Time was ticking away as the castle choir was singing.

Nora kept a good eye on the clock, she needed ample time to pass by before someone could pick up her wedding veil to realize it wasn't you.

Once the castle choir was done, this was it.

That was the last thing stopping her from revealing herself.

She hadn't been looking scared in front of you, mainly because she didn't want you to hold back but now she was shaking, almost terrified of what was going to happen to her.

Quite quickly, she was pushed out of her trance as the wedding horns commenced.

Now she was walking down the aisle, courtesy of Y/N's father.

You could only count on your fingers the amount of times you'd seen your father.

He was always out and about fulfilling his duties just like your mother, only today, it was a special occasion because they would marry you off and pass on their duties but in the grand scheme of things, you never felt like their daughter but more like a pawn in their game.

"My dear daughter Y/N, you have been good", Your father said supposing it was you under the veil but it was actually Nora, who slightly and nervously nodded to the compliment.

Soon the walking stopped, Nora had a hard time telling since she was looking down the whole time, another extra attempt to conceal herself.

She felt a man take her hand as this was her cue to get up to the podium.

Now her two sweaty hands lay in the hands of the Prince of Adikos, the man you were supposed to get married to.

And just like that, it was time.

Little by little, his hands reached the veil, Nora squeezed her eyes shut.

The veil was finally off because she heard the several gasps let out in the room, some mumbling to each other and others out of words and expressions to convey the horror like your parents.

"What is this nonsense!", the prince let out.

"T-This isn't princess Y/N", he directed his words to your father who came rushing to the middle.

The whole place was in an uproar.

"I-Im sure there has been some sort of misunderstanding, tell me dear, where is Y/N?", he said sternly to Nora.

"I-I don't know, I was forced into this situation", Nora was pretending to be innocent which was all part of the plan of course.

The guards began to search the whole castle only to turn out empty handed.

"She's gone, the princess is missing!", The guard explained as the whole hall was panicking even more now.

"How dare she! Where could she have possibly gone", the prince stomped.

"We'll find her, we'll send everything we have", your father re assured.

"B-but what if she ran off to the forbidden forest?", Nora interrupted because that was exactly where you were and the one place the guards would never go to look for you.

"Then I'll go find the princess myself", The prince gritted his teeth.

He hated when people stood him up, especially today, marrying you would make him King which he had waited a whole heck of a time for only for you to go and interrupt that.

Nora's eyes widened, this was not part of the plan.

"B-but no one goes there, what about th-"

"I said what I said, we begin searching for the princess as soon as possible", The prince aggressively walked away to his guards.

Your mother and father were still in shock and so was the whole hall.

You hadn't just embarrassed your entire family but they were mad, especially the prince and he was stopping at nothing to get you back.

--------------------------------

There was still hope, there was always hope as the wolves had let your hands free and the cottage had two doors.

One where the wolves came in and went out of so you couldn't possibly run out of that one without being caught.

You did still have a chance to get out the other oppositely positioned door.

You quietly, keeping your head down, made your way briskly to the other door.

You twisted its handle, begging for it to be open and to your surprise, it was.

How could they leave their hostage with an open door!

Maybe they weren't as clever as you were thinking them out to be.

You lightly pushed the door open and only now were you realizing why the door was unlocked because no one would ever want to go out that way.

There was a narrow river and at the end of it was a fall.

It was ironically a dead end even though the forest spanned thousands of acres.

It was either you went back and probably got killed sooner or later by the wolves or scarcely survive the wilderness.

The wilderness it was!

You quickly grabbed the food they had given you since you would be hungry eventually, you found your bag that Nora had given you still around your neck.

You placed the food inside and out the door you went, being sure to be very quiet.

You heard a lot of shuffling and sounds coming around the cottage, out of curiousity, you looked from behind the cottage.

You could see a bit of one of the wolves, Jimin?

You hadn't really known their names or faces that well so that could've been a wrong guess.

They were all situated in a circle and from your corner, you could also faintly make out the face of the man who had threatened to kill you, even remembering that sent shivers through your whole body.

You also got a glimpse of the village you supposed, it had others just like you except from what you had witnessed, you would assume they all could shift into wolves too.

Turning back to your path, you took one last look at the cottage and off you went into the trees.

