Chapter Fifty-Four

Saffron woke up from her slumber later that same day, feeling somewhat edgy and nervous. She thought about the fact that she was supposed to carry on with work like nothing out of the ordinary had happened, like the man she was in love with wasn’t lying there somewhere, hurting, while she was here, so far away from him, with no idea whether he was okay or not.

Realistically, she knew that being the Alpha’s son meant that he would get immediate treatment and would be out of the danger zone as soon as he had been found, but still, there was a tightness in her chest that just wouldn’t leave no matter what she did. Instead, with every second that passed, it kept increasing tenfold, until she felt like it would manifest into a physical entity.

She needed a distraction, something that will keep her mind off of Ryder and his unknown medical condition, until well later in the night when she would be able to sneak out to the medical center and find out for herself what condition he was in.

She laid in bed, her eyes fixed on the ceiling, staring unseeingly at it, as she came up with scenarios concerning his attack, each different and more gruesome than the other, until she couldn’t take it any longer.

Fuck invisibility, fuck following the rules.

She was throwing all caution to the wind, and going to the medical center to check up on Ryder, and no one was going to stop her.

If the Alpha or any of his men caught her before she got to him then… she paused for a second, thinking about what she would do in the event that she was indeed caught by the Alpha or one of his men before quickly dismissing the idea knowing that it didn’t matter.

If the Alpha chose to kill her today, then he had one hell of a fight coming to him, because she would not go down as silently and easily as she had done, when they had plucked her out of her perfectly curated life, and dumped her into an island owned by the mafia, turning her into a slave when she had dreams to fulfill.

The Saffron of today was not the Saffron of yesterday. The island had seen to it that she was no longer the same person that she had been before. And this change that had overcame her, she was embracing it wholeheartedly. It was high time she stood up for herself, starting with today, starting with seeing Ryder.

She rose to a sitting position, ignoring the pinpricks of pain that shot up her spine and exploded in her temple. Her eyes snapped closed instinctively, as she inhaled through the pain, exhaling slowly to center herself before snapping her eyes open.

When the pain abated, she threw her legs over the bed and climbed down, slipping her feet into her slippers and wobbling towards the door on unsteady feet.

“And where do you think you’re going looking the way you are?” Kiera’s sharp tone had her freezing in her spot, before she turned around to face her, a perplexed expression on her face.

How had she missed Kiera being in the room with her? She must be more delirious from the pain than she had imagined before, if she was now unaware of her surroundings.

“Don’t even answer. You’re going to see him aren’t you?”

“See who?” Saffron asked, her brows furrowing with confusion, as she tried hard to school her true expression from Kiera, feigning ignorance but failing miserably.

How did Kiera know where Saffron had intended to go to? She had never spoken about Ryder to anyone, least of all Kiera, so how did she know that Saffron and Ryder were acquainted?

“Don’t lie to me. I know everything,” Kiera huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, and looking more mature than her fourteen year old self. “I know about your late night wanderings. One night you slipped out of bed and I followed you to the ocean. He met you there and walked you back here. Also, when you went missing, he was the one that found you and…”

“Okay fine, I get it,” Saffron huffed, cutting Kiera’s tirade off. “But you also understand why I must go, don’t you?”

“He is one of ‘them' Saffron,” Kiera whispered using her fingers to air quote the ‘them’, the word rolling off her tongue like it was poison. “And you are one of us.”

“I am not one of you!” Saffron denied, her tone sharp, and gaze hard, as she stared at Kiera fully.

But when she saw the hurt that flashed through Kiera’s eyes and the look of utter betrayal on her face, Saffron rushed to amend her statement, but it was too late, the damage had already been done.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” she uttered softly, as she walked towards Kiera, and took her hand in hers.

“Yes, you did,” Kiera responded, pulling her hand out of Saffron’s hold. “Ever since you came here, you’ve acted like you were above us, like we belonged here and you didn’t. Have you ever thought that you weren’t the only one who was forced to leave her life to become a slave? Have you ever thought that not one of us is here because we chose to be here? You need to wake up and realize that you aren’t the only victim here, we all are. And when that Ryder is done with you, we are the only people who would be there for you, because we never abandon our own, even if you still refuse to believe that you are one of us.”

Without waiting for her reply, Kiera turned and ran out of the room, leaving Saffron behind to stew in her thoughts, and Kiera’s comments.

Saffron felt ashamed of herself, because never once had she stopped and thought to herself that the slaves weren’t there because of their own choices. She had been so focused on her own woes that she hadn’t noticed that of the others.

Lydia and Kiera had befriended her, and took her into their fold with no questions or judgement, and had asked nothing in return. It shamed her deeply to know that she had never once wondered why they were on the island, and had never thought about asking what their story was.

Was she that self-centered?

It had never occurred to her that she wasn’t the only person suffering, and the Alpha’s reign of tyranny affected everyone around her, that she wasn’t the only one he was focused on.

Later, she thought. Later, she would rethink her plan, and ask for forgiveness from Kiera and Lydia.

Her escape plan now included them, and others who might be willing to seek their freedom.

But for now, all that she could focus on was Ryder, and his health status. She needed to know he was still alive and breathing. Only then will she be able to focus on the other things that mattered.