Let's Play A Game, Alpha

30 - Game Over

My eyes fluttered open. The first thing I saw was black. A black ceiling. That was strange. Ceilings were usually white. Sunlight poured in through the balcony windows. That was strange too. There was no balcony in my bedroom. And the sun was never this bright in dreary cold Draycott. Nothing made sense.

The next thing I saw was a man on the grand bed beside me. He had his back turned to me, but I noticed several dark bruises on his skin. The last thing that finally registered in my head is that I was wearing nothing but my undergarments. A scream built up in my throat and fought its way out, waking the man beside me.

My entire body was heavy with pain, especially in my left leg. I glanced up, shocked to see numerous scars indented in my ivory skin. I tried to think about what had happened the day before but it came up blank. I could not remember a single thing. It was as if I had suffered memory loss or something. Blind panic built up in my chest.

I scrambled out, grabbing one of the black sheets from the bed. Covering myself up, I stared in shock around the bedroom. It was in a theme of black and golden, with a grand king bed and a large Oriental rug. What scared me the most was the tiger carpet strewn on the marble tiles.

It was a carpet.

It was a friggin' carpet.

The man had a skinned tiger as a carpet.

I finally glanced up into the eyes of the man. My breathing hitched. The man was simply beautiful. His eyes were a light grey, reflecting the sunlight that streamed from the balcony windows. He had tousled bronze hair and a dark stubble. But there was something in his eyes that threw me off. The man was staring at me with a strange expression, almost like sadness and regret. But confusion was wracking my brain and making it hard to think about anything except that I was half naked in bed with a man I had never seen before in my life in a mansion quite surely in the middle of nowhere. How I got there or why I was here was beyond me at this point.

"Hello." the man said. His voice was low and deep, with a slight accent that was not quite English. My heart jumped as I looked back at the man. There was just something in his eyes that made me feel wrong. Not in a bad way, but like I was missing something. He straightened up in the bed and watched me carefully through guarded eyes. "My name is Lucian Nayati. You probably have many questions to ask, Victoria."

I glared at him, suspicion heavy in my stomach. "How do you know my name?" I whispered fearfully. The man named Lucian looked amused. "And why am I here? Wait...did you drug  me or something? You sick bastard! And...why can't I...remember anything?"

It all seemed like one big blank. I didn't know if this was some sort of cruel joke or if it was reality. Nothing made sense. Everything seemed wrong. My bruised body, the man, the room...

The man who called himself Lucian sat up in bed. A black necklace made of leather hung in the air from his neck as he leaned towards me. It had a pendant of some sort of fossil tooth with a black anchor beside it. His grey eyes were the strangest color. Not quite blue and not quite silver. Lucian held his hands up in surrender and stared at me with a indescribable expression. 

"Last night, you were kidnapped by a man named Viktor DeClaine. He tortured you for quite a while, which I assume is enough of an explanation for the bruises on your body." Lucian said softly. My mouth was bobbing open and close like a fish. I forced myself to take a deep breath and listen to what the man was saying. 

"You don't remember me, do you Victoria? You suffered a bit of memory loss. You have forgotten the last five months of your past, which is why you do not remember me or what had happened last night. I will not keep anything a secret. Victoria. I will tell you like it is, because I kept secrets from you last time and look what happened because of it." Lucian looked saddened by the words more than I was. I was utterly confused and panicking. He glanced at me with regret.

Colors like melted crayons danced in my brain. I could see that the man was definitely telling the truth. I could not explain how I knew, but I just did. There was a strange weight pulling at my heart. I stared at the cuts and scrapes on my body. My left leg was scarred the most, with something like a fingernail scratch cutting through the knee.

It hurt trying to remember what happened. A headache began flowering from my temple the more I tried to remember. There was a scene in my mind, but it was watery and weak like a radio signal that was disappearing. I remembered a lot of the color black. Something had happened last night, something bad. I just could not bring to mind anything else than a white blur and two yellow, glowing spots, like when you stared at the sun for too long. I didn't know I was crying until a tear fell on my foot.

"Victoria-" Lucian's voice cracked. I felt an unexplainable need to touch him, to feel his skin against mine. I felt a strange sense of déjà vu. My body was reacting to this man in ways I did not understand, like it could remember while my mind could not. It felt wrong. I was missing huge pieces of my life. The last thing I could remember was taking Flora to school in Draycott.

"I am so sorry, love. I cannot bring back the past. You must be going absolutely crazy right now. You are in Castleton, the east side of London. We were....together, in a way. You live with me. Your sister Flora is in Riverwells Boarding School. Your mother left a few months ago." Lucian mumbled quietly. I wiped my tears away quickly and sat down on the bed, shaking.

Everything the man was saying seemed to be like a life I had lived before in but could not quite remember.

"What- I don't understand...what do you want?" I threw my hands up, wincing at the pain that emitted from my shoulder.

"My name is Lucian." the man repeated. He gave me a smile and pulled me on the bed beside him. "I am the fifth generation of the Winter Wolf Pack. My father was Demetrius Nayati, now deceased. We are one of the oldest and most powerful werewolf pack in history, and how lucky am I that my mate has such bright hair. You look very confused, love, so I shall clear it up. I am the Alpha of the Winter Wolves. You, love, are my mate. As for what I want, you asked? It is simple. I want you."

Silence followed his odd words. Lucian watched me carefully, waiting for a reaction. He seemed to really believe what he was saying. I stared in shock. And then I did something completely inappropriate.

I started laughing.