"I'm still breathing
I'm alive
You took it all, but I'm still breathing" - Sia, Alive
"WHO LET THEM ESCAPE!?" the Alpha roared, his voice echoing like thunder. Everyone in the room froze. I dropped the plate I was cleaning and it smashed on the floor. Shards of porcelain ricocheted off my feet.
His eyes immediately snapped to mine. Rage contorted every line of his face as he grabbed a hold of my hair and punched me squarely in the face. I fell back but he yanked me up, dazed, and dragged me outside.
"You know you'll die for this!" he informed me, tossing me to the floor. I landed with a thud - the wind knocked out of me. I couldn't even reply had I wanted to as he immediately began pounding me.
I shut off and blocked everything out like I was used to except, of course, he had never really meant to kill me before.
He stopped.
I wanted to see why, but I couldn't raise my head - the world was spinning. I knew a crowd had gathered. There was a sharp pain in my chest.
"Son, you found your mate, correct?" I heard the Alpha asked, muffled by the buzzing my ears. I could feel that my nose was bleeding, as it dribbled down my chin.
"Yes?"
"Then I have one more test for you before I give up my position to you."
The crowd waited with baited breath, although I could not care who would be the one to actually kill me. Except, maybe, that Drake would be kinder.
"Sure, but I'll take her out to the woods. I'm not letting the children watch what I'm about to do to her."
I tensed up in fear, surely he didn't mean-? No-one had ever-no, no he would not do that. This was Drake...My heart was pounding uncomfortably in my chest, the pace rising with each stab of pain and terror.
The Alpha chuckled.
"I'm proud of you son."
"Let me just get my shot gun."
"Shot gun?"
"Yeah, you know, like how the hunters put down the rogues. It's the same thing isn't it?" he asked cruelly. I could hear the sneer in his voice.
"Sure, although personally I think that's a quick death, she betrayed the pack..." Alpha trailed off uncertainly, he wanted me to suffer. Hadn't I suffered enough?
"Oh no," Drake corrected him, "I'm certainly going to have fun with this one first."
He kicked me and I squeezed my eyes tight shut as a broken rib exploded with pain in my chest. It was getting hard to even take short breaths through the violation my body had suffered. I blacked out, I don't know for how long, but the next thing I know I'm being hauled up into the air by my neck. I gag and cry out, before my hair is grabbed instead and I'm yanked towards the forest. I trip and stumble but he relentlessly pushes me forward. No pack members stop him.
I was really going to die.
I didn't want to die!
I struggled against him and screamed the loudest I could, but the cold metal of a gun pressed to my temple silenced me and I seized my futile attempts to escape fate.
"That's right, runt." Drake
grunted, "Now move!"
He pushed me forward and I fell down onto the forest floor, scraping me knees painfully but he wasted no time as he hauled me up again and pushed onward. I cried openly, hot tears streaming down my cheeks to mix with the blood. My knees became raw and bled every time he pushed me and I stumbled, mud coating my clothes and rocks digging into my bare feet.
He suddenly dumped me on the floor, landing me in a dirty mud ridden puddle.
I couldn't bring myself to care, I was numb. The fear that had driven me through entire life had left me.
"You betrayed the pack!" He spat at me and through my blurry vision I could see him holding a gun to my face. His hand was shaking as he held the weapon. I said nothing and stared numbly at the barrel of the gun. His fingers tightened around the trigger and I squeezed my eyes tight shut, welcoming the calming darkness behind my eyelids. The mud was wet under my fingernails as I curled by hands tightly.
The gun went off with a bang.
I felt nothing.
I waited.
Nothing.
Confused, I looked up at my executioner, maybe he had decided to torture me after all?
"Go!" He cried, voice shaky. My eyes widened and I wondered whether I had misunderstood.
"You betrayed the pack but your blood will not be on my hands," he explained, "Now leave before I change my mind!"
Without a second thought I scrambled to my feet and ran for my life.
**
My heart was pumping painfully in my chest, ricocheting off my broken ribs in an onslaught of agony, but still I ran. I could not stop for fear of being hunted down. I was driven by sheer terror, running head on into what could only be more pain.
The fear was back. I couldn't even say I was grateful to be alive.
I had never been outside pack territory.
My wolf was spurring me forward, adding to the adrenaline rushing through my veins. I was in full survival mode: run or die. With each torturous footfall my body weakened further, black dots taunting my eyes and shooting terror straight through my heart. I could not collapse now - they would kill me.
Drake would change his mind.
My foot caught on a tree root, twisting my fragile ankle and sending me to the floor with a crash. I tumbled. My head smacked the ground. There was nothing I could do to stop darkness swallowing me whole.
**
"What's that?" a voice asked, muffled and almost incomprehensible to my ears.
"A rogue girl!" someone answered in surprise and fascination. I could hear the strangers approaching me but could do nothing about it. I have never fought in my life; was to injured and exhausted to even consider running again, I would be outrun and killed. Maybe if I pretended to be dead they would leave.
"We'll have to take her to the Alpha, can't have a rogue running around on our turf." The first voice said, now recognisable as a deep male adults'. The word Alpha struck deep fear into my heart and renewed adrenalin pumped through my veins, giving me the strength to ignore the weakness and pain. My hand surreptitiously sought out some dirt next to me, grabbing a rich handful, revelling in the moist softness underneath my fingernails - it reminded me I was not dead yet.
"You'll have to carry her, dad." The second, a female, said. "I mean I can take her feet but..."
"It's alright, your pops is stronger than he looks." He replied, and I could sense his presence right by my face. Without hesitation I threw the dirt into his face and scrabbled to my feet. My ankle collapsed under me and I cried out at the intense pain burning it, landing on my side and knocking the wind out of my abused lungs. I looked up, eyes fearful to see an adult man - his face scrunched up in disgust. I whimpered.
"Got dirt right in my mouth!" he exclaimed, wiping away at his mouth with his shirt.
The girl laughed - she was maybe fifteen and was short next to the man, but they were similar enough in looks. Their scent gave their relation away.
"Who's got a dirty mouth now dad?" she teased. I took the distraction of the pair to slowly, painstakingly shuffle my way away from them.
"Hey, hey, hey!" the man scolded, hands out as if I was a wild animal, "We're not going to hurt you, but you need to go to the hospital - you look pretty hurt."
I shook my head fast.
"N-no, it's okay! I-I'm fine."
"Honey, you have blood all over you and a banged up ankle. We're not leaving you here, besides the Alpha will need to know why there is a rogue on his territory."
"He doesn't have t-to know!" I replied in hysterics, terrified of the prospect of seeing the Alpha, "I'm sorry I trespassed, I really didn't know, I was just-"
"Hush, we're not going to hurt you."
"The Alpha won't either." The girl commented for the first time to me, "He's a good guy...unlike some Alphas."
I didn't believe them. It was probably a trap. Good people didn't exist, they were fictional. The only good people I had ever come even close to knowing were executed.
These people could not be trusted.
The man approached, his hands surrendered and I tried to scramble away. I whimpered when my back hit a tree. He kept coming towards me and felt my breathing speed up, becoming uncontrollable. My chest constricted with the lack of air and I became light headed and dizzy. Panic threw me further in to throes of my self-attack - I couldn't breathe! My head swam, my eyes unfocusing, the man in front of me blurring and I was driven over the edge with panic, slumping once again succumb to the unknown.