Chapter 24

After watching finding nemo with Javier, we decided to call it a night and he begged me to spend the with him so here I am, laying in bed next to Javier in his room.

"Javier?"

"Hmmm"

"Do you—can you really control fire"

He sits up immediately, "you know?"

I nod and he looks around the room wide eyed before looking at me terrified, "I can't say anything"

"It's okay, I understand that it's not something that you can just talk about"

He puts a finger to my lips to shush me, "they are here", he looks around his room, "you'll stay the night?"

My heart immediately starts beating faster and I don't know why I suddenly felt scared, "let's go to my room"

He nods wide eyed and I pick him up before leaving his room and going to my room. I lock the door after I enter my room.

"Are you okay Javier?"

He nods, "they came this night"

"They don't come every night?"

"Yes", he mumbles and climbs my bed. I try not to over think anything because I'm honestly scared.

I put my hands on my chest and try to even my heart beat. I climb in beside Javier, "sleep well okay? I'll protect you", I murmur and pull him so close to me and we sleep like that.

Fuck I can't breath.

I feel a firm hold on my neck blocking my air way. I open my eyes and let out a strangled noise at the sight in front of me. A black creature is squeezing my neck with a sinister glint in it's white eyes and it's sharp teeth showing as it smiles. I try to get hold of the hand but I can't. I try to kick it with my leg but my leg just passes through it's body and I realize that I'm screwed. I feel tears leek from my eyes as I struggle and all of a sudden I see fire. The hold on my neck loosens and I start coughing.

"What's going on in there?", Sebastian asks as he pounds on the door.

I look at Javier who is looking terrified, "are you okay?" I ask.

He hugs me and starts crying. I wrap my arms around him and squeeze. I hear whispering outside the door followed by more knocking.

"Odetta open the door", this time it's Victor.

"What was that?", I whisper but he doesn't answer me.

"Odetta"

"I'm coming", I shakily say and comport myself. My feet touch the cold floor and I look around the room in fear but there's nothing there. I look back at Javier, "am I the only one that saw it?"

He shakes his head. No.

I unlock the door and Sebastian, Isabella, alpha Casper and victor enter my room. Alpha Casper looks at Javier who has tears sliding down his cheeks.

"What happened?"

"A—a—i—i don't—", I give up at trying to form a sentence. My legs are shaking and I'm still struggling to breath.

"A shadow", Javier's shaky voice says.

Their eyes open and Sebastian looks at us in confusion, "what the fuck is a shadow?"

"The shadow almost killed—", Javier trails off and burst into tears.

Alpha Casper and I both rush to Javier's side. "Don't worry darling. I'm okay", I murmur.

"How did it almost kill you?", Isabella asked.

I put my hands to my neck, tracing the lingering feeling and close my eyes at the memory. "it almost choked you to death?", She asks and I nod.

"I'm staying here as you sleep", Sebastian declares as he crosses his arms over his chest and he has that 'don't argue with me' look on his face.

"I'm so sorry", Isabella murmured and hugs me as I pull away from my hug with Javier.

"Javier is sleeping with me tonight"

Javier shakes his head, "Ody needs to be safe too"

Alpha Casper sighs, "she can come too"

"No it's okay, Sebastian is here with me", I try to assure Javier but his eyes turn glassy again and his bottom lips quiver. "Fine I'll come along", I sigh.

"Then I'll stand guard in front of the room"

I look at Sebastian, "no it's okay----"

He cuts me off, "please let me do it. If anything had happened to you, I wouldn't live with myself"

"What ever makes you happy", I say.

Isabella gasp, "we need to call the pack doctor now"

"What happened? is she hurt?" Victor questions.

She looks at my neck "I think the shadow did something to her neck—although, it oddly looks like a—" I slap my hand over the hickey.

"It's a mosquito bite", I interrupt.

Victor immediately starts laughing, "the mosquito bite a certain alpha mosquito gave you"

Sebastian's eyes widen as he comes to inspect the hickey before he starts chuckling. Isabella just clears her throat and smacks Victor's arm.

"We should start going", I mutter and look at Sebastian and alpha Casper who has a half asleep Javier in his arms.

We say our good nights and go our separate ways. Sebastian still insists on standing guard in front of the door.

"You're still shaking?", Alpha Casper says after he let Javier sleep in his room. He enters the kitchen and gets a bottle of eater from the fridge.

He hands it to me and seats on the arm chair that he sat on when we last spoke. I murmured a thank you and drank it greedily.

"I'm still so sorry about earlier"

I look at the floor like it's the most interesting thing in the world, "it's okay it's not your fault"

"It's not okay because I scared you"

"You didn't scare me"

"Then why did you look so terrified?"

I sighed, "I guess...it was so overwhelming to me", I played with the hem of my shorts as I spoke, "It's been seven years since I had someone hold me and do that so many feelings came with it and I couldn't bear it"

"I'm sorry", he whispered.

"About what? The hickey or my sad rejected life?"

"For the hickey and your life is not sad", I smile, "mason is a shifty jerk for rejecting you and you don't deserve to be miserable"

"Thanks"

"You know—before I left for the SAG, Dakota told me something about meeting someone there but I told her that it wasn't possible because everyone coming had a mate already"

"She was talking about me wasn't she?"

He shrugs, "maybe it was someone else"

"You were so mean to me"

"Because—", He sighs "never mind"

I decided not to ask about it, "what did you think of when we met?"

"I was so mad at you and thankful at the same time and you—"

"Go on—", I urge when he stops talking.

"Never mind"

I glare at him, "I honestly feel like slapping the shit out of you right now", he glares back but I ignore him, "if you can't complete your sentence, then, you either don't answer me or don't add an and"

He doesn't say anything for a while before talking, "I'm leaving before I do something I'll regret", he says and leaves.