Chapter 2: Save me... My pup

Caroline arrived home just before dinner, but the sight that greeted her froze the blood in her veins.

The front door swung open on broken hinges, and the flower pots she had carefully tended lay shattered across the porch and the soil scattered around.

She ran inside, her heart hammering against her ribs, only to find a nightmare. Her father and mother were lying in a pool of blood that was spreading across the wooden floorboards.

"Mom! Dad!" she screamed, the sound tearing from her lungs as she collapsed beside them. Two silver daggers had been driven into their hearts.

"Caroline..."

She heard her mother’s weak voice. She reached for her hand, her fingers slick with her blood. "Mom, I’m calling the hospital. Nothing is going to happen to you or Dad," she choked out, her hands shaking so violently she could barely grip her phone.

She fumbled with her bag, desperate to dial for help, but her mother’s bloody hand reached out and gripped her wrist.

"Run, Caroline," she wheezed. "They are searching for you. We... we can’t be saved."

"What? Who is searching for me?" Caroline cried, but her mother only coughed, a spray of blood staining her lips.

"Mom, please, no! Just keep your eyes open. Look at me! Don’t do this!" She burst into tears, blurring her vision as she felt the warmth leaving her mother’s body.

"I love you..." she whispered. With one last, shuddering breath, her hand slipped from Caroline’s and fell limp against the floor.

Caroline pulled her into her arms, sobbing into her neck, when a sharp voice sliced through the air from just outside the porch.

"I think she’s back. Let’s kill her, too!"

The words turned Caroline cold.

Her parents were dead, and the killers were only steps away. Every instinct screamed at her to stay beside their bodies, but a sharp realization cut through the shock: if she died here, her unborn pup died with her.

She had to reach the nearest sentinel office. She had to survive, if only to ensure the people who butchered her family paid for it.

Scrambling to her feet, Caroline bolted toward the back door of the house. She threw open the door and sprinted into the night, but she couldn’t take the main cobblestone driveway. It dumped her straight into the dense, dark forest.

"She’s heading for the woods! Catch her!"

A loud voice echoed behind her. She shifted mid-stride, her body reshaping into her wolf, and pushed herself to run faster.

The darkness between the trees swallowed her, but the woods were treacherous. If she failed to navigate them, she would never make it out alive.

’Mom. Dad.’

Tears blurred her vision, blinding her to the uneven ground. ’Who are they? Why did they do this to us?’

Her paw slipped on a steep edge, and the ground gave way beneath her.

She tumbled down the sharp incline, her body hitting rocks and brush until a tree trunk brought her to a halt. A branch pierced her skin, forcing a cry from her throat.

Caroline shifted back into her human form.

"I heard a scream down the ridge! This way!" a voice shouted from above. "If we don’t kill her before dawn, the Alpha Princess and Alpha Victor will have us executed!"

The words hit her harder than the fall. ’Victor wants me dead.’

Below the sharp sting of her fresh wounds, a deep, tearing pain began to bloom in her abdomen.

’My pup,’ she thought, panic surging through her. Ignoring the blood dripping from her lower belly, she forced her trembling legs to stand. ’I loved you, Victor. More than life itself. Why did you kill my parents? What did they ever do to you?’

Behind her, the footfalls of the pursuing warriors shifted into their wolves as they spotted her limped form. Low growls vibrated through the trees.

’I can’t die like this.’

Dragging her broken body forward, she sprinted blindly, unaware that she had reached the edge of the pack borders.

"Ahhhh!"

Pain exploded across her back as a set of claws ripped through her flesh.

The force threw her several meters forward, launching her across the pack border line.

She slammed hard against the forest floor, skidding through a bed of dry leaves and sharp stones that dug straight into her abdomen.

A choked whimper escaped her. "No... my pup," Caroline gasped, clutching her stomach as another wave of pain tore through her body.

She tried to move, but her strength was fading fast.

"Ahhhh!" A whimper escaped her lips as she squeezed her eyes shut, struggling against the agony as she felt something breaking inside her.

From the other side of the slope, one of the warriors suddenly shouted, "Turns out the worthless omega is dead. Alpha Victor will be delighted to hear the news. Let’s go back!"

Caroline’s heart sank when she heard their footsteps retreating. They believed she was dead.

Tears slipped down her cheeks as she lay helplessly on the cold ground.

She didn’t want to die.

Not when her pup was still inside her. She had to live, even if she had nothing left to fight with.

"Please... someone save me. I beg you. Please don’t let me die," she whispered.

Her vision had grown hazy from the pain and exhaustion, but through her blurry vision, she saw someone approaching.

A tall man stood a short distance away, his broad figure blocking what little light reached the forest floor. She couldn’t make out his face, but his presence alone gave her a small glimmer of hope.

"Please... Save me. My pup..." Caroline murmured again, barely able to keep her eyes open.

The stranger suddenly stopped.

For a moment, he simply stared at her. Then his expression changed, and his pupils changed color to deep burgundy.

A growl came from his chest as he dropped to his knees beside her.

"Mate!"