The Blood Of An Alpha

Stranger

        "Jump!!" He yelled with a note of fear in his voice.

         "I can't...." I couldn't it's so high. How was I supposed to just jump. The heat was getting worse. I could feel it though the floor. My feet felt like they were on fire. Not much longer and the floor we stood on would be in flames. I could smell the burning wood and plastic. It caused my stomach to turn flips... or maybe that was the fact that the only escape was this second story window. The smoke burned my eyes and lungs. It was getting harder to breath despite the window opened wide.

         "Claire, baby, please jump. I promise I'm right behind you" he pleaded. He wasn't going to jump first, he had to make sure I was out. That is just the type of wonder person he is. Hes always taken such great care of me even as childen hes always protected me from others who wished to see me hurt. With not much choice I reluctantly climed onto the window seal hanging my feet over. It was a cool night for a Louisiana October. The night air felt good on my burning feet. I looked up at the stars sucked in a deep breath, closed my eyes and jumped.

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   I woke up with a start. I shot straight up in bed, heart pounding, breathing heavily. It's been almost 2 years since that day and still the nightmare haunt me almost every night. I took a few claiming breaths rubbing my face with my hands. Sweat covered my forehead and my hands were still shaking. Looking around my dark room and found my alarm clock. 2:48am light up the nightstand in red.

      My legs were still shaking when I crawled out of bed. Slipping on my sweats I walked over to my window and opened the blinds. The full moon filtered in soft light lighting up a shadow box on wall across the room. I turned to stare at it. The shadow box head a picture of two smiling faces. His eyes a bright blue brought out by his blue button up. The man in my nightmare telling me to jump was holding me tight in this picture. My golden diamond ring in full view. His pride radiating even now. Next to the picture was the ring in the picture on display for everyone to see and on the others were matching gold wedding bands and above was the last gift he gave me. A beautiful gold necklace with a little golden wolf standing in a howling position. He always said the wolf was my "spirit animal" because I was so driven by the moon fazes and allergic to silver. Words were etched on the glass frame "Kyle Conroe" with the date he was born and the date he died. The date that keeps playing over and over again in my sleep.

        "I'm so sorry my love" I whisper to Kyle. It was all my fault. I remember the fire like it was yesterday. I was so excited for him to come home. Our wedding was just a week away and I finaly nailed down the flower bouquets. I just had to show him! I had cooked oven roasted whole chicken with lots of vegetables. That was his favorite meal. We sat and ate as I chirp excitedly about the floral plans while he sat and listened. He didn't say much but the look in his eyes I could tell he was just as happy as I was. We talked for hours but eventually I grew exhausted. Kyle could tell and picked me up and carried me to bed. I protested about the kitchen being a mess still but he laughed and said the mess would still be there tomorrow and we went to sleep. Little did we know, I forgot to turn the oven off.

        We woke up to heat and smoke. The smoke alarms never went off even though the batteries had just been changed earlier that week. The floor was hot, the house in flames. Our bedroom was on the second floor right above the kitchen. There was no escape except the window. I had joked before about getting one of them second story emergency ladders. The rope ones you attach to the window and you can climb down easier but I never got around to it. I sure did wish we had one that night as I sat dangling my feet out the window. The neighborhoods were underneath me ready to catch us but that didn't make the jump any less hard or scary. When I finaly got the courage to take the jump they caught me and I stood up waiting for Kyle. He had one leg almost over the window seal when it happened. The floor clasped out from under him and he disappeared from the window with a crash. The first story windows blew out and flames licked the sides of the house. I knew it was to late. I knew he didn't survive that fall into the burning first floor but the neighborhoods who caught still had to hold me back from run in after him.