9

With a sharp pain in my foot, I held it cursing and fell onto the bed, tossing and turning from side to side in agony.

Something like that could only happen to me again!

Not enough that that arrogant goat was my brother's mate, no! Even if I were given the chance to flee now, I probably wouldn't get five meters.

What the hell did I do to get such a fate?!

The pain also stopped blowing and didn't rub at all. On the contrary. I even got sick of it and with the last of my strength and effort, I hopped on my one healthy foot to the door to open it, taking a deep breath.

"Viola!" I yelled down the narrow hallway towards the stairs, which I then looked at briefly. A long white carpet lay on the dark wooden floor, while pictures of the sun, moon and stars hung on the walls...

Did the alpha live here, or a spoiled kid stuck on the Lalelu song?

When, even after minutes of agony, no viola came hurrying up the stairs, I decided to take the path down alone. I had to see a doctor because I felt the broken bone deep in my chest, under which my heart was only pumping excitedly.

Leaning against the door frame, I looked around the room again, but unfortunately I didn't find anything that would make it easier for me to walk on one foot.

"I'll kill them all!" I exclaimed through clenched teeth in anger, then carefully hopped along the wall, being careful not to touch the ground with my injured foot, which I did actually worked quite well.

Proud of my independence, I then paused at the top railing of the stairs to take a deep breath and collect myself. I briefly thought of sliding down the stairs with the carpet under my ass behind me, but unfortunately it was too wide for that.

Then, when I heard the front door downstairs, I widened my eyes in relief and hoped for Viola's help, but it was Silvan who appeared at the bottom of the stairs and stopped to look me up and down.

His eyes darted over my body and to my frustration, butterflies suddenly appeared in my stomach that I wished I had killed with bug spray. He straightened his dark blue jacket, under which he wore a white t-shirt and then ran his hands through his black hair, while a small smile appeared on his otherwise so cold face. That stupid grin and the fact that it gave goosebumps to my arms made me incredibly angry.

"How funny! Can you stop grinning that stupid and just walk away?!" I snapped at him, nervously tugging at my teddy bear suit with one hand while standing unsteadily on one leg and my other hand on the railing lest I fall forward down the stairs.

"Do you need help?" he then asked in his dark voice, taking the first few steps up, which made my heart pound faster. I figured it was fear of him, but had to grudgingly admit that there was something about him that drew me in, just like in the woods.

Then it occurred to me that tonight at 12:00 am I would be coming of age. If who really was my mate, those feelings would surely intensify, which I had to avoid at all costs.

"No, I can do it," I said snotty and looked into his empty, dark eyes. "It would be nice if you would drive me to a doctor."

So that I can get away from there you damn guy!!!

"Okay, then I'll wait outside," he said, looking at my foot and then provocatively raised one of his eyebrows, which I only now noticed that went through this one small scar that was hardly recognizable. "It can only be a matter of hours," he then added amusedly and if I had had anything in my hands, now would be the time where I would have thrown it at him.

He turned and stalked out of my sight, and when I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore either, I gritted my teeth and clutched the dark brown banister with both hands to hop down the stairs, step by step.

It was so exhausting that I started sweating slightly under my thick pajamas and when I reached the middle of the stairs I got so dizzy that I closed my eyes for a moment and collected myself.

When was the last time you drank or ate something?

I suddenly felt so bad from the pain and excitement that I had a hard time holding on, so I made up my mind to sit down, but lost my balance and threatened to fall forward.

I held my breath, widened my eyes and then immediately saw Silvan, who was standing right in front of me and whose arms prevented my fall at the last second.

I reluctantly stayed in his arms for a short while to calm myself and also because his scent triggered something in me that was too good to stop immediately. With my head against his chest, I felt his even breathing, heard his heartbeat, and then casually noticed that he gently lowered his hands to my trembling back...

Why was I shaking at all?

I quickly broke away from him and looked straight into his eyes, which were staring back at me just as intensely. I had to tear myself away from his gaze, not wanting to be caught up in his spell like I was in the woods, and then I thought of my brother, which made it easy for me to push all the good feelings away quickly.

"Let go of me right now!" I then commanded him looking at his arms clinging to my body left and right and luckily for me he did too and raised his hands apologetically like I was about to hit him with one threaten weapon.

Too bad I didn't have one!

"Please let me help you," he said and I looked at him confused, only to shake my head laughing hysterically.

"Now you say please and want to help me? Yesterday you wanted to shoot my brother and you just kidnapped me!"

He rolled his eyes, making me feel like I was overreacting, making me want to smack him, but who knew if he wasn't going to hit back.

"You're overreacting," he actually said, and when I saw the dirty grin spread across his face, I didn't care if he hit back.

I pulled out with full force and smacked him. The slap of my hand on his cheek echoed throughout the first floor and I watched with bated breath as his gaze turned angry and he fixed me with a snarl.

Fuck...

