“Are you mad?” Anastasia said and punched him on his back.

“Shut up, if you want to get out of here!” he said.

He scaled the wall of the palace like it was nothing. Securing her in his arms, he jumped down to the ground landing effortlessly on his feet.

Shocked at hell she looked at him. But he was now running with her to the boundary of the kingdom. For the first time, she heard the screams and shouts of the soldiers. The palace had been alerted to her abduction. It was now a matter of time that they found her. They were Fae soldiers.

“I think you better leave me here, Kaizan,” said Anastasia. They are going to be here any minute.

The man gave her a feral grin. With one hand holding Anastasia by her waist, Kaizan leapt almost ten feet high and tossed her into the air. She suppressed a shriek for fear they would be caught. As the world around her moved in slow motion she found herself falling, limbs flailing towards the ground. But before she touched the ground, she found herself over the soft fur of an animal. A massive black wolf was now speeding towards the perimeter with Anastasia on his back. She held his ears, shocked to the core. Her eyes were wide as adrenalin sailed through her body . Her pulse raced like that of a horse.

Kaizan was a vukodlak… a werewolf.

He growled and she could feel the vibrations in his chest. “God!” she breathed.

Kaizan raced at break-neck speed to the boundary, jumping over the fallen logs and large ice-covered rocks and twisting around the towering aspen trees.

“Do you know where the bend is?” she asked.

The wolf growled again.

Everything blurred past them as he ran and the screams receded. The chilly wind slapped her cheeks and her hair whipped over her face. Fifteen minutes later she saw the thick air wall in front of her. “The bend is on the right,” she said but the wolf had already turned to the right.

All of a sudden, he groaned and tumbled to the ground. She fell down with him, skidding away in the wet mud. An arrow was piercing his leg. Kaizan shifted back. He crawled up to Anastasia who was now covered with wet mud, twigs and grass. She rose to her feet and winced as a sharp pain shot through her ankle. She let out a laugh in disbelief and said, “Could it get any worse?”

With a groan, Kaizan broke the shaft of the arrow in his thigh. “It’s nothing. It’s just a flesh wound. It would just bleed and become okay.” He looked at her as she leaned against a boulder. “Run!” He grunted. “I told you this is your last chance!”

“Not without you.” Anastasia said. How could she leave him for the soldiers? They would shred him to pieces and feed him to hungry lions. He was the bravest and most loyal man she had ever met in her life. An asset.

“Damn it!” he said and got up with a limp. Seeing that she was almost hyperventilating, he extended his hand to her. She held his hand and he pulled her up. The two dashed towards the perimeter as they heard wings beating and bowstrings releasing with screams and whistles. The soldiers had closed to only a few meters behind them. Another arrow shot past them, missing by mere inches.

“Anastasiaaa!” She heard Nyles shouting from behind amongst other shouts. “Come backkkk!”

Anastasia whimpered. How could she leave her maid in this condition? They would kill her too.

She felt Kaizan lifting in the air and jumping towards the thick air wall. He had found the bend.

“Nooooo!” Nyles shrieked from behind and heer massive wings fluttered behind her just in time to grab Kaizan by the shoulders. Together they had leapt out of the bend, landing right into a thick mist that rolled in front of her eyes. As soon as they landed, Anastasia found herself staring into the pale blue eyes of a man similar to Kaizan. She pressed her hands to her mouth and turned around to see the man who was standing right behind her with a bare chest. Was he the twin of this man? All of a sudden he was covered with white mist and when the mist exploded, her eyes were looking at the most handsome man she had ever encountered in her life. He was brutally attractive. Power was thrumming from his towering frame. The torso was mud splattered and when her eyes landed on his lean face, she saw stubble of two days.

His eyes were a fiery golden yellow. The man looked angry as tension radiated off his corded neck muscles. His golden irises flickered a pale blue again.

At six and a half feet he towered her like a dangerous man. Bewildered at this sudden change of events, Anastasia stumbled back and she was immediately held by the real Kaizan.

The werewolf stepped forward and bowed slightly. “I am Ileus, Your Highness.”

Anastasia’s mouth fell to the floor. Ileus? Who was he? Her gaze traveled to Nyles who was dusting her clothes and coughing. She rushed to Anastasia and held her hand. “Princess, what have you done?” She said with her eyes as wide as saucer and her body and her wings were shaking like a dry leaf. “Let us go back!” She pulled her hand but Anastasia didn’t move.

“Don’t be insane, princess!” Nyles said. “The Crown Prince is going to kill me. I beg of you, let’s go back.” She looked at Ileus and shouted, “Take us back you conman! You have deceived us. If you don’t take us back this instant, I am going to claw your face beyond recognition!”

Ileus’s chest rumbled. “Back off!” he growled.

With a terrifying scream, Nyles attacked him with her sharp claws extended. He backhanded her and she fell some twenty feet away in the wet mud, unconscious. A woman came right over and tied her hands and legs.

Anastasia knew that Nyles was fine, and this was too important a mission to be jeopardized by her antics. She looked back at Ileus with a what-now expression.