~Zara~
I am gradually taking in the dimness of the building. The smell of cinnamon tea wafts through my nostrils. Someone is brewing tea, George is the only one with me so I figure out that much that he is the one making the tea.The pain hitting my spine is massive, the small cuts and bruises are not healed yet. And as much as I try to figure out what is happening, It becomes impossible every passing second. I can not hear any faint sound coming from anywhere that is not a spoon clinking the teacup and for some weird reasons, I am suddenly alarmed.I immediately get up with a start, running frantic gaze around me. I try mumbling some spells that mother taught me to when I needed focus. Nothing is happening asides the increasingly rapid panic. Warm hands grip at my wrist, startling me immediately.I turn around, letting out a gasp. It is George . He is holding a teacup with another filled with steaming cinnamon tea and his other arms are on me.“Hey, you are safe now.” He reassures.I am safe.I want to believe those words, alot of questions are spinning through my mind: why are we here again? Where is this place? What happened to me?...I look up at George and watch him set down the teacup on a small table beside my makeshift bed space.“Zara, I know you have a lot of questions right now but I think you should take it slowly until you are a bit calmer.”“Where is this place George ? ” I ask instead, my eyes trained intently on him.“First off, I think you should start by explaining what happened back at almight town.” He demands politely. I never really explained the whole situation to George . Just bits and pieces since Pedro found it mission-worthy to be after my life.Speaking of Pedro…The thoughts of him makes me shudder. I avert my attention back to George who is patiently waiting for me to launch into the full story, so I begin to tell him.“You remember I had told you about Pedro Wade. The Infinity Alpha?”“Yes. The one whom you said was fated by the moon goddess to be your mate.” He says bitterly, then scoffs, “How unfortunate. That the same guy who would not do anything to help after he heard your parents demise still has the guts to come at you all because of fate. This is ridiculous. Moon goddess ideas must have lost some screws.” He snarls in anger.“George —” I chide, honestly moon goddess’s must have been real cruel to give us such fate considering that Pedro and I can never ever get to be with each other. Not after what he had done to me.“I hate to say I am sorry but I can not help it. I mean I am trying to. But what I do not understand right now is why we are being chased out of the city.”“Because apparently, I had flat out rejected Pedro’s proposal and as humiliated and furious as he is, he must be after my head to calm down his rage.”George scoffs angrily, “so dude has this much pride? He wants to save himself the embarrassment but could do nothing when confronted with the incident with the the black wolves.”He turns to me again, cocking one brows up, “you call that moon goddess wishes?”I shrugged, “Yes. I mean George , I would not for the life of me wish that much ill-luck on my path. And I know better than anyone that this whole situation is outrageous. But right now we can not help it.”George takes my hands softly in his, “Thankfully, we are out of the city and we are safe now.” He says. I momentarily look around me. For the first time taking detailed note of my surrounding.It is a small house although wider than the one we had in almight town. The interiors are dimly lit and cozy but there is a streak of sunlight letting itself into the house. A small table and chair stands over a vanity mirror. The house is rather simple and cozy.“ I know…that is why right now we are safe here.,” he explains. And I look up to him….Oh George !He had left everything behind in almight town to start a new life with her. He was supportive, caring and brave.I resume speaking, “so where are we?”“Greenwood .” George replies like that could sought my curiosity. He is looking at me as if to say I should get the drift. I do not.“Greenwood ?” I ask.“It is a small town with really lovely people. No one’s going to know that we are here. They would not even be able to find us so yes, we are safe here.” He assures.I inched my ear to hear the sounds of people walking by and my nose to see if I can perceive their scent to know what kind of people they are. Nothing is working.It is not working and it is getting me all alarmed.“Hey are you okay?” George asks again, probably he had read the meaning into my worried look.“I am fine. Just tired.” I lie. I don’t know why but I think I would like some time to myself. I needed to understand what is going on with me, why I couldn’t perceive anything around me or even hear so far asides George and I talking.George nods his head understandably, “Okay. Take your rest while I just put this away.” He said, taking the cinnamon tea with him. I facepalm myself. Really. I had also forgotten that the cinnamon tea was there.I hold back at his wrist, stopping him from walking away, “George I am sorry you had to go through all this trouble…ever since you met me, now it is you leaving your family just to see that I am safe and even the meals… you do not deserve any of that…I do not deserve the kind of sweet person you are…”One moment I am talking and the next moment I am locking my lips with his and apparently that was because he had kissed me. I savor every taste of his lips, he tastes like cinnamon and even his scent… I just want to drown into them and get lost in this man’s arms forever.