The Alpha and his Mate
Chapter 2

“I’m going to get you bitch” he screamed as he chased after me down the street, “I’m going to get you and when I do you are going to be so sorry you did that”.

Annabelle’s POV

Tears streamed down my face as I sprinted as fast as I could down the street and into the surrounding woodland, my bare feet quickly getting bloody and cut up from the gravel and twigs that bit into my skin. I ignored the pain and forced myself to push on, cradling my injured elbow in my right hand close to my body. My laboured breathing caused my ribs to burn and make it difficult for me to suck in air, but I pushed past the pain, there was no way that I could be caught, not after what I had just done.

“You can’t run from me little girl” he screamed after me, gaining on me with every stride.

My eyes looked around frantically, taking everything in around me and looking for a solution. I knew I couldn’t outrun him, especially in the physical state that I was in. The tears continued to stream down my cheeks and just when I was about to give up hope I spotted something. I almost cried in relief as I spotted a small opening in the trunk of a nearby tree. I just had to hide out in there for a while until he gave up looking for me and then I could get away from him.

I made a dash for the tree and sighed in relief as I scurried into the opening, barely fitting into the small gap, and held my breath to stop him hearing my laboured breathing. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest and when I saw his feet run straight past my hiding place I clapped my hand over my mouth, in fear that a whimper would escape and give my hiding space away. I could hear him stumbling around for a bit, the alcohol obviously still affecting his balance and sighed when I heard his footsteps grow quieter and quieter.

I always loved playing hide and seek when I was younger, it used to be my go-to game whenever I played with the other kids that would come to my house when their parents came and visited mine. Little did I know that a few years down the line I would be playing the deadliest game of it of my life, one little noise and I was done.

I sat in the roots of the tree for a few minutes as I felt the insects crawl over my feet, sitting silently and straining my ears for any sort of noise that was out of the ordinary. When I came up empty, only hearing the sound of the wind in the trees and the animals scurrying around my feet, I cautiously crawled out of the hole. My head turning in all directions with my wild eyes peeled open, looking for any sign that Damon was nearby. I sighed in relief as I came up empty and quickly started running in the opposite direction to where I saw him stumble, hoping to put as much distance between me and him as I could.

I don’t know how long I had been walking for, but it must have been quite a while, the adrenaline had now completely worn off and my injures that were before slightly numbed were now in the forefront on my mind as I pushed my aching legs to keep going. Where I was going I don’t know, I just knew I had to get as far away from that place as I possibly could. Away from that house and away from those people. I was stupid to think that I could have lasted another two years there.

One day I had done something that made Tony particularly angry, it was probably something meaningless like not hoovering the correct lines into the carpet or something like that. I had overheard him mumble something to Natalie about how he couldn’t wait until I turned twenty one so that he could be rid of me. I don’t know if he meant for me to hear him but that little bit of information was the one thing that had gotten me through some pretty horrific times there. It meant that my suffering there would one day end.

As I walked my brain wandered along with it, taking me back to that place and back to all the times that they had punished me for something. To all the times that I was starved of talking out of turn, for all the times I was hit because I had missed a non-existent speck of dust on the carpet. I had thought about escaping so many times, even attempting it once or twice, but I was always caught. And even if I had succeeded where would I go? I knew no one and nobody knew about me, I had never even been out of my hometown before.

I sniffed as a lone tear fell from my eyes but I quickly brushed it away and cleared my throat, I’m so much better off not being there, I’d prefer to die right here right now than go back. As I carried on walking I slowly started to feel the air shift around me and I frowned at the feeling, I had never felt this feeling before. It was kind of like the air around me was charged in some way, like there was an electrical charge in the very air that I breathed. I frowned, I must be going slightly delusional from all my injuries and the pain I was in. I sighed and pushed on, hoping that I would eventually replace a road but as I walked further and further into the forest I was getting more and more lightheaded, what the hell was going on with me?

I stumbled as my vision suddenly went foggy and no matter how much I blinked it just wouldn’t clear. Just when I was about to sit down to put my head between my knees, hoping it would help clear my dizzy spell, I felt my spine start to twist in unnatural directions and I screamed in pain. What the hell is happening to me? I fell to the floor as the pain intensified, the pain from my elbow completely overshadowed by the pain that seemed to radiate from inside of me. As time went on the pain spread, going all the way to the tips of my fingers and to the soles of my feet. I don’t know how long the pain went on for, it felt like hours, but just when I thought I possible couldn’t take anymore, the pain had suddenly stopped and I lay on the floor panting.

I lay there for a few minutes, just trying to get over the white-hot pain I had just gone through. It was like someone had poured boiling hot lava throughout my veins and broke every bone in my body simultaneously. I had gone through pain in my life, suffering through more breaks and beating that I cared to remember, but nothing compared to that.

Just as I was about to stand up I suddenly heard a low growl coming from my left in the shadows and I spun around in fright, turning to where the noise came from. What was that? I then heard another growl coming from behind me and my heart rate immediately spiked as I saw three huge wolves came into view.

Well you did say you’d prefer to die right here right now then go back didn’t you. I rolled my eyes at the sarcastic voice in my head, now was not the time.

I stared at the three wolves for a few seconds, taking in the snarl on their muzzle and the way their bodies were coiled up and ready to pounce at any second. I froze in panic, not knowing what to do, but just when I was about to turn and run I saw a man emerge from the shadows of the tree line. He stood in front of me and started to make his way over, making slow deliberate steps forward until he stopped just a foot or two in front me. We stared at each other in silence as I took in his domineering appearance, the guy must have been huge because even at my 5′5 feet height I was still craning my neck up to see his face.

“Who are you” he suddenly demanded in the silence, folding his arms over his bare chest as he stared down at me, hate clear in his eyes.

All I could do was whimper in response as I took a step back with my head held low, wanting to get away from these creatures. As I took a step back the wolf behind me growled, reminding me that I was completely surrounded, making escape impossible.

“Who are you and what are you doing on our territory?” The man growled again as he took another step towards me, shortening the distance between us. I had no idea what this man and his wolves wanted from me, but I could do nothing but remain silent. Natalie had always told me that I should not even be seen, let alone heard.

“You are trespassing on our packs territory, which every wolf knows is punishable by death” he stated before taking another step towards me, putting me within reaching distance of him. If he wanted to he could reach out and strike me at any moment with no where for me to go.

I tried to stutter out that I didn’t mean to cross into his land, that all of this was just one big misunderstanding, but all I was doing was making weird yipping noises that I had never made before. Why the hell can I not speak?

“Shift” he suddenly demanded of me as he stared me down. You could feel the power coming off of him in waves and I curled in on myself slightly at the sight of him, Tony always looked like that right before he was going to hit me. I didn’t understand what this man wanted me to do.

“Shift out of your wolf or we will have no choice but to attack” he yelled “This is your last warning”.

My what!?

I looked down, confused as to what he was talking about but when I didn’t see my feet I panicked. My feet were gone, but what was in their place was a pair of sandy blond coloured paws all cut up and bloody, just like my feet were. I looked around with wide panicked eyes, not knowing what to do. This was a dream...this had to be a dream. Someone help me please!

My heart was going a mile a minute as I started to panic. My breath was becoming short and fast, feeling like no matter how much I breathed in I still wasn’t getting enough oxygen into my lungs. My vision started to go spotty and the last thing I remember was a ferocious growl off in the distance before I lost consciousness and blacked out.