25 - When The Lights Fades
ZARA
Satisfied with the way the conversation ended, I walked out of his office and made my way to the kitchen, stopping by the fridge to get a bottle of water. Silence hung in the air, and I walked towards the sliding doors leading to the patio, watching as the evening sky faded away. Eyeing the dark hallows of the trees with envy, a frown took hold on my lips. What I would give for a run, I thought, but the Big Bad Alpha would have me back here and my solitary would no longer be optional. It didn't help, I mused, that four men walked along the borders of the woods.
Nightly patrol.
With a sigh, I returned to the room, my mind taken over by the interaction with Haden. While I was still angry at the situation, angry at him, my wolf was gleeful in the fact that he was trying. I wasn't so forgiving. If he wanted me, he would have to do better than 'I'm sorry'. Admittedly, it was proving to be harder and harder to ignore the connection; to ignore the electricity that sizzled between us, to ignore the fire that burned within me under his dark gaze, to ignore the shocks that coursed through me whenever he touched me. No matter what I did or what I said, my resistance was fading away and the walls I had built around me were beginning to do more than crack.
And I couldn't afford for that to happen.
As I entered, I was taken aback by a woman sitting on the edge of the bed, my eyes shifting between her and the man who stood guard at the door.
"Rebecca?" I gasped in surprise, then looked at Conner who smiled.
"Haden's treat," was all he said, "now he did mention ground rules -" he was about to say but I barged in the room and enveloped her in a hug. The room was dimly lit, the soft glow of the moon filtering in through the curtains, casting shadows on her face. It was so refreshing to see her.
"You both need to stay in the house, alright?" I heard Conner's voice behind me, "you girls have fun."
With that, he shut the door and I pulled away from Rebecca.
"And you said you didn't have him wrapped around your finger," Rebecca said as she smirked at me. I laughed, playfully shoving her as I made my way to the washroom. I heard her scream something incoherent and when I got back to the room, I saw her standing by the window.
"What?" I questioned wiping a towel over my face.
"Looks like your man is headed off," she repeated, a weary yet curious expression on her face, "What's... woah, there's something big going on."
I wasn't the least bit curious, or so I told myself as I found my way back to the bed. An Alpha was always an Alpha. There was always going to be some battle to fight, some territory to conquer, some enemy to kill. With everything that I'd experienced, she didn't need more of that in her life.
"There must be dozens down there - hundreds maybe! Where are they all going? Did he tell you?"
I deadpanned at her.
"Just a few minutes ago, the man had the nerve to call me difficult. Wherever he's storming off to wasn't exactly the highlight of the conversation," I shared, pulling my eyes away from her and back to the TV screen.
"Ugh, fine. Be that way," she mumbled then joined me on the bed and, out of the blue, hit me with a pillow. "Cheer up, you miserable woman. You're the only one to blame for your misery by the way, but we're not going to get into that. Let's continue our Friends marathon, shall we?"
I pushed the pillow back in her face and we both laughed.
"Girls' night?" Rebecca suggested with a playful smile.
I chuckled and nodded. "Girls' night it is."
We settled in, the surreal feeling of happiness fitting between us, a feeling that we hadn't felt in a very long time. Stories bubbled between us as we reminisced on the memories of our past, both of us coming in from different worlds, sharing different paths, but somehow got intertwined by the age of eighteen.
"Oh, I still remember the day you met Mason," she said giggling, "you hit him over the head with a tree branch and took off running."
I laughed at the distant memory, the faint image of an eighteen-year-old me managing to outsmart the leader of the rogue pack.
"In my defence, I thought he was working with the man I was trying to escape from. And I don't trust easily. All I knew was running. After I had come to terms with the fact that I would never find the man who killed my family, I had found happiness in the wrong people. It's the worst kind of pain, settling somewhere and finding out the hard way that you had it all wrong; that the ground shifts underneath you and you can't do anything about it."
"I remember that feeling all too well," she murmured, throwing her arm around me in comfort and leaning her head against mine. She sat like this for some time - sisters bounded together by the events of our past.
"When I shifted for the first time, it wasn't some marvellous event. My parents were terrified; my father thought I was a monster and even tried to kill me before I got away. I had no place to go and, like you rightly said, the ground shifting unexpectedly is something that you can't prepare for. It just happens, and you have to be able to take what you get and work your way out of it. I was so happy when I found Mason and the rest of the gang. They were my saving grace,"
I remembered that story, I mused as I rubbed her shoulders. She had told it around a campfire once while we were on the run. I couldn't believe the lengths people would go to, that her own father would try to kill her, but we had all gone through tramatic life events to become what we were.
What we are. Rogues.
Haden would try to change that, but he couldn't change who I was - my character, my personality, everything that made me... me. I shrugged the thought away and smiled back at Rebecca, letting my mind get back to the night at hand and not on the Big Bad Alpha.
We seemed to walk down memory lane for hours. By now, the room was enveloped in the shroud of night, with only faint moonlight filtering through the curtains. We had gotten comfortable in bed, the faint sound of the TV echoing in the background as I struggled to keep my eyes open. Glancing at Rebecca, I saw that she had given into the monster called sleep and I shook my head, reaching beneath the covers for the remote and joined the slumber.
It wasn't the sound of glass breaking that woke me or the sudden intrusion of the wind. It was a piercing scream, sounded so close to me I could feel my eardrums aching. My eyes blinked open, my senses immediately on high alert as I struggled to comprehend the situation through the darkness. My heart pounded erratically, and adrenaline surged through my veins.
Something was terribly wrong.
Rebecca's voice pierced the silence, her shout laden with alarm, but she wasn't beside me anymore. I shot up in bed, my mind racing to make sense of the chaotic scene that was unfolding before me. My friend, who had been a source of solace in these trying times, was under attack. Panic coursed through me, igniting every fibre of my being.
Through the darkness, I watched as the hooded figure slapped Rebecca and I heard the crack as she fell to the floor in a heap. He loomed over Rebecca, who lay there defenceless and a ferocious growl escaped my lips, snapping his attention to me. He stalked towards me, slowly and steadily, as if his movements were calculated. I snapped, hurling a fist in his direction, determined to have the man fall to his knees - determined to protect myself and Rebecca at all costs.
A fierce struggle ensued, both of us grabbing and clawing at each other. In one failed swoop, he grabbed the fist that charged at him and gripped it tightly. The room was a battleground where desperation and fear clashed with raw determination. I clawed, punched, and kicked with all my might, but the intruder wasn't giving in; he wasn't going away. We played the game of chances in this dimly lit room, testing each other's strengths to their breaking point.
Despite my efforts, I couldn't break free from him. He managed to twist my arm behind me and I winced and the grip. I struggled against his hold but I couldn't get away. Desperation welled up within me as I fought for every breath, for every inch of ground. But it was as if the shadows themselves conspired against me.
In a desperate move, the intruder produced a cloth, and the pungent, noxious scent of wolfbane filled my nostrils. I cried out but it was muffled against the cloth. The wolfsbane burned against my skin and I felt the strength leave me just as my vision began to blur. My knees gave way, and the world around me dissolved into nothing but black.
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Heey everyone!
Now from the last chapter, we see Conner tell Haden that Zara's gone -- here's what really happened. Who do you think took Zara?
And are we still loving Rebecca?
Share your thoughts and don't forget to hit that Vote button to keep the story in the charts :)
See you in the next one ;)