Chapter 38 Stray Wolf
Finn’s POV
The girl was lighter than she should have been as I carried her through the dark forest, one arm under her knees, and the other supporting her back.
Her head rested gently against my chest, her breathing rising and falling weakly. But the bleeding hadn’t stopped; it dripped slowly between her legs, soaking through what remained of her torn gown and falling onto the leaves as I walked.
She was barely conscious, murmuring words that I couldn’t quite make out. With each step I took, her body would twitch with pain, a soft whimper escaping her cracked lips.
“Hold on,” I whispered, looking down at her weak fragile body. “We’re almost there.”
I began to quicken my pace, eyes scanning the trees for any sign of danger again. The three rogue corpses I had left behind should be rotting by now…I didn’t regret killing them, because men like that didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her.
What the fuck did you just get yourself involved in?
Lone alphas like me stayed hidden for a reason, away from pack politics, drama, and enemies. I had left that life behind years ago, but yet…the moment I caught her scent a mile away, something inside me had shifted.
I couldn’t walk away.
“You’re safe now,” I muttered under my breath, even though she probably couldn’t hear any words I was speaking right now. “Just hold on a little longer, little one.”
After what felt like forever, I had finally reached my destination. The cabin finally came into view — a tiny room I had built myself years ago, tucked deep between ancient pines and shielded by thick forest trees. This was the last place anybody in their right mind would come looking for me.
That was the point.
Without thinking twice, I pushed the heavy wooden door open with my shoulder and carried her inside. The fireplace must have died down hours ago, so I lay her gently on the large bed in the corner before adding more wood and stoking the flames back to life.
Warm light filled the room immediately, revealing her pale face, bruises bloomed across her cheeks and neck —fresh finger marks that made my jaw clench. Her gown was nothing more than rags, stained with blood…probably the miscarriage had been recent and violent.
I began to move quickly, fetching clean clothes and a basin of water, then knelt beside the bed. With steady hands, I started to clean the blood from her thighs, all the way down between her legs as gently as I could. A soft whimper escaped her lips at the contact but she was still unconscious.
I applied a thick potion of healing herbs I kept stocked months ago—all over the wounds on her body, upwards to the bruises across her face and cheeks. Then I wrapped her lower body in clean fur sheets and covered her with them.
For a moment, I sat on the edge of the mattress, studying how small she looked in my bed. She was young, beautiful, even in her broken state, her dark hair falling on her forehead from sweat and dirt.
And then—
It hit me.
The faint scent of a powerful alpha still clung to her skin. From how strong the scent was I could tell it was a possessive, dominant, and ruthless Alpha. He must have claimed her hard and then thrown her away like garbage.
Why?
Why in the world would someone do this to her?
I ran a hand through my own hair, exhaling slowly as the unwanted thought slammed into me brutally. Helping her was dangerous…if the alpha who marked her came looking, it could bring trouble straight to my door.
Something I had promised myself never to get involved with ever again.
“Fuck!”
I stood abruptly and paced the small cabin, checking the locks on every window and door on instinct. My claws were still partially extended, the red color of my eyes refusing to fade completely—
“Please…don’t…”
A soft sound from the bed shattered through my thoughts, snapping me back to reality. My eyes snapped to see the girl stirring weakly, her eyelids barely fluttering open.
“Hey…easy,” I said quietly, moving closer and kneeling beside her. “You’re safe now. No one’s going to hurt you here.”
Her eyes opened slightly, weak and heavy with pain and exhaustion as she looked up at me, fear flashing across her face instantly.
“W…who…are…you?” She barely managed to speak, the words barely audible to my hearing even as I was close.
“I’m Finn,” I answered simply. I didn’t offer more than that to anyone, rarely did.
She tried to push herself up, her arms trembling violently, but they gave out immediately. The moment her eyes met mine, panic flickered in them—the same fear I had seen when the rogues had pinned her down in the forest and tried to ravish her.
“Hey! Gotcha…!”
I caught her gently before she could fall, setting her back down against the pillows. “You really need to rest well…because you’ve…Uhmm…you’ve lost a lot of blood.”
Her hand trembled as it reached toward her stomach, fresh tears streaming down from the corners of her eyes. “My baby… I lost my baby…”
The raw grief in her voice hit me harder than I expected, because for a moment, I stayed silent, letting her cry. There was nothing I could say that would fix what had been taken from her.
After a while, the tears quieted down as exhaustion pulled her under. I didn’t know her name yet, nor do I have any idea of the terrible things that must have been done to her. But I knew one thing for certain:
Whoever had thrown her away like she was worthless — would regret it if they ever came looking for her. Because for the first time in years, I had decided to protect someone.
“Sleep, little one,” I muttered more to myself than her. “You’re safe forever.”
I leaned back in the wooden chair beside the bed, staring out the window. Outside, the forest was silent once more.
But I knew that peace like this in my life never lasted too long.