But by the time the guard had announced a search to be made for Hazel, she was already miles away.
No one seemed to know who she was or where she came from. All they knew and would ever know was that she was a beautiful woman who had appeared and then disappeared leaving death in her wake.
Hazel had traveled throughout the night only resting in the early hours of the morning when she was sure she was far away enough.
As she slept, a visitor came to her in her dreams.
"You did well," Raglan said to her with a smile on his face.
He had had his doubts about her and her capability to carry out this mission but her act earlier on made him have a little more faith in her.
"How are you here?" Hazel asked, confused, totally ignoring Raglan's compliment.
She wondered why she was able to see Raglan so real in her dream. It felt like if she reached out to touch him, he would feel concrete.
"I am in your dreams." He pointed out with a roll of his eyes.
He noticed the look of confusion on Hazel's face and explained.
"In addition to being the prince of death, I can also travel into people's dreams," Raglan said as he satisfied her curiosity.
She nodded her head and sat up.
"As I was saying, you did well," Raglan repeated.
"Thank you," Hazel answered.
"The pleasure is mine," Raglan said and his smile got wider.
"You are already off to a great start, but I will advise that you move faster and with caution. This is because news of the Alpha's death will soon travel far and you are the prime suspect. It will be hard to miss a sexy red-haired beauty walking around alone and so your cover may be blown soon. On that note, I will suggest you wake up from this pitiful slumber and be on your way," he said.
Hazel totally agreed with his words but she was too exhausted to move on. Her energy was entirely drained by the anxiety and joy that had overwhelmed her during the mission.
Also, having run throughout the night, through dangerous terrain, had left her with barely any strength.
"I need some rest. I am tired," she replied to Raglan.
"I know, but you would have time for this later on. Remember what is at stake if you lose," Raglan warned.
Hazel did know what was at stake but she also knew there was no way she was going to be able to move forward at this point without some rest.
She was famished and dehydrated.
"Could you perhaps be able to get me some food and water? I would need some to recover." Hazel asked Raglan.
"Humans," Raglan scoffed, kissing his tongue to his teeth.
For a split second, Hazel was wondering who the human was till she remembered that she was now a human.
"That was not part of our contract and is therefore outside my capacity, and unfortunately, I don't own any charity organizations so I will not be able to help out," Raglan said sarcastically. "If you want food, wake up and look for some."
Raglan's words infuriated Hazel.
"You should be lucky you are the prince of death because it would have been my pleasure to make you the eighth victim on my hit list," Hazel retorted.
Raglan chuckled, "I would have loved to see you try."
"For the last time Hazel, I'm telling you to wake up," Raglan repeated with a more stern tone than the last time.
He got no answer from Hazel as she totally ignored him.
"Okay then, have it your way," he said and then disappeared from her dreams.
Hazel settled down to her peaceful dreamless slumber till moments later, she began to truly dream.
Her dream started with a setting of a happy, loving family with two beautiful daughters. One of the daughters had black hair while the other was fair-headed.
Hazel did not need any soothsayer to tell her that it was her family.
The dream was so real it felt like she was actually there. She was hit by nostalgia as she watched her mother and father go about their daily activities.
It was a beautiful dream that made her smile in her sleep.
Oh, how she longed for that dream to be true. She would give anything at that moment for her to be able to hug her parents one more time.
It was all roses for the family who were seated at the dining table eating dinner till all of a sudden, a man appeared at the door.
Hazel could not see who it was but she felt scared all of a sudden.
There shouldn't be any man at their door.
Hazel's dream which had been comforting and beautiful immediately became haunting.
She felt the presence of a dark spirit and that was when the man walked into the light and she finally saw him.
He was faceless and had a black hooded coat on him.
He crept into the house as the family erupted in laughter at one of the jokes her father seemed to always have to tell at dinner time.
The family did not see him as he walked slowly toward them, but she did.
Hazel tried to scream. She wanted to warn them of the danger that was coming but all that came out of her was nothing.
She watched as the man, with his machete, massacred the whole family.
First, he chopped off her father's head.
He had swung his machete at just the exact moment as the father was beginning to tell another of his jokes.
She was dumbfounded as she saw his head roll on the table and went on and landed on the plate of the black-haired daughter.
