A MAZE OF GREED

Ruth shrieked, her heart leaping out of her chest when she saw the man's face who was right at her feet. His neck was twisted at an odd angle, and his eyes popped out of his eye socket as if he had seen a ghost.

He lifted his trembling hand while whining in pain. He was asking for water, Ruth thought, but no word came out of his mouth before his hand dropped on her feet, and he passed out.

Ruth stepped away from him as if his hand was a poisonous snake that was ready to bite her. She heard Zoe's voice. She looked ecstatic and relieved. She was mewing excitedly as if she was cheering someone.

The grunting voices and pain-filled yells fell on Ruth's ears, and she thought she would go deaf if she kept hearing them for long. A part of her was eager to turn around, but the major part of her was too scared to do that.

And then she heard a familiar voice, screaming and lashing out in rage. She swiftly turned on her feet to come face to face with no one but the man with the dark eyes.

"R-Rees?"

She heard him break another man's bones, his muscles rippling under his shirt with his every move. Rees was a trained warrior, working for the great O'Dells. She could not expect anything less from him.

But the amount and intensity of the power he exercised at that time were unbelievable. Ruth wanted to blink or rub her eyes to see if it was only her desperate imagination. But she could not move even an inch.

She was dumbstruck, horrified on her spot. Before she wrap her mind around the scene before her, the four bodies lay on the dirty ground with a tall, angry man looking deadly right into her eyes.

She had seen Rees's angry side before. The night he came for her rescue when she was stuck in the woods, playing in front of her eyes. Rees was angry then too. But that was nowhere near to how raging he looked now.

He did not move, and she did not dare to move. They both stared at each other for a long minute. Ruth could see the darkened eyes that she had seen before.

His nose, ears, hair, face everything was the same except his eyes, and yet he looked nothing like the Rees she knew. He looked like a different person altogether.

Zoe watched between them, not knowing if she should make a noise to break the tension between them. Rees, the man she thought was no more than Edwin's servant, looked terrifying, standing there with his chest heaving up and down in anger.

Zoe could smell his wolf. She feared if his human lost control, then his wolf might take over. Now she did not want to see Ruth dying because of a heart attack even though she prayed the same thing every time she heard her name from Edwin's mouth.

Ruth finally opened her mouth to say something, but words remained stuck in her throat when Rees crossed the distance between them in long strides. Before she said anything, he held her hand and started walking in the opposite direction with Ruth.

Zoe followed them silently. Ruth had a hard time matching his pace, so she half jogged while keeping up with his speed. She waited for him to say something or maybe yell at her and tell her how stupid she was. But that never happened.

He was tensed. She could feel anger rippling out of his body. To not aggravate him further, she kept struggling to walk with his speed and not trip on her dress.

~"Lady Elsie, Ruth is safe with me. I am taking her home."~ Rees contacted Elsie.

He did not hear her reply for some brief moments, and then she said.

~"Brother Edwin is on his way. Save Ruth!"~

Rees stopped in his tracks. His body went as stiff as a slab of rock in a second.

Edwin got to know everything, and he was on his way to get Ruth.

The anger bubbling inside him was replaced with panic. What if Edwin's wolf had taken control? What would he do after meeting Ruth?

Rees did not want to know the answers to those questions.

"Rees..." He heard Ruth's soft voice and turned to face her.

He had to do this and had no other choice.

"I will see you in 'the great manor' in the morning! No more discussion and no more arguments!"

Those two sentences. Those were enough to make Ruth shocked. She had never heard him talking that authoritatively, not even with his subordinates.

They stared into the eyes of each other, and Rees thought he would have to do that before. But then Ruth blinked, and a scowl appeared on her face.

How?

"Rees, I..."

"I hope you do not want this day to repeat itself or Mrs Payne to know about any fact of this day!"

Ruth's eyes widened.

"Rees!" She hissed in anger.

In the very next moment, she found her slipping to the darkness, her body went limp in Rees's hand.

'Rees!' Zoe's voice came clouded with fear as she looked ahead of her.

Confused, Rees turned to see what Zoe was trying to show with unconscious Ruth in his hands.

"M-Master?!"

He watched as Edwin took long strides towards him. His face was void of any emotions while his eyes... they were spitting the blue fire in the hope to burn down the whole world.

Clearly, his wolf was awake however, his human and wolf shared the control. It was a rear sight, especially in the case of alphas.

As the most powerful beings of their packs, they had a hard time sharing the control between their human and wolf. Either one of them always won the tussle and took over.

As soon as Edwin came near Rees's periphery, he could feel the anger scintillating out of him. And the feeling was scary.

Rees's conscious wolf whimpered in fear as well as his human form.

Edwin stopped a step away from him. And listening to his unsaid order, Rees obediently passed Ruth's unconscious form to him. He then sat down on one knee and put his fist in the middle of his chest while bowing his head.

Edwin did not react, nor did he say anything. He just turned on his heels and started crossing the way to Ruth's home. Rees waited till he was a few steps ahead of him. Zoe mewed, and Rees stood up again.

They watched Edwin carrying Ruth bridal style in his arms. He was still angry and tensed, yet it was a surprise how he maintained his calm yet.

Rees and Zoe followed him silently while keeping some distance between them, for they did not want to disturb him.

Edwin could still hear his heart beating wildly in his ears. When Lord Augustus finished the meeting, the first thing Edwin did was look for Rees but found him nowhere. He then marched straight to Elsie.

Elsie tried her best to not let out anything, but he was her elder cousin. He knew her like the back of his hand. He managed to squeeze out the truth from her, and when he did... Lester was right in front of Elsie in a protective stance.

Edwin closed his eyes, inhaling and exhaling the warm air through his flared nostrils. Lester waited for him to react but stood dumbfounded when Edwin just walked away from there.

Only Edwin and the Moon Goddess knew how many times he died in those moments of reaching to Ruth. He could not describe the feeling when he saw Ruth in Rees's arms. She was safe!

His mate was safe!

He was angry, even disappointed too. But the relief that washed over him after seeing her safe was what burned him again. He had never expected something like this to happen.

He had taken all the measures to keep her safe, yet the woman found a way to get in trouble. What if Harold Davies had done something with her?

His body stiffened at the thought, and he paused. He gulped down the heavy lump in his throat. He looked at her innocent face. It looked tired, and its natural glow had faded.

His eyes searched her body- the most of it was covered by her dress- to anything that would give him the idea of what happened in Harold Davies's office. But found nothing.

He only hoped that the man had not put a finger on his mate or swore to Moon Goddess, he would not see the next sunrise.

'Does he love her?'

Rees looked down at Zoe, who watched Edwin's back intently. She was still in her cat form.

"I... I do not know. But I would like to believe it." Rees answered truthfully.

That was the same question Thea had asked him many times, and he had no sure answer for that. Edwin had never used that word with respect to Ruth. He had not even said it out loud if he loved his parents, or his grandfather or even Elsie.

Love was the word he always tried to avoid and was always ignorant about it.

"Do you still like him?" Rees could not help but ask.

'No. I do not like him.'

Rees was confused. From what he knew, Zoe was always interested in his master.

'I do not only like him but I LOVE him, Rees. I fell madly and hopelessly in love with a boy who showed me a way of living my life on my terms. He gave me my freedom, the life I want.. And now I have everything that I ever desired. Except HIM!'