{Joan's POV}
I just finished having my lunch when I feel the presence of someone around me. I suddenly became scared without any reason, the kitchen head asked me to take a day off today because I am a bit under the under weather, so I have the whole day to my self and that's why I have the chance to go meet Carl today. I stood up from my bed, I can feel someone walking towards my room and I am scared. This is a kind of ability some of us in the Redflame pack posses, we usually sense danger when coming but I can feel that this is not a general danger, I feel like I am the only one in danger.
I came out of my room, I looked left and right, I saw no body along the corridor but I can still hear footsteps in my ears. I turned and began to run towards the extreme door that leads to the yard. However, before I reached the door, my elbow is caught from behind and my head floated. I froze.. My head whipped to my right.
"Take this route Joan." The person who just grabbed my elbow whispered to my ears. I looked back to see who it is, the person is masked but he is a man. A man in the pack? This isn't Carl. Who is he and why is he here? Goosebumps lined my skin. The man led to a different door and already know why he is here. He his helping me. Sweat lined my brow at the anticipation.
The path he leads me down looked normal, except that it is dark. I can feel the heat radiating off my body. I didn't argue with this man not did I ask him any questions, I just felt very secured with him, showing complete confidence when he led me through the hallways towards the extreme part of the mansion.
"Harper is here!" He whispered to my ears. Taking a quick turn, we went up a flight of stairs and entered a small dingy room – this place looks like a... a... a laundry room. He shut the room's door. "We need to hide here for a while, Harper is coming." He said, his voice sounding like that of another world. Apart from Carl's voice, I hear male voices once in a while...
"But why? Why should we run away from Harper, I can just tell her that I am in danger, she will help me out." I said to him. Really, I don't know why he wants me also to hide from Harper.
"Will you shut up!! She will hear your voice."
"Joan!" I heard Harper's voice from outside the room and I gasped, the guy covered my mouth and shook his head, telling me not to make a sound. "Joan!!" I heard again, the voice is very harsh this time. My heart jumped up to my throat.
"I know you are somewhere here... You better come out of where you are hiding, if I fish you out myself you will be in trouble." I heard her say again. I became confused immediately. I don't know why she wants me out, have I done something wrong... Why is she looking for me?
"I want you to come out now Joan or else you will regret it..." The door of the room we were hiding collapsed at once and I gasped again. The guy pinned me to the wall, and signaled me to hold my breath and I did. I became very scared. I can hear Harper's footsteps in the room, she has come into the room. My heart palpitate continuously and violently in fear, my knees became weak all of a sudden as Harper approached our side. We are hiding behind a cupboard and she is already approaching the cupboard. I know she is tracing me with my scent, I am not going to be safe today.
"Joan? What are you doing here?" I heard suddenly and my eyes flew up in fear. She already saw us. I bit my lips and slowly opened my eyes, I looked up but I didn't see her. The room is dark and it will difficult for her to see us. I peeked out, she isn't facing my side but she is still approaching our side.
"I know you are here... Just come out once." I am so scared right now. She is not stopping... I cried when she stepped on my toes, but the guy is still covering my mouth, so I can't make a loud sound. Just as she is about to looked down at what she just stepped on, a voice shouted out her name.
"Harper! What are you still doing here?" This is Alpha Virginia's voice. "I heard that Joan has left her room, I think she already knows what happened... Let's look around for her, she will still be around here." Harper turned and left the room with the Alpha immediately. I took a deep breath and pushed the guy away from my body. At least, I am saved for now.
"Tell me who are you and why are you helping me?" I asked him.
"Don't ask me unnecessary questions... These people will still continue to trace you with your scent... That was a narrow escape, we might not get that chance again... You need to change your dress." He picked up a servant dress from a shelf and threw it at me. It is looking very filthy but I know I don't have choice. The guy helped me to unzip my dress before turning to the other direction.
"I want you to change my dress, you will have to leave from here... I mean go outside."
"Excuse me? Not me." He replied coldly like a frustrated man. "You will have to do as I say, you don't give me commands. Just dress up now, we don't have enough time." He told me.
"Are you out of your senses?" I said and punched him hard. He his refusing to tell me who he is and it's really annoying.
"Will you just shut up and get dressed, if you want to get out of here safely." He said. I did has he said and we both left the room, cautiously.
He scaled the wall of the pack-house as if it is nothing. Securing me in his arms, he jumped down to the ground landing on his feet. This man looks very weird to me but I remain quiet. He is now running towards the boundary of the pack. People already know of my escape, I got the signals. They have started to look for me. It is now a matter of time that they find me. They are Redflames, brave and powerful.
"I think you should leave me here masked man, I can help myself from here." I said. They will be here any time, I can still manage to get away if he leaves. Each person have unique powers in the Redflame pack, my unique powers is the ability to transform to something else.
The man looked at me and hissed. With one hand holding me by the waist, he leapt almost eight feet high and threw me into the air. I suppressed a shriek for fear that will be caught. I feel they are very close to us.
As the world around me moved in slow motion, I find myself falling, limbs falling towards the ground. But before I touched the ground, I found myself over the soft fur of an animal. A massive white wolf is now galloping towards the west border with me on his back. We are now very far away from the pack when he stopped, there is a white horse above and it looks very familiar. I leapt down from his furry back and he shifted back to his human form. Surprisingly, he isn't naked, as in he is still fully dressed and masked.
"Are you okay now?" He asked me and I nodded.
