Chapter 12

“I can’t get over you, you left your mark on me.”

- Hold On, We’re Going Home by Drake

I was walking down a dark alley way; it was so dark that I couldn't see anything at all. I just had to follow my senses, which perked up in this type of situation. The alley just seemed to go straight as I trailed my fingers along the brick wall.

Suddenly there was a cold breeze that passed right beside me, like someone just ran next to me. I shivered and looked behind me, but it was too dark for me to see anything. I continued to slowly walk forward in my old tattered Converse, like I was walking over a very narrow and unstable plank. I felt something sticky and wet under my shoe that made me stumble a little, but I regained my balance. I stepped back and squatted down in the dark and felt around for the wet puddle that I stepped in. After finally locating it, I touched it, and I put it up to my nose and sniffed. It smelled like copper—blood on the floor. I wiped the sticky blood on the wall, stood up and continued to walk straight with my hand trailing along the wall. I heard distant voices ahead and continued to walk faster, following the voices. As I got closer, the voices got louder and there was a small ray of light there. It was like a ray of hope or something. I slowly walked nearer, then I heard their conversation.

"Where is she? Tell me now." A man in a black hood said to a woman who was tied to a chair with tears running down her cheeks. The woman shook her head indicating, that she won't be telling him where 'she' is, and then he slapped her.

I gasped softly as the woman's face went to the right. She shook with silent tears and hiccupped. The man ran his hand through his hair and then gripped her neck. "Tell me where Scarlett Rose Davis is. Right now, or I will kill you." He said as he tightened his hands around her neck. Immediately, questions flooded into my head.

Why was he looking for me, and why did he have to torture the woman to find me?

"She's with her mate. The Alpha of the pack." She choked out. After she said that, he let go of her neck and gripped her chin with his palm as his fingers dug into her cheek, making her look like a fish. He stepped nearer to her and growled. "Which Alpha?" he snarled in her face.

"Al-Alpha of the Broken Shadows Pack. Al-Alpha Caleb Asher," she stuttered. I crouched down and crawled closer to the side of the wall so that I could see the scene clearer. I realized that there were many more big buff guys guarding the alley that led to an empty road. The guy in the hood took out a gun from a holder and pointed it to her forehead. Her eyes widened as she saw the gun and started shaking, as more tears spilled out of her eyes.

"Well, I got to say thank you for your help. You really helped me. Any last words?" He said with a smirk. There was an eerie silence for a few seconds. He walked forward and put the barrel right on her forehead. He's going to kill her. "No last words? I guess that's okay, because I won't be hearing you out anyways." He said, then a bang ripped through the eerie silence. Her head jerked then lolled to the side, leaving a hole in her forehead with blood trailing out of her eyes and dripped to the floor. His hand relaxed and retracted, wiping the barrel of his gun on his shirt. The man nodded without looking up and two guys walked forward, untying the woman from the chair, and her lifeless body dropped onto the floor. The guy in the hood put the gun back into its holder and turned to the other men.

He just killed an innocent woman whilst I witnessed, hiding from them in a dark alleyway. Not only that, but he also killed her after forcing information of me from her. He wanted me, he was looking for me. “The last bullet, job nicely done. Let’s find that bitch.” He said as I slowly stood up. There were shuffling footsteps and I took it as an opportunity to slowly back away, but I accidentally stepped on an empty soda can that I didn’t notice. A loud crunching sound echoed through the silence and suddenly everything went still. I immediately stopped moving and exhaled gently as I cursed under my breath, one of my legs still hanging in mid-air, waiting to take another step. I listened attentively and walked a step forward to avoid the can. I turned around and was met with a pair of glowing golden eyes, staring straight into my eyes through the darkness. The eyes were coming closer and I panicked, looking around me for an exit but everything was pitch dark, then I noticed that there was more than one pair of golden eyes. They were surrounding me and closing in quickly.

The loud thuds of a pair of boots were heard and I felt a blade on my neck, my breath hitched as an arm went tightly around my shoulder to secure me in place. My hands instinctively reached up to hopefully peel off the arm while trying to concentrate on my breathing. “Well, well. We didn’t need to find you, did we? You came here voluntarily, all by yourself.” He smirked into my ear, his breath warm.

“Do you want a gun or a knife? Oh wait, I think we just ran out of bullets so let’s just use the knife.” He said and I felt the knife dig deeper into my neck as I winced.

“Scarlett! Wake up.” I heard as I came to, someone was shaking me and my teeth were clamped down onto something soft. I felt droplets slide down my cheeks as I shivered. “Damn it, wake up Scarlett.” The voice said and I jerked awake. As my eyes started adjusting to my dark surroundings, I realized that I was snuggled into someone’s shoulder and there were teeth marks. As I started to become more aware of my surroundings, I realized that I was biting down onto Caleb’s shoulder while I slept. I looked up at him and saw worry and pain on his face, my fingers reached out to touch the mark and he winced.

“I’m so sorry, I had a nightmare,” I said then leaned forward, leaving a gentle kiss on the mark. “I’m sorry.” He wrapped his arms around my waist and left a kiss on the crown of my head.

“It’s alright,” He said in a tired voice. “At least now I know that it’s dangerous to share a bed with you.” Caleb laughed and I pouted. “You wanna talk about your nightmare?” He asked, pulling me closer as he leaned back onto the headboard of our tiny hospital bed. I shook my head no. Suddenly, a knock was heard and a kind nurse peeped her head in.

“Sorry to interrupt Mr. Asher, Ms. Davis is allowed to leave the hospital anytime. Please sign the release forms at the reception before you go.” She smiled. “Sure, thank you.” He said, getting ready to stand up. “Come on, let’s go home.” I shook my head again, no.

“The packhouse was never home, it was a prison.” I blurted out without thinking. His eyes softened and he tried to pick me up, wrapping his arms around my waist as my hands instinctively went around his neck. “I’m sorry that they treated you so badly, that I treated you so badly.” He whispered, leaving a gentle peck on my temple. I leaned my forehead against his cheek and sighed.

“It’s okay, eventually I got used to it.” He growled and tightened his grip around me. “I didn’t know what to do, you can say that I don’t treasure my life or call me a freak, but in that moment I just wanted to be gone,” I said. He slowly slid me onto my feet and held my hand in his calloused ones.

“Let’s get you back to the packhouse and talk to my dad,” Caleb said, taking a hold of my hospital bags and I felt a shiver of fear run up my spine. “Alpha Asher?” I said and he nodded.

“Come on, let’s get the papers signed and go.” He said, grabbing me by the hand and escorting me out of the hospital room.