Hazel's dream was invaded by a sharp, blood-curdling scream that came from the little girl that looked so much like her.
Next, the man broke the mother's head into two halves with a stroke of his machete.
Shockingly, the mother's eyes seemed to be fixed on Hazel as blood flowed down her face with the machete still lodged in her head.
"No, no, no," Hazel cried out.
She wanted the dream to stop. She wanted to wake up but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't.
"Run! Stand up and run!" She screamed to the little girls but they could not hear her.
They sat rooted to their chairs as they watched the scene unfold before them.
"Please no, please no!" She pleaded as she watched the hooded man dislodge the machete from the mother's head and move on to the fair-headed girl.
"No please, NO!" Hazel cried as she watched the man stand behind the girl.
The black-haired girl was quiet now and sat with her eyes glued to the man and her sister.
With a swift movement of the blade, the man slit the fair-headed girl's neck.
"Oh no, Maeve!" Hazel cried out in a whisper as she saw the little girl's body slump forward and her face land in her bowl of soup.
The black-haired girl was next.
She was still staring at him with her eyes open in shock.
"It is all your fault," she heard the man say to the black-haired girl.
The girl still had the same expression on her face even after he chopped off the top of her head.
The room that had been full of happiness was now bloody chaos with body parts spewing around.
When Hazel thought everything was over, the hooded man slowly pulled off the hood covering his face.
When she saw his face, she wished he had not uncovered his face because now, the dream had gotten worse.
Standing in front of the gory mess was the love of her life, Asher.
He had just killed off her entire family.
As he stood, a smile slowly crept into his face.
How was it possible? How could Asher do such a thing like this?
Hazel was still wondering when she saw Asher's convulse.
His head slowly lowered down as he observed something on his chest.
Hazel followed his eyesight.
Just below his left breast, Hazel saw a shiny blade sticking out with blood rushing down.
Asher had been stabbed. In the same manner, as he had stabbed her.
"No!" Hazel let out a howl and was immediately thrown awake.
She looked around her in fear.
Despite her apprehension, she knew exactly what the dream was about.
It was a warning from Raglan.
He had invaded her dreams with a nightmare to remind her of what would happen to her and her loved ones if she did not finish her mission.
She immediately jumped up and got on her way. He didn't have to remind her in such a gruesome way because now the scary picture is going to remain in her head for a long while.
Raglan smiled, admiring his work as he watched Hazel continue her journey.
Hazel was still shaken by the dream she had had. She was still very much tired but she willed her body to move.She was onward to the residence of the next Alpha–Gordon.She did not know who he was nor where he resided but Raglan had helped out.When she woke up, she noticed a note written in beautiful handwriting next to her.It had the name of the next Alpha on the list and also directions to get to his palace, which was drawn in a crudely drawn map."The bloody bastard," Hazel had cussed when she saw the note.Not only had he tormented her sleep, but he had not left her any food, not water as she had requested of him.She was famished and so thirsty and was on the verge of fainting under the blazing sun when she found a small pond.She filled her belly up with water before pouring some on her body to help cool her down.For food, she picked wild berries from the forest.She was lucky her dad had trained them on the vegetation of the wild so she had knowledge of what she could or co
Try as she may, Hazel could not push out of her mind the story she heard earlier.Asher was getting married to Maeve?It could not be. She was the one he loved and not Maeve!No longer was her mind occupied with the thought of how she was going to carry out the task before her but with the thought of Maeve and Asher getting married.She had to go back home, she thought. She had to go and save Asher from the danger he was landing himself in by being with Maeve.Her mind kept telling her to turn back to where she came from and head back to her home but she knew that the only way she could do that was if she kept moving forward and completing her task and she did just that.Surprisingly to her, getting into the palace was much easier than she had anticipated.The guards at the gate let her in without asking question
Hazel was happy that the celebration was still going to be held tomorrow. It afforded her time to do what she had gone there to do. Her ears were still pinned to the door when she heard footsteps approaching from within the room.Caught unawares and not knowing where to run to or hide without being caught, she instinctively jumped to the back of the door.It was a careless hiding spot that would guarantee her getting caught but it was all she could come up with. She could not risk running away because the hallway was too long and the next exit was at the end so she would definitely have been caught and her only other option was a window which was a couple of meters high up. The approaching footsteps reached the door and opened it.Since the door was flung open, Hazel was out of sight as she was on the other side of the opened door.It was at that moment that it occurred to Hazel that the door could be closed shut and she would be caught.She had not had enough time to even think of
