MAKE SURE THAT YOU READ CHAPTER 8 (In case this is the first notification you see, it's a double update homie.) I had work today and I wanted to die because all I wanted to do was WRITE. Feel me? Anyway, enjoy.
ALSO THANKS FOR 10k READS LIKE WHAT EVEN :O
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Death was the law of nature- something that you couldn't escape no matter how much you tried. It came unexpectedly, sometimes painfully, sometimes you didn't even know that you had stopped living.
It's a cycle that always makes a full turn.
Except for Alice, that was never the case. She was an anomaly. She could walk against the current and not reach the end or the beginning.
Alice's eyes snapped open. Dust particles danced in front of her eyes in the sun rays that filtered through a window, like fairies on a summer night. She heard the rush of blood within her veins as her body woke up, aching and pulling for something. Memories of the previous nights- whenever they were- rushed back to her; she had jumped over a railing. She had died and had been faced with darkness before she had been rushed back to her body. Colden was the first thing she had seen- he looked hopeful, relieved. Yet Alice wanted to be dead.
Why wasn't she dead? Frustrated tears prickled her eyes. Why her? Why was she being punished?
She went to sit up when the sound of clanking metal interrupted the silence. Her eyes snapped to the chains around her wrists, they were heavy and tight. Her blood boiled with fury, her lips curled back in a snarl and a pounding in her head resumed. How dare they? All they had been doing was treat her like an animal, a beast. A frustrated snarl escaped her mouth when they didn't loosen.
"Welcome back," Colden's voice was a guilty pleasure that she hated. His scent filtered into her nostrils and she couldn't help the way her body reacted- her eyes closed and her anger soothed.
She hated him more than anything. "Unchain me." Her voice was hard as she tugged at the restraints once more, her canines on show.
"No." Colden leant against the wooden dresser opposite the bed. Alice trailed her eyes back to his face- his hair was freshly washed and his eyes looked sunken in.
The words that he had spoken before she had come back echoed in her mind- his apology, the tears... There was a part of her that, even to this day, she ran from and it laughed- at his misery, at her own anger and at everything going on.
It was dark and cold and it slithered along her body. She swallowed the acid in her mouth.
"No? I'm not asking, Colden. Unchain me now." Alice inhaled through her nose. There was no use losing her temper if she was chained and she wouldn't put it past him on what he would do. It was obvious, after her previous predicament, that running away wouldn't be as easy. She had to think.
"Not a chance sweetheart," a smirk grew from the corners of his lips.
Alice saw red. She lunged for Colden with her claws extended and yet her body was yanked straight back against the leather headboard, the red bed sheets rumpled from her anger. "You bastard, just let me go!" Her chest heaved up and down with every breath she took. A headache bloomed in her temple.
Her thoughts turned murderous when he laughed. "I'm afraid that's not how it's going to work." She watched as Colden pulled the wooden chair away from the oak desk that was pushed against a large window. He tugged it opposite to where he stood and sat, an inquisitive look on his face.
"Am I a prisoner then, if you won't unchain me?" Alice didn't take her eyes off his every move. A smile tugged at his lips and she couldn't find anything funny with the situation. The grip that she had on the chains tightened when he inhaled, his eyes flashed golden.
The night at the club rushed back to her- the feel of his tongue, his arms, the smell of his arousal...Her body shuddered against her will. Alice had been a fool then but now she knew what he was, and judging by the darkening of his eyes he could smell her. A smirk tugged at her lips as she tucked that piece of knowledge at the back of her mind.
Perhaps it wouldn't work now but later...later she could use it to her advantage.
"You're not a prisoner." Colden looked tormented and that dark part of her enjoyed the smell of his sadness. She wanted to recoil back but its claws were deep.
Every time she died she came out damaged, darker, more wrong. It was a price to pay, she guessed, for not being able to die. One that she didn't appreciate. Alice tugged her hair behind her ear as she watched him from the corner of her eyes. Her lips were parted and her anger had evened out.