-------------------------------

"When do we tell everyone about the princess?", Yoongi asked. "Everyone" meaning the village.

"We can't, they'll want to tear her apart", Jin spoke lowly since anyone could be hearing their conversation. It was true, being a human alone was enough to be hated by the wolves so it would be even worse when they would find out that you were the heir to the throne.

"You say that like it's a bad thing", Jungkook rolled his eyes.

"Just because they treated us poorly, doesn't mean we have to as well", Jimin explained.

"This is the perfect oppurtunity to show them we're better than that, maybe we could look to a future wher-"

"Don't say it, humans and werewolves could never live together", Jungkook interrupted Hoseok.

"She seemed really scared, I think we should let her go", Namjoon stated.

Just then Sheila appeared, making the seven wolves slightly flinch.

"Hey guys", she waved, taking a seat in between Jungkook and Taehyung.

Taehyung moved away uncomfortably.

The other wolves rolled their eyes.

Let's just say Sheila wasn't the most liked amongst them.

They had been brought up together since they were little, Sheila wasn't a hunter though, she was a guard meaning she was always in the look out for the safety of the village.

She still found herself in the middle of the hunters often and the other wolves quickly caught on when she would openly flirt with Jungkook.

She was obviously after the Luna title but it was reserved, no matter how much she would try.

This was because wolves had natural mates and it had been usually wolves. Only in very rare cases had it been humans who were born on a night of the full moon. The chances of that were very odd and this was fortunate for the wolves because no one would want to be mates with a human.

A small scar was to form on the left cheek when the mates first came in contact. This way it was obvious to spot people with mates.

The boys and even Sheila were fairly young for mates but it was an anxious wait since some wolves never ended up finding mates while others were fortunate enough to.

Even from a young age though, it was easy to sense vague emotions and placement of your mate. For Jungkook, he always felt his mate not anywhere close to the forest which is odd since all wolves resided in the forest. He even associated not being able to sleep at specific hours like 3 am probably a cause of his mate.

For an alpha, it had been essential to find their mate because they were only the strongest when they did and they could pass on their legacy to future generations.

It was obvious that Sheila wasn't Jungkook's mate and deep down Jungkook was relieved of that too.

"What are you guys doing?", Sheila asked.

"N-nothing", Taehyung internally face palmed himself for the stuttering.

"Fine if you guys won't tell me, I know kookie will!", the nickname that Jungkook hated with all of his heart.

He forced out a smile.

He knew that Sheila couldn't know about you, she would tell the whole village and where would they be then?

--------------------------------

You had only walked a little while when the river looked too inviting.

There was a narrow slit in it which separated it from the fall making it a safer path.

You found some branches laying around and you could swim as well.

From all the free time in the castle, you were ought to learn something.

You grabbed some branches and in the cold water you went.

It was your only way to get farther from the village quickly before anyone found out.

You followed the stream path which made it easier for you to swim until bigger waves started to form the more deeper you went.

Soon, you had approached the slit.

You had to keep swimming the opposite way of the current to reach the slit.

You gave it your all but it was not enough.

One huge blow of the wind and it pushed you away from the slit, instead you were now heading in the direction of the fall.

You tried to grab on any rock, any object, anything in sight but it was of no use.

------------------------------

Back at the village, the wolves were still talking and planning what to do with you before Sheila had interrupted.

Now they were just trying to shoo her away.

"Sheila, don't you have something yo-"

Before Jungkook could finish his sentence, he felt the most odd feeling he had ever felt.

He felt his heart sinking and almost instantly he knew it was you.

He didn't have time to think of why? or even how?

He turned around, making big strides to the cottage and pushing the door open.

Just as he thought, you weren't there. You were in trouble. He could just sense it.

The other wolves got up too but Jungkook didn't have time to explain, he was already running off to find you.

-----------------------------

At the edge of the fall you were, holding on to slippery rocks.

If you let go now, you were surely going to free fall down into the fall and hit the rocks below.

The pressure of the water was too much and your arms were giving out so you let go.

You let go expecting death but a sudden hand grabbed you tightly and just like that you were given another chance at life.

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Who grabbed Y/N?...It's kind of obvious lol.

This chapter was long and this book in general might be like that because there is a lot of explaining to do so hope you guys don't mind that. ❤️✨