Snarls of fury

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Rune's eyes lingered on the extremely beautiful woman in front of him and he was completely lost for words. Her auburn hair which looked completely dull was now bright and it shone in the light.

Her long hair fell in ringlets over her shoulders and framed her beautiful face. Her eyes were in fact a shade of blue— blue as the ocean and he had no idea why he never noticed before. Probably because he only saw her once.

But looking at her now, once again, he felt a huge feeling of dejavu. Like he had met this person before. It wasn't even funny anymore and the more the Alpha King looked into those ocean eyes, the faster his anger dispassiated.

“Seriously, have we met before?” Rune asked as he furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.

“I don't think so.” Hera answered and even her voice sounded slightly different. A bit more posh and regal. He didn’t understand what was going on as he took in her appearance.

She wore a simple yellow dress which completely transformed her from that whimpering prisoner to a fully confident woman. With the intense stare she fixed on him, he felt like a prisoner instead. He shook his head vehemently, remembering why he came here and why he was angry in the first place.

“Why did you break my guard's jaw?” He asked in a hardened tone and a look of guilt crossed her features, ruining her entire show of confidence.

“It was an accident. I didn't mean to. I only meant to bruise him.”

The Alpha King raised an eyebrow. “Well, why?”

Hera was silent and she looked everywhere else but him and for some reason, that irked him a lot more than he should have.

“Speak!” He commanded and Hera shuddered slightly under his mighty aura. She had become the whimpering prisoner once again. That was good enough for him.

“I tried to escape, Your Majesty,” She answered in a quiet voice. He fully expected that.

He perceived her desperation to leave this city from the first time he saw her but what he didn’t understand was why she was still here after she successfully shattered the guard's jaw and he didn't fail to make his thoughts known.

Hera let out a sad sigh and he almost felt bad for her. Almost. “I got as far as the passages but I ran into your betas on the way.”

“Ah. My betas.” He simply said. Seeing that the prisoner was still in one piece after the betas visited meant that they held back. Especially Asha. That woman had to be the craziest person he had ever encountered in his entire life.

“What the hell does beta mean anyway?” Hera asked in a flat tone and Rune raised an eyebrow. “Your Majesty.” She quickly added and he shook his head.

“My beta is my second in command. The Alpha King is the ruler of the city. His beta is his second but in this case, I have two so I call them my right-hand and left-hand betas.”

Hera raised an intrigued eyebrow. “So which is which?”

“So, Knox is my Right-hand beta. Asha's left.” Rune explained.

He was aware that he didn't need to tell her any of this stuff but he found out that he'd rather speak to her than go back to the throne room and for some reason, he felt her presence calming. Like they were old friends or something.

“But why do you have two? Isn't one enough?” She asked with a curious look in her eyes.

“Well, there was a test to choose who my beta was going to be but the two of them ended up being the top scorers, so I just picked them both.”

She nodded in understanding. “I guess that makes sense.”

“So my betas told me you've acquired some supernatural powers and you are now transitioning into a wolf.” Rune said, studying Hera carefully but her expression was blank and nothing gave her away.

“That's right.” She simply said and Rune nodded.

“I guess that explains the werewolf scent. Show me what you can do.”

Hera thought of the couch in the living room but Rune shook his head.

“Not the couch,” He said. “I heard you lifted it earlier.”

Hera let out a sigh and her eyes darted around like she was looking for something. He wondered what she was looking for. Maybe something heavier than the couch?

“Follow me.” She commanded suddenly and without giving him any chance to respond, she made her way out of the room. Rune was taken aback. He was the Alpha King. Why was he getting ordered around by a prisoner? The worst part of it all was he knew he was going to obey.

He swallowed his pride and trotted after the little woman. Once they were in the kitchen, she suddenly grabbed a knife and Rune's eyes went wide.

“What the hell are you doing? How dare you try to stab your king?” He asked defensively and Hera rolled her eyes.

“First of all, with all due respect Your Majesty, you're not my king,” She said and Rune frowned. She was a bit rude about it but he couldn't deny that it was true. “Secondly, I'm not trying to stab you. Just watch.”

Hera clutched the knife in her hand, taking a deep breath before slicing her arm.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” Rune yelled and his eyes were wide as saucers as her blood slowly began to flow out but something incredible happened. As fast as the cut opened, it sealed back twice as fast. “What the f**k?” Rune gasped.

The King shouldn't swear. It was unbecoming but at that moment Rune found it necessary. It was true that werewolves healed fast but no werewolf healed that fast.

Not even him. It took about seconds or even minutes for a werewolf to heal depending on how powerful they are but this werewolf in front of him just healed in milliseconds. He was beyond stupefied.

“What in the world are you?” He whispered and she shrugged. He gently took her arm and examined it, ignoring the fact that his heart rate sped up just a little bit. There was no single scratch in sight. It was like the cut never happened.

“I want to know something.” Hera said.

“What is it?”

“Why is it that no human has ever survived the werewolf bite?”

Rune let out a sigh before suddenly remembering that he was still holding on to her. He dropped her arm instantly.

“The werewolf bite is too lethal for the frail human body to handle.”

“Then why did I survive?” She asked in a small voice and Rune wouldn't lie, she looked genuinely confused.

“I should be asking you that,” He replied. They stayed in total silence not even looking at each other. “What are you?” Rune whispered, not knowing that he said that out loud.

“I wish I knew.” She answered in such a sad voice that broke his heart.