Yet something lurked, dark and sinister. It was a new presence that she hadn't had before. She could taste it at the tip of her tongue- it was like oil or a heavy smoke. It suffocated her.
"Then what am I?" Alice moistened her chapped lips.
Colden's hand tugged through his dark hair. She watched as he exhaled, his shoulders tensed and poised. She figured he didn't know where to start.
"That's what I've been wondering," he finally murmured, holding her gaze as he tipped his head to the side, "what are you if not a human or a wolf?"
"I am what you made me," this time there was no anger in her voice. She tugged at the chains as they rattled. A monster is what she was but she didn't think it would get her anywhere voicing those thoughts, especially while her hands were bound.
"No, not fully," the wolf stood. He walked over to gaze out the window and she observed his every movement- the rise from his chest, the flaring of his nostrils, his pale brooding eyes that were framed by dark eyelashes. Alice noticed that that part of her that would pull and tug and yell every second of the day to just go was gone.
She hated that she was dependant on him for that.
"I..."Colden paused, briefly glancing her way. She cocked her head to the side, watching, "I wanted to apologise for that night."
"For the sex, you mean?" It had been fucking great and she hadn't been able to forget. That was her other dilemma- the touch of another man burned and revolted her, so she tried the touch of a woman. It did nothing. She wondered whether she'd get the answers she wanted for so long now.
"No, not for that. I don't regret having sex with you, Alice. I want you to know that." His eyes were sincere, his voice soft.
"I do." Alice pulled back her lips in a silent snarl, "I am what I am because of it, am I not? Do you know what that has been like?" A dark shadow crossed his expression, "to have your bones break and your muscles tear every night of every full moon? To have to adapt to things that I didn't know existed until you came along?"
"I'm sorry," she barely heard him.
"Yeah, you said that. Why? Why did you do that to me?" Alice had been asking herself that question for the past year. What had she done to piss mother nature off?
Anger lingered beneath her skin but the sadness that she often squished resurfaced. She had been damaged before she met Colden, but whatever he had done to her had made her broken beyond repair. That anger that she had felt for those 12 months, that hate, that misery...that had never been her. She had become a monster, exactly like the ones she had been running from since she was fourteen, because of him.
"I didn't mean to." Alice opened her mouth to speak but he shook his head. "Let me explain, I should have done that the moment I saw you but...well, that's part of the issue." Colden walked back to the chair and then met her eyes.
"Do you know what I am?" The black wolf with golden eyes resurfaced in her memory. She had been terrified and couldn't sleep for a week after he had jumped out in front of her car. Alice knew his secret but it had become a prevalent thing that she liked to push back.
"A wolf." The word was like acid on her tongue.
Colden nodded, "but not just any wolf." He tugged his hand through his hair once more, "my species was created by an ancient Goddess five thousand years ago. We called her the Goddess of the Hunt but as the times evolved and humans began to speak their own tongue, her name changed to Diana."
Alice knew the mythology. It had always fascinated her she just didn't think it to be real.
"We were created with a purpose- to balance nature, to protect those weaker than us and to honour the hunt. We were the first predators, we existed before the wild ones did and we ruled the wild forest. But wolves are possessive and aggressive by nature- wars would happen over potential mates, over land, over territory...so Diana had given us a gift." Colden's eyes were dark, they burned through her own gaze. She felt the familiar tightening of her core despite the protests her mind made. "Do you know what that gift was, Alice?"
She scoffed, "if I did I wouldn't be listening, would I?"
Colden's jaw tightened. "Diana knew that the wars would continue and so she gave us the one thing a wolf craved- a mate. She created the other half to our souls and bonded them for eternity."
"Why are you telling me this?" Alice swallowed the bile that rose in her throat, the anger that grabbed her heart and poured through her veins. She didn't think she'd like the answer. She didn't want it to be true. It had been her worst nightmare for the year- the idea that he could be...
"You're my soul mate, Alice."
