Chapter 51: Chapter 51

Alecia woke up from sleep, somehow, all the memories came rushing back. It was never a dream. Their had really been a man who grabbed her, and Ryder had injected something into her -- something that had made her lose the baby.

The tears that filled her eyes now we're tears of hopelessness. She would never be happy again, never be free. Never be the girl she used to be.

She remembered all that had happened in the few days after Ryder kidnapped her from her family. They had wanted her to testify in court that Ryder hadn't had someone killed, someone she knew he had killed. To prepare her, or maybe to frighten her into telling the lies they wanted her to tell, they had slit the throat of a man before her very eyes.

After that, she was nothing, felt nothing but sadness and utter hopelessness. She got up and walked to the bathroom

Alecia stared at the mirror in the bathroom, into her lifeless blue eyes. She had been broken, and this time, broken beyond repair.

Ryder had no soul. Every promise, every word spoken in love was nothing but a means to get what he wanted.

She walked into the large room filled with the lemon and lime scent of his aftershave and closed the door behind her. and grabbed a small leather bag resting on top of the sink. She opened it and found a pair of scissors he had once used to turture another werewolf. Turning, she leaned her back against the sink, and closed her eyes. This was the only way to be free. She could not bare to wake up one more day knowing she belonged to Ryder. To crave his touch when she knew she should hate him. He had successfully made her his plaything. An object to be toyed with, but never to be taken seriously.

She pressed the scissors to her wrist right above the vein and drew it across her skin. The blade sliced deep into her skin, sending searing pain through her.

She screamed, losing her balance and slipping onto the floor;The large jacuzzi before her blurred in and out - darkness nipped around her mind. A pounding sound attacked the door, while wood fell to the floor. Her head was lifted until she could see nothing but Ryder’s pale gray eyes full of tears.

“Alecia.”

His eyes faded from her vision, but she could still feel him clenching her too tight, like he always did. But luckily death was beyond his control.

In the midst of the sickening pain she felt, Alecia smiled. She would not stay Ryder's slave for ever.

Ryder studied the gold crowns on the carpet. She knew. Every last detail he had tried to keep from her. He had failed. He needed to let her go before things got worse, but he couldn’t.

Couldn’t live without her. He closed his eyes. What should he do?

The door closed as he buried his face into his hands. Something tugged at him, calling to him. He hated himself, he was evil, with an innocent girl trapped in his grip. And innocent girl who had no more life in her. He had turned her into a shell, just like his mother had turned his Dad.

Maybe he could find some way to let her go before he hurt her again. He needed to let her go. He loved her.

Something hard thumped on the floor. Ryder sprang to his feet. He rushed to the bathroom door, pulling at the knob, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Alecia,” he screamed. No one answered. He spun around, and grabbed a chair and pounded on the door until he had smashed a hole through it. He reached in, slicing his skin on the shattered wood and unlocked it, pushing it opened.

He stopped cold. Alecia lay motionless in a puddle of blood.

“Ally!” He rushed to her, pulling her onto his lap. He focused on her half-open eyes and reached for his phone, but it slipped from his grasp. She was going to die. He had killed her. A white color spread across her cheeks.

Ryder pressed the circle of his iPhone, and turned for his bag, spilling the contents on the floor and grasping the rubber, he used so often on his arm.

A beep filled the room. “911, Siri,” he shouted.

Looping the rubber around her bloody wrist, he yanked it closed, but blood still seeped out, like a trickling fountain. What had he done to her? To lead her to this?

He cradled her face as an operator answered in the background.

“Help,” he mumbled, as the light left her eyes, and they rolled back into her head.

A sob rose in him, but he swallowed it back as his fingers trailed her other arm and reached to the vein. A light thump pushed against his fingers, but it slowed with each beat. Her life was seeping from her, just like the blood from her wound.

He bent to her lips while tears rushed down his face. There was nothing he could do. Nothing any man on this earth could do. Ryder closed his eyes tight. The words give in fluttered across his mind.

“Save her,” he whispered. “And I will.” Ryder scrunched up his face. Please. Tears rushed faster from his eyes as the thumping slowed to a smooth rhythm and then ceased after one last faint tick. Not even the best doctors could save her.

A sob rose up in him, pushing from him in a guttural cry as a deep pain seared across him. Never again would he see her eyes full of life. Taste her warm lips. All because of him.

“I’m sorry.” He slammed his free hand on the floor. "I love you."

He lay his forehead across hers, letting the tears mix into her hair. I will do what you want.

A small warmth brushed his nose. Ryder stilled as a thump grew against his fingers.

Alecia's eyes fluttered open and focused on his as she gasped for breath.

Ryder rushed back, his head slamming against the sink. Feet rushed towards him as men knelt before her, and a cart was rolled in.

“The wound’s not deep. I think we can save her,” a man said.

Ryder swallowed hard as something in his heart constricted. He could not keep on like this. He could not continue abusing the woman he loved, the woman who had trusted him enough to allow herself get marked by him. He had to take a stand, to choose her over his father and his father's plans, to choose her over his being and Alpha. She who had chosen him over everything.