“Zara,” he calls when we reluctantly pull away. The way he calls my name sounds so hot and all I want to do is just kiss him all over again without stopping. Probably until our lips becomes sour.“Yeah,” I mumble a reply, it is soft and nearly almost in a whisper.“I am sorry you had to go through all of that. And trust me when I say I am glad you did not accept Pedro’s proposal. That is a brave move…” he pauses to kiss my hands and my breath hitches up.That is the thing about our relationship. George and I have been dating since the last four years yet whatever he says or does always has an effect on me even when I do not want it. The effects are sweet to experience, to savor, to bask in and I do not want to ever get tired of feeling this way.No, I do not want to stop feeling this way so of course, when Pedro came along with his proposed, as much as I hated him, he knew damn well that I did hate him but what I was not sure he knew was if he sensed that I was in a relationship and was not ready to give it all up. I love George . It is hard not to. So Pedro seriously had no chance.And for this one reason, I was happy about it and even considered myself as lucky.“Whatever I did, I did it because I love you.” George says, breaking through my thoughts. My whole body tingles at the thought that he loves me too. As much as I did.“Oh George —” I whisper softly.“ So don’t ever think you are a burden to me. Do not ever think about fighting this war alone because now, you have me, Zara. And I am ready to stand with you through this all. Because frankly, no one deserves anyone. I do not deserve you too. But I love you.” He concludes and that alone leaves my heart swelled up with joy inside me.George had abandoned his family, he had left everything and everyone behind just to hold my hand through this moment. I do not think there is any better moment than this. So I take his hands into mine and intertwined them together.“But how about your family? They must be so worried about you?” I couldn’t help asking.He lets out a concerned sigh, “Nothing is going to happen to them I am sure of it. Pedro does not know who they are yet so he won’t go after them.”“But we never can tell what Pedro is capable of doing…we should probably call home—”“This is our home now, Zara.” He cuts me off gently, “Our home. We are safe here and that is all that matters.”Our home…I involuntary let a big smile reside on my face as I lean my head into George ’s broad chest. “I love you George . Always.”“Same Zara, I love you too.”~Pedro~Zara…I can not sleep, it is hard. I try not to imagine so many possible things that may have happened to her. A part of me cusses at me. That this was all my fault. Maybe if I had not tried to please father too much, maybe if I had done something about her parents death…we would not be here today.I shake the thoughts away, burying my face deeper into my pillows. Zara is not anywhere in the city. Who knows where she might be? My mind reverts back to Lia’s statement.“I can help you find Zara. As swift as you ever you want it…”I recall narrowing my eyes at her, mirroring the glint in her eyes as she spoke. For once, I am desperate to do anything even if it takes listening to Lia.“How?” I ask, “how do I find Zara?”She laughs hysterically, staring at me the same way someone will stare pitifully at a dumb child. I bit my insides to stop myself from flaring up, not when I still need all the information I can ge
~Zara~It is funny how I am here with George , in a strange city and In a cozy apartment with zero idea of what next step to follow and endless hours of trying to pick just one person’s scent that isn’t George .I am trying to channel my whole wolf power and magic into making out something but nothing seems to work. I can not perceive, can not hear approaching footsteps and my magical powers seemed to have gone on an unsolicited vacation.A low feeling of panic immediately hits me and I become restless, endlessly pacing about in a disorganized manner. I do not have my powers as a wolf— the realization clouds my senses, plunging me into a frenzy.What do I do? How do I manage? What if Pedro’s men are still out there? How do I get out of this mess?I am becoming hysterical each passing minutes, my mind is raking and the wheels in my brain are working endlessly, trying to figure out this whole situation with me.‘Okay, let us do it this way, calm down Za
~Pedro~Lia is so convinced that someone actually helped Zara to run away. I am forced too. Not the literal kind of force though, but it just makes perfect sense as to why and how Zara was able to make it out of almight town, alive and in her own.She may not be alive though.But this is only a thought and my sense tells me that Zara is alive and I am so we’ll determined to find her by all means. My mind flashes back to Lia…lately, we’ve managed to agree at somethings. Like Zara would have had someone to help her and the high possibility that she is still alive and probably not in this city.Lia is a handful, not one that I cannot manage though. But for now, if I had to find Zara, I needed her help and I had to agree to her ridiculous demands.You could easily do without her though— maybe we can work more with Alfred. Your beta wolf. A small voice reasons and for a nanosecond I consider the thought. Lia maybe be ridiculous with her ideas