***

It was dead quiet.

So quiet I couldn't hear anything but my heartbeat, which was about to explode with fear and anger.

His withering look made my barely there inner wolf yelp in fear and I would have given anything at that moment to be able to take my slap back, but it wasn't possible.

We stayed like that for what felt like hours and I thought I was already sweating from nervousness, while I had the feeling that years would pass by, until he suddenly started to grin widely and a loud laugh came out of his throat that I could only laugh in disbelief eyes widened.

"You're really brave, little Jade," he said, smiling, and without asking my permission beforehand, he grabbed my hips and carefully threw me over his shoulder.

It all happened so unexpectedly and suddenly that I didn't even have time to defend myself when we were already standing outside by his black SUV, which was beating down in the sun and made it sparkle.

He gently slid me down and positioned me against the car like a mannequin, then opened the passenger door to take my hand and help me get in.

I was completely lost in my confused thoughts and didn't know what to think or feel anymore.

After all, he was the one who stood in my hallway at night and gave the order to simply shoot my brother. Now and here he showed himself from a completely different side, which made me so confused that I had to put my hand to my head to keep from completely freaking out.

"Are you okay?" he asked, still standing next to me in the open doorway, and then grabbed the seat belt to buckle me up like I was a baby to be looked after.

"Yes," I replied quietly and at the same time I felt ashamed that I didn't have the strength to rebel against him at the moment. But he would get it all back. At the latest when my foot would be fine again.

I put my hands on my lap, closed my eyes and let my head fall against the back of the seat. I just didn't care at that moment.

My head was pounding, my stomach was growling, and my foot was so sore that I was just trying to shut it all out and eagerly looking forward to a pile of painkillers.

Silvan got in next to me, started the engine right away and then drove with me along the busy streets.

Curious to explore their territory under the rays of the bright sun, I opened my eyes again and looked at everything calmly.

The houses were bigger than ours. The asphalt was so slippery that we didn't hit a single pothole. Devin would like that...

Then I also saw a ruin in the distance, which must have been the burnt down school.

"You should know that I'm really sorry about your brother," Silvan suddenly said and after a moment's hesitation, I turned in his direction to examine him as he stared intently at the road in front of us.

"Your apologies don't make up for it either, and no matter how many times you apologize, I certainly won't forgive you," I explained to him in a calm tone and then looked away from him again. He didn't really think he would apologize and everything would be fine!

After that there was silence in the car again, which was fine with me. I didn't want to talk to him any more than I had to anyway and then started observing the people outside again, all of whom were staring curiously back at the car, making me look uncertainly at my hands.

"They just want to know who you are," he explained next to me, then took a deep breath. "After all, I've been looking for my mate for a long time."

"Aha," I replied as disinterested as I could and then skillfully rolled my eyes, which he probably didn't miss because his low growl roared through the whole car.

When he stopped abruptly at the side of the road, I thought he was about to lecture me about showing respect to an alpha, but he got out without saying anything and then quickly disappeared into the little yellow house us.

The sign in front of the garden fence simply said the name "Bernd Hutzfeld", which sent shivers down my spine. No doctor who knows his trade would call himself that.

My nervous gaze then darted over to the steering wheel and I realized with amazement that the idiot had actually left the key in his pocket.

"Jackpot," I whispered triumphantly and struggled to get into the driver's seat, which was easier thought than done with my injured foot. But I still made it while cursing loudly and already saw the endless freedom in front of me.

The first thing I did then was lock the car from the inside and try to remember how Devin was going to explain me how to drive the car.

If only I had listened to him better back then...

Clutch, brake, gas, gear ...

Surely it couldn't be that difficult.

I carefully turned the key, waited until the engine was running and then looked excitedly at the gear stick next to me.

I just needed to get this thing into first gear, so I started tugging and yanking at it like I was crazy, but that shit wouldn't go into one.

That's when it dawned on me... clutch...

My heart racing, I pressed the right pedal, but this only made the engine rev, which Silvan apparently heard, because he almost ran towards me and then knocked on the driver's side next to me.

"Open the door immediately!" he said in a menacing voice and fixed my eyes, but I just gave him the middle finger with a grin and then pressed the middle pedal, which I still couldn't get into gear.

As a reflex, I wanted to press my left foot onto the entire left pedal, which of course hurt like hell, because I had completely forgotten about my injury because of the adrenaline. I cried out in pain, hunched over the steering wheel and felt a few tears running down my cheeks.

"Jade," Silvan knocked on the window again. "Please open up," I then heard his voice, which sounded full of concern and pity, but I didn't think at all of giving up. I'd rather just run him over if that fuckin' car started moving.

One very last time, I wanted to try to press the left pedal with my right foot, but then I gave a start, because Silvan had broken the window on the passenger side and opened the car with a handle through the open window and then sat down next to me, to look at me without expression.

Why wasn't I lucky once in my life!