CHAPTER 5

Chapter 5

"Mine."

Melisca gulped, as if the most powerful presence she'd ever felt, hadn't scared her enough. Hearing that word was beyond all the threats, fears, and dangers she encountered in the last nine years since her father passed away.

Blood turned to freezing liquid circulating in her system as the blazing air got caught up in her lungs. The sensation inside her was a burning iceberg.

The wind was just gone, the buzzing of the streets, the beeping of cars and the angry sirens of trucks went unheard. Can't even feel if her heart was still beating, might as well her life had stopped then.

No. She denied it. Catching up her breath, though she was just standing there, petrified.

No. This could not be happening. Not now. She had closed her eyes, the wolf in her slipping out.

No. She can control this.

She doesn't want a mate. She doesn't need one. Not at this time of the year. Not in this decade. Not until she had accomplished her mission.

Please not now. I'm begging you. Just not in this era.

His energy was binding her, engulfing her body to move, to be by his side at once, suffocating the air around her.

"Hey, Lorwey, why are you just standing there?" Called Ben, an officer who's on duty. He passed by her as he looked at her comically for she was standing there with eyes closed.

Yeah, right. Why am I just standing here? She repeated, asking herself also when instead she should get lost.

Blinking her eyes open, her fists clenching and unclenching. Needed that blood to circulate in her body, especially to her brain.

She had to get away, now. But how? Think. Think of something, anything! Act normal, don't panic. Heck! She hadn't acted panicked, yet her consciousness had shut down for a while.

Walk, take a step. She instructed herself.

Melisca started moving her feet forward. Her aim for now is to get inside the headquarters. Praying in her mind that he wouldn't just appear before her.

Please, please, please don't come near me. Repeating that mantra, every step she was taking felt like there was a large boulder chained to her feet. An invisible air drew her to him, sucking her energy.

No. The pull, she had to fight it.

When finally inside, she blew out the air that she had held in her lungs. Then as if on cue, she went straight ahead to the back exit of the building. People in the office threw her a quizzing glance.

Forget the letter, never mind the questioning, just get the hell out here. Just be gone, Melisca! Urging herself to move faster.

Flapping the back door open, the dark trees that lead to the mountain forest made her stop. High-wired fences separated the two land boundaries.

"Damn it." She hissed. The loud banging of her heart didn't help her any for she couldn't make up her thoughts.

She started climbing the barrier, getting some cuts on her hands, but the tiny bits of pain didn't bother her. It adds up to her desperation to flee away. Jumping on the ground, she launched on a sprint directly. The pitch-black expanse was not a problem in her vision, clear as daylight, she could see in the darkest of the night.

Rapid but silent footsteps of hers, the whooshing of the wind in her ears, and her full-on speed, made the adrenaline in her system.

It's been so long since she hadn't run like this, the unleashed energy in her body slowly gave her the thrill of the race. The fear she had felt deliberately altered into excitement that she hadn't noticed her lips curved into a smile.

Trees passed by in a blur in the corner of her eyes as the air she encountered was getting colder and colder. The night had been eerie. No chirping sounds of crickets, no screeching of owls, no hissing of snakes, but flocks of blackbirds scampering away as she passes.

Her smile instantly turned sour. The excitement shifted back to fear, the thrill torn by frozen hands of death.

As she moved forward, she could only see the same trees she had passed before, running from the wolves whose intention was to end her. But she left her father behind. She left him to be killed.

Then, she was slowing down, her body just slowed down. Unaware of the tears that had fallen down her cheeks.

"Run, Melisca! Run!" The voice of her mother cried for her to escape.

"Leave!" Her father's pleading echoed in her mind.

She shut her eyes. The memories were haunting her again.

"I'm sorry." She dropped to her knees, the cold grass held her ground, but she could not hold herself anymore.

Nine years of stabilizing herself. Bottling up her emotions. Knowing that she shouldn't have wavered now of all circumstances, the agonizing guilt got her.

