Bella's POV

I can almost see it, its palpable in the cold air of the north, it's just this feeling , I can't put a name on it but it's there, I'm scared as fuck. They told me not to go into the forest at the far northern edge, the forest of the Feral Wolves. Many people in my village had said that the wolves were Satan's soldiers that had come to destroy the north which was obviously a fabricated tale made up to scare children away from going into the northern forest.

Then there was another rumour that the wolves were man beasts who changed into wolves only at new moon. But the rumour I found most compelling and ridiculous was the one that there was only one man beast who could turn into a wolf at free will and the other feral wolves were his followers who hunted any and all villagers who dared to step in their territory.

None of them believed me when I said that the feral sinners of the northern forest called out to me, it was a deep husky voice, unheard of and highly tantalizing, which was reeling me in and I didn't even realize it until now, when I'm standing in the middle of the forest of the feral beasts, shivering and so fucking cold.

I'd lost my way a while ago, and was trying to find my way back but the northern forest was the densest forest found on earth and it was crystal clear by now that there was no way I'd be able to find my way back.

But I wasn't particularly sad , the village was a boring place, all that the girls could do was sit around and talk or knit by the fire or we could go and collect berries from the small bushes found in the Green berry forest, and then get married to some random dumb village boy and settle down, that wasn't me.

It felt like I'd been walking for hours , my feet felt like they'd give out any second now and I'd probably meet my grandmother in sweet heaven. I found a tall and incredibly huge pine tree with thorny leaves sticking out of it in every direction, so at least it would protect me from the snow. I plopped down under the pine tree and closed my eyes, I could feel the cold winds on my face, seeping into my ragged clothes as my body heat was dying out.

I sat there forlorn, in my solitary company, drowning in my self pity, waiting for oblivion to take over.

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I huddled even closer, resting my chin on my knees, trying to sustain my heat , using my torn scarf to cover my feet and to prevent frostbite because my boots had worn out.

I'd heard that the wolves were attracted to fire and could smell the smoke from miles away , so there was no way I'd be making a fire, because being eaten alive by a wolf isn't exactly how I want to go. On the contrary, I didn't want to freeze to death either. I'm stumped, could this really be the end? But no, it couldn't be, could it?

I looked up at the clear, crystal blue sky. Its bright light felt like it was mocking my dark, miserable life. Great, even the fucking sky was making fun of my misery or I've just become delusional. Or maybe I'm just loosing it.

I closed my eyes and let myself get lost in a reverie of bliss, I thought about my childhood, my friends ,my father working in our orchards, my mother sitting by the fire, roasting peanuts, I lived at the edge of the world, what I knew about the modern world, I knew from foreigners who came to visit our village.

There was this one blonde girl, who said that she was from..what was it called...yes, a city named Seattle. She'd stayed at the little resthouse, it was more of a cottage and we'd talked a bit, she told me that they used these devices called phones to talk to each whenever from anywhere. I know, amazing, right? Who knew such things even existed? She went on droning on and on about something, she just wouldn't shut up. I mean, don't get me wrong, I loved talking to the foreigners but this girl..she was just so boring.

She was so arrogant and looked at me condescendingly like I was some dirty thing no one wanted.

Then she started talking about this thing called "dating", where a guy asks a girl out and they go on dates and spend time with each other and if all went well, they'd get married , not like in our village where they didn't even ask the girl if she even wanted to get married and just gave her to any random man like she was a slave who they could just sell off.

I softly laughed to myself as I thought how ridiculous the chirpy blonde looked in her little top and her skirt which only came up to her thighs.

Suddenly, I heard a low growl, my ears pricked up, senses heightened as I came back from my reverie back to reality, only to hear a feral wolf howling, I froze in my spot as the growls grew nearer and I clasped my hands hoping someone would come and save me, but this wasn't a fairytale , no one was coming.

My breathing got uneven, a war of emotions raging in my mind. I couldn't even will myself to get up. The growls were getting louder. But my body refused to move. My mind had lost the power to implement any action. The beast was almost here, I could hear the rustling of bushes at a distance but I couldn't determine its direction.

The wolf was almost here, I could hear it breathe heavily. My whole body had gone into a frenzy. I knew I couldn't entirely be sure if it was the feral beast, but...what if it was?