Chapter 8

On my way back to the castle, I noticed an unusual calmness in the wood. Let alone any demon monster, the creatures I saw earlier were not on the site.

I had mentally prepared myself to fight the white-haired vampire even though I stood no chance to win. But to my utter surprise, when I entered the castle, it was vacant. No one was there. Neither the white-haired guy nor Liliana, no one.

I was standing there dumbfounded. "Where could have that man taken Liliana?" I asked my wolf. "Do you think they have another base?" My wolf asked me back.

"Rose," she called out my name suddenly. “I can feel something behind us," she said cautiously.

I quickly turned back. The large animal that was hiding in the dark all this time came out. It didn't take seconds before making the attack.

"A demon dog?" I was taken by the sudden attack. The demon dogs were larger than the ordinary dogs and they had sharp teeth in the pattern of a shark's teeth. And they had two heads instead of one.

I fell on my back on the ground. The demon dog came over me. It was aggressively pressing me down with its claws. Desperately trying to bite my throat, not leaving me even a breath to shift. I was already running out of breath due to my earlier fight.

The place where the dog was pressing me near my abdomen had already started bleeding. I was feeling the pain. The pressure was too much to heal right away.

I pulled together my all endurance and curled my knees and kicked it on its abdomen near its thoracic cage. A firm sound of breaking a bone swirled and it cried out pushing me away. I got up quickly. But before I could shift another demon dog attacked me from behind. I dodged it just in time and blew it away with another kick. I was not being able to fathom where these dogs had come from.

The demon dogs looked trained. They were not strays certainly. I could tell from their attacking pattern. The two dogs gathered and started to bark at me. All of their four heads started barking making it intolerable for my ears.

I shifted my claws. I had not much time to play. I gave them a chilling glare. The dogs suddenly seemed timid. They were moving to back as I started to approach them.

One dog suddenly gathered back its courage and pulled back its body to jump over me again.

"Time to use my lunar training," I mumbled.

The dog jumped and I grabbed its neck with my claws. I ripped it apart from its neck joint where the two heads were connected and threw it away to a corner.

The other dog started barking. But to my surprise, it suddenly got terrified and started to move back again. I got confused by the sudden change in its behavior.

I realized my instinct and hastily turned back to dodge the attack that was coming from behind. But I was too slow. A long arm grabbed me by my throat.

Out of reflex, I gripped the hand that was already choking me and tried to set me free. But the owner of the hand lifted me with just his one hand. I looked down and met a cold pair of exquisite red eyes. His iris was transparent red that I had never seen before. It was glowing as the deem light had fallen over his face. His pale skin was glowing as well. Black shiny hair was back brushed. But his skin was so cold that I was already freezing by his touch. He was as cold as a corpse.

Even on the verge of my death, I couldn't unsee how beautiful he was. The hoodie of his silhouette had fallen over his neck as he was looking up to meet my eyes. He was indeed massive and tall, yet his figure was perfectly slender making it not overly masculine, but the proof of enormous strength was right there in his grip.

I started to cough. I was struggling hard to breathe. But his grip did not loosen a bit. He was as if analyzing every single organ inside of me. His gaze was piercing through me.

"Where is he?" He asked in a cold tone. His voice was just as attractive as his appearance.

I was not aware of what he was implying yet I wanted to talk but for that, I needed to be alive and to breathe but seemed like he was not interested to listen to me anyway. Killing me proved more entertaining for him and he kept choking me to my end.

Credit to my lunar training, I somehow managed to shift my claws a bit and pierced it right in his arms forcing him to let go of me.

It worked. He let go of me. But it couldn't do anything more than some scratches on his hand that healed within seconds. And I felt like I had just scratched in the ice.

I was gasping for breathing falling on the ground. My face had already cyanosed. The guy kneeled beside me and bent his head to get closer to my face. He was looking at me frowning.

"Where did he take her?” He asked staring at me coldly. He looked at his hand where I had scratched him earlier. Then he again looked at me. “Why a wolf like you helping him?" He asked.

I looked at him dumbfounded. He was thinking that I was an ally of the white-haired vampire.

"Are you a traitor?” he asked me leaning in close to me. Our faces were just inches apart. For some weird reason, my heart started pounding faster.

I looked up into his eyes. “I am not a traitor," I said calmly.

"Then why your packmates were hunting you down?" He asked.

"How did you know?!" I frowned at him doubtfully. "Who are you?"

Instead of replying to me, he got up and pulled out the silhouette from his body. The navy-blue tunic with silver brooches and the embroidered elements were screaming of royalty. As if he was some prince who came out of a novel.

He raised his right hand to his side and suddenly a bright light came from the open window. I closed my eyes in the sudden exposure. A black Phoenix entered the room. It sat on his forearm. I was still on the floor. I was caught so off-guard that I forgot to even stand.

Within a few seconds, the Phoenix started to take a human form. It was another moment for me to get shocked. The Phoenix took the shape of the man who took Liliana away from me in the woods. The black-haired vampire who killed the demon monster.

The guy right away kneeled in front of the man and bowed.

"No sight of the ice clan, my lord," he said bowing. "Seems like he has gone out of the vampire territory with your bride," he said.

I was confused. I got up and grabbed the Phoenix vampire by his collar and yelled at him. "Where is Liliana? You are the one who brought her here?! And who the hell is his bride? What drama is going on here?" I asked him angrily.

But the guy slapped me suddenly. I fell to the ground. The man in the royal attire was looking at us, carefully enjoying every scenario.

"Watch your mouth, wolf. Bold of you to behave like a savage in front of the emperor who is reigning over the world for thousands of years," he said.

"My apologies, my lord. You have woken up after years and you had to witness such mess," the guy bowed again and said, "This is the wolf girl who was with your soon to be bride. I believe she was bringing her to give her to the ice prince. I successfully redeemed her. But when she ran away, I could not force her to come back since I was afraid the ice prince would not hold back to kill her right at that moment if he had realized that he would not get her.”

Thousands of years? I mumbled. I looked at the man. He was the one. So, he was the one the world was afraid of, Chris Wentworth. I was still on the ground, out of their conversation, puzzled as I should, like a secondary background character. Like nobody.