Rejected By My Mate, Chosen By Fate
Chapter 11

We soon reached the border and the scouts pushed me out of Crescent Moon territory but I managed to regain my balance and thus, prevented myself from falling. I turned back and glared at them before walking on into the great unknown.

I had never been outside of the border before in my 18 years of life so I had absolutely no idea where I was going but I just hoped that the goddess would direct my path.

I walked on for hours, just going where my feet took me and I couldn’t keep waiting because I began to feel dizzy. I decided to rest. I instantly remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything yet and I began regretting my decision of being stubborn enough not to take anything from the pack house with me.

I was hungry, very thirsty and I was in the middle of nowhere, just a long dirt road with the absence of any vegetation. The scorching sun in the sky added to my troubles and I knew that if such harsh conditions persisted, I would probably have a heat stroke or I might even die out here.

“Stop being so negative Evelyn, we can do this. We’ve survived harsh circumstances before and we’ll do it again so stop thinking about death.” Tara encouraged me.

I found my courage again and determined that I would try my best to stay alive no matter what, if not for my own sake , for the sake of proving to my former pack members that I would be able to survive without them.

I sat on a big stone and rested for a while. After catching my breath, I said a little prayer to the goddess, wishing for her to take away the scorching sun at least so I could try to cope with my hunger and thirst.

For the first time ever, she seemed to answer my prayer very quickly as the sun soon went down and storm clouds began to gather in the sky.

Thunder rumbled and lightning struck and this quickly had me regretting making this wish.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to cope with the storm that was brewing, I looked around and saw no sign of shade and this got me a lot more worried.

“Please stop worrying Evelyn, we’ll get through this, I promise.” Tara assured me and I was sick and tired of her reassuring words.

‘Please Tara, just stop it. Stop telling me it’s going to be OK when it clearly won’t be. Stop pretending to be blind to our situation because there’s no way we can escape or survive this. It’s over for us, life is so cruel.’ I told her strictly and she whimpered at my annoyance.

Lightning struck once more and with it came a preceding rumble of thunder, rain began showering in droplets but it’s intensity soon increased and I quickly got soaked.

“Please Evelyn, let me out so I can protect you. If you stay in this storm, you’ll get sick.” She cautioned. ‘You’ll also become sick if I let you.’ I reminded her. “I don’t care, we’re in this together and I’ve let you bear the brunt alone too many times but I want to be the one to take the risk this time, please.” She pleaded and I had no choice but to agree. I was already starting to feel cold anyway.

I took off my clothes and quickly transformed, letting Tara manifest herself in me. My pristinely white fur soon began to get wet in the rain as well. “We’re going to have to run, I can’t just stand here and let us get drenched in the rain.” Tara told me and I agreed with her. I took my discarded wet clothes in my mouth and immediately began running.

We ran as fast as the rain could allow, the road slippery and the rain which had increased to a torrential downpour, blurred my vision. We ran despite the heavy storm, trying our best to see where we were going and at least replace some shade.

We were completely soaked when we found some shade. It was a huge tree and it’s leaves swayed in the wind. “Finally, some shade. I don’t think we would have been able to hold on much longer.” Tara said and I couldn’t agree more. We ran towards the tree, even though we were completely soaked and feeling very cold.

On reaching under the tree, we quickly realized that the tree had huge roots that spread out thickly around the soil. I climbed on a root tendril, dropped my wet clothes by the side and laid down, the wind blew and the cold increased so we curled up in a ball, shivering seriously.

‘Tara, are you sure we can survive this?’ I questioned her, losing all hope. “I don’t know Evelyn, I really don’t know. All I know is that I’m so cold, tired and hungry and even more cold.”She said and I smiled despite our situation. ‘Me too.’ I told her. “If we eventually do survive this, I’ll have to take Zephyr’s word for it and come to terms with the fact that we’re half werewolf, half were cat.”Tara said trying to lighten the mood and I laughed but stopped as I felt my eyes closing on me.

‘Tara, I don’t think I can hold on much longer. I’m losing consciousness and I’m trying hard to keep my eyes open.’ I told her. “Me too, we’re probably passing out from the cold and not actually dying right?” She asked me and I was only barely able to hear her.

‘I’m not sure but no matter what it is, I just want you to know that you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. In fact, you’re my only family and I love you very much. If there really is a next life, it would be my greatest wish to have you as my wolf again.’ I told her truthfully. “Me too Evelyn, me too.” She said and I smiled, as everything instantly went blank.

*****

I opened my eyes to a sharp brightness and shut them back instantly, I opened them again, blinking repeatedly so vision would clear up quickly. I felt something wet on my forehead and touched it to realize that a wet cloth had been placed on my forehead, with a blanket wrapped around me like a burrito.

I looked around and saw that I was in a nice, warm room and on a soft bed, my vision soon settled on a middle aged woman.

She turned to see that I was awake. “Oh, I see that you’re finally awake. Welcome back to the land of the living, dear. Your body was almost frozen cold and I feared you were dead.” She said and approached me.

‘I get that a lot, I’ve been through so many near death experiences that I’m starting to get used to them.’ I wanted to say that but then I remembered that I can’t talk because I’m mute.

I tried to sit up and she quickly helped me, removing the wet cloth from my head and after successfully sitting up on the bed, I decided to gesture to her about my predicament. She seemed to be an experienced lady so she quickly caught on to what I was trying to say.

“I almost can’t believe you really are mute, you’re such a very beautiful girl. I’m sure that you would have had such a beautiful voice to match just how flawlessly gorgeous you are.” She said and I found myself blushing. This was the first time someone was genuinely complimenting me in such a long time and it truly is the first time that someone other than my mother had ever told me that I’m beautiful, well except that time that Zephyr had wanted to beat me up but that really couldn’t count because he probably didn’t mean any of it, I’m sure he only said it because he was drunk and he simply wanted to spite me.

Due to the condition with which I was born and also due to how I’ve been treated thus far, I’ve always had a very low esteem of myself and I hardly looked in the mirror, not wanting to add the fear of how I look to my already existent insecurities.

“Well it’s no problem, it’s a good thing there are other ways to communicate besides talking. Can you read and write?” She questioned and I nodded my head gently, not wanting to get a headache.

“Good.” She said and went to a corner of the room. She brought out a book and pen and brought it to me. “Here, we can communicate through this. Anytime you want to tell me something, just write it down and I promise that I’ll always be willing to read it. I would love to know you better.” She said and I beamed a smile, taking it from her.

Although I know nothing about her, I’m already starting to like this woman. We had just met and she knew nothing about me but she was already being so nice to me. She has saved my life and she is the only one who has ever been eager to know what I want to say.

I opened the book and wrote down my name on the first line of the first page and then passed it to her.

“Wow, your name is Evelyn. It’s such a beautiful name. I’m sorry for not introducing myself earlier, it’s probably very rude of me. My name is Elaina but you can just call me Ana.” She introduced, stretching out her hand and I gladly took it in a shake.

“So dear, I can’t help but ask what happened to you? Why do you have so many scars on your body? You’ve got lots of fresh welts and bruises too. Who beat you up so badly? And what were you doing naked under a tree out in the cold like that? Aren’t you supposed to be home and with your family? It’s not safe to stay out in a heavy storm like that and especially with no clothes on. It could have been very deadly. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t found you?” She questioned and I sighed.

I would have to tell her all about my painful past and the events that had led up to my present situation so I took a deep breath and wrote down a moderately lengthy summary of my life in the book, before passing it to her.