You Rejected Me. Remember?
In Love With My Best Friend Chapter 26

Astrea

I refused to sleep. I lay on the hard cement floor until I could muster up enough courage to stand up. He had branded me, yes. But I wasn’t going to give up.

I wasn’t brought up like that. I was taught to fight and struggle against injustice. I was instructed to strive against mistreatment. And I was trained to face the ugly truth of this cruel world. Although I had been pushed down into the dirt, I was going to brush the soot away and stand up. I would come back stronger and make them pay.

Previously, Calvin was just a wanted criminal. But now, he is more than that. He had done something he didn’t have the right to. He had marked me against my will and I had an added resentment against him.

I clenched my jaws as I brushed my fingers on the crook of my neck. I flinched. It was painful and I thought it was swollen. My lips twitched. So the mark didn’t work. My body was rejecting the mark.

“Hell, yes. I refuse to accept a forced mark!” Ash stated. “He forced himself on you and his essence felt like poison to me.”

Her declaration made me smile. Nonetheless, the wound was still painful. It throbbed and I was sure that it would be red and swollen. I didn’t have a mirror with me and there was none in the room I was kept in to check the mark out.

“I hope it doesn’t get infected,” I sighed.

“Don’t worry, darling. We can do something about this. We just need to replace a healer,” she told me.

A healer… if only I could escape and go to the Palace.

“We need to get out of here,” I grumbled as I walked towards the window.

“Yes. We should do that before Calvin tries something crazier… like forcefully mating with you,” Ash stated, making me shudder.

“Dang. I hope that never happens,” I grimaced. I don’t want his filthy hands on me ever again,” I shuddered once again. “Or anywhere near me again,” I cringed.

She chuckled at my reaction.

“Me too. If that was his human, I would not be eager to meet his lycan. He didn’t hesitate to cooperate in marking you by force,” Ash agreed with me.

“Yeah,” I mumbled as I glanced out of the window. Though I didn’t know the exact time, I knew that it was late at night. I glanced at the sky. The moon was now in a silvery white colour and shining brightly in the night sky. I was confident that I was in their lair, most probably in the unclaimed part of the forest.

I peeked outside. I was in a room that was on the third level of the building and there weren’t any rogues in sight. However, I knew better than to believe that they would leave the building unguarded.

“Can we jump out of the window? Do you think we can take this jump?” I asked Ash as I inspected the thorny bushes that grew outside.

“I don’t think trying to sneak out of the door is a good idea,” I added.

“Right. We could try. I’m sure we will be fine.”

I took a few steps back and prepared to dash towards the open window.

“Here goes,” I whispered and sprinted, ready to shift as I jumped out of the window. I leapt out of the window and shifted Ash. The shift wasn’t hard. The rearrangement of my limbs and other organs was smooth and effortless.

The cool night air caressed her fur as she skillfully landed on all fours. She did stumble a little. It was the first time we had attempted a jump that high, but we did it.

I smirked internally as I briefly glanced at the open window I had jumped from. I guess it was their mistake to underestimate me and put me in a room with an open window.

Snickering under my breath, “let’s get out of here,” I linked to my wolf who was now in full control.

“On it,” she replied and dashed into the thick foliage of the forest.

However, before we could escape, I heard panicked cries.

“Hey! Hey! Come back!”

“Shít! Ash! Run fast!” I gasped. My heart was pounding frantically in my ribcage as my anxiety reached its peak.

Ash ran as fast as she could, jumping over the fallen logs and dodging to avoid the low lying branches. Thin twigs that got in my way broke as we rushed through the darkness of the woods. We ran, with no sense of direction. Only one thing mattered – fleeing the scene without getting caught. I heard howls and growls and I knew that they were close.

“Ash… try to replace wolfsbane…”

I managed to whisper through my gasps of breath. If we could replace a wolfsbane vine, we could throw ourselves in it and that would cancel out our scent. It would increase our chance of confusing them and escaping.

Alas, my luck was cursed. Ash’s leg got caught in a wolf trap, and despite her efforts to remain silent, a painful whimper escaped her lips.

“Dang it!” I hissed, inspecting the trap. Fortunately, it was a trap made of iron, which meant it was meant for regular wolves, not us. My heart fluttered.

