Chapter 11: THE BLUEPRINT

CHAPTER ELEVEN | THE BLUEPRINT

ASPEN

Silence seeped into my room, waking me up from a nightmare I didn't even know I was having. My whole body ached like I'd been in an accident, and it felt like my face was on fire.

I tried to speak but realized that I couldn't because my face was swollen up like a puffer fish.

I jerked awake, touching my face and noticing that a bandage was wrapped tightly around it. “What is going on?” My voice came out muffled, as if a cloth was over my mouth, restricting my speech movement.

The first face I saw was Rachel. She was sitting on my bed, typing away on her laptop like an internet-crazed person. I knew she was aware that I was awake; she was just too busy doing something to pay me any mind.

I looked to my side and Ronan was there. I shot him a glare, and I was sure if looks could kill, he would be six feet under.

He looked away, guiltily scratching the back of his neck. “You're awake,” he pointed out, as if trying to enrage me more with his stupid statement.

“Of course I am. Were you expecting me to die like you planned to kill me?” I hissed, clenching my fist.

If only he was close by, I would have given him the same treatment he gave me earlier when he almost took my life in the boxing ring.

“About that…” he dragged, still avoiding my gaze. “I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you that way.”

I scoffed, folding my hands across my chest and still glaring at him. He didn't want to hurt me, yet he hit me not once but twice. Two fucking times.

“Yeah, right,” I sarcastically responded. “You really didn't mean to hurt me at all.”

“I had to. The coach wouldn't have let us leave if you weren't knocked out. If I showed any sign of weakness, he would have gotten in the ring himself, and trust me, you wouldn't have left there alive,” he hissed.

All the anger I felt for him dissolved, and I was left with nothing but gratefulness. I was truly grateful that he helped me. Heaven knows if I'd still be alive if it were someone else that fought me and not Ronan.

Even though a prideful part of me was angry because I believed he could have done it less aggressively, I still reluctantly let out a quiet “thank you.”

“You should make that louder,” Rachel chirped in. “He went real easy on you. I've seen him kill people with a single punch. Anyone who knows Ronan would know that he didn't want to hurt you during the fight. He treated you like an egg.”

I almost choked on my saliva. Like an egg? An indestructible egg or what? He literally pounded me like I was some sort of meat he was trying to process for dumpling filling.

If he truly went easy on me, then I didn't want to see what it would be like for him to actually try to fight me.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “Thank you so much for not killing me.”

Rachel laughed, turning her laptop over to show me what she had been so busy doing instead of checking up on me. She showed me a spreadsheet that made no sense to me.

“Look,” she smiled, excitement evident on her face.

I had no idea what she was expecting me to look at. Nothing made sense to me. It was as if she wrote in codes or something, and I've never exactly been the smartest kid out there. I've always believed technology was for the people that created it to help their kind. Basically, science and technology were for humans, not werewolves.

Yes, we used phones, TVs, and other technological innovations, but I believed that should be all.

“What should I be looking at?”

“The blueprint, obviously!” she squealed, bouncing on the bed and clapping her hands in excitement.

Her excitement was so contagious that I found myself excited too, even though I understood nothing that was on the screen.

I had so many questions, but I didn't know how to ask, so I just let her be proud of her invention in peace, figuring out that she was going to explain sooner or later.

“This is the plan on how we're going to successfully help you find your mate’s killer and leave this place without being caught or killed.”

I hummed in response, looking at the thing on her laptop and trying to understand it, but still couldn't make any sense of it.

“You don't understand, do you?” Ronan sneered, covering his mouth with his hands to stop the laughter that wanted to fall out.

I glared at him, showing him my middle finger.

“Oh, sorry,” Rachel apologized, flushing beetroot red for a reason I couldn't understand. “You didn't study computers at school?”

My muscles stiffened at the question, my head replaying memories I wished I could forget. Memories that haunted me daily for years and made me feel like I wasn't, and would never be, enough.

“No, I never did.” I smiled sadly, looking away from them.

They were both obviously shocked by my response. It was then that I understood she wasn't asking me a question but teasing me for not knowing the basics as if I was illiterate.

The truth is that I was. I had never stepped foot in school for one day in my life. The only time I had been to school was when I was forced to pick up Devenity when she was much younger, and even then, I wasn't allowed inside the school premises. I was forced to wait for her outside.

“I'm sorry. I had no idea you didn't graduate from high school. May I ask the reason though? The werewolf council passed into law a few years back the rule that everyone must be educated. Everyone was made to attend high school, why didn't you?”

“Because I wasn't allowed to.” My voice was so low and timid when I spoke that a normal person would have strained their ears in order to hear me.

“My Alpha didn't allow me to go to school. I became a maid from a very young age, and I didn't have the privilege of the regular pack members because I was an orphan. While others went to school, I stayed home cleaning the pack house. It wasn't until later, after I met Adrian, that he taught me how to read and write. I was grateful he turned out to be my mate. I only wished he lived long; he was the best thing that happened to me.”