Tears prickled her eyes. "No," her voice was firm yet a part of her withered, "you're lying."
The sadness behind his eyes hit her full force as he shook his head, "I smelt you the moment you stepped into the club. I knew you were mine the moment I touched you. It's not uncommon for us to be mated with humans since they go through the shift the moment they're claimed, but there's a process that must be honoured. That I should have honoured, "he tugged his hair with frustration, "but I didn't. Not because I wanted for you to be terrified and run away but because I couldn't smell your humanity. I didn't think you were human, not until you looked at my face and ran."
"What am I, then?" It wasn't possible. Everything she had gone through started after she met him. Humanity was the only thing she could hold onto throughout her life. Yet, a part of her blossomed and grew with the realisation.
What was she?
"I was hoping you would tell me that. You rose from the dead, Alice. Not even a wolf can do that," she watched his throat bobble as he swallowed. "How?"
"I don't know. " Alice's voice was hoarse. She gazed out the window in thought. For all this time she had thought that it was all because of what he made her, yet if it wasn't then...then what explanation was there? She tugged a strand of hair behind her ear, unable to meet his burning gaze.
"I thought that it was because of you, because I was away from you for so long or because you were keeping me alive with your own damn selfishness." Exhaustion weighed her down the moment she acknowledged that she was more fucked up than she first thought.
And Colden, whether he had caused this to her or not, he was responsible for the shit she was feeling. Hatred filled her stomach in pumps. She wanted to go home, wherever that was.
"How many times?" He startled her out of he thoughts. She cast her gaze to his face. "How many times have you died?"
Six. She remembered them all. "None of your business," her voice came out harsh and cold, that sinister feeling rose within her as she stared him down. Colden didn't deserve shit, no matter how nice he pretended to be.
"I can't help you if you don't tell me." Anger crossed his face and Alice embraced the scent. Laughter bubbled past her lips as she cocked her head to the side.
"I never said I wanted your help, in fact, If I recall correctly I had asked you to let me go. Why didn't you?"
Colden's eyebrows furrowed, this time his expression serious, "I hadn't gone after you until I found you in the abandoned house. I had men watch you every now and then to make sure you were ok but I respected your wishes."
Alice's blood ran cold. That would mean that...She swallowed the lump in her throat, "you're lying."
Colden shook his head, "I'm not."
"But I was always followed, always having to move because...I thought...those people," the chains rattled as she moved her hair out of the way. "Then who were those men?"
He cocked his head to the side, observing her movement, "they're lycans, a higher species- wolves with super powers if you will. They were the ones that were going to crash into you and they're also exactly why you can't leave."
"Excuse me?" Her head spun as he stood and walked towards the door, "you can't make me stay, I rather be on my own."
Colden met her eyes, "three of those lycans killed 10 of my wolves. They're ancient and more powerful, you'd be dead if they caught you which by the way, they would have. And if they found out about your talent of not being able to die you'd be... How would you humans put it?" A contemplative expression crossed his features, "that's right- royally screwed."
Alice snarled at the smirk on his face, "am I supposed to sit here until you find them then? I'm not an animal_"
"Not yet, another matter we'll have to talk about but I haven't got time. Until you're able to control yourself and you're not a risk to my pack members then you will stay here, chained to the bed. When you gain some manners and some decency you'll be able to roam the grounds."
Cold slithering anger seized and she refrained from cursing the entire house into rubble. The audacity that he had.
"I hope you don't think that I'm going to play whatever game it is you're playing, Goddess law or not."
Colden met her eyes, "I don't expect you to be anything you don't want to be. Someone will bring you food in an hour."
Then the door shut closed.
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Colden stuck to his word. In an hours time, a guy named Tom delivered her meal- it was warm and home cooked. It had Alice's stomach growling and her mouth salivating. She had held off on eating for several hours in case they had added more sedatives to put her to sleep. But the man wouldn't leave and so she ate it within five minutes, her belly aching after.
It had been the best food she had tasted in a long time.
