Chapter 34: Chapter Thirty-Four

Saffron stared at the red-haired female, an unexplainable flare of jealousy seeming to come out of nowhere particular hitting her square in the chest.

She glanced from the redhead to her posse then back to the redhead again, wondering if they had met before or not and why they were blocking her path. The trio stared down at her with murder in their eyes, the redhead’s gaze more threatening than the others.

Why?

What was going on?

Had she wronged them somehow?

And then it hit her.

The redhead was the female who had been together with Ryder that night in the woods, the female who had been going down on him, totally oblivious to Saffron’s presence, while she had stood there and watched until the end—equal parts betrayed, equal parts turned on—until he had found his release.

Saffron had no idea what had happened after that. But these three females standing before her were proof enough that she and Ryder did not belong in the same world.

She should take the hint, but her foolish heart wouldn’t let her.

She was still pained by what he had done that night. Daring her to watch him getting serviced by another one was the lowest acts he could have possibly committed, but that was also one of the things that endeared him to her—his unapologetic personality.

Saffron shook herself out of her thoughts, focusing her attention on what was ahead of her. The furious trio.

The redhead was beautiful, more beautiful than any woman she had ever seen, but there was a feeling of wrongness about her that rubbed Saffron the wrong way, making the hairs at the back of her neck stand on end.

As she watched, the air around the female began to distort, her features seeming to warp into something animalistic at the blink of an eye.

One minute she was staring down at a beautiful woman, and the next, she was staring down at a full-grown wolf almost as big as she was.

Saffron didn’t need to be told what to do. She turned on her heels and ran as fast as her legs could take her, not even waiting for her mind digest what she had just seen.

How was it possible that the redhead was able to change into a fully grown wolf right in front of her? Was it some sort of black magic?

Never in her life had she ever seen or heard about people turning into wolves, so it either had to be black magic or a trick of sorts, something the trio was doing to make her doubt her sanity.

It had to be that. Because there was no way she was going to believe that werewolves existed.

Sure they did in legends, books, and movies, but that was it. That was where the story of humans turning into beasts ended.

There was no way that they existed in real life. Saffron refused to believe that.

But, the growls and three different howls following in succession said otherwise.

‘Recorded devices,’ she thought, as she ran towards the direction of Ryder’s cabin, hoping to all hell that he was still there and that she wasn’t about to get her ass handed to her by his ex-lover, or whoever the redhead was, and her posse.

The howling drew closer and closer to Saffron as she ran, the path seeming to stretch longer. Reaching the cabin felt somewhat impossible now as she ran for her dear life, her lungs burning and muscles aching due to the exertion, her pursuers close on her heels.

Just as she left the cover of the woods and made it into open space, heading towards the path that led to Ryder’s cabin, she heard the Alpha’s sharp voice deep in a conversation with his now second-in-command Hael, their backs turned to her, making her trip on her feet.

Saffron pivoted and ran back into the woods, taking an unknown path, praying for salvation.

There was no way she was going to allow herself to be caught by the Alpha when his son had singled her out earlier in a sea of slaves and islanders, instructing her to follow him to his cabin.

If she hadn’t been on the Alpha’s radar already, that sure would have put her on his path. Avoiding him at all costs was the safest bet for her.

Getting caught by the trio who may be real shapeshifting humans wasn’t an option either. So, deeper into the woods she ran with no sense of direction, only a strong will to survive forging her on.

As she sprinted past a fallen log, a memory of a night like this flashed through her mind.

Did it have something to do with the two weeks she still had no memories of?

Saffron didn’t have the time to ponder what she had seen as a huge body slammed into her, causing her to stumble and fall on her feet, rolling on the ground until her back hit a tree, her breath leaving her body in a whoosh.

She blinked through the pain that assaulted her, pressing a hand over the tender spot at her side.

Disoriented from her fall, she stared at what had run into her, her brows furrowing in confusion as her gaze fell on the redhead, who was now naked with a wolf at her side, and one of the other females standing by her side, her lips pinched tightly.

“What do you want from me?” Saffron gasped out, unable to move any of her muscles.

“You aren’t supposed to hurt her, Myra,” the female stated as she stared down at the redhead, disapproval coloring her tone. “Alpha’s orders. And if he found out we helped you…”

“This bitch killed my father!” the redhead, Myra, snapped back when her friend trailed off. “She has to pay for what she did. I have waited enough!”

“Myra, don’t!”

The last thing Saffron remembered feeling was the burning sensation that licked up her body, claiming her in a stronghold, the agony of the burn spreading throughout her entire body and making her scream.

When she blinked her eyes open again, she was laying in a pool of her blood with Ryder crouching besides her, panic in his eyes even as his body shook with the intensity of his fury.

“We have got to stop meeting like this, little one,” he whispered, his tone soft as he gathered her into his arms, his touch tender as if he was carrying something precious.

“I will make them pay for hurting you,” he vowed as he began to walk carefully, trying not to jostle her body too much.

But Saffron wasn’t sure whether he had said that or if it was just her imagination.

Whatever it was, she was just glad that he had found her.

He began to purr then, the soft grumbles lulling her into a state of complacency, making her forget all about her woes for the day, as she let herself succumb into the dark embrace of sleep.