"Will you now take off your mask and tell me who you are? At least we are out of their reach and I know you can now say something, maybe you were scared of speaking before." A person who has come to save me from the Redflame, I just said he is scared. I know I am just blurting nonsense, I only said that so he can get annoyed and take off his mask without realizing. I really want to see who is behind this mask.
"I am..." He pulled the masked off his face and I gasped. "Your beloved."
"Carl? So it's you..." I almost punched him. 'Why then didn't you tell me? Why the mask? And also, why was I unable to recognise you?" Like I am completely taken aback. Normally, even if I don't see Carl's face, I still recognise him either with his voice or his scent but none of this are similar to me. He looks totally like a stranger.
"Why should I let you recognize me? If I had, we would have been caught by now." He said and yanked his hair to the back.
"But how?"
"I dressed like this because I really didn't want anyone to recognize me. People get used to my scent and appearance very easily, if I had dressed like Carl, when Harper came into that to, he would have known that I was the one with you... She wouldn't have left when Virginia called her." He explained to me and I sighed.
"But wait, how did you know that Harper was coming for me...? What exactly did she say I did? Please, I need to know, I am not even sure if I will be able to go back to that pack anymore."
"You definitely won't go back there. When we were speaking in the morning, I sensed that there was someone watching and listening to what we were saying but I didn't see who it was. When you left, I followed the scent and that was when I discovered that she was a Redflame pack maid." I gave a quick gasp as I heard that. My eyes flew up. I didn't realise this at all.
"She heard everything we said and I knew she was going to tell everything to your Alpha so I followed her. I followed her down to your pack, she explained everything to Virginia. I overheard the whole conversation, Virginia told Harper that she was going to kill you in my presence, she ordered Harper to go fetch and that was when you saw me.. I came to rescue you." Listening to all that, I broke into tears. I do not know what to say.
"Thank you." I managed amidst tears.
"You don't have to appreciate anything, you will come with me to my pack and I will declare to everyone my Luna." He put me on his horse and he rode us down to his pack house which is many kilometers away from ours. I don't even think Virginia knows about this pack-house. His pack house is really huge, I can't compare it to ours but it's also very huge. When we arrived there, people just kept bowing down for him as we entered. Some of them are staring at me with a look of 'who is she?'
That very day, he gathered the whole pack, organise a quick party. He declares me his Luna and marks me in front of everyone. Surprisingly, every body accepted this. No one has issues with me being a Redflame pack member. Everyone looks happy and I am also very to become Alpha Carl's Luna, my dream's finally come true.
★ ★ ★ ★
{Harper's POV}
"Aunt? Where have you been? I have been looking for you for hours now, is there any problem?" I asked Virginia as she alighted from the horse. She looks very tired and stressed out. Ignoring my question, she went straight to her room and collapsed on her bed, but I followed her. For the past few months now, she has been very moody and restless and also unhealthy due to lack of food and also lack of rest, this is because of Alpha Carl and every body knows that. I told her several times to forget about the two but she never listens to me. Only goodness knows where she is coming from now, this isn't her first time though. She leaves the house without telling anyone and returns any time she wishes, this is something that never happened. Virginia won't leave the house without me coming with her, we usually go out together but now she does everything alone. This is really frustrating but I am just still keeping my calm. I know she wants to have her revenge but she doesn't even give herself the time to plot her revenge, I don't know where she goes all time and I don't know why she goes there.
I sat next to her on the bed. "Aunt, please tell me.."
"Don't call me aunt." She suddenly yelled at me. She doesn't want me to address her as aunt because she wants me to see her as my sister, she looks very young like a woman in her early twenties and I am almost thirty. This is another thing about the Redflame pack, out old age doesn't show on our skin on face, it shows in the kind of power we posses. That's why she is the most powerful of all. Old but extremely powerful.
"Okay, Virginia... Tell me for once and I will never ask you again, don't you want to have your revenge on those fools? I can help you out with it." I told her but she said nothing. "I want you to trust me sis, we can do this."
"I don't need your help Harper." She said and my shoulders dropped.
"But why?" I asked her.
"Because I know this is not a thing you can do..." She replied.
"But how?" I asked her again and she sat up.
"I have been making me so many researches about the Moonstone pack and I find out that they are more powerful than we can imagine. I am not saying they are more powerful than us, but the pack is full of elders and I am sure you know what that means."
"What does it mean? Evey pack has elders, most of them are usually useless... So what's it?" I scoffed.
"Most of them are usually useless but unfortunately, all of the Moonstone pack elders are useful as in they wield greater powers with intellect. Our soldiers can defeat them." She explained to me. I don't know how she get to know all of that, but I guessed that's the reason she has been leaving home without telling me.
"So..." I stood up. "What have you thought of doing now, we can't let the two go scot free."
"Definitely not, sister. I already know what to do... According to my research, Moonstone pack has one great enemy that can take them down due to their population and their species, guess who they are." She told me. I am quite good at guessing though, so let me give it a try.
"The Rae?"
"Exactly...!! The Rae vampires are their enemy... The elders of the pack has nothing to use against them, so it will be easy for them to defeat the Moonstone pack... I have already bargained with the Rae vampires and they are ready to help."
"For what in exchange?" I narrowed my gaze. All vampires never help a wolf without taking something in exchange.
"Surprisingly not much, they want hundred females from us."
What the heck!? Hundred females? Goodness!
"Not bad.." I shouldn't spoil her mood with my rejection.
"They are already set and they will attack the Moonstone pack tonight, you don't have to worry... We will have our revenge. None of the three will exist, Carl... Joan and their baby."