Chapter 9: Chapter 9

We finally arrive at around six o'clock. Alpha Hughes has hidden weapons all over him incase the witches try something. We walk over to a small cabin. A teenage lady sits on her porch. "Jack Hughes? Surprise, Surprise!" