My shoes pounded violently against the sharp gravel of the courtyard, my breath coming in jagged, burning gasps that felt like hot glass in my throat.
I didn’t look back.
I didn’t dare to.
With my right ear completely deaf, the right side of the world was a terrifying, silent void, forcing me to rely entirely on the frantic, echoing roars of Alpha Richard bouncing off the stone walls on my left.
“Get back here, you worthless bitch!” he bellowed, his footsteps tearing up the dirt close behind me.
Panic was a heavy hand squeezing my lungs, blinding my eyes with tears of pure exhaustion.
I knew with absolute certainty that if those boots caught up to me before I could find a place to hide, I wouldn’t survive to see the next sunrise.
I ran like my life depended on it because it truly did depend on how fast I ran.
I kept running with no particular destination in mind.
I needed to get away from him, but Alpha Richard was already gaining in on me.
How did I possibly think I could outrun a werewolf?
Stupid, stupid.
But my survival instinct was running high today.
I spotted where those Blood Moon Pack members parked their car and ran towards it.
After all, they were here to save me, isn’t it?
“Get back here!” he bellowed, his voice laced with a desperate panic that cut through the open air.
“Stop running!”
As if.
I started screaming before I even realized what I was doing.
When was the last time I heard my own voice?
When was the last time I spoke to someone, anyone, about anything?
Damn, it had been so long that I didn’t even recognize my own voice.
“Help!” I screamed to the empty air.
“Somebody please help me!” I didn’t stop screaming nor running.
I did both of them at the same time.
“He is going to kill me!
Please help!
Help!” I cried out.
“Stop screaming, you bastard!” Alpha Richard yelled at me, and I could feel him pick up his pace.
Oh God!
I was done.
It was just a matter of seconds before he would grab me and beat the shit out of me.
I gave it all I had.
I sprinted blindly around the massive corner of the garage, trying to reach the tree line, but my foot caught on a jagged stone.
I pitched forward, completely out of control, expecting to smash face-first into the unforgiving gravel.
Instead, I slammed headfirst into a solid wall of pure, immovable muscle.
The force of the impact nearly knocked the remaining wind out of my lungs, but before I could slide down into the dirt, a pair of massive, iron-grip hands shot out, catching me firmly by the waist and hoisting me right back onto my feet.
I looked up through the blurry slit of my eyes, trembling violently.
Standing directly above me was a man built like an absolute fortress, dressed in dark trousers and a button-down shirt.
His pitch-black eyes were pinned directly down onto my battered face, his nostrils flaring slightly as he took in the smell of metallic blood and cheap antiseptic coating my skin.
The frantic thuds of Alpha Richard’s boots skidded to an abrupt halt a few feet away, the gravel flying up around his ankles.
I instinctively tried to wrench myself away from the giant holding my waist, expecting Alpha Richard to violently rip me back, but the iron grip around my body didn’t move a single millimeter.
His body went steel, rigid steel, and I saw his nose twitch again.
He took a deep breath again, his nostrils flaring slightly at whatever he was scenting.
His eyes were closed, and when they opened again, it wasn’t a human I was looking at but a wolf, and the wolf seemed pissed off I think.
I took a step back, and he snarled at me, baring his teeth at me.
That made me stop.
I could feel Alpha Richard behind me.
He, too, had stopped walking.
The man right in front of me wasn’t familiar, so I knew right away he must be from the Blood Moon Pack.
His eyes kept changing colours as if he and his wolf were fighting for dominance, for who would have control, until finally, the human side won.
He had this aura to him that made me want to bolt, but I was already tired from all the running, and if I tried to run one more time, I was toast.
I risked a glance at Alpha Richard.
The untouchable king of my nightmares looked completely pale, the sweat dripping down his forehead as he stared at the Blood Moon member.
The raw fury that had been in his face a second ago was completely gone, wiped clean by a mask of desperate, fawning submissiveness.
“Alpha Alexander!” Alpha Richard gasped out, forcing a faked, breathless smile onto his lips as he bowed his head low, his voice turning entirely polite and strained.
Alpha Alexander.
Like, the Alpha Alexander.
He was here, right in front of me.
“Forgive the…
the absolute chaos.
I apologize deeply for this disgraceful sight.”
Disgraceful sight?
Since when did I become a disgraceful sight?
I was a slut, mute, bastard, whore to him.
That was all he ever called me since I could remember.
Ohh, I see what was happening.
He was trying to save his own skin, and he knew he couldn’t call me names or show his true colors in front of the High Priest Council’s executioner.
He took a careful step forward, extending a trembling hand toward me, his eyes wide with a silent, threatening plea for me to keep my mouth shut.
“This poor child,” Alpha Richard lied smoothly, his voice dripping with a fake, paternal concern that made my stomach turn with absolute nausea.
“She has been terribly sick, completely out of her mind.
She is mentally unstable from witnessing rogues kill her parents right in front of her.
Ever since then, she has been mad.
We as a pack have been taking care of her and caring for her since then.
All these injuries on her are self-inflicted; we tried to stop her, but she ended up hurting one of the pack members.
She just woke up in a state of absolute delirium and started running out of her room in a panic.
I was merely chasing her down to ensure she doesn’t hurt herself or disturb your men.
Come along now, Ella dear.
Let’s get you back to the clinic where you belong.”
Alpha Richard lied and extended his hand for me to take.
I instinctively took a step back and hid behind Alpha Alexander.
“I am terribly sorry for this, Alpha Alexander.
Ella, baby, come on.
Come, let’s go,” he said sweetly.
“Help me, please.
Don’t let him take me,” I pleaded with him as tears started to drop from my eyes.
I could feel his body tense, but he didn’t move.
Alpha Alexander remained absolutely silent, his towering frame casting a massive, icy shadow over both of us.
The quiet that settled between the two Alphas was terrifying.
My fingers clutched the fabric of his button-down shirt, my knuckles turning white as I hid as much of my body behind his broad back as possible.
I could feel the microscopic tremors of his muscles, a coiled rage vibrating right beneath his skin.
“Is that so, Alpha Richard?” He finally spoke.
His voice was a low, slow baritone that sounded like stones grinding together.
It wasn’t loud, but it carried a weight that made the surrounding air feel instantly colder.
He didn’t look down at me, nor did he look at Richard’s extended hand.
His dark eyes remained fixed entirely on Richard’s sweating face.
“A sick child who inflicts broken ribs upon herself?
A mentally unstable girl who is clearly terrified of you?”
How did he know about my broken ribs?
And come to think of it, how was I able to run this far without feeling the pain I felt this morning when I tried to stand up fast?
Adrenaline must have been working overtime.
Alpha Richard choked on his own breath, his extended hand freezing mid-air.
The fake, paternal smile on his face cracked, revealing a flash of absolute panic before he quickly forced it back into place.
“Alpha Alexander, you must understand…
she is highly deceptive when the delirium takes over.
She breaks things, she thrashes in her sleep.
Our pack doctors have exhausted every resource trying to keep her safe from her own mind.”
“Your pack doctors,” Alexander repeated, his tone entirely flat, devoid of any belief.
He shifted his stance slightly, his massive arm moving back just enough to bar Richard from stepping any closer to me.
“And tell me, Richard, does her mental instability also cause her to punch herself in the eyes?
Does a fever cause the specific shape of bruise on her hands?”
Alpha Richard took a sharp step backward, his boots sliding against the gravel.
He quickly looked over his shoulder toward the pack house, with the way he was looking expectedly towards the pack house it would appear he was expecting someone would appear to help him navigate the trap he had just set for himself by running after me.
But the courtyard remained completely still, the rest of his warriors watching from a distance, too terrified of Alpha Alexander to intervene.
“I…
I assure you, there has been a massive misunderstanding,” Richard stammered, his voice losing its smooth, polite veneer and cracking under the pressure.
“The High Priest Council has no jurisdiction over how a local Alpha manages a troubled ward.
We have given this orphan a home for nine years out of the goodness of our hearts.
She owes her survival to the Silver Ridge pack!”
“She owes you nothing,” Alexander growled.
The volume of his wolf’s presence made Alpha Richard’s knees visibly wobble.
“Two years ago, a formal grievance was logged with the High Priest Council regarding the severe violation of unranked omegas within these borders.
I did not ride into this valley to audit your paper ledgers, Richard.
I came to find the evidence.”
He turned his head slightly, his dark gaze finally dropping down to look at me.
His eyes scanned my split eyebrow, my discolored cheekbone, and the way I was desperately favoring my left side just to stay standing.
There was no disgust in his expression only a cold assessment that made my breath hitch.
“And it seems the evidence ran straight into my chest,” Alexander murmured.
“Alpha Alexander, you cannot do this!” Alpha Richard shouted, his desperation finally overriding his fawning submissiveness.
He reached for his waist, his hand twitching near where a silver hunting blade was sheathed.
He had finally gone mad.
“She is a member of my pack!
By ancient werewolf law, she belongs to the jurisdiction of the Silver Ridge territory!
You have no legal right to remove an unranked wolf from my grounds without a formal trial!”
“Guessing by the look of it, she is human,” Alexander corrected coldly, his voice slicing through Richard’s frantic shouting like an iron blade.
“She has no wolf.
She has no pack bond linking her soul to your stone house, which means she falls directly under the protection of the Council’s human-preservation acts.
And as the Council’s appointed executioner, my word on this field is the only law that matters.”
He raised his left hand, making a brief, sharp gesture toward the line of midnight-black SUVs parked near the garage.
Immediately, the doors of the car flew open.
Three massive Blood Moon members stepped out into the gravel.
They didn’t look at Alpha Richard; their eyes were locked entirely on their leader, waiting for the command.
“Secure the girl,” Alpha Alexander commanded them, his voice cutting through the wind.
“Place her inside the car and have the medic administer immediate care.
If any member of this pack attempts to step within five feet of her perimeter, eliminate them without further warning.”
“Yes, Alpha!” the warriors shouted in unison, their heavy boots crunching rapidly across the gravel toward us.
Alpha Richard looked like he was about to vomit from pure terror.
His hair was completely wild now, his hands shaking violently at his sides as he realized his entire life, his title, and his pack were on the verge of being dismantled.
“Ella!” he croaked out, trying to catch my eye one last time with a look of pure, murderous hatred.
“Think about what you are doing!
You will regret this!”
I didn’t answer him.
For the first time in nine long years, I didn’t keep my head down, and I didn’t tuck my chin into my chest.
I stood completely straight behind Alpha Alexander’s massive shoulder, staring right back at the monster who had broken my bones, letting him see the quiet, stubborn fire in my eyes.
They gently surrounded me, their large frames forming an unbreakable wall of steel that completely blocked Alpha Richard from my sight.
As they guided my limping body toward the open door of the luxurious black SUV, I risked one final look back over my shoulder through my left ear.
Alpha Alexander hadn’t moved an inch.
He stood alone in the center of the courtyard, slowly rolling up the sleeves of his button-down shirt, his claws beginning to extend from his knuckles as he stepped toward a trembling Alpha Richard.
The nightmare of my childhood was finally over.
Finally.
Alpha Alexander is here now guys so rest easy.
Our girl is finally in good hands.