was sent off to another pack to be treated like dirt, forced to run for my life?

I had to force myself to stop, realizing I was rambling and spiraling out of control in my own thoughts.