Life in Greenwood city is much refreshing than I thought. We were starting afresh. George and I, we had agreed we would put the past behind, leave all the bad memories that came with almight town die down there. George was right after all, we were in a new city. One without hate and discrimination. Everyone looked out for each other and made sure they had something to eat. If I did not know better, I would think I was in a fairy island where everything was perfect. But that was it with Greenwood . Everything was perfect. George had gotten a job at the city council, he worked happily and more at ease than I have ever seen him. I could not be anymore grateful for taking this decision with George . Two days ago, we had taken a tour around the city. Greenwood was not that much of a big city. Infact, compared to almight town, it was just a quarter and half of it. But everyone did not seem to mind. As long as they were happy, then it was all good. The p
~Pedro~The Wolfgang were still out there making sure to search properly every neighboring city situated around almight town. The search was real and intense and I knew this because I had gone along with them to thoroughly search areas that we suspected. However, we had gotten a hold of the family of the so called partner of Zara and there was no way I was going to let him go if he did not provide answers.One thing was so annoying, they would not provide their identify, like let us through on it and my only guess was that probably they were some member of the lowest pack of another city. So, we put that aside and had decided to torture them till they gave the answers we want.None was forthcoming no matter how many times the Wolfgang dealt with them, they claimed they had no answers to our questions and that they did not even know that their brother had disappeared out of almight town. It was frustrating that nothing was going well. Zara however must be having the
~Zara~There we were, drawing, painting, laughing. It was so fun. Especially doing it alongside Judas . Judas was good at whatever she drew and I, I was so much better at painting. At some point we got tired and decided to take a rest, there was an old man passing by, we waved cheerfully at him, “hello Mr, Jones.”“Hello Zara, hello Judas , how are you two today?”“Fine thank you. Do have a lovely day today.” We chorused in reply. Smiling at him while we watched him walk away.“So tell me, Zara, what brings you to Greenwood city?”I shrug, we were seating under an umbrella, on reclining chairs that were comfortable, staring at the clouds and basically sipping cocktail drinks. This was the life. Of course I had not forgotten to look for a job but for now, I needed to rest, to relax Abit and integrate myself into the society.And to think I had just made my first friend, not that I knew much about her but she was better at reading my thoughts and somehow I could tell that she was either
~Pedro~“ I say we call the rogues.” Lia suggests and I cringe. The rogues? No way. Those set of wolves were another breed entirely. They stink and most times get distracted with their mission.They really are not trust worthy at all and it is like going on a big risk. This mission is worth the risk. But still there is no way I am calling the rogues.Lia gives me a bored look, I can tell she is getting pissed off by my reluctance. But I do not give in. Never. And she is going to have to deal with it.“ Okay Pedro, what do you expect? I mean if you are hell bent serious on carrying out this plan of yours, you will cooperate with me and for once just put aside all these pride. “It is not pride. The rogues are just these set of dirty wolves that carry out dirty works and I do not want to risk being associated with them. Okay maybe this is pride but it does not matter right now.I value my pride and Lia of all person’s should know that by now. Is that not even the main reason why we are
Judas ’s house was filled with so much excitement and warmth. Everyone at the table was chatting and laughing loudly, even George seemed to integrate himself with the people around. He was talking excitedly with some colleagues from his work place and everyone seemed to be in a good mood. I was sitting alongside some of Judas ’s friends who talked about various subjects they wished to discuss among themselves. From their personalities to what they thought about worlds and city outside Greenwood , to family and work and just social gatherings that brought happy cheers and laughter to our faces.I did not have much to talk about but it was easy flowing into the conversation especially when Judas ’s friends were easy to let you in on what they talked about. And it was exhilarating to laugh freely among strangers who were no longer strangers but gradually making an impact in your life.“ So tell us Zara, what did you enjoy more doing as a child?” One of the ladies at the table asked. I t