5

April

Flashback

I lift part of my T-shirt, see the blue bruises on my skin, and groan in pain.

In today's training session, I fought hard with a big guy, Taylor. He was muscular and almost twice my height, but I won. His jaw must have been dislocated.

Now I’m hiding here, in a small warehouse, with my wound medicine to medicate myself. I’m very skilled at this, at least as long as no one comes to disturb me.

After a few minutes, I’m finished and I grab the door handle to get out, but the door doesn’t not open.

I tsk, cussing the pranks of those over-energetic boys. Such things are normal to happen in werewolf packs, so I could never complain to the Alpha or my mother about this.

Taking a deep breath, I kick the door hard, wanting to break the door lock with brute force to get out. As I’m continuing to attack the door, I don't realize how the piled building materials in this small room are already shaking.

One more kick and there is a loud bang. I get buried under several tons of material, the raised dust making me cough. Panic expands slowly in my chest as I notice that my head is the only thing I can still move freely.

I spit out a mouthful of blood and groan. The bones in my chest must be broken. I try to crawl out from beneath the heavy pile of objects covering me, but I fail.

My phone is also buried underneath, and I hadn't shifted yet, so I wouldn’t be able to mind-link a helper.

"Help,” I shout but my voice is too feeble to reach the outside of the room, and no one would deliberately pass by here anyway. I foolishly chose a quiet and remote place for myself.

Will I die here? 

Just as I feel my senses slipping away from me and I no longer have the strength to make any sound, the door gets knocked open, and a tall figure rushes towards me.

It takes my blurred vision a few heartbeats to recognize him, my heart blooming as I smell his scent - Scott.

He looks at me in panic, trying desperately to drag away the things crushing me.

He keeps telling me to hold on over and over again, and I could swear that I see tears welling up into his eyes.

That was the exact moment I lost my whole heart to him.

End of flashback

“Get up!”

My breath gets knocked out of my lungs as Scott kicks me into my stomach, and he repeats his order louder, growling it right into my face as he pulls my hair to make me look at him. “Get up!”

With an ungentle push, he makes me hit the dirty floor again, making me cough as I’m ringing for air as the pain governing my body is making it hard to breathe.

Groaning I push myself off the floor, only to be grabbed by Scott and dragged to my feet as he loses his patience.

“You are too slow,” he growls into my ear before pushing me towards the exit.

I take slow and steady breaths to be able to cope with the pain as I let my voice die in my throat, not wanting to anger him further. He shouts at me again, and I finally move, walking to the exit of the dungeons as fast as I can without passing out because of the pain.

Holding my side, I feel blood seep through my fingers as my wolf-less body struggles to regenerate.

“Move!” he snarls as we step into the sunlight, leaving the scruffy underground and I take a deep breath, filling my lungs with clear air.

He grabs my arm again, making me wince, and tears me to the town square. 

The pack members who are standing around watch us with shocked and disgusted looks. I can recognize their disparaging judgment clearly as the rumors about me being involved in the killing of their beloved future Luna must have spread like wildfire. 

My heart squeezes painfully as I see my mother push through the crowd to reach me as Scott pushes me gruffly, making me hit the hard ground.

I sob as my ribs scream at the impact, making me roll into a ball to alleviate the pain.

Scott straightens himself as he speaks to the people who have gathered around us. “April Foster lured my mate and our Luna into a trap to kill her out of jealousy. I had intended to execute her to make her pay for it as she didn’t show any remorse.”

I cough as I hug myself on the ground, whimpering. My voice fails me as my body has long given up fighting to prove my innocence. If they are so set on wanting to blame me and kill me for it, so be it.

The only thing I really worry about is my mother as she doesn’t deserve any of this.

Hasn’t she suffered enough already as you took her mate from her, Moon Goddess?

I can feel the hate rolling off the pack members in waves as they keep cursing and spitting venom at us. I realize that in just this short time, my mother must have become an outcast as well. These must have been difficult days for her, living with the burden of the thought of the crime I am accused of having committed.

“This is enough!” a loud voice booms over the town square, making me flinch.

Kane, who used to be my father's best friend, steps next to my mother, coming into our defence. “You can’t treat April like this! Look at her wounds. Haven’t you tortured her enough?”

Scott growls, not approving of Kane’s biased demeanor in my favor, but even as Alpha he has to show some respect to the strongest warrior of his pack. “Get back in line, Kane.”

“I don’t think that Alpha Kelvin would approve of this. What the hell got into you, Scott?” Kane argues, trying to get Scott off my back.

“In case you forgot, Kane, I will gladly remind you that I’m the Alpha now!” Scott growls back, straightening his spine. “She got her trial, and she failed to prove her innocence. So. Get. Back. In. Line.”

Kane casts us a pitiful look before he takes a step back and Scott clicks his tongue, turning back to address the crowd around him. “My father, as the merciful man he is, convinced me to not execute the death sentence I had condemned April Foster to. In great respect for my father and your former Alpha, I have decided to simply exile April and Hazel Foster from this pack.”

Scott crouches down and is already reaching out to lay his hand on my head to sever any bond I have to him as my Alpha and to the pack as I jerk back, shaking my head. “No, I beg you! My mother didn’t do anything.”

“Just shut up and sit still,” he growls threateningly, but I gulp down my fear, shaking my head even harder.

“Please! Scott, she has nothing to do with all this. Don’t let her go rogue,” I shout pleadingly. But my mother sighs, laying her hands on my shoulders, making my erratic breathing calm down.

“I will never leave you alone,” she says with a soothing tone, smiling at me. “I asked the Alpha to do that. Don’t worry about me. We will get through this together.”

With a deep breath, she squeezes my arms, nodding at me. “You have to be strong now.”

Tears flow down my face, maybe she also is convinced about the fact that I killed Hailey but she is still willing to stand by me.

I gasp as I feel Scott's hand grabbing my head and I clench my eyes closed, bracing for another wave of pain to ripple through me. “I, Scott Walker, Alpha of the Blue Amber Pack, banish you April Foster from the pack’s territory and prohibit you from ever setting foot on my land again, for the rest of your pathetic, and hopefully short, life.”

My heart has barely broken into thousands of pieces, causing a stinging pain to expand in my chest as it gets suppressed by another, even more intense, burning pain that surges through me, making me feel as if I’m about to be burnt alive. 

I scream at the top of my lungs, my senses giving out to a blending light and a shrill ringing tone bursting my eardrums.

As I fall to the ground powerless, I sense Scott move, about to do the same ritual to my mother.

“You will regret this, Alpha Scott,” I whisper, but I’m sure that he can hear it loud and clearly. 

My heart stills in my chest as my bad conscience wraps its tentacles around me, suffocating me to the point that I faint on the spot. 

You don’t need him. You have me. 

Who was speaking in my mind just now?