Alpha’s Girl - 15 15

“Alex, Alex, get up”, somebody was disturbing my sleep. I was having a pleasant dream and this person was ruining it.

“Go away.” I reply annoyingly.

“Alex, you need to get up.” It is a girl’s voice and she sounds urgent. It is not my mom. Who could this annoying person be? With great difficulty I opened my eyes to see Alexa. She had a broken lip with dried blood.

“Thank God you are alive.” I smiled at her. She looked serious. I look around and realized that I have been kidnapped and by the looks of it by the same person who kidnapped Alexa. I try to keep my cool and not panic.

“Yeah, but maybe not for long if we don’t get out.” She tugs her hand. Her wrists were chained. We seemed to be in one of those mobile bus which was converted into a house.

“Listen, he is out. Can you reach that desk there?” She asked me. I got up normally but something held me back. I realized that I too was chained like Alexa. I bent forward towards the desk she pointed to.

“Fast. He may come back anytime.” She urges.

“What am I looking for anyway?” I ask trying to keep my fear in check. I didn’t know what our kidnapper wanted. I didn’t know what kind of a maniac he is.

“He has many cellphones which he has kept in the top drawer. See if any of those are working and we may be able to call someone for help.” She tells. I reach into my pocket for my phone.

“Don’t bother. He would have taken it and thrown in some pit by now.” She seems to know the kidnapper well. I bent towards the desk again and opened the top drawer. As she had said there were many phones. I took one out and turned it on.

“Where are we anyway?” I ask her. She looks around and shakes her head in negative. It was completely dark outside except for the moon light and there was only one bulb which provided very little light inside the bus. What time was it? I was missing since morning. Did my parents realize that I was missing? There was a possibility that they assumed I was still in office.

“He moves around and most of the time I have been unconscious. I was just getting up when I saw those phones in there.” She pushes a strand of hair which had fallen on her eyes and winced.

“Are you okay?” There were scratches on her arms.

“Yes. Hurry up now. We can chit chat once we are back safely.” Her anxiety was making me nervous and scared.

“Where should I tell we are if we ourselves don’t know where we are?” There was some noise outside.

“He must be here. Hurry.” She hisses softly.

I put the phone back in it’s place and closed the drawer just as the door opened. The person whom I thought was Caleb walked in. I came back and sat silently before he could see me. He was approaching us. I quickly closed my eyes and when he was almost near me I slowly opened it pretending as though the footsteps brought me back to consciousness. I looked up to see him smiling at me. He is deranged.

“Both of you are awake. That’s good. Answer my questions correctly and I may let one of you live.” He announces like a kindhearted judge who is letting go of the accused.

“Both of you moved to this town recently, isn’t it?” His expression is focused – brows slightly drawn and straight lips.

I nod silently in agreement and see that Alexa is also doing the same.

“Good, good. Did you move because of your mates?” He asks shifting his head left and right. He is looking at me, waiting for my answer. I was about to open my mouth when I saw Alexa trying to get my attention. I didn’t understand what she was trying to convey.

“Yes, both of us moved for our mates.” She answered for me as well.

“I have been following you for quiet sometime. But, I have never seen you shift. Why is that sweetheart?” He was asking this specifically to me. I was still trying to figure out what he was asking of me when Alexa answered again in my stead.

“Then you were not doing a good job of it. She has shifted many times.” Caleb was looking at me with his full attention. I was not sure if he even heard her reply. I could see Alexa with a pleading expression. She wanted me to go along with her story. I decided to go along irrespective of the fact that it did not make any sense to me. Escaping was more important than processing this senseless talk; senseless to me.

“Yes, yes I have many times.” I answer. He doesn’t move his gaze from me. After what seemed to be a long time he nodded his head and then went to the front of the bus. The bus started moving. I got up silently and reached the desk. I opened the top drawer again and took out the phone which I had previously turned on. I tried to stay calm and think about my course of action. I quickly went about my work. I put the phone back in it’s place and closed the drawer.

Alexa lifted one eyebrow asking what I did.

“Sent our live location through Whatsapp”, I mouthed to her without making any sound. She was impressed.

“To whom?” I looked at her pretending to be confused. I got what she asked but I didn’t want to answer. I looked around trying to avoid answering her. HE was on top of my head and there was no time to tell myself not to send it to him. Instead of answering her I asked her a question of my own.

“What happened that night?” I really wanted to know. She shushed me and pointed to her ear and to the front of the bus, indicating that he could hear us.

“I was supposed to meet Adrian. On my way to our meeting place I smelled Paul.” She was barely making any sound. It was tough for me to make out her lip movements.

“What do you mean you smelled Paul?” This was so weird. I never thought Paul smelled so bad that you could smell his scent from a distance.

“Umm! Doubts later. It is difficult to explain to humans. Anyway, I followed the scent and instead of Paul found this mad person spraying something out of a bottle. I was confused. When he saw me he started spraying another gas out of another bottle. The next thing I know I was chained and lying here.”

“So, umm it’s not Adrian?” I ask her hesitatingly.

“NO”, she snorted. The bus stopped and within seconds Caleb approached us. He took a look at both of us and went back to the front of the bus. He came back immediately and had two glasses with him along with a bottle. He poured a disgusting brown liquid in both, one had more quantity than the other.

