Chapter 16 Chapter 16
The night was thick with silence, but my mind refused to rest. Sleep didn’t come easy in this house, not when I knew I was living under the same roof as a man who saw me as nothing more than an asset. And certainly not when his sickly, manipulative ex-girlfriend was working overtime to make me look like a villain.
Emma.
I hated that I still had to donate blood for her. The thought of it made my skin crawl. I could still feel the pinch of the needle from earlier today, the way the nurse had drawn vial after vial of my blood to sustain her fragile little life.
It wasn’t fair.
But nothing about my situation was.
I turned onto my side, staring at the ceiling, my body exhausted but my mind too restless to shut down. Then—
Gunshots.
Loud. Sharp.
I bolted upright, my heart slamming against my ribs.
Another shot. Then another.
What the hell?
A howl split through the air, deep and unearthly, vibrating through the very walls of the house.
I shoved the blankets off, my feet hitting the cold floor as I ran to the window. The estate grounds stretched into the darkness, and I could just make out moving figures—men with guns, scattered across the yard. The gunfire continued, followed by something else—something primal, something that sounded more beast than human.
I swallowed hard.
This was it.
This was my chance.
If I could get pictures, if I could get proof, I could write a story that would sell for millions. Enough money to buy my way out of this nightmare.
But I needed a phone.
I didn’t have one—Alaric made sure of that.
I took a deep breath and darted out of my room, moving quickly through the halls. The staff were panicked, some whispering to each other in hushed voices. My eyes landed on a maid—an older woman clutching her phone in her trembling hands.
Perfect.
I walked up to her fast, feigning panic. “What’s happening? What’s going on out there?”
She turned to me, her face pale. “I—I don’t know, miss—”
I reached for her arms like I needed support, pretending to stumble as I snatched the phone right from her hands.
“Oh! Sorry, I—” I took a sharp step back and fumbled, letting the phone slip into the sleeve of my shirt before she could see. “I think I need to sit down.”
She immediately reached out, concern in her eyes.
“I-I can fetch you some water—”
I nodded quickly. “That would be great, thank you.”
The moment she turned away, I spun on my heels and sprinted toward the nearest exit.
I slipped out into the cold night, heart racing as I pressed myself against the stone walls of the estate. I turned on the camera, keeping the flash off, and crept forward, trying to stay in the shadows.
The gunfire hadn’t stopped.
Men in dark clothes—Alaric’s men—were shooting at something that moved too fast for me to see. The growls were deep, guttural, almost unreal.
I crouched behind a row of hedges and zoomed in with the camera.
And that’s when I saw them.
Wolves.
Massive, dark-furred creatures with gleaming eyes, their snarls echoing through the air. There were so many of them. This wasn’t normal. These weren’t normal wolves.
My fingers trembled as I snapped pictures, but then—
A figure moved in the distance, separate from the chaos.
Alaric.
He wasn’t holding a gun. He wasn’t running.
He was fighting.
But the way he fought—it wasn’t human.
He moved too fast. His strikes were too powerful.
I watched, frozen in shock, as he clashed with a man—no, not a man, something else. Their bodies blurred with inhuman speed, dodging, striking, attacking with impossible strength. Alaric’s silver eyes glowed in the dark like a predator, his muscles shifting under the moonlight as he dodged a blade aimed at his chest.
And then, in a single, horrifying motion—
He ripped the man’s heart out.
With his bare hands.
I covered my mouth, choking on my own breath.
No. No, this wasn’t real.
I tried to step back, my body trembling, but before I could turn—
A hand clamped around my throat.
I gasped as I was yanked out of the shadows, my feet barely touching the ground as I was dragged backward.
A voice rasped in my ear. “And what do we have here?”
I struggled, my hands clawing at his grip. The phone slipped from my fingers and hit the ground with a soft thud.
“Let her go.”
Alaric’s voice cut through the night, cold and lethal.
The man holding me laughed, his grip tightening. “You know what you have to do, Alpha.”
Alpha?
I struggled harder, but the man only laughed again, turning to Alaric with a wicked grin.
“Why is she so important, huh? She’s just some human—”
And then his eyes narrowed.
He sniffed the air, and his grin widened.
“I smell a mate.”
My stomach dropped.
Mate?
Alaric’s entire body tensed, his jaw locking.
The man grinned. “Oh, this is rich. The great Alpha finally has a weakness.”
I barely had time to register what that meant before, in a single, swift motion, Alaric moved—
And ripped the man away from me.
I hit the ground hard, gasping for breath.
There was a wet, sickening sound, and when I looked up—
Alaric was standing over the man’s lifeless body, his hands covered in blood, his chest rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths.
Then, he bent down—
And tore the man’s head off.
I screamed.
I scrambled backward, my hands slipping on the cold, blood-stained ground. My lungs felt like they were collapsing, my entire body shaking violently.
This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be real.
Alaric turned to me, his glowing silver eyes still sharp, his face unreadable beneath the blood splattered across his skin.
I shook my head rapidly, trying to push myself away from him, but my limbs felt weak, numb with terror.
“Don’t touch me!” I gasped, my voice raw with panic.
He reached for me, and I let out another scream, kicking wildly.
I didn’t care that he had just saved me. I didn’t care about anything except the fact that this man—this monster—had just killed someone with his bare hands.
Alaric didn’t stop.
He scooped me up effortlessly, carrying me back toward the house.
I thrashed in his grip, my nails digging into his arms, but he didn’t even flinch.
He smelled like blood.
He was covered in it.
The moment he set me down inside, I bolted to the other side of the room, grabbing the nearest thing I could—a small table knife. I held it in front of me, my hands shaking violently.
“Stay away from me,” I breathed.
Alaric’s expression was unreadable.
Then—
A sigh.
Emma.
She stepped into the room, her eyes flicking between me and Alaric before she tilted her head.
“So,” she murmured. “She knows.”
My vision blurred.
No.
No, this wasn’t real.
I shook my head, trying to force my brain to make sense of it all, but my body suddenly felt… heavy.
My breath slowed. My hands trembled.
I swayed on my feet, my heart hammering wildly in my chest.
And then—
Everything went dark.