Chapter Eighteen - Sent to Hell

Aria’s POV.

“Where are you coming from?” Those were the words that greeted me in a cold voice the moment I stepped into the living room with the guard behind me.

I looked up to see Shane a few feet away from me, his intense forest green orbs boring into mine in a mix of anger and frustration, with his jaw clenched hard.

“The dungeons,” I simply responded, not willing to keep the truth from him. I wouldn’t lie and he needed to understand that I wouldn’t be forced into submission. I’d been there before and I wasn’t ready to return to the vulnerability and mental scars that came with it.

I expected him to yell at me but his eyes drifted past me to the guard behind me and he nodded curtly. I heard the sounds of receding footsteps before the loud bang of the door, signifying that we were alone. Silence descended upon us and he kept staring at me with his cold brooding eyes, and his lips set into a mean line. I felt a shiver travel down my spine as fear began to slip in but I kept my stance with my gaze matching his.

He took a step forward and I took one back, unsure of what was going on in his head. All I knew was that he was furious and from my past experience, furious men weren’t to be messed with.

Was he going to hit me like my father? The sudden thoughts had my lips trembling and eyes twitching. I didn’t know what I would do if it came to that, and that fear seized me up. While my worry ate at me, he swiftly covered the distance between us until he was looming over me, his gradually darkening irises staring into my fearful eyes.

“Please, don’t hurt me,” I whispered, cowering to my fear, with my heart palpitating.

His brows drew together and his eyes softened as realization dawned on him. He took a step back and threaded his fingers through his hair, with his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them again, he exhaled deeply and the haze of anger that was swirling in them was gone.

“God, Anna, you make me so fucking mad,” he growled in a deep husky tone that had my insides quivering, making Hailey to purr.

“I… I’m sorry but I needed to see him, to confront him and make him understand how much I hated him,”

“He’s rotting in hell,” his words were said in a low gravelly voice that I wasn’t supposed to hear but I did and they had my heart rate speeding up as I suddenly recalled the words of the stranger in the dungeons.

“Burnt on a stake with his ashes tossed into the lake,”

I gulped, as I began to make sense of them. Shane’s eyes suddenly snapped to mine, his unwavering gaze pinning me in place as the realization sank in and I gasped, my mouth falling open in bewilderment.

“Did… did you…” I gulped but he kept staring at me, his eyes suddenly growing cold, and darker with his palms balled into fists beside him as his jaw clenched hard. “What did you do to him?” my voice was so small that I could barely hear it over the loud drumming of my heart against my chest.

His jaw only clenched harder as he kept staring at me unblinkingly, with his lips pressed tightly together as if to prevent the answer to my question from spilling out.

I took a step forward but he remained rooted to the spot, his eyes still eating me up. Yet, deep down, I had the strong conviction that his mean gaze wasn’t for me.

“Shane?” I placed my palm on his chest and his jaw unclenched. He drew in a deep breath and stared down at where my palm was spread flatly on his hard chest, with his heart beating hard against it.

“No one hurts the people I love,”

His words, growled in a deep husky voice, made my heart stop for a minute. But when it resumed working again, it was racing so fast that a heart attack was sure.

“W-what?” I stupidly blurted out because I was thrown off guard by his sincere confession and I didn’t know what to say. He must have understood their effect on me because he stepped closer and cupped my cheeks with his wide palms, slightly caressing the skin there.

His gaze was still locked on mine with his lips so close that I could feel his warm breath on my nose.

“I care about you so much, Anna and it’d kill me to know he was still alive. No punishment will ever be enough to pay for his atrocities. I had to do it,”

I kept staring at him in astonishment, his whispered words coursing through my entire being as though he was breathing new life into me.

“I’m not sorry I did it, Angel,”

I blinked at him, still speechless. He rested his forehead on mine, wrapping his arms around me in a comforting embrace. Tears filled my eyes but I blinked them away as my heart surged with so many emotions. I thought I was going to be mad at him but it felt as if a huge weight had just been lifted off my slender shoulders. I didn’t realize how much I wanted to get rid of George until he did it for me.

“And I promise, your secret is safe with Chase and I,” He pulled away and when I glanced up, he quickly pressed his lips to my temple. The action came as a shock that it had me gasping in surprise but he only winked at me, with a wry smile spreading his thin lips. “Come on, baby, let’s discuss your schooling plans,”

“Oh…” the fast change of subject made it all seem like a dream but I was still reeling from all of it.