“Ash, it isn’t made up of silver! If you can pry it off, you’ll heal in no time!” I exclaimed in enthusiasm. She grunted as she nudged the trap with her muzzle.

“Yes… but these paws… don’t have thumbs…”

I chewed on my lower l*p, wondering if it was too late to shift. I wasn’t eager to get caught nude. But how could we know if we didn’t try?

“Shift, Ash. I will try to remove the trap,” I told her.

“But…”

“Hurry! We don’t have time!” I insisted.

I was fully prepared to shift back when a familiar, yet annoying scent hit my nose. My breathing got caught in my throat. My heart thumped in my chest as if it might jump out of the ribcage. They had caught up. I was doomed.

“Astrea…” Ash trailed off, but I knew what she was trying to say. Being found nude and vulnerable by a bunch of rogues would be dangerous. Especially when Calvin was claiming that we were mates.

The sound of the dried leaves crackling made me inhale a deep breath, as I prepared myself to accept my fate. Their distinctive scent intensified, followed by the sound of nasty laughter.

“Look at what we have! It is like the meal prepared itself for us!” they laughed and I felt the hair on the back of my neck rise.

“I know what you mean. She is such a beaut!” another rogue chuckled.

“I wonder if we could have the leftovers once the boss is done with her,” the third one snickered.

I shuddered. Could that really happen to me? No… it couldn’t… please…

I held back a sniffle. Their conversation was scaring me. I started to wish that I had mated with Leo when I had the chance. Then, I wouldn’t have regretted losing my virginity to the one I was in love with.

“Don’t touch her. She is an alpha, as you can see. Link the boss and inform him that we have found her.”

Whimpering, Ash struggled to free her paw, but it was useless. Soon enough, he arrived. Oh, how I wished that I could wipe that irritating grin off his face. I hated him with every fibre in my being.

“Stop struggling, love. It will only cut your paw deeper,” his chuckles irked me to no end. I felt like snapping his head off him when he lowered himself to remove the trap from my paw, yet I held back.

“Be ready to run off as soon as you are free,” I told Ash. He glanced at me and grinned. My heart plummeted when he stood up and shifted to his lycan form.

“I know what you are thinking, my love. And no, you aren’t allowed to do that,” he whispered.

I gulped. He gestured to his men to remove the trap as he kept his glance fixed on mine. Ash attempted to run away, nonetheless. But we soon realised that the rogues had surrounded us. I let out a huge breath of despair. I was trapped. Someone grabbed Ash’s furry body and from the sparks I resented, I knew that it was him.

“Shift!” he ordered, but Ash growled in response. She wasn’t going to submit to him.

“Don’t worry. I’ll shield you from their lecherous eyes,” he whispered. I froze. I didn’t want to obey. I couldn’t care less if he shielded me or not. Baring her teeth, Ash let out another menacing growl and snapped her jaws at him. He sighed as though he was fed up with dealing with my rebellious nature, but he removed his filthy hands from her body.

I was glad when he did. I turned around to look at him and squinted at him in fury.

“Why do you keep doing this? Do you want me to knock you out again?” he asked. He was still in his lycan form, so I guess his lycan too agreed with his decision to rebel against the Queen.

I didn’t respond.

“I guess you want that injection again,” he mumbled.

I frowned. Again? What did he mean by that?

He smirked. “At least this time we won’t have to repeat the ritual. You are mine now.”

Ritual? The creases on my forehead deepened as I tried to recall anything related to a ritual. Ash was uncomfortably silent. In fact, she didn’t move a muscle. She kept staring at the deranged rogue lycan who was destroying our life

“Astrea…” she wheezed through our link.

“Yes?”

“I think he is referring to the time the rogues caught us months ago. Remember the time we woke up in the middle of a ritual circle?”

My eyes widened and I forgot to breathe. Memories of that horrible night came crashing in like an avalanche. Yes… unfortunately, it made sense. I was still in a stunned state when I felt a prick on my hind leg. I was too perplexed to react and to realise that someone was approaching me from behind.

I felt dizzy. I knew what was coming. I would fall into oblivion.

“Ash…” I called my wolf, but she too was slowly losing consciousness.

“Astrea…” I heard her weak voice one last time before everything went black.