Chapter 36 - Run

MAXINE

The room around me starts to shrink and the air gets less with every desperate breath I try to take. Silence falls upon us like a heavyweight, threatening to crush anything under it. It feels like all stopped breathing.

Rey's eyes stay fixed on me, his expression unreadable, cold fire burning in his ocean eyes.

I try to move, do, or say something, but my body doesn't respond to my commands. I think I'm hallucinating. He can't possibly say what I thought I heard him say. I open my mouth and then shut it again unable to speak.

The seconds spread to an eternity. Like time stopped the moment he said the words I'd never expected to hear.

"You're my mate."

All of a sudden, my body starts to function again, as I take two steps backwards. Tremble spreads through cold shivers down my spine as everyone's heads leave Rey and focus on me.

I turn around and run. Away from all of this.

I thought I heard someone calling my name by the time I'm out of the room and headed to the entrance and from there out in the forest.

I don't stop though.

I run as fast as my wounds permit me and luckily, I don't hear anyone coming after me. I want to be left alone. A pool of emotions fills up inside me and I'm on the edge of being drowned.

I take a path which I don't know where it leads but I don't care at the moment. All I think about now is finding a place to hide. This is what I've been doing all my life. This is what I do best.

After some limp running, I see an oak tree - its core hollow - and I take a moment to rest, keeping myself hidden from the path in case someone approaches.

I sit down, knees folded to my chest forming a ball with my body. The moment I take in a deep breath is the moment tears start falling down my face. Soon, the tears turn to sobs and my breathing is uncontrollable.

This is too much for me to bear. I learned to live in the shadows, far away from everyone, hidden carefully in my own world. And now I'm surrounded by a pack that most of them will never like me, while their leader announces that I'm his mate.

How could I be his mate? This is a mistake. We can't be together. He's supposed to have a strong person to stand by his side and lead the pack as he does. Inspire. In my case, they will gut me before I open my mouth to speak.

Still, his voice resonates inside my head.

"You're my mate."

All the newly experienced feelings I have when I'm around him now are replaced with ones I know very well for many years.

Fear and pain.

After sitting there for quite some time, my breath slowly sinks to normal and I'm left without further tears to shed. I lift my head from my arms and take a look around. I didn't notice its already dark outside.

None has come to look for me. The thought only gets me more depressed and the hole in my heart gets bigger. They didn't bother to find me.

Rey is the only one who could defy them all, but he's bound to his pack and doing so would have put his position in danger and his authority in question. Especially when everyone knows now that his mate is a human. That in fact will raise many questions already. No matter if I try to find a reasonable explanation for his actions, I'm still mad at him.

So, I'm determined to spend the night here, until the sun is up again and then search for the way back to town when something grabs me by the ankle, dragging me deeper into the forest, away from the path.

It's pitch black, I can't see a thing. I turn with my back to the sky and see thick clouds cover the ceiling for no moon shines. I've been dragged for a long distance, my body crashing on tree roots and rocks until I hear the sound of a door opening and I'm thrown into something of a solid floor.

Steps echo and the door closes. I desperately inhale for air but my lungs are tied in a knot and the world spins around me.

Strong light hits my face from right above me and I pull back from it, hitting the back of my head on something hard. I pass my right hand behind my head where I've taken the hit and the spot is moist.

I see a dark red stain on my palm as I bring the hand in front of my face and smell it. The iron smell of blood fills my nostrils.

I take a look at myself. The dress is torn apart from the dragging and what is left are pieces of cloth hanging on me, covering the barely minimum. My back is numb from the waves of pain washing me, landing on the forests' soil.

I look around - after blinking a couple of times to adjust my eyes in the strong light - and the only thing I see is the interior of a wooden cabin before something hits me hard on the head and I fall unconscious.

When I open my eyes, I find myself tied firmly around a wooden pole that supports the cabin's ceiling. I try to take a better look around.

The place looks abandoned and dusty like it has been left in its fate for years. I try to break free from my bonds, but I'm so tightly tied that the rope scratches violently my skin creating a burning line around my wrists that soon starts bleeding.

I hear a noise coming from somewhere in front of me and my eyes grow wide when I see Julia's face coming out of the shadows.

"You don't have to do this." I plead her reason. The look she gives me though is far past that level.

"I didn't expect you to stay around for that long," her voice creeps me out. "Yet here you are." She breathes. A sinister smile appears on her lips.

She walks by a table at the other end of the cabin, and I see something shine as it grabs it and begins to walk toward me.

"It's so infuriating… to walk around like you're one of us." She speaks as she starts walking in circles around me. "Just a human…a worthless human…"

I don't have visual contact with her but her steps are clearly heard behind me, making my skin crawl and fear sends shivers down my spine.

I feel something - like cold metal - as it glides with force on my right thigh causing me a wave of pain. I let out a scream but instantly a hand lands forcefully on my face accompanied by a slapping sound and my head snaps to the side.

"Stop it! You deserve it!" Julia raises her voice. "You thought you can step into our place and steal him from us? From me?"

Another slide of the cold metal, this time on the inner side of my other thigh, caused another scream to form in my throat. This time she doesn't slap me.

"You think you can take him from me?" she steps closer, bending down to smell the skin on my collar bone. "You have his scent all around you, while it should be ME that would have his scent on my skin!"

Another slap.

Tears roll down my face unable to control them while I breathe sharply. My cheeks burn from the hits and I can feel them start to swell.

I lift my head to meet her eyes and I'm taken back in terror as her face is completely changed. There is a calmness in her expression and the determination of a cold blood killer behind her eyes.

"That's why you're going to be punished."