The Markings 

Ashton had a hard time believing what he did to Caleb this morning. There was a tiny chance it was a prank by Caleb, but given the circumstances it did seem highly unlikely. He couldn't fathom why on earth he would do something like that. Sure, Ashton found the fact that Caleb is different from the others who shared his blood status amusing and relatable, but it was not like he had a crush on him or anything. 

He hated how Alphas abused their powers on omegas thus he simply admired how Caleb always fought back, even if he did it under the pretense of being an Alpha, like how he helped Beth the other day. There were lots of thoughts that occupied his head for which he was unable to focus. Even this morning he spilled his soup on himself being so distracted. His mother gave him a suspicious look when that happened, but didn't bother to ask him anything. 

On the school he purposely avoided Caleb. Being on different years served him well for the day. Due to Ashton's lack of scent he was hard to detect by any other werewolf, however due to all the stinking pheromones Caleb used, he was easy to detect for Ashton. 

Whenever or wherever he smelt him, he either changed his course or hid himself in such a way he won't be noticed. The only place where avoiding him won't work for Ashton was the football ground. This why he texted Matt about the practice because he knew Matt would kill him if he vanishes uninformed. 

The cafè he worked at was closed for a week for some maintainance stuff, so he decided to go home early instead of spending his time in library studying or something. He decided to walk all his way back home when a strong smell of an Alpha werewolf hit him. That smell was new to him so it wasn't someone he recognized. Coupled with that Ashton heard a few whimpers which alerted him. 

As much as he would hate to get involved he couldn't turn a blind eye to someone in need. He was rude, not a monster. He followed the path of that scent to see a coffee brown coloured wolf forced on the ground with multiple scratches on his arm.

Ashton didn't have to touch the wound to know that the wound was contaminated with wolfsbane. If the wolf didn't receive any proper medical attention he would die soon.

The man's face was almost covered with some kind of clothing material that made it harder to recognize him for anyone. He was pressing down on the weakened wolf with one hand while he held some kind of weapon on his other hand ready to attack him the next moment. 

Ashton thought harder how to save the wolf without letting his identity out. Ashton found a corner and after a quick partial transformation he howled. That was enough to distract the attacker which gave the wolf a window to run away.

The man (attacker) looked around for the source of the sound when he noticed Ashton. Ashton, assuming an alert stance growled at him. At this point he even let his pheromones out, in the off chance that if it was a werewolf, it could tell his identity by smell, and would back off.

That didn't work at all instead the attacker pounced on him. He flinched back and avoided the blow, almost, as his forearm suffered a decent cut. That place started to burn severely making him hard to focus anything at all. 

Regardless he managed to gain some control over his composure and blocked the second attack successfully and threw away the weapon when it reached him. The man tried to attack him once more, this time, without the weapon. 

That man was way weaker than the natural strength of tge pureblooded Alpha that Ashton possessed. In no time Ashton managed to take over the man even when he was injured. His vision was starting to get blurry so he knew that the wolfsbane was spreading. 

He pinned the man down who struggled to get out without making any noise. Ashton grabbed the mask over the man's face and snatched it off to see how the man looked like. His face was pretty much normal but on a closer observation with the intermittent blurry vision he mananger to spot a balckened pattern that resembled an empty tree.

He was aware of many mythical creatures but never had he ever heard of such thing in his seventeen years of life. He put a heavy punch on him that knocked down the man and made a run for it. Even though he needed to go to the pack hospital he couldn't go there, so he ran to his home.

He had hoped that his mother, being a former nurse, would be able to come up with any traditional cure that would help him. When he found the house empty he panicked, but to keep the poison from spreading further he found a knife and scraped the injured area and washed it in the water. Regardless his eyes felt heavy at this point which is why lied down on the couch. Soon enough everything felt dark as if he fell asleep.