Chapter 3 Heavy darkness
None of those directions were anywhere near me. Not one. Silence settled over the forest once more. I frowned. That made absolutely no sense. He had gotten everything wrong. Everything. And for reasons I couldn’t explain, it irritated me. Three years alone had taught me many things. One of them was that I hated people taking credit for my work. Not that this was my work. Not technically. The man had died because of his own choices. I had merely finished the process. Still. The Alpha’s ridiculous assumptions bothered me more than they should have. With the others gone, I carefully shifted backward.
Time to leave.
Whatever strange game he was playing wasn’t my problem.
I turned. Took one step. Then another.
“Stop.”
The single word crashed through the forest.
I froze. Every muscle locked. My breath caught.
Surely he wasn’t speaking to me. There was no way. I hadn’t made a sound. Slowly, I started walking again, pretending I hadn’t heard him. Pretending I wasn’t there.
A violent gust of wind exploded around me. Leaves spiraled upward. Branches bent. The forest groaned.
I stopped instantly.
And when I looked up, a man stood directly in front of me.
I screamed.
The sound ripped from my throat before I could stop it. One second there had been nobody there. The next, there he was.
The Alpha.
Standing so close I could see every detail of his face. My scream barely lasted a second before a large hand clamped over my mouth.
“Unless you want to be killed,” he said calmly, “you will be quiet.”
Terror surged through me. My eyes widened. I nodded rapidly. Again. And again. Slowly, he removed his hand. I immediately stumbled backward until my spine slammed against a tree trunk. The Alpha studied me. Not the way most people did. Not with suspicion. Not with fear.
With curiosity.
His gaze traveled from my tangled hair to my torn clothes, then to the dried blood on my face and the stains covering my fingers.
“You did that,” he said.
It wasn’t a question.
My mother’s voice screamed inside my head.
Deny it. Deny everything. Always deny.
I swallowed, then shook my head.
“No.”
The Alpha raised an eyebrow. “No?”
“No,” I repeated. “I didn’t.”
For a long moment he simply stared. Then suddenly pain exploded behind my eyes. A sharp gasp escaped me. My hands flew to my temples. Pressure built inside my skull, violent and unnatural, like someone forcing their way through a locked door.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
The pressure intensified. I stumbled sideways, gripping the tree trunk for support.
The Alpha sighed, oddly disappointed “Interesting.”
“What?”
“You are blocking me.”
I blinked. “What does that mean?”
His eyes narrowed. “I can’t read you.”
Confusion replaced some of my fear. “Read me?”
“Your thoughts.”
I stared at him. Then laughed. A nervous, exhausted laugh. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It usually isn’t.”
The Alpha folded his arms across his chest, looking almost annoyed.
“First I find you hovering over a corpse.”
“I wasn’t hovering.”
“Then I discover I can’t read your mind.”
The headache slowly eased.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His gaze sharpened.
“I believe you.”
That surprised me.
Apparently it surprised him too.
For several moments neither of us spoke. The forest around us seemed to hold its breath. Then exhaustion finally won. My legs gave out. I slid down the tree trunk and landed heavily among the roots below.
The Alpha watched the entire thing, with a dipped brow.
“What are you doing?”
“Sitting.”
“Why?”
I glared at him.
“Because standing requires energy.”
His expression remained blank.
“I haven’t eaten in days.”
That wasn’t entirely true. But explaining souls felt like a terrible idea. Silence followed. The Alpha continued studying me. The longer he looked, the more uncomfortable I became.
Then he spoke.
“Come home with me.”
Every alarm inside my head exploded. I immediately pushed myself upright.
“No.”
His face didn’t change.
“I won’t harm you.”
“No.”
“You are barely conscious.”
“No.”
I hated how weak the word sounded.
The Alpha glanced at my shaking hands. Then at my legs. Then back at me.
“You can’t even stand properly.”
“I can stand perfectly fine.”
To prove my point, I took a step.
The world tilted. I grabbed the tree.
The Alpha looked entirely unimpressed.
“I’ll be fi—”
Darkness swallowed me before I could finish.
