Chapter Seven : The first encounter (Part One)

I was born and brought up in this pack. From a young age I realised that I was different. I knew that I was not strong like others in my pack. But my father being a royal always saved me from being treated as one

I never wanted to be facilitated over others. But my mom and dad used to always give their everything to protect me. Even though my father was a person of morales but even he couldn’t excuse himself from the fatherly love.

I was always so distant from the pack responsibilities that I started to believe that there was nothing that this pack needed me for.

In the past few years with Edward, I felt loved, I felt wanted, important. I spent my days well.

But he made me realise one thing that I wasn’t born just to be judged by someone else's scale. I had my own role to play in this life. All the past memories were flowing in my head like a reel. I was moving forward to the throne.

Everyone in the hall moved aside to give me space to go. It felt like a red carpet. Zen was sitting on the alpha's throne. His emotionless face sent a chill down my spine. Had he done something to Edward? The thought hit me hard suddenly.

"For whatever reason they had brought me here, there wouldn’t be any negotiations without assuring Edward's safety,'' I determined inside.

Before I could get any closer to the alpha's throne, a very low pitched voice spoke up.

"Stop right there."

I stopped halfway and turned to the source of the voice. The oracle was standing at the corner beside Zen. I took a look at the whole hall but there was no trace of Edward.

"Welcome back to the pack, Ella," Zen said calmly.

After our first encounter at my back yard, this was the first time we were face to face talking. I was about to ask him about Edward just when he stopped me.

"Don't start again with where is your lover. He is alive till the moment. But if you again continue with your nagging, he is going to be in a serious trouble," he said with the same emotionless face.

"Then why don't you let me see him?" I asked again.

''It makes me sick looking at how selfish you are," he said again clenching his jaw. "I can't even fathom the reason what the moon spirits were thinking when they chose you as the luna of this pack," he said gritting his teeth.

I was quite taken aback. I looked everyone's faces. Even the oracle was silent. I thought she knew what Zen did to me years back.

But by the look from everyone's faces it was cleared that I was in the custody this time. Every one was wearing that same disgusted look in their faces.

"Selfish? " I was speechless. " You-rejected- me, Zen. You said a weakling like me can't be your mate. I accepted your selfish rejection and left the pack," I couldn’t get to finish what I wanted to say. I was interrupted.

"Yes! You left the pack! It was you who put your ego first before the pack. And because you ran away like a coward, this pack lost their alpha, and the general as well," he shouted with rage but soon calmed himself down and slowly spoke.

"What are you talking about?" I asked him confusedly. Nothing that he uttered made sense to me. "Lost the alpha? Does that mean that your father is no more?" I asked a bit softly. "But how is that my fault?"

"See? You don't even realise your selfishness. You are not even aware of what you did," he said and gave me a sarcastic look.

I was still standing there completely blank, expecting an explanation.

"Let me explain it to you, Isabella," the oracle finally spoke up. She put her hand on Zen's shoulder ordering him to sit down.

"The decision you made, it cost us lives. Not just one. Look at the faces of the people surrounding you, they are your former pack members. You will see the griefs in their eyes."

"But what did I do wrong? I just wanted to leave this pack and live a life of my own. How could that possibly hurt someone? I was the one who got rejected by her mate. I was the one who suffered all the pains. You saw it all, didn't you? " I asked.

"This is where it went wrong, Isabella. You only thought about your happiness. Not the pack," she replied calmly.

"Well, not that the pack cared much about me either," I said again. I wasn’t getting the lame sh!ts that she was trying to feed me. What was her point. A weak wolf like me what could have even done for this pack? I wondered.

"Let me finish, Isabella," she said coldly.

"Tch-" Zen clicked his tongue in annoyance

"The night that you ran away, both Zen and Alex who were our commanders of the war left this pack to chase you, you knew they were your mates and it wasn’t possible for them to keep their wolves in control when their mate was running away. The alpha, Zen's dad followed his son to ensure his safety. The whole sapphire and their allied clans were waiting outside to hunt them," she said.

"But you know what? " Zen started again," That was just a trap. I thought it was us that the sapphires wanted to take down. But we were wrong. Keeping us busy in the woods was a part of their plan. They were waiting for this to happen, when we left the pack they attacked. That day so many innocents died. There was no one to protect them. Our warriors died. The whole pack was destroyed. The next day it was just blood all over the pack house. The sapphires won. They knew they could never beat me or Alex, so they distracted us in the woods by attacking, preventing us from coming back to the pack to save our people. After that day, they attacked us again when we were devastated. My father died protecting this pack. This all would have never happened if you hadn’t run away that night. My father would be alive and we would have won," he spit out everything all at once.

"Oh, God!" I closed my eyes devastated. I never imagined my running away would bring such consequences.

Everyone soon started muttering calling me selfish, a curse for the pack, blaming me for their loses, asking for my punishment.

"You brought this upon us, Ella. And now you are going to pay for it," Zen said coldly. I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"I never asked you to follow me," I finally got up and said. "You can't put all the burden on my shoulders," I said. I didn’t realised that I was crying. I continued. "I was only 19 at that time, a rejected, sad, lonely wolf who had just lost her parents. All I wanted was to get away. It shouldn’t have hurt anyone. I didn’t have that much power to hurt everybody. No! I wasn’t capable of that much!" I shouted. "No one wanted me in this pack, I was doing what people wanted me to do since I was born. It was you, you were the one who followed me overlooking your responsibilities. Even though you never wanted me as your mate," I spit everything out angrily. "But if you all still want to blame me for everything, fine. I will not protest. But Edward has nothing to do with this. Why did you capture him? Let him go," I said boldly.

"That human has dared to touch what belongs to the wolves. He deserves to die," Zen replied gritting his teeth.

I couldn’t control my temper. I grabbed the collar of his shirt angrily, "You-!"

Suddenly a knife hit my arm making me scream in pain as I left Zen's collars. I fell on my knees again grabbing the place where the knife was still pierced.