12. Black Fur Pack
AURELIA
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Against all odds, I rose again, pushing my legs against the floor of the forest and pushing beyond the limit of any pregnant woman. "That bitch killed June. Don't let her escape." An angry masculine voice roared somewhere behind me.
Their determination to catch me wasn't shocking but the energy I suddenly obtained, the energy pumping through my veins as I ran, my hands on my lower belly, was alarming. Although I couldn't see clearly in the dark forest, I let my legs carry me despite the fact that I kept falling over and over again. Every part of me was hurting, including my belly. The scratches from June's fingers stung as my beads of sweat trickled over them. June...
I killed her.
She was the first person I would ever kill and as much as I hated it, her name has been etched in my memory. It would have been easier if she had remained some faceless and nameless woman... but now I knew her name and I would have to live with that for the rest of my life which might not be very long considering the fact that my legs were becoming weaker and probably bleeding from hitting the ground so many times in the past five minutes.
Plus, they were catching up to me and it was only a matter of time before they snuffed my soul out of my body, killing my baby in the process.
"Black Fur Pack is barely thirty steps away. We can't let her get there." One of the hired assassins sent by my ex-mate shouted to the rest of his crew and my heart almost stopped.
It couldn't be.
Black Fur Pack?
There was no guarantee that I would make it into the pack's territory but even if I did, there was no guarantee that I would live past a minute before the deadliest warrior in the realm shot me down like a bird.
Black Fur Pack was known far and wide. Its members are strong warriors and even their youngest pups were allowed to wield weapons and learn combat. Obviously, I was running from the messengers of death into death's trap yet I couldn't stop running. Someone else hissed behind me, making it a total of three men that I have been able to recognize by their voice, "Surrender yourself and I will make your death quick but take another step and you will have to beg for death in the hands of the Black Furs." He was right.
I was going to die either way.
Hot tears clouded my eyes, my heart clenching as it drew on me that I had failed as a mother even before I became one.
Being surrounded by death meant I had no way out... not for myself and not for my baby.
"What choice are you making? Peaceful death or the Black Furs kind of death." One of the familiar voices questioned and the wind carried those words to me just as the sounds of their footsteps came to a stop.
They stopped running after me which could only mean that I was dangerously close to the Black Fur border. It was time to make a choice. If I couldn't escape Alpha Raiden and cheat death, then I might as well choose how I die with my baby.
I thought of halting and taking a minute to catch my breath but fate took the decision out of my hands when my left foot slipped and I fell, face first, landing on my stomach. "Aaah." I cried out as pain jolted from the center of my stomach, traveling down my spine rapidly. Gritting in raw agony, I tried to roll over- to save my stomach from taking any more blows- but to my dismay, I found myself rolling over and over again, down a steep landscape that I didn't see beforehand. My stomach bore the impact more with every uncontrollable roll that had me screaming my lungs out in pain.Exclusive content from NôvelDrama.Org.
"There is no way she would survive that." I heard one of the assassins saying to the others. "It's a pity we can't take her head back as promised."
No. It's a pity I wouldn't get to meet my baby or give him or her a good life.
My eyes began to close even before my body came to a stop at the bottom of the steep hill and as much as my heart cried out, I didn't feel the pain when my head crashed against something hard, perhaps a rock but I was too weak to tell.
Another wave of unfamiliar kind of pain built up in my stomach and as the unbearable sensation spread through my body, I could only lay down on my back, crying silently.
"We have a trespasser." I didn't know how long it took for someone other than the assassins to find me but when they did, I knew I had fallen into death's trap... into the Black Fur Pack.
My suspicion was confirmed when a gruff voice stated blatantly, "Kill it."
It? Like I was some animal.
Death flashed through my blurry eyes as I heard the sound of a sword or maybe it was a knife, slashing through the air. This was it. I believed I would be dying by a sword until another wave of pain sliced through me. "Aaahhh..." I screamed again.
Something popped within me and I felt liquid slipping out of my core. It has to be blood.
But it wasn't.
"Sh-she appears to be in labor, Alpha." Whoever was standing over me with a sword in the air, stuttered.
My water just broke.
It was early labor and I cried even harder when I realized that I was about to push my baby out only for him or her to be killed and there was nothing I could do about it... not when I was completely weak and drained. "Is that supposed to make a difference?" This voice carried authority as the owner snarled viciously.
"No, Alpha..." Came the response.
And I knew without a doubt that this would be the end of the pathetic Aurelia yet I whimpered, "P-please he-help. For goddess's sa-sake, s-save my ba-ba-"
The rest of my useless plea died in my throat as I fell fast into unsettling darkness, noting that the sword could have been lowered to stop my heart. This was my end. Sadly-