C4 Chapter 04

"Are you sure that you want to go see him alone?" her gran asked for the third time tonight. Red exhaled sharply, attempting not to roll her eyes. She quickly pulled her hood up and wrapped her cloak around herself.

"Yes, Gran, I'm sure. Someone has to stay here to keep an eye on things, and it's better if I face him alone," she explained, still not convinced if it was entirely a good idea. She didn't know anything about the alpha king, and deep down she was nervous. The truth was that she’d run out of any other ideas.

The tavern was quiet, so Red decided to close it up earlier than usual. She thought that she could at least save some gold by not keeping the tavern open when there were no patrons. In any other circumstances, Red would never go to a man for help, but she had to forget her own rules that night. Robin One Eye wasn't giving up. Money was tight, and the alpha king was her last and final option. She didn't even know if he could help her, but she at least had to try.

"Okay, fine, but just be careful. Everyone who I’ve spoken to blames him for the robberies and kidnappings. I don't know if these stories about him, taking away from rich and giving to the poor are even true," Ruby said, but Red didn't reply.

They had been discussing this since Red first told her about her plans. In the end, Red managed to convince her that the alpha king could help them. It was a risk Red was willing to take for now.

Since the incident with Robin One Eye, Ruby had been spending more and more time with Mr. Ridley, who was staying with her tonight. The two of them had grown very close. Red didn't mind at all. She wanted her gran to be happy again. The elderly gentleman was making an effort, and her grandmother was having a lot of fun. In the past, she’d dated a lot of available men in town, but no one seemed right for her. Red hoped that perhaps this time, she would finally settle down.

"See you later, Gran, just make sure you lock all the doors behind me," Red reminded her, and the older woman nodded.

A few minutes later, she was walking along the road, heading towards the forest in the dark.

The Forbidden Forest was only a few miles away from the tavern. Even though most people avoided it, Red had spent enough time in the forest to know that she was safe on her own. She knew how to defend herself and didn't believe the rumours One Eye had been spreading about the werewolves. She knew it was nothing more than a scare tactic.

The Forbidden Forest was more than one thousand years old and it had been called that since Red could remember. Apparently, some elders in town believed that people wandered off out there to die. Several years ago, a local huntsman found a body hanging from a tree, and since then everyone was too scared to go out there. Wolves, bears, and other wild animals occupied those parts, so people knew that only certain places within the forest were safe.

Red was walking quite fast, feeling as though she was letting herself down. She never had to rely on a man before, even when she was in a relationship with the forest ranger. She hated being dependent on the opposite sex, but she had to think about the future.

She hid her hands in her pockets as the temperature slowly began to drop. Red shivered and tightened her red cloak around her waist. Her thoughts were racing, and after an hour of constant walking, her feet had begun to ache a little. Eventually she realised that she was deeply lost in the forest.

Red looked up and saw that the moon was shaded by dark heavy clouds, and it was pitch black all around her. She swallowed hard, telling herself to get it together. This wasn't the time to be scared. In the past, she’d wandered off around the forest many times, even as a child, so right then wasn't any different.

A few minutes later, her stomach contracted as she heard movement to her right. She told herself that she didn't have to be scared, but at the moment, she was out of her comfort zone. Red kept reminding herself that this was no different from any other time. Once, when four thieves had tried to rape her, she managed to escape them, with a little help from the Vampire King. He had distracted the thieves and she had run away. At the time, she didn't even know that it was the king himself, because he had pretended to be a huntsman. Sometime later, her friend Cindy revealed that Caspian was able to take on the appearance of humans.

After some time, Red stopped hearing noises in the bushes. She swallowed hard and told herself that it was most likely just a deer. Her heart was beating frantically in her chest. Fear had become her companion, and no matter how much she picked up her pace, it kept following her closely behind.

Finally, after crossing over the man-made path, she followed it out into an empty space surrounded by trees. The smell of burning wood wafted through the air. She noticed some logs that were scattered around. Several meters later, she saw that someone had made a fire there, maybe only an hour ago by the looks of what remained.

