INTRODUCTION

Alessia Claw ~

I ran through the woods below the night sky with my heart beating so fast, its way from the danger chasing it. At a point, I was too weak to run any further so I leaned on a tree trunk to enable me catch my breath for a while.

I needed to.

It wasn't up to twenty seconds of gasping for my breath when a hailstorm of flaming arrows accompanied by several howls came crashing down the ground.

I took refuge from the arrows behind the tree and watched as the flaming arrows rained down the sky and pierced their way into the ground. The lycans were the source of the arrows and I was the prime target.

They were gaining on me and I could feel it. I and my unborn child have to flee to a safe haven in these woods so they won't get to us. So he won't get to us. Taking a leap of faith after the hailstorm had ended, I continued my race in the darkness all around the woods.

I couldn't let them get to me.

I won't!

Not again, not after all that I had been through before I took the chance to escape. I wouldn't let them get my child.

Never!

I ran with my eyes and hopes to only one direction in the forest - The Claw' Royal vampyre coven. I was barely a mile away from it. The sights of lights coming forth from the outdoor torches gave me hope that soon, we'll be safe.

Hope.

That was the one thing that I needed so badly at the moment. I stood a while and looked back to the sight of my upcoming foes that were tearing their way in the forest to find me.

They were so close that I could feel the vibrations their movement impacted on the ground. The vibrations began getting more and more pronounced. Vibrations that made me realize that if I did not pick up my pace, I would be in their clutches sooner than later.

I was about a stone throw from the coven's golden gates when my child became due, the contractions began. I could feel my child arriving. In pain, I fell to the ground. This was definitely the wrong timing for child birth. Not when both our lives depends on how safe we are from those mindless lycans.

"Freedderick! Freeedderrriccck!!!" I cried out loudly unable to move any further.

With each contraction, I sensed my breath getting fainter, and fainter.

"Frederick! Help Me!" I cried out with a piercing voice throwing little stones that I could place my hands on to the gate.

My eyelids were getting heavier and heavier with the excruciating pain that I was under making me weaker the more. I tried my best to keep them open and hold on to whatever strength I had but I couldn't. I was far too weak to even keep my focus on them.

The last thing that I saw before going blank was the different packs of lycans running straight for me. It didn't matter to them that I am their queen by virtue of being the mate of the alpha of all alphas, their rightful king.

They must be under the control of 'him' – the man who killed my husband and stole his throne.

Packs of lycans doing 'his' dirty bidding.

The same packs that had sworn allegiance to me as their queen had become the same packs I had tried so hard so I could escape from and had been running away from ever since.

What was going to happen to me and my child?

"Guards!!!"

Getting no immediate response, I submitted gladly to my fate.