Chapter 3: The white-haired girl

I could hear a distorted voice from a distance. I groaned in pain, feeling my entire body aching terribly. My eyelids seemed to be glued together. After much struggle, I finally opened them.

A set of deep blue eyes dug into me. I could have shifted back uncomfortably if I could but I remained laying on the floor, unable to move. It was a young woman about the same age as me. Her face was small and adorable. Her cheekbones protruded desperately against her face and as she stared at me, she battered her thick lashes at me. Her lips formed into a pout, "Are you okay?"

I couldn't utter a word. Something about the way she looked fascinated me.

She lowered her face to mine and I whimpered, feeling her hair in my fresh wounds. She immediately moved away and pushed her hair behind her shoulders. Her hair- it was completely white!

"Are you okay?" She asked again.

"Is she still alive?" Someone asked behind us.

The girl looked at me curiously before turning to look at whoever it was that had asked about me, "She is."

My eyes studied the surroundings. It was still dark, almost dawn. Not recognizing where I was, I tightly shut my eyes again.

"You'll be okay." The girl said, "You're safe with us."

Her voice became distorted again as I slipped into a deep sleep.

~

"Here." The white haired girl said, stretching out a can to me. I collected it and desperately gulped its contents down my throat.

We were seated in a large tent in the middle of nowhere. Outside, I could make out a few people around us. She picked one of the numerous pillows on the rug where we sat and placed it on her thighs, dropping her pale hands on it, "Feeling better?"

"Yes." I finally spoke. My voice was low and raspy and it hurt my throat, "How did I end up here?"

"The pack found you." She replied, then sighed deeply, "Your life was in danger."

"But luckily, they were able to save you from that rogue pack." "You could have died if we didn't find you on time."

"Do you know who they are?" She asked.

I went quiet as fresh memories of that fateful day came pouring in and vivid scenes flashed into my head.

"Are you okay?" The white haired girl asked with concern.

I broke into loud sobs, as I pictured the lifeless bodies of all the members of my pack, drenched and laying in pools of their own blood. As I thought of my father and mother, who died while trying to protect me, I felt a painful sting in my chest.

"Are you okay?" The white haired girl asked. She moved closer to me, placing a hand on my shoulder, "Please, just lie down. You're not doing well."

I refused to listen to her as I continued in a broken voice, "I'm useless. I couldn't do anything."

"It's all my fault. All mine."

The white haired girl stared at me with worry and concern. Her ocean eyes became teary. She opened her mouth to talk but thinned them into a line. Without uttering another word, she continued staring at the wounded red haired girl who was crying, wrapped up in a blanket, with her dirty wedding dress beneath it.

~

"...Ethan broke my trust. I loved him." I narrated in between sobs, "How quickly things change. That was supposed to be the best day of my life."

The silence that followed made it clear that this was the end of my story.

The white haired girl remained mute for a while, digesting my horror story with difficulty. Finally, she found her tongue , "I'm so sorry about what happened to you."

"To be betrayed by the one you love and trusted with your whole life is even worse than death." She added, "Ethan won't go scot free. The universe doesn't sleep on broken hearts and promises."

I sighed but said nothing. Deep down, I wished that Ethan could have just ended my life like the rest of the pack. They deserved to live, not me.

"How about you? What's your story?" I asked after cleaning my tears.

She took her eyes away from me as I stared at her with interest. There was something peculiar about this girl, "I've been betrothed to the dark prince of Sinoria." She said.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, perplexed.

She let out a deep sigh, "He's the head of the Black moon wolf pack. The heir of king Ephesus II. None of his brides has ever lived to see the new moon."

"Why?!" I asked in alarm.

"Rumour has it that none of his brides have been able to please him and so out of anger, he kills them."

That's horrible, I thought inwardly.

Her eyes teared up again, "I've been bestowed to him by my father who couldn't pay back the debt that he borrowed. I never wanted this marriage."

"Now I will never see home again. I will never see my little cub siblings...and Miguel…"

Her face squeezed with sorrow as she mentioned that name. I knew what she meant. Miguel was probably a wolf she has given her heart to.

"Don't you think it's strange?" I asked after a while, when I was sure that she had stopped crying.

"What?"

"You look just like me."

The white haired girl stared at me with bulging eyes, "I thought I was just delusional!" She remarked.

I puffed a breath, a crazy idea creeped into my head, "How would you like to go back home to Miguel?"

"What?" "How?" The girl asked. Her ocean eyes stared into my hazel ones with intense curiosity, eager to hear what I was about to say.

"We should gather up and get back on the road." A voice barked outside the tent, "Let's get going. It's almost sunrise."

The voice came closer to our tent, "Are you okay in there? Come out. We need to move!"

"Quickly, grab that blanket over there!" I ordered, gesturing to the black woollen blanket sitting beside the rug, "We need to act fast!"

"Hurry! We don't have much time!"