5 An angel

Evelynn jerked awake from a nightmare, panting and drenched from her cold sweats.

Still alarmed by her nightmare, she turned to a fight or flight mode when the door suddenly opened. She sighed in relief when she saw it was that same stranger carrying a food tray.

Seeing Evelynn's disconcerted state, Sawyer put the tray on the table to attend to her.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

He took a white face towel from the bedside table's drawer. He wiped the sweat beads forming on Evelynn's forehead with it.

"Did you have a nightmare?"

Evelynn nodded.

"What did you dream about?" Sawyer asked lowly, almost like a whisper, so he wouldn't sound demanding to Evelynn.

Evelynn gazed at him, still contemplating whether to trust him or not.

"You don't have to know," in a tremulous voice, she delivered her unwillingness to trust.

When she had calmed down, Sawyer dragged the food tray from the table closer to him. It had a mug of coffee and a bowl of porridge originally meant for himself.

He took a spoonful of porridge and tried to feed Evelynn but she kept her mouth shut.

She doubted every food offered to her. It always contained sedatives to drug her and she wondered if this was the same.

Sawyer, unexpectedly, took the spoonful of porridge to his mouth.

"This is safe," he assured her.

Evelynn was surprised when Sawyer ate the food.

Sawyer scooped another spoonful and fed her again. This time, Evelynn opened her mouth hesitantly. The taste exploded in her mouth, and she instantly teared up.

It was so delicious!

She snatched the bowl from him. A small smile appeared on Sawyer's mouth when he watched Evelynn eat viciously.

"Slow...ly—" Sawyer tried to slow her down but discovered it futile.

Evelynn swallowed the whole bowl of porridge in a flash and made a disappointed face when the porridge was gone so quickly. Sawyer held his laughter back, scared he might offend the lady.

"Do you need more?" he thoughtfully asked.

"Yes!" Evelynn answered too quickly. "I mean, no! I'm okay. I'm fine." She immediately took back her first answer.

Sawyer ultimately couldn't prevent a grin from appearing on his face. He instructed the nurse to bring another serving.

Evelynn’s cheeks reddened. She couldn't look Sawyer in the eyes.

"I'm really... fine." Her voice was wobbly.

Evelynn attempted to look up but found Sawyer looking at her, so she brought her head down again.

"Sawyer, was it?" she asked timidly.

Sawyer nodded and celebrated internally because she remembered his name.

"I'm Evelynn."

Sawyer realized he had somehow gotten Evelynn's trust. Her name was the attestation to that.

"I often have nightmares too, Evelynn." He called her name for the first time.

His skin crawled with pleasure just by how his tongue rolled to speak her name.

He continued, "And I know how tough that is, especially when you have no one to talk to."

Evelynn bit her chapped lip, and she squinched when it hurt. Sawyer understood that she was not ready to open up. So he figured he should leave her alone.

"Eat your porridge when it's delivered. Then sleep."

He stood up and picked up the food tray, but Evelynn grabbed the hem of his shirt. The contact wasn't even direct to his skin, but he felt electricity travel from Evelynn's fingertips to his heart.

In a wobbled voice, she begged, "C-Can y-you s-stay?"

Her stutter squeezed Sawyer's heart. He sat back down.

"I…" she began, quavering. "I honestly don't remember how I ended up in that cell. They extract my blood every week, sometimes more than once a week.”

“How long have you been there?" softly, he asked.

"I don't know,” she confessed.

"Do you remember that man with a scar on his face?"

Evelynn quivered at the mention of her abuser. Her bondage was fresh in her memories.

Sawyer held her frail hands to calm her down, and his warm hand soothed Evelynn's frantic mind.

"Is he the head of the people who did bad things to you?"

Evelynn nodded.

So casually, without much thought, Sawyer declared, "I will destroy them for you."

It didn't sound sincere enough, but Evelynn panicked and held Sawyer's arm tightly. Her eyes were full of terror and horror.

"They're not humans!" she exclaimed.

Sawyer's forehead creased. "What?"

Evelynn shook her head, desperate for her point to come across. "They're not ordinary humans. I saw them. They're monsters. I'm scared of them."

Sawyer didn't put much attention to what she said and calmed her down.

After a long silence, Evelynn softly called his name again, "Sawyer, right?"

Sawyer nodded.

"I'm safe here, right?"

He nodded again.

Evelynn stared down at her hands. And inside the silent hospital room, at 2:28 in the morning, her sobs reverberated around the room.

"Thank you," she croaked as she quickly dried her cheeks. "I think you're an angel."

Sawyer waited until Evelynn regathered her composure. Soon enough, she fell back to sleep.

He took a sip of his cold coffee. Being called an angel was a bit ironic to Sawyer. He was nowhere near to being an angel.

Sawyer departed the hospital at 4 am. Despite being miles away, his mind wandered inside Evelynn's hospital room. He didn't want her to wake up alone inside her room.

Even when he ached to be there for her the whole time, his Alpha duties lurked around the corner. It yanked his sense of responsibility to the forefront.

He went straight to the Community Hall without sleeping a wink. The Alpha's office was on the top floor of the three-storied building.

When he arrived inside his office, the file about the recent raid was already there.

'Those goons are goons but good at their job,' he praised his Beta and third-in-command inside his head.

He smirked when he imagined how chaotic the process was, probably, for the documents to land on his table. The two must've fought and rushed to meet the deadline.

Too bad he didn't see them. It would've been fun to see them suffer.

There were several other documents on his desk. Probably more urgent than the raid report. Even so, he sat on his wooden chair and browsed the report about the raid.

He had been leading a community movement to find pack mates who betrayed the pack to become part of the blood trading operation. At least, that was what he believed he was doing.

But his Beta's words last night kept rewinding in his mind.

He leaned on his chair and examined his conscience. He worried that maybe Liam was right. Maybe his obsession with the blood traders was all about finding Aubrey.

He sighed. His frustrations had been building up. None of their raids were successful in bringing back his wolves.

And if he was doing this for Aubrey, he failed miserably. He hadn't had any clue where Aubrey was for years.

He pondered about stopping because their raids weren't getting anywhere.

"I promised her, though..." he mumbled vaguely in the air.

Like most days, he sat again in his chair, questioning if he was a good leader or not. He got pulled out of his reverie when the door to his office opened. Liam rushed inside.

"What do you say? For a change, I arrived earlier than you in my office," Sawyer commented.

His Beta didn't look like he was in the mood to bicker. With the grim expression on Liam's face, Sawyer sensed that he had brought bad news.

"Forgive me, Alpha," he said.

As soon as his Beta asked for forgiveness, the Alpha knew something awful had happened. Sawyer readied his heart. He had to stay calm, whatever his news was.

"The blood traders that we held captive escaped the dungeons."

Sawyer forgot about being calm. He immediately stood up, dreading the possibilities.

The first thing that came to his mind was...

'Evelynn!'

"Bring the wolves. We need to get to the hospital. Right now!" he demanded in a hurry.

"Why the hospital? They're probably escaping—"

"No!" he retorted in a booming voice. "Listen to me, Liam! The hospital. It's where we need to be."

While he hurried to the door, a female warrior came to meet him.

"Alpha! We have a situation. The hospital is being attacked."