Found by the Lycan King by Natalie Winter

Chapter 76

Zenovia

I was in dreamland, covered in sheets and wrapped in it like a cocoon, when I heard a noise from the windows.

My body felt stiff and sore as I groaned in my sleep and mentally hoped whoever it was to leave me alone.

“Shoo,” I muttered in my sleep, but the noise was persistent.

It was an odd noise, like somebody was scraping their nails on the windowpanes. My eyelids felt heavy, and I groggily opened them while trying to look around.

I didn't know Elijah was a prankster, but he was goofy, so he might have found a way to annoy me. When nobody answered, I pulled the pillows above my head and tried shutting my eyes again. There was a noise again, coming from the window. The odd scraping noise had returned.

I felt so annoyed that I threw the pillows and finally opened my eyes to throw my fists at someone. But there was nothing. My room was empty.

I looked around stupidly and muttered, “Elijah, this is a very cruel way to wake someone up from sleep.”

I waited for a minute or two, but Elijah did not reply. Frowning, I gathered the sheets and was about to pull them up over myself again when I saw the window.

It was open, and the curtains were flying through the light breeze.

“But I had closed the windows before sleeping,’ I thought and kept staring at the window stupidly. Letting out a sigh, I got up from the bed and went to close the window.

“Maybe I did not close it tight enough, I thought and shrugged.

But when I reached the window and tried to close it, my gaze fell on the dense trees outside the mansions huge gated compound.

A certain patch of trees was shuffling and I could see the leaves and branches rustle. Compared to that, the rest of the trees looked oddly still.

I tilted my head and kept peering at the forest trees and I felt a strong pull towards it.

Wanting to get a good look at it, I went back to my bed, grabbed my mobile, and switched on the torch.

I tried to shine it on the forest but my idea was pretty stupid. The trees stopped rustling and my gaze automatically flicked in the direction of Callahan's office and I saw that the blinds were drawn. The light was switched on, so he was probably working in the office. Not that I could just barge into his office and talk to him or share my observations with him.

Now that the sleep had been driven off my eyes, I could not let the thoughts of him and Cynthia spending all their waking time together get back to me.

I would focus on training and keep pushing myself, just like

I was about to close the windows, but I again felt that sharp pull. I could not explain it but somehow my body wanted to go to that exact spot where the trees were rustling.

An inexplicable pull was dragging me towards it and though I tried to but?

it deep down, I could not avoid it.

I looked around and saw that most of the servants had retired to bed because it was the middle of the night and barely one

or two guards were patrolling near the mansion. Most of them were around the huge gated compound in the front.

This was a good chance to step out and see what lay in the forest and why I suddenly feeling this pull.

I was still in my pajamas but the coast was clear, so I slowly sneaked out of the room and was careful to not make any noise. I climbed down the stairs and pushed the main door open.

Nobody was behind me, so I slowly walked through the perimeter of the huge mansion walls. There were a few small gates on each wall, probably to allow gardeners to trim the excess grass growing alongside the walls on the outside instead of going all the way to the front and then walking back to the spot.

to walk back and forth.

The mansion was very huge and I could only imagine how much time it would take just

The gate was not locked thankfully and I looked back to check if anybody had noticed me. When I saw that there was nobody, I slowly sneaked outside the gate and stepped through the gate.

And the moment I did, I felt something strange. There was a strange prickling on my skin, but when I touched my hand, there was nothing.

I looked around, and the forest seemed perfectly ordinary to me.

“Strange,” I muttered and slowly stepped further away from the walls.

The forest around me was green and lush. Soft grass crunched beneath my feet as I stepped through it to make my way into the woods.

The trees were large, and the canopy of leaves was quite dense.

We werewolves stayed deep in the forest and ensured that ordinary humans would not get too close to us. Everywhere I looked, the scenery appeared the same to me. I was not sure how to pave my way through the forest and reach where I wanted.

But the moment I thought that, the pull grew stronger as if guiding me to walk through the dense shrubs and reach the spot in the shortest possible time

“Stay in the mansion’ That had been Callahan's only text that suddenly popped up in my head.

I looked back, and the mansion’s walls were still visible amid the towering grass and bushes.

As long as I could see a glimpse of those walls. I would be fine. Or so I thought.

I was not paying attention to the ground and my foot got caught in something. I looked down, and I saw that my feet had somehow gotten entangled in a vine.

I shook it a bit, and the vine came off easily. Adjusting the strap of my sandals that I had hastily put on while running out of my room, I went further ahead.

When I looked back, there was no sign of the mansion walls. It was as if I had crossed a long distance in a single step.

Confused, I tried to get a good look, but the mansion walls had disappeared all of a sudden.

“But I had only taken a few steps forward, I thought worriedly and then heard something snap. I turned around wildly but was met with silence.

"Who is it?" I asked, trying to sound brave, but I was scared

I felt something brush up my feet and saw that the vine was back on my leg. I tried to shake it off hastily, but this time it would not budge.

Instead, the vine gripped my leg and coiled around my feet. I let out a startled cry and bent to take it off, but it had wrapped itself around my foot tightly.

I looked around wildly, but there was nothing to free myself. I tried running away, but the vine dragged me down on the ground, smacking my body on the forest floor.

I fell with a thud and screamed again as another vine began to coil itself around my body.

The vines had sharp black colored thorns, and they were piercing into my skin, digging deeper.

I tried to grab hold of something, anything, as the vines began to drag me further inside. But my hands only reached bushes and thorny shrubs that further cut into my skin, making me wince.

The vines suddenly began to pop up from everywhere, coiling around my entire body and arms to stop me from moving. I tried to scream. “Help me” but the vines closed around my throat, muffling my voice.

My lungs were burning, and the vines were choking me. I began to feel lightheaded and giddy as my vision blurred. My oxygen was being cut off and my eyes were closing when suddenly I saw a bright spot of light a few feet away from me.

The bright light appeared to hurt the vines as they suddenly loosened their hold over me. The vines slowly unraveled themselves and shrank back as I gasped for breath.

The light was too bright, and I raised a hand to protect my eyes while coughing and wheezing. Slowly, the vines left me completely and slithered back into the bushes, leaving me alone.

The bright light seemed to dim down, and I slowly lowered my hand. I wanted to thank my savior, but apparently, there was nobody around me.

I looked around, but whoever my savior had been...was gone. I looked down at my body and the small cuts that had appeared on my arms and legs when the vines’ thorns had cut me were nowhere to be seen as well

I rubbed my hands and legs, trying to feel the pain, but there was none either. I looked around wildly again and asked loudly.

"Hello? Who was that?”