"I'm sorry, I haven't done anything to save you both." She finally sat on the ground and embraced herself. "I'm sorry, I was too weak." She rested her forehead on her knees. "Maybe until now." Her silent whimpering could be heard easily in the stillness of the forest.

'Don't put it for nothing, Melisca.' She recalled her father saying that.

She had sworn to revenge for them. Yes, it won't bring them back alive, but she just wants to be fair. She doesn't mind being called a killer then.

Picking herself up, with the new determination. She won't drag her mate into this. Don't want him to suffer her misery. Aside from that, she doesn't want to end up being killed by the people she trusts. Avoiding the same fate by her parents.

Then, Melisca started on her tracks again, aiming to get on the road. There might be wolves or other beings in the forest, how unfortunate of her to face one there. As if her recent encounters were never enough.

******

Ezekiel directly appeared in front of the station, leaving his beta behind.

"Zek, what are you doing?" Argon shifted to his side abruptly, following him. Worried that people would notice their abilities.

"Mine." He repeated, walking inside the building like he owned the place. Summoning her by using their connection.

"Wait, wait, wait." Argon blocked his way. Even gestured both of his hands a stop sign. "What? She's your mate?" He asked, astounded.

"Yes." He grumbled. With a menacing look in his eyes and his presence open, everyone turned to him as he walked inside. People gasped and some took a closer look at him.

He ignored the attention. He couldn't feel her presence anymore.

"She's gone." Fist clenched, jaw twitching, calling all his willpower to control himself. He had to get out of there, before revealing his true self to everyone.

Ezekiel returned to the car, and Argon followed.

"Find out everything about her. Gather all the information you can. I don't care how you'll get it. Don't come back to me unless you're done." He ordered with eyes closed, head on his hands.

"Yes, alpha." Argon then vanished to do his task.

Mustering his self-control to not wreak havoc right then and there. His mind just went blank. He really can't feel her anywhere, her energy. She's out of reach.

He can't believe what just happened. He finally found her and yet, she vanished. Fire burning in his heart. Did she just reject me? His wolf inside in grief. No. I won't allow it.

Over two centuries, Ezekiel waited for his mate to show up. He had never felt those emotions before when she was there, a few meters away. He had longed to touch her, to be with her, to finally have a woman by his side. But then, she just took off like that.

Had she not felt the connection between them? Had she not felt that he was there? How can she do this to him? How can she reject her mate? He would find her, wherever she is, even in hell, he would have her.

"Zek."

Opening his eyes, he turned to Argon who just came back from the police station.

"Her name is Melisca Lorwey, a bounty hunter for eight years. She never failed any hunting. They can't find her file anywhere and she's not even in the system. Though the bank number that she was using was hers. We can trace her when she withdraws her money. I got her card number." He reported.

Ezekiel laughed, which got his beta retreated some inches away from their seat. A throaty laugh that any of his people wouldn't want to hear. For it only means that he was beyond furious.

"She's a smart one. She's really something." He now stopped his outburst. "Drive home." He told the driver and the car started.

"Melisca Lorwey. Melisca." Savouring her name on his lips. "A bounty hunter, and never failed before. Just then when you interrupted her hunting." He felt proud of her, that she was doing her job consistently.

"You were destined through me then." Argon felt a little at ease now. The tension earlier was suffocating.

"Right. You said, 'She's human'."

He nodded reassuringly.

"Is she really? Maybe not. Greg said that she suffered from the effects of the poison." Still remembered what Greg confessed when he compelled him to answer truthfully.

"If she were like us, you know what could have happened."

That halted Ezekiel. She could have died if she was one of them. He almost lost her when he hadn't even found her yet.

"She received bullets twice. But looking at her from afar, she seemed alright." His thoughts were on the run of what really is his mate.

"And how can she just disappear like that?" Argon added, and they both looked at each other with questions on their faces.

"It doesn't matter what she is, she's my mate. She belongs to me. I would have her soon." Oh, he really would, and when he finally has her, she won't be going anywhere then.

"Yes, of course, alpha. We would find her."