Chapter 0006

My brain is definitely foggy because I know I didn’t hear her right. She was suggesting that I was pregnant, which isn’t possible, right? Even if that were the case, considering all the torture I went through, shouldn’t I already have had a miscarriage?

I hung helplessly while she tried to support my weight. I’d used up my strength when I tried fighting the rogues. I had no more energy in me, and I could feel my body start to shut down.

“You-you’re wrong,” I tell her tiredly.

Fuck. I was so tired and in so much pain. I wanted all of it to end. I wanted the pain to stop. I wanted the blissful blackness I disappeared into when I lost consciousness.

“Stay with me,” she says instead. “What is your name?”

Stranger danger, right? But in this case, she saved my life, so that’s a moot point. Besides, I had no one else, and she seemed to be helping me. What’s the worst that could happen?

“S-Sadie,” I finally stammer the word out.

Goddess, why did everything hurt so badly?

“Like I said, I need to get you to a healer. Please try and stay awake,” she all but begged.

“I can’t…I’m so tired. I just want to sleep,” I whisper as we continue to goddess knows where.

“Think about your baby.”

There she goes again with the baby thing. I wasn’t pregnant. I think I would have known if I were. Was this just her way of trying to keep me fighting? I doubt it will work because I knew there wasn’t any baby.

I want to tell her that, but my vision becomes blurry and I become dizzy. Soon after, everything around me fades, and I fall into the blackness I was craving so much.

***

When I open my eyes again, I’m in what I can only describe as a hut.

“Where am I?” I ask an old woman who was next to me.

My voice is slurred, and I feel disconnected from reality. Everything around me was spinning, and I had a headache to end all the headaches.

The girl that saved me was nowhere to be seen. That made me panic a little. I didn’t know her, but she saved me. She is better than this woman.

“You’re safe, child. Don’t worry,” she soothes, almost as if she could feel my anxiety.

I lay back on the tiny bed. The mattress was thin, but it was better than sleeping on the damn hard ground. I tried breathing through the pain. My damn ribs hurt like a freaking bitch.

“Which pack are you from? Maybe we can take you to them.”

My eyes snap open. I shake my head fervently, ignoring the pain that shoots down my damn spine.

“No pack,” I whisper through the pain. “Banished.”

I didn’t know who she was. I had not yet shifted, but I could tell she wasn’t human. I just didn’t know what exactly she was.

She nodded her head in understanding. There are different species, and we all operate differently, but banishment meant the same thing for all of us.

If I had been in my right mind, I would have questioned why she was understanding. Why she seemed willing to help a banished wolf, given that banished wolves were pariahs. I wasn’t in my right mind, though. And I was just thankful that I was safe. At least I hoped I was.

"Sleep, my child,” she tells me in a gentle tone while holding my hand. “Raven and I will take care of you.”

I feel a power wash over me, and my eyes close on their own accord.

***

I drift in and out of consciousness a number of times. Sometimes everything is blissful, and other times the pain is crushing, and I can hear the sounds of my screams echoing inside the small room.

The faces of the old woman and Raven, the girl who saved me, appear to me. Sometimes they’re just staring at me worriedly, and other times they're murmuring words that don’t make sense to me. A lot of those times I try to speak, but no word leaves my mouth. Besides, I usually fall back to sleep within minutes.

“Do you think she’ll survive?” Raven’s voice drifts through my unconscious state.

Was there a chance I wouldn’t? Was I so badly hurt that they thought I wouldn’t make it? The thought of it terrifies me, but at the same time, it doesn’t.

I had no one. Nobody would care if I died or lived. It didn’t matter, and, besides, even if I survived, who would I be coming back to? Who was worth living for?

“I honestly don’t know.” The old woman’s voice was full of worry. “Apart from her wounds, she was pumped full of silver and wolfbane. It’s bound to have some horrible side effects, given that it’s been in her system for a while.”

“I’m surprised at that too, and also at the fact that the baby has survived.”

There they go again with the mention of a baby. Why do they keep talking about a baby?

“What do you think happened to her? Do you think she was in captivity?” Raven asks after a while.

I don’t get to hear what the old woman says because I soon fell into another deep slumber.

***

The next time I woke up, it was dark outside.

I felt dreadful, but I wasn’t in as much pain as the other times. I actually felt better and well rested. My head didn’t feel like it was filled with lead anymore, and my aches and pains were all gone.

“You’re awake.” Her voice draws me in her direction.

Now that I wasn’t delirious, I could actually see her clearly. Unlike her name, her hair was a fiery red, and she was totally beautiful. She had a few freckles on her face, but it made her all the more beautiful. Her bright green eyes shone as she looked at me, and her bow-shaped lips were curved in a gentle smile.

"Yes,” I tell her in a hoarse voice as I struggle to sit up.

She sees this and rushes to help me.

“Can I get you anything?” she asks once I’m seated in an upright position.

I nod. “Water, please.”

She pours some in a glass and hands it over to me, just as the door opens, and the old woman walks in.

I scrutinize her. Seeing what I wasn’t able to see when I first arrived. My guess is that she was in her seventies or eighties. She still looked pretty, even in her old age. What catches my attention, though, is her unnatural white hair. It's like nothing I've ever seen before.

“So glad you’re awake, my dear,” she tells me right before kissing my cheek.

I find this odd, but don’t say a thing. Instead, I just take a sip of my water as I survey the hut and the two women who saved my life.

An awkward silence befalls the room as I concentrate on the water while the two women stare at me like a specimen.

Nervously, I put the glass down. I was about to run my hand through my hair (something I do out of habit when I’m nervous or in an awkward situation) when I remembered that I no longer had my long hair. Alec had shaved all of it. I was completely bald.

Tears fill my eyes. I wasn’t vain, but I really loved my black hair. It had broken my heart to pieces when I saw the black locks lying on the dirty floor after he shaved it off. It was even more heartbreaking to watch as he set the pile on fire.

“Don’t worry, my dear, it will grow back,” the woman says as if she could read my mind.

I nod my head, but I know it won’t be the same. It will probably take me years to achieve the lower back length I had.

“I’m Beth, by the way,” she introduces herself.

“And I’m Raven.”

She probably didn’t know that I already knew that.

“I’m Sadie,” I tell them. “Thank you so much for helping me. I probably would have been dead if it wasn’t for you.”

It was the effing truth. I bet that was what Alec was counting on when the bastard banished me.

"It's no trouble,” Beth says. “We were happy to help and even happier to let you know that you and your baby will be okay. We weren’t sure of that at first, if we are being honest.”

My brows pull down in a frown. “Raven mentioned the same thing when she saved me from those rogues. I don’t understand. What baby are you talking about?”

They stare at each other before turning back to me.

“Didn’t you know?” Beth asked me.

I just shake my head, confused.

“My powers allow me to sense when a woman is pregnant,” Raven begins. “You’re pregnant, Sadie.”

I wanted to deny it, but some witches do have such powers. That’s why most of the supernatural species go to them, because normal human pregnancy tests don’t work on us.

I stare at her, completely shocked.

“Mother-fucking-super-spermed-Bastard” I curse angrily.

Fuck! As if it wasn’t enough that I hated the bastard, now I was pregnant with his child. What the hell was I going to do?