“Are you ready to resume or do you still want to spend more time at home and bask in my love and attention like a princess?” he flashed his brows but I continued staring speechlessly at him. “Urgh… I’d hate to have to share your attention but I guess I don’t have a choice,” he stared at me for a few minutes, his nose scrunched up in a frown but he eventually smiled. “Come on,” he tugged on my arm, leading me up the stairs.

“School,” I blurted out, finally ignoring everything he’s said because I told myself he didn’t mean any of it. But deep down, it was just me running away from the reality I wasn’t ready to face.

He stopped when we got to the top of the stairs and turned to me.

“Are you sure?”

I simply nodded in response, my gaze still roaming his facial features. And as if I’ve just really seen him, I began to see the exhaustion written all over him and I instantly recalled his worries and all he’d confided in me the previous night.

“Are you okay? You seem really stressed and tired,”

His shoulders slumped and he released a deep breath. His eyes traveled past me and I turned to see he was staring in the opposite direction where there was a door I hadn’t really noticed until then. There was even a sentinel stationed outside it.

“Come with me,” he tugged on my arm and led me towards the door. He nodded at the sentinel, who opened the door, letting us in.

The room was finely dressed to fit a king and I looked around, wondering if it was his but then his next words cleared my assumption.

“This is my father’s chambers, Alpha Arthur.”

With his fingers still linked to mine, he led me past the mini-living room towards another inner chamber separated from the original one with a thick violet curtain. We got in to see a figure on the bed, covered in thick blankets, with just his face on display. He looked so thin that one could easily make out the skeletal framework of his skull, with his hollow eyes and darkened skin.

“What… What happened to him?” I asked in a whisper, afraid that if I talk too loudly, the figure on the bed may suddenly attack me. It was a scary sight to behold and I had no idea how Shane could look at it without breaking down.

“He was attacked by a strange ailment two years ago and since then, no medical practitioner has been able to restore his health. The last foreign doctor I hired told me there was no hope for him but I’m not ready to believe that. I went out earlier to find another doctor and I hope this time, it’ll be a different story,”

For a moment, he let go of my hand and stepped towards the dying figure on the bed, gently pulling on the covers to reach his neck before stepping back. I reached for him and held onto his arm, resting my head on his bicep. I could feel the strain emanating from him, and his fear and worries hovering over us.

“I pray he gets better too,”

“I don’t know what else I’d do if he doesn’t. I’m not so sure that I can handle the pack all on my own. I’d hate to, but I may just have to resign and handover to a more competent person if things get out of hand,”

“Don’t say that,” I rebuked him, and his sorrowful gaze met mine. “All hope isn't lost. Come on,” I glanced at the sick alpha once more before tugging on his arm and leading him out of the room.

I dragged in a deep breath as soon as we were out of Alpha Arthur’s chambers. The entire room smelt of death and sorrow and it had somehow weighed down on my emotions but regardless, I needed to take Shane’s mind off it. He seemed to be really in the deep about this entire situation, coupled with the constant disappearance of the pack members.

Without asking, I hugged him tightly and he rested his head on my shoulder, breathing me in. it’s still surprising to me how I’d gone from being scared of having him in my personal space, to being comfortable around him enough to have my body plastered to his. But then, he’s proved it continuously that he was a better man than my father ever was and could ever hope to be.

“Everything will be fine. For now, you’ll keep on with what you’re doing and let the new doctor get to work, okay?” I tapped his chest lightly and he stared into my eyes before nodding his head in acceptance. “Good. Now, I have a request, if you’d let me?”

His ears perked up and his brows arched in question.

“Let me treat you to dinner, please?”

His eyes narrowed on me but I grinned. I wanted to do this for him to ease his constantly worrying mind a bit.

“You don’t have to, Angel. I’m perfectly contented with having you in my arms,”

His words had Hailey purring but I ignored her.

“I insist. Please, let me do this for you,”

He was quiet for a while before he spoke.

“Alright, love,”

He leaned down and pressed his lips to my temple again. A warm fuzzy feeling spread in the pit of my stomach but my heart was a different case. It thumped hard against my chest as the truth gradually began to sink into me.

Shane may want a little more than I was ready to give and it would be terrible to break his heart but I couldn’t give him what he wanted.

How was I going to tell him this?