One thing Hazel knew was that she needed allies. There was no way she was going to take out her plan alone.And there was only one way she knew she could gain allies –money.This complicated her situation the more. It was more like this mission was out to challenge her rather than her just killing these Alphas. Every time she crossed over a stumbling block, another came rolling her way.With her head slumped backward and her eyes closed, she thought of ways she could get money.She placed the back of her hand against her head. Despite the cool breeze blowing, her temperature was high. Her head was probably overheating due the amount of thoughts that went through her mind per second.She had nothing she could sell.She could not even beg for money. That would draw too much attention to her and it would be easier to remember the redhead beauty who had begged for money.Damn it!She had only one option –to steal, but as easy as it seemed, it was not.She had never been one to steal any
It was a very awkward moment for both of them as Hazel stood with a smile plastered on her face which kept on getting weirder with every passing second as she contemplated her answer."Sure, why not," Hazel finally answered.The sound of her voice saying that snapped her out of her head. She had still been in a meeting with her mind, contemplating when her mouth had, on its own, carried out the task.A smile broke out on Sam's face and a look of relief washed over him.He actually was.He had been hoping she would not reject his offer.He had been hooked on her ever since their meeting on the road.He had wanted to tell Jeff, his chauffeur, to stop the car and give her a lift, but he was accompanied by his father.Their meeting had not been a coincidence. He had kept his eyes open and had hung at the bar closest to the town's entrance to spot her on arrival.The moment he had seen that beautiful mane of red hair walk past, he had immediately sprung to action and went after her.He di
Sam and Hazel made small talk as they ate and for a little moment, Hazel totally forgot about all her problems.She laughed heartily at Sam's jokes and listened intently to all he said, hanging on to every word as if it was her life.One time, when she listened to him talk, she took her time to assess him.He had a well-chiseled face, with a strong jaw. His features were mostly hard –lips that looked rough, a pointed nose that had a little flare at the nostrils, and eyebrows that did not have an arch to them but were straight thereby giving his face an unreadable expression.In all of this hardness, his soft baby blue eyes stood out, balancing the hardness with its softness.She could not look into his eyes. Every time she tried, she felt like she was drowning in a never-ending sea of blue.It was then it dawned on her what attracted her to him. It was not actually his beauty but it was because his eyes reminded her of someone else.It reminded her of Asher.The first time she had set
Tears threatened to fall from Hazel's eyes as she was hit by nostalgia as the performance went on.She struggled to hold herself together as the sweet music to the moon goddess was sung heartily by wolves who were in reverence to their keeper reminding her that at this moment, she was not one of them anymore.When the song was over, and the performers exited the stage, Hazel turned her eyes back to Sam and she caught him staring at her."You look sad," he commented.He had been staring at her all through the song and he had seen what looked like longing all over her face.Hazel gave a small smile which made her face, even sadder rather than happier, "No, I'm not. It is just the song, it is so beautiful," she said."Yeah... it is," Sam agreed but he still did not believe that was it.A noise on the stage took their attention away from and towards it as they both turned to see what it was.It was an acrobat who had come on stage performing some stunts."That is the cue that the main sho
Hazel was awake long before the birds started their morning lullaby.Raglan had proven useless last night again. Well, not totally useless. He had not helped her solve her problem but he had given her something else."You are so easy to sniff out because you have the stink of a human all over you. You are like a sheep in a wolf's den literally," Raglan had said to her. She had listened to him intently because she knew all that he was saying was true.She remembered how she had almost been caught by Gordon because she reeked of human scent and he could smell it."I have realized that that has been quite a challenge for you especially with blending in so I decided to get a solution for you," he said.He then reached into his princely robe and took out a tiny intricately decorated gourd which had attached to it, a silver chain, and handed it to her.Hazel accepted it wondering what it was."That is a powder made from wolf bones that have been burnt and crushed and gone through a ton of