Chapter 7: Prisoner

Rowan drifted in and out of sleep for a long time, not quite understanding whether he was dreaming or awake. He heard cloth flapping with the wind, and he felt the chilly current brush his face. Then he felt something soft underneath him, and he willed his head to go back to sleep. He was too tired and drowsy to open his eyes.

In what seemed like just a few seconds later, his mind conjured up an image of the last thing he had seen when he was awake.

Her. Adriana. Her blue eyes looking back at him in the middle of that chaotic scene where a tree had caught fire, and they fended off the attacks of those strange wolves... He felt an aching need to see her, to know if she was all right, and as if someone had thrown a bucket of cold water over his face, he opened his eyes.

"What happened?" Alpha Rowan hurt everywhere. Especially his ribs. They throbbed whenever he breathed. 

The first person he saw was Lucien, also looking battered up, sitting next to him in what looked to be a hospital tent. Now the sounds he heard while he slept made sense. 

"What?" Lucien opened his eyes. He had been asleep, too, slumped in a chair. "Oh, thank the Goddess. We thought we would lose you, Alpha. And the last thing I want is to be Alpha. I have girls to meet and parties to go to."

"What. Happened?" Rowan said, sitting up. Right now, he really wanted to punch Lucien. Most of the time, his beta's humor made him laugh and remember to take things more easily. Now he needed to know how he ended up here and what the hell happened to that girl. 

Adriana. She had come to help him.

And he had been considering rejecting her. No, not just considering it. He had decided to let her down easily, trying not to hurt her feelings. It just so happened that she hadn't let him speak, leaving him outside the house.

The regret he felt was even worse than the physical pain in his ribs and legs. 

"There's a lot to go through, Rowan. Maybe you should rest some more. Everything is fine, for now." Lucien interrupted his thoughts as he stood and stretched his arms. "Trust me, there's nothing that demands your immediate attention." 

"Who the hell attacked us? Was it meant for Alpha Darien?" Rowan sat up, sending more pain rushing through his body. He usually healed quite quickly and had a high pain tolerance. If he hurt this much right now, it must have meant that he had been pretty badly hurt. 

"We... don't know yet," Lucien said. "Alpha Darien is in another hospital. He was pretty beaten up."

"And what happened to Adriana?"

"Who?"

"The girl... The maid you said was beautiful."

"I didn't see her," Lucien said, frowning and looking very confused. "Why do you ask?"

"She was there, fighting those strange wolves." That was the last thing Rowan remembered. Adriana, fighting off one of the wolves who was trying to kill him. 

"No... She wasn't there." 

"Lucien. I saw her shift into a white wolf."

His beta's eyes widened when Rowan mentioned the white wolf.

"What? Spit it out. Is she dead?"

"I didn't know she was that wolf..."

"WHAT?! Lucien, for your sake, you better tell me." Rowan grabbed Lucien's shirt and pulled him down. 

"I don't know, man! I don't know what happened to her... She wasn't among the wounded or dead if that's what you want to know. Your mother is fine, too. She wasn't hurt at all."

Rowan let go of Lucien. No, if Adriana had been killed or gravely wounded, he would have felt it. He let out a sigh of relief, not only for Adriana's sake but for his mother.

He hadn't been too worried about her, since he knew his mother would have been trying to save people instead of fighting, and the likelihood of her getting attacked in the process wasn't too great. 

The same couldn't be said about Adriana. She looked so... frail and despondent as a human. But he had seen her take out not one, but two wolves. 

"There's something very strange about her if we're talking about the same white wolf who saved you," Lucien said, backing up and sitting back down in the chair next to Rowan's bed. "Well, a lot of strange things happened."

"Like what?"

"Like the weather going haywire? The ground shaking?"

"What do you mean?"

"You really didn't feel it?" 

"If I'm asking you about it, it's because I don't know what you're talking about. If you don't want to report to me, I'm going to find another beta," Rowan said, losing his patience. Lucien was his best friend and an amazing fighter, but he wasn't the best person to relay important details about anything.

"Dude, calm down. I'm sorry. I just woke up two hours ago and I'm also in pain."

Rowan lifted his eyebrows at Lucien. 

"There was an earthquake. It was mild, but it did bring down a house and a few structures that had been set up for the Moon Goddess ball."

There had never been any earthquakes in this area, as far as Rowan knew. 

"And... the omegas who were there seem to think that white wolf caused it. Her eyes were glowing, just like the eyes of the strange attackers. Though, her eyes were white."

"May I come in?" Luna Marie's head popped in from the tent flap. "I heard your voice and wanted to see how you're doing."

She entered the tent and sat down on the bed next to Rowan, grabbing his hand.

"You were very badly hurt according to the nurse who was changing your IV yesterday."

"Yesterday?!" It seemed like all Rowan could do at the moment was ask questions and get frustrated at the answers he was receiving. "How long have I been out?"

"Two days, honey."

Dread crept into his bones. Two days... He had to find Adriana. If she wasn't among the injured or dead, she must have gotten away. Unless the Turnbulls had somehow hidden her in the house. 

"Are you sure you never saw that girl again?" Rowan asked Lucien, regretting it instantly. His mother would start asking questions that he didn't want to answer at the moment. 

"Are you talking about Adriana?" Luna Marie said.

"Yes..."

She pursed her lips together knowingly as if she had expected Rowan to ask about her.

"According to Black Moon's reports, she was taken prisoner."