She moistened her upper lip and glanced around, trying to see through the pitch blackness. Then she saw two men stepping away from the trees. One of them was holding a fire torch, and when they approached, Red gasped. She recognised them from the tavern—they were One Eye’s accomplices. How could she be so unlucky? The highwaymen weren't supposed to be there tonight. This could only mean that she was wrong about the wolfmen, because now she suspected that One Eye was nearby.

The two highwaymen looked filthy. Their clothes were muddy, and the one without teeth, kept staring at her cleavage. Red shuddered with repulsion. Fear continued to pat her on the back. The tiny voice in her head kept saying that she wasn't brave enough to stand up to them.

Then she remembered that she had her knives hidden under her cloak, but she had a better chance of surviving if she started running.

"John, look who we have here. It's the lovely girl from the tavern," said the blond one holding a torch.

Red backed away. She had a feeling that perhaps One Eye wasn't around, and the two highwaymen were snooping around the forest, waiting for an unsuspecting traveller to pass through. She couldn't believe that she walked straight into their path. Either way, Red needed to do something—and fast.

"Stay away from me, or I’ll cut off your balls and then feed them to the wolves," she growled at them, attempting a brave façade, but the one on the left who had been silent in the tavern started laughing.

"Sorry, love, but you're all alone out here and our boss isn’t going to mind if we have a little fun with you right now," he snarled, then spat on the ground and lunged for her.

Red wasn't prepared and the blond highwayman caught her off guard. Her cloak was pulled tightly around her, and she didn't have time to reach for her knife. After attempting to dodge to the side, she ended up too close to the other darker man, who then snatched her arms. He locked her from behind, and she couldn't move. He was breathing hard into her ear. Red was trapped, but she yelled, kicking the blond highwayman in the chin with her boot. Blood poured from his face and he swore loudly, stumbling back, then slammed to the ground.

"Get off me, you imbecile, or you're going to regret that you ever touched me," she snapped, trying to pull away from him, but the man squeezed her arms painfully. She gritted her teeth refusing to make a sound. Then his cheek touched her, and Red inhaled a strong waft of whiskey. Her stomach rolled with nausea. Unfortunately, by this time the other highwayman was back on his feet and he looked furious.

"Pass her to me, Craig. Soon enough, she’ll be squealing like a monkey when I sink my dick inside her!" He started ripping her cloak, then touching her breasts. Red screamed, jerking away, furious with herself because she wasn't quick enough. She was ready to scalp them both with her collection of knives, but first, she had to find a way to break free.

The injured man became frustrated as blood kept pouring down his face. He grabbed her by the throat to keep her from screaming. Red began to panic, and she was losing focus. Normally, she would have kicked their arses, but tonight she felt useless. Those two imbeciles were ready to rape her.

"I'm going to rip your clothes off and then fuck you hard while John here makes sure you don’t do anything stupid,” the one behind her snarled. “And then you’ll suck his cock. Your tavern is going to be One Eye’s soon enough. Our boss will be glad that we took care of his problem for him."

Red was suffocating. The blond highwayman had a strong grip on her. She could feel his erection on her thigh and felt as though she could vomit. Tears slipped down her face. She couldn't believe that she was going to die like this, away from her tavern, away from her gran. Soon blackness began to swallow her—but then she heard howling. The blond highwayman released his tight grip and Red fell to the ground, choking.

When she glanced up, she saw that the darker one was looking around, turning a little pale. Red was breathing normally now, trying to gather her energy. She really, really wanted to punch him in the balls, but she felt too weak. Her hands were shaking, and she couldn’t manage to stand.

"Move her to the tree and let’s see what's underneath that dress. I bet those tits are fucking amazing," the blond one said, ignoring the wolves that were undoubtedly around. He smiled at her and then licked his lips. The darker highwayman yanked her up and began pushing her towards the woodland.

Red's vision was a little blurry, and when she tried to reach for her knife, the man punched her in the side of the head. Excruciating pain jolted through her. Things were going to become ugly and she had to do something. Her scream was muffled as the highwayman pushed her against a large tree. For a long moment she waited for him to hit her again, so she closed her eyes knowing it would come. Nothing happened, and when she opened her heavy lids, she spotted a huge white wolf that appeared a few meters away from her.

Her chest kept rising and falling in rapid movements, staring directly into his yellow eyes.

