Chapter 7
EMMA.
I tremble against the tree, loud exhales slipping through my mouth as I stare into the eyes of the wolf in front of me. The sound of my fast beating heart reaches my car and I clutch the mud in my hands as I brace for the impact with no chance of survival.
Tears roll down my face in fast streams as the wolf jumps into the air halfway to me and I throw my head to the side. I wait to feel the excruciating pain or perhaps nothing as I hold my breath, but what I hear next is the sound of leaves ruffling.
“Einma?” There’s a distant echo of my name and I look back to the front to see a shadow standing over me. I’m unable to make out the face as my lashes flutter, my vision slowly blurring
“Emma” Emma“” Those words are the last I hear before my eyes shut and I start to fall sideways. Just a second before I lose consciousness, I feel my body being lifted and my head resting against a hard surface
I let out a groan from the bright lights that hit my eyes when Fopen them. My breathing is slow and unsteady as I stare at the ceiling before my gaze wanders to the side, across the corners of the room,
“Where am I?” 1 try to move, but a pang sprouts down my spine from the fast motion and I let out a loud cry.
“Hey! Hey” I hear a door open and 1 blink back my tears to see Ryan by my side. He pushes me back down by my shoulder. and sighs. “You shouldn’t move just yet.”
“What happened?” I ask him as he grabs the stool next to the bed I’m placed on “Where am I?”
“The healer’s room.” He answers, and I raise a brow. “Healers?”
“Doctor’s. You were hurt badly. You broke your back.” He explains and I look away from him as the images of the occurrence before I blacked out flow through my mind.
Who was that wolf, and why did it hit me? It was going to kill me. I was sure of it. It was going to attack then-
I twist my head again to meet Ryan’s eyes. “Was it you? You found me?”
He smiles and shakes his head. “No, Not me. It was the Alpha
“Will?” His name leaves my name in a breathless tone, and Ryan nods. “Thank goddess he arrived just in time or it’d have been worse, right? What attacked you?”
“It was a- I halt my words when the door to the room is opened again and despite lying on the bed, feeling discomfort from every part of my being: my heart skips a beat when his face pops through the door, his green eyes meeting mine.
Will holds my gaze for a few seconds before he looks away and enters the room.
“Alpha Ryan gets to his feet just as Will appears and he throws a nod in his direction. There’s a brief moment of silence before Ryan clears his throat. “I um. I’d be out if you need me.”
Ryan walks out of the room, and Will grabs his seat. He crosses one leg over the other and his presence makes me super of myself as 1 find myself adjusting my head against the soft fabric of the pillow.
“How are you feeling?” His deep voice rumbles in the quiet space, and my heart races at the sound of it.
I don’t meet his eyes as I answer, muddled by the sudden change in my reaction just from his presence. “I’m okay”
“The healer said you broke your back, but you’re recovering fast, I heard. You should be back on your feet in no time.”
r aware
I can’t help myself–I find my head turning and I meet his eyes. The greens give away nothing as usual, despite his words of concern, and I can’t look
away from them.
When I realize I’ve said nothing and only stare into his eyes like a freak, I open my mouth, “Ryan–Beta Ryan said you found
The
“I did” He confirms, and my stomach turns. “You have a habit of coming to my rescue, it seems.
Chapter 7
I don’t know if it’s because he’s got nothing to say to those words or he just wants to pretend he didn’t hear them, but Will dismisses the sentence and asks instead, “What attacked you?”
His brow perks up “A wolf”
I nod and his lips curl in a slight frown. It’s the first time I’m seeing an expression distinct from the relaxed one he always seems to have, and I’m fascinated by the two lines that are formed across his forehead and the way his eyebrows are crinkled; “What was its color? Emma, Kanma
*1m 1 hum and hold his gaze again. Will doesn’t speak, and I shut my eyes to organize my thoughts. Goddess, what’s wrong
When Topen them again, liis gaze remains on me, and I wet my lips. “It was a brown woll and I think its fur was black.”
Why didn’t you run when you saw it??
“I didn’t.” I mumble. “I was already down and unable to move when I realized what it was. It threw me on my run.”
He nods, seeming to be calculating. “If it’s a wolf, it has to be from this pack and I’ll find out who it was
“I guess it’s not just my father who doesn’t welcome my presence here.” I try to let out a light chuckle, but it comes out hurt and awkward
“You’re a member of this pack. They’ll either have to accept that or face me.”
Fervency scatters across my chest at his words, and I suck my bottom lip between gets louder. “Why? Why are you doing this?”
“Doing what?”
“Saving me. Repeatedly. You owe me nothing”
my teeth as the sound of my heart pounding
“You’re a member of my pack, Emma. You heard me, didn’t you? I protect each member of my pack. That’s my responsibility as an Alpha”
So you’d do this for any member of the pack?” I use and it takes just
a second for his resp
response. “Yes”
away from him abel a heartbeat passes before his voice comes again, “But more than that.. My head instantly snaps to him and for the first time since he’s arrived before me again, I sense the reticence in his words. “You are… More than that, you are…..” I don’t know what I’m expecting, but the trail makes me hold my breath as I struggle to breathe under his gaze.
His lips press into a thin line before he says, “More than that, you’re family”
“Oh. Right Family.” I utter, and Will nods, repeating the word in a whisper. “Family”
I stare at the man before me who seems to be the only one at the moment to care about whether I live or die, and a small simile touches my lips. “Thank you. I didn’t get a chance to say that before, but thank you, Will… Sorry, I mean Alpha.” He gives a curt nod before
are he rises to his feet and my eyes follow his movement. “You should take some rest now?
He turns away from me, and 1 chew my bottom lip as I stare at his hark. He’s almost at the door when I finally let out the words, “Will in be okay?”
He stops and turns to me. “Will what be okay?”
My Father Will you be okay? You shouldn’t get into trouble because of me. I know we
must have worked hard to become
Alpha
He goes miste and just as I think he’s got nothing to say, his lips part. “Your father left last night, I don’t know if he’ll be back or whende The But whenever it is, I’ll be ready”
I nel and toy chest
en up his locart to me. We don’t have to be close–just him not staring at me like I’in a speck of dirt beneath his shoe would heaves at hearing my father’s absence. I don’t know how long it’d take, but I hope one day he’d learn to inter than enemigla
Chapter 7
“Emma” The call of my name interrupts my thoughts and I turn to the side to see the Alpha still standing near the door.
“Yes, Alpha?”
You’re seventeen, right?”
“A few months to eighteen, yes.”
He lums. “Once you’re back on your feet, you’ll be put in school. That’s okay with you?”
“More than okay!” My face splits into a grin and for a second, I thought I saw his mouth move, but when I blink again, it’s nothing.
“Rest. Now.” He grabs the knob and walks out through the door, leaving me with elation in my heart and his cologne filling the
I place my hands over my racing heart and I giggle at the thought of being back in school. But more than that–seeing Violet again. I don’t think she’s heard the news of my return. She’d have been here last night otherwise. I laugh as I think of the shock that’d be on her face once I appear before her.
My moment of bliss is interrupted when the sound of the door squeaking reaches my ears and I look towards it, expecting someone there, I furrow my brows when there’s no one and I’m staring into space when a figure suddenly appears.
“Emma” The man walks inside with a smile and shuts the door behind him. “I’m lan. Your doctor. Here to check on you again. Do you mind lying on your side, please?”
“Yeah. Uns, yeal.“1 mamile, with my eyes still at the door. Doctor lan walks to my side and despite his presence in the room with the door now shut, I can’t shake off the odd sentiment from seconds before his appearance.
AD