A day later they still hadn't let her out of these chains, save for the trips to the bathroom where she could take care of business. There were no windows. That first time Colden had stayed in the room with her, much to Alice's disgust, he claimed that he didn't trust her to not harm herself. She argued and screamed but he had become cold and distant. She knew it was a game to test her resolve so she played along. When she had stepped into the shower she had watched the tension in his shoulders intensify, she heard the pounding of his heart and smelt his arousal.
Alice knew that she would have to get under his skin so when she saw his body shake and heard his harsh breaths, her hand had trailed over her core and he had snarled at her to behave. It was then that she suspected her plan to bait him to let her leave would work. She just had to play a game of pretending.
On the third day of being clogged up in the room- bored out of her mind and in the company of Tom- her baits had stopped working and Colden stopped listening. She knew that the other male was observant and she didn't doubt that it had been his doing. He watched her like a hawk, studying and listening as if she were something unusual.
It gnawed on her nerves and pulled the anger within her to the surface. All Alice wanted was to be left alone but instead, she was stuck in a house full of creatures that she despised.
Yet if Alice was being nice, and if she wanted to admit it, Tom was not that bad to pass time with. He claimed that Colden's sister had come back from Austria to do research on her as if she were some strange animal. It angered her but it was apparently out of her hands. Whenever she asked more than they were willing to tell her he would change the subject. He talked about anything that semi-interested her; Alice kept conversation to a minimal- she too watched and listened- but she couldn't help but be fascinated by some of the histories. She did study ancient mythology in College, after all. It was strange to know that some myths bordered on reality.
The next day Tom had come into her room with a box of paints, an easel and a nervous aura around him. Alice had become suspicious. It wasn't until several hours passed that he asked her for a urine sample- she smashed the easel onto his head. Apparently, Colden hadn't been too pleased.
Her anger was brewing larger, deeper and faster; it terrified her, though she would never admit it. She felt it clawing its way out of her, seeking to tear anything that came in her way. That night she had destroyed her room in a fit of rage.
Alice didn't know what was happening to her, why she was so angry and why everything hurt. No one did, and whenever she questioned Colden- of the few times she deigned him worthy of her voice- he claimed that they were working on it. Each time he came to her room it was to update her on whatever they learned- there were no more leads on the men who had been stalking her. But as he promised, he held off on his affections.
Despite the Alpha avoiding her for the most part and for whatever reason he thought necessary, she often smelt him outside her door in the middle of the night. Alice hated the way her body craved his touch, the way she wanted him and yet she didn't. It was an internal tug of war and Tom had claimed that Colden's side would win.
Alice had ignored him for the remainder of the day.
On the sixth day when she had tired of the being in the room, Colden decided that she was 'stable'- whatever that meant- enough to not be chained.
"If I see you out of line or as a danger to anyone in this pack," Colden held her gaze, "I will chain you again and you won't like what comes with it." There was a darkness to his words that Alice didn't like.
"You won't be doing anything I don't want you to, Colden. But fine, I will behave. I don't have to like anyone though." She wasn't here to make friends and now that her baiting was out of the question and her escape was minimal she just had to wait it out for whenever they found the lycans who wanted her.
"Fine." Colden's voice was hard, his eyes darkened and his breathing harsh. She caught his eyes lingering on her lips. Alice couldn't help but herself as she smirked.
"Fine," Alice repeated.
That night a deal had been made, one that Alice would honour, yet she feared that Colden would be more trouble than he was worth. He thought that he had won- he hadn't- and she knew that in the end, he would be one broken wolf.
As she laid in bed staring at the night sky, Alice briefly wondered what it would be like to have such a family. It was a strange concept and one she didn't think she'd ever figure out.
Perhaps somewhere in the world, she had a family of her own.
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This chapter is extraaaaaa long. Hope you enjoyed. I AM SO PUMPED FOR THE CONTINUATION OF THIS BOOK Y'ALL. Next update is on Sunday. Ciao *waves frantically*