“We’ll continue moving after you ladies have your nighttime drink.” He sounded annoyed.

“Where are we going?” I ask him. He ignores me and approaches Alexa with one glass. He forcefully made her drink. Once she was done, he did the same with me. This tasted worse than my green potion. He made me drink from the glass which had more quantity.

“Just making sure it works”, he told.

“Where are we going?” I ask him again but this time my voice is not firm. I started feeling drowsy. I was running in the woods when I suddenly started to wobble. The shaking became more and I was about to fall down when I jerked awake. We were moving again. I had no idea how much time had passed.

“Alexa”, I call out to her. The potion which he made us drink knocked us unconscious. I had a burning sensation in my stomach. My bones felt heavy. I was feeling hot.

“Alexa”, I called her again. My voice was hoarse. My throat started to itch. I think I have a fever. I wanted to sleep. I was feeling weak. In spite of that I was also feeling strong.

“ALEXA”, I shouted loudly and at the same time tugged my chains. The bus came to a stop again. Alexa opened her eyes and surprisingly my hands were free. Wasting no time I got up and went to free Alexa. Her chains also gave away easily. I helped her to stand when we heard Caleb’s surprised voice.

“What the hell?” He had a faraway look. It was just for a moment before his gaze was focused back on us. He approached slowly towards us. When he was near me I suddenly held his throat with my bare hands. He tried to fight me but his strength was no match to mine.

“He is choking”, Alexa was saying in a fearful voice. True, his eyes were disoriented.

“Open the window”, I ordered her. She obeyed without asking any questions.

“Help me now.” She came and looked at me in question. I pointed towards his legs. She lifted it. With her help we threw him out of the window. He was in good shape which made it possible to fit him through the window. I ran to the front of the bus to the driver’s seat. Alexa followed me. I started the bus when we heard a series of gunshots. I had barely moved an inch when the vehicle stopped moving. I tried to start it again.

“Get out. Running is our only option now”, Alexa urges. She is right. We got down.

“Stop right there you idiots.” It was Caleb and he was pointing a gun at us.

“I thought you didn’t know to drive”, he yells at me as though I betrayed and lied to him.

“I said I prefer walking to driving.” I answer back. He was approaching us with the gun still pointing at us.

“Master E will be happy to have such a feisty girl on his team.”

“Who is master E?” It’s best to keep him talking till I think of the best way to escape.

“Why the hurry darling? You will meet him soon.” He answers and chuckles. My head was still hurting and seeing his white teeth hurt more. I looked around and found a big stone. If only I could distract him enough to pick up that stone. I was still thinking of ways to escape when he groaned with pain. I looked up to see that Alexa had kneed him where it hurts.

“Run”, she yells and we both started running. I had no clue where I was going. I followed Alexa. Caleb seemed to have recovered. He was giving us a chase.

My mind was filled with all the things which happened today and the weird questions which he had asked us.

‘Mate’. ‘Shifting’. I remembered the day when Nina had asked if I believed in fantasies. She had told that day that werewolves could be real. Could she be right? Was it her way of telling me that these things exist for real. Does that mean she is a werewolf? What about the rest of them? Are they also werewolves? Are Paul and Alexa werewolves? Are those two mates? What about.. what about ..

In the myths that I had read werewolves had super amplified senses compared to a normal human. Is that why Alexa could smell Paul? Alexa did call me a human, like she was not one.

My bones which felt heavy started to pain. It felt like they wanted to break free of my skin. It was a full moon day today. The moon’s light was the only source of light. Caleb was still following us. Suddenly, there were a series of howling sounds. It did no good to my life escaping from Caleb only to end up as food to the wolves.

We had reached a clearing with a pond in the middle. The wolves were on the other side and they were approaching us around the bank. I was sure now that I was not their food. These were not just any wolves. My pain became more and more.

There were a couple of humans too. Among them was Adrian in the front. He was running towards us. Behind me I could feel that Caleb was getting closer. As I was running my pain intensified. It became unbearable. I heard clothes shredding behind me. I didn’t dare look back lest it should slow me down. I heard clothes shredding next to me. From the periphery of my vision I could see Alexa changing.

I was in between Adrian and Caleb with Alexa next to me. His green eyes were completely focused on me. I saw clothes shredding in front of me. My pain became impossible to bear and I exploded. I felt that my whole body broke and I shouted. Everybody stopped where they were. The green eyes which were running towards me stopped. Instead of a man, the eyes now belonged to a big black wolf. My big black wolf. There was pure shock on his face. I too stopped. For me seeing him was just confirmation of what I was suspecting from the last couple of minutes. There were gasps from the humans.

I could see pieces of my clothing in front of me. I looked around wondering what had happened when my gaze landed on my reflection in the pond. In the place where I was supposed to be, where I was supposed to be having two legs, two hands like a normal human being, there was a snow white wolf standing on it’s hind legs. It’s fur was pure white with just a patch of black hair.

I looked around again. I was surrounded by wolves. I was surrounded by WEREWOLVES and I was one of them? I was so confused that I looked up at the moon and started shouting. Only that it was not shouting. I was howling.