"Lucas. You better leave her alone; there’s a huge wolf over here," the blond highwayman snapped, and the dark one turned around abruptly.

The wolf snarled and bent his front legs. Red felt the animal’s energy rushing through her, connecting with her soul. Her breathing was laboured, and her chest felt heavy. The beast was massive, at least several times larger than any ordinary wolf, and its fur was shiny and thick.

"Give me the knife, man. I'm going to scare him off," the dark one snapped, taking a few steps towards the animal.

Red attempted to lift herself up, but the highwayman standing behind her slapped her hard, causing her to fall back to the forest floor. She could have sworn she was seeing stars, but that sudden movement must have angered the wolf because the beast launched himself at the highwayman in the next moment.

Red had no idea what happened after that. She must have lost consciousness for several long moments, which irritated her, because she had missed the grotesque show—she wished she could’ve watched the men suffer.

When she was finally able to see again, she realised that there was a dead body lying next to her. It was the dark-haired highwayman. Red felt sick to her stomach when she noticed that his throat was ripped out. His eyes were still wide open, and the smell of blood and dead human flesh wafted through the air. There was no sign of the other highwayman.

Her head was throbbing, and she had a metallic taste in her mouth—blood. She could hear more wolves howling around her and wondered for a second if she was ever going to see her grandmother again.

Surely if the wolf killed One Eye’s accomplices, he wouldn’t be coming for her next. He seemed to be protecting her, but that still didn’t calm her racing heart. She lifted herself back to her feet.

Moments later, the enormous wolf was back—staring at her with its inhuman yellow gaze. Red froze and stopped breathing for a moment. She had no idea if it was going to attack her or not—then something amazing happened. The wolf howled loudly, then began shaking wildly, bending his legs and arching his back as if he was in agonising pain. Red could have sworn that she heard the animal’s bones cracking and breaking; even its skin was stretching along with the bones at odd angles all over its body. It grew taller and leaner, looking more humanoid by the second. Its paws transformed into human feet and hands.

The voice of reason kept telling her that this wasn't truly happening, and perhaps she had hit her head too hard. Terror kept her chained to the ground where she stood as she witnessed first-hand how the wolf turned into a full-grown man—a very handsome, and very much naked man.

The wind ruffled her hair and then the moon moved from behind the clouds. Red wasn't certain where to look. The man in front of her was tall, dark, and in the moonlight, he had the most mesmerising brown, almost whiskey-coloured eyes. His hair was dark and curly. He had broad, muscular shoulders, and she noticed that he had sharp Eastern features. In any other circumstances, perhaps she wouldn’t have cared, but he was standing in front of her completely naked as the day he was born.

A cold shiver moved down her spine, and despite the throbbing pain in her skull, she felt heat rising in the pit of her stomach. It took her several seconds to realise that she had indeed seen him in the tavern before. At the time, he had been with a bunch of other men, but he had left right before she had a chance to get a better look at him.

Red's eyes travelled down further, stopping on his private parts, and she gasped again, this time, because she felt herself instantly growing wet. Yep, it was official: Mother Nature had gifted the wolfman with a large manhood. She was in shock, but for some reason, she couldn't look away.

"Like what you're looking at, honeycomb?"

His question had thrown her for a loop a bit, and she quickly diverted her gaze to his face—her own face was undoubtedly red. She’d somehow forgotten about the pain in an attempt to deal with the overwhelming lust that was taking over her body. She knew that this was completely inappropriate and wrong in so many ways.

The naked stranger approached her, and Red definitely liked what she was looking at, but he didn't need to know that.

"Is that your pick-up line?" she chuckled nervously, and he grinned at her. She noticed that he had a nice smile, too—bright, and it instantly warmed her from the inside out.

"Yes, it normally has a positive effect on women. In the end, they always come home with me, and I rock their world," the man replied, and then winked at her. He didn't seem to mind at all that he was standing in front of her just the way nature had created him. Well, Red didn't mind, either, but he was distracting her, and she was trying—and failing—not to stare at his manly bits, but it was becoming incredibly difficult. They were just out there—on display. How could she not look? The man had no shame.

Red never thought she would admit such a thing to herself, but she instantly wanted to be in his arms.