Chapter Three — Panic

Maria ached from head to toe. The thought of moving a single muscle made her whimper. She sucked in a lungful of air, finding her ribs protested quickly with what felt like daggers boring themselves into her chest. Maria’s eyes flew open when she smelled the room around her: burning wood, dog, and strange Alpha. Where was she? What had happened? The last thing she remembered was being out in the snowstorm. She glanced to her right out of the wide windows. Snow was still falling and the wind howled around the house like it was trying to tear it down. The weight of the thick blankets covering her felt comforting enough to not have her jump up immediately. There had been a truck going past her. He must have stopped when she had lost consciousness. Maria tested the air to see if there was another scent, Beta or Omega, but there was only Alpha.

If Chad smelled him on her, he would think that she had been unfaithful. He would be very mad at her. Panic rose in her again at the thought of what her husband would do to her. She had only smiled at the boy at the grocery store because he had been kind enough to carry the heavy bags to their car and Chad had completely lost it once they had arrived home.

But she wasn’t home. She had run away from home. She would never go back home. Back to Chad. Maria closed her eyes and let out a long breath, feeling her muscles relax underneath the thick layer of warming blankets. Still, where was she, and who had saved her? She could have slipped from one nightmare into another. In her current state, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself. Not when breathing already hurt her so much.

Maria could feel that her face was still swollen. She lifted her hand with a groan and didn’t recognize the heavy, navy blue sweater she was wearing. Uneasiness pooled in her stomach. Someone had undressed her. Maria swallowed thickly and traced her fingertips over the left side of her face, wincing when she pushed a little too hard on the massive bruise disfiguring her. After determining that she must look like Quasimodo now, she lifted the edge of the blankets and looked down at herself. A massive sweater, she drowned in, sweats and wool socks. No wonder she was warm. Maria glanced down into the loose neck hole and determined that she was still wearing her bra. But that didn’t mean anything, something could have still happened to her.

She groaned in pain when she sat up. Her muscles protested and caused her to lie down again. Maria needed to know if someone—the Alpha she could smell all around and on her—had raped her. With shaky hands, she undid the drawstring around her waist and tried to see if she had any bruises on her thighs. Heavy, uneven footsteps from outside the room stopped her. Someone was coming, she needed to hide!

Adrenaline rushed through her body, numbing her to the pain when she frantically looked around the room for a hiding spot. In the end, she slipped into the narrow space underneath the bed, pulling her knees to her chest and clutching her hand tightly over her mouth to muffle her breathing. Just as she pressed herself against the wall by the bed’s headboard, the door opened and a pair of giant feet appeared in front of her.

Maria felt tears run down her cheeks. His scent crept into her lungs like thick smoke. Wood and coffee, warm and spicy, but to Maria he was just a threat. A stranger.

“I can smell you,” he said, his voice deep and unamused. “I can also hear you breathing underneath the bed.”

Maria pressed her hand harder over her mouth and held her breath like her life depended on it.

“Don't even think, I will come down there and serve you,” he grumbled, limping closer and the sound of dishes meeting wood followed. Behind him a set of four large paws entered the bedroom. Maria’s eyes grew wide when the dog found her immediately and lay down to watch her with a slow wag of his tail. His eyes fixated on her.

“Eat, you need your strength. There are also painkillers. Judging from your bruises, you could probably use some. If you need me, I am down the hallway in the living room.”

The Alpha turned around and limped back to the door. He snapped his fingers and drew the dog’s attention. “Let’s go, Moose.”

The German Shepherd looked back at Maria, who silently prayed he would just go and not come any closer. He let out a little whine before following his master's command. Only when Maria couldn’t hear the footsteps anymore, did she dare to crawl out from underneath the bed. Now, she felt every single bone and muscle in her body and couldn’t help the hot tears that sprung into her eyes when she pulled herself onto the edge of the mattress.

On the bedside table she found a bowl with steaming hot broth, a few slices of bread, a bottle of water, and a family-sized package of Tylenol. Maria furrowed her brows in suspicion. He had smelled annoyed. Why save her and bring her food if she was an annoyance? Before she even moved to inspect the food closer, she pulled down the sweats to mid-thigh, relieved to find she was still wearing her underwear and that there were neither suspicious fresh bruises, nor the scent of Alpha anywhere near her pubic region. From what it looked like, the Alpha hadn’t raped her. A small relief, but one, nonetheless.

The bottle of water hadn’t been previously opened and neither had the Tylenol, so it appeared to be safe to take them in the hopes they might dampen the unrelenting pain she suffered. She eyed the broth with mixed feelings. A warm soup during a snowstorm couldn’t be a bad thing, especially since she had almost died out there. Just the memory of the freezing cold nipping at her skin made her shiver, but could she just assume that he hadn’t mixed anything in it to render her defenseless when he would come back? Maybe her being unconscious had been a turnoff. Maybe he wanted her to be wide awake when he…

Maria pushed the broth away from her despite her stomach rumbling. She ate the bread instead, but quickly found it too dry on its own. Sniffing the broth again, she couldn’t detect anything wrong with it. Only a few spoonfuls, not the whole bowl, she told herself. Her hunger soon took over though and the next time she looked down into the bowl, it was empty. At least she wasn’t hungry anymore and the broth felt good, warming her up from the inside.

She glanced at the door and found there was no key in the lock. So, even if she wanted to, she wouldn’t be able to keep him outside. Maria quickly decided that if she couldn’t lock the door to keep him away, she would have to use the only advantage she had, her size. Being as small as she was, she could easily fit underneath the bed and pulled the pillows and blankets with her to create a comforting nest in the constricted space. The Tylenol helped with the pain and soon she found herself drifting back to sleep, her body needing the rest to heal.

***

Maria didn’t know how long she had been drifting in and out of sleep when she suddenly felt something warm touch her hand. She pulled it away with a loud scream, startling the big dog who had innocently licked her hand to wake her.

The piercing scream had alerted the Alpha. His limping steps hurried closer until Maria could see his feet appear in the doorway.

“Moose! Get out!” he commanded, the harsh droning sound of his voice bringing back memories of Chad shouting at her. She wasn’t safe here! Maria panicked. She scrambled to dig herself deeper into her nest, trying to shield herself from this angry Alpha before he could hurt her.

He said something she couldn’t understand, and didn't want to.

“No!” It was all she could yell, muffled by her makeshift nest. Only when she heard the door close again, she dared to look out of a tiny gap in the bedding to see that she was alone in the bedroom again. Her tense body relaxed slightly, but now that the adrenalin in her blood subsided, she felt every bruise and strained muscles again. Maria felt around her nest and took another two Tylenol with a swig of water before she allowed herself to take a deep breath. Sooner or later she would have to leave her nest and speak with him… at least say thank you for not leaving her out in the storm. With some difficulty, she managed to turn around and face the wide window again. The steady snowfall had a strangely calming effect on her, almost hypnotizing, and helped soothe her mind.

***

She stayed in the room for as long as she could before her bladder was close to bursting. She had downed the bottle of water within the first couple of minutes after waking up the second time. Thankfully, the painkillers helped with the underlying ache, but when she got up to walk, pain still punched the air out of her lungs for agonizingly long seconds. Eventually she could breathe again and carefully tightened the loose waistband of the oversized sweats around her thin middle. Maria trod carefully around the too-long pant legs. The thought of bending down to roll them up was as appealing as heading out of the bedroom to face the Alpha.

Swallowing against the nervousness rising in her chest, she took one last deep breath before she opened the door. Maria found herself staring down a rather long hallway to her right. At the end of it was a door which led into a mudroom and then outside. If she wanted to, she could simply make a run for it. But why would she when the storm had only grown heavier over the last couple of hours? At this moment in time, inside the house was still safer than outside. Maria made her way down the hallway, stabilizing her unsteady walk with one hand on the wall at all times. She only needed to follow the noise of light snoring to find the Alpha and his dog.

Maria peeked her head around the corner to find a spacious living-kitchen area with a loft spanning over the living room section. A fireplace in the corner crackled cozily and warmed the space as well as providing light along the gas lanterns scattered around the L-shaped couch. Thick curtains that could be drawn to separate the living room from the rest of the big space were clipped to the side, obviously, so she would find the Alpha if she needed something. The snoring stopped when the dog sensed her and awoke. His big tail wagging lazily on the carpet in front of the fireplace caused the Alpha to glance over his shoulder.

Their eyes met for the first time and Maria couldn’t help but stare at this scruffy stranger. She knew what she wanted to ask, but for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to actually speak.

His deep voice startled her. “Are you feeling better?”

She dropped her gaze to the dog.

“He knows how to open doors. I’m sorry if he scared you. It won’t happen again.”

Maria nodded, suddenly feeling bad for her reaction since the dog actually seemed nice.

“Do you need something?” he asked, sounding annoyed again.

“Where’s the bathroom?” She was surprised how shaky her voice was.

He turned his head back forward and returned to what he had been doing before, reading notes. “The door opposite the bedroom. When you are done, I want to speak with you.”

Maria nodded again even though he couldn’t see it. She was relieved to find the bathroom had a key and she locked herself in before even taking a look around the room. She had never been in a cabin in the middle of the woods before, but she hadn’t expected to find a luxurious whirlpool style bathtub and a walk-in shower to be standard equipment in many of them. When Maria was done and washed her hands, she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror above the sinks. With a shocked gasp, she stared at the woman in front of her. This wasn’t her. Chad had really lost control last night… or the day before yesterday? What date was it? How long had she already been here?

The swelling and angry bruises only showed her again that her decision to run had been the right one. He would have killed her, no doubt about that.

She made her way back into the living room and debated if she wanted to stay by the door or approach him. The dog still wagged his tail when he saw her, but didn’t dare to get closer to her. Poor thing.

“Sit,” came the command from the Alpha she hadn’t even seen standing in the kitchen. He was much taller than she thought, broader too with wide shoulders and a square jaw that spoke every bit of his dynamic.

He nodded over to the couch. She followed his order, making sure not to leave him out of sight in case he would suddenly attack her. He didn’t, only following her with a lot of distance and keeping it up when he took a seat on the far end of the couch. It didn’t make her feel any better, not when she knew he would now start asking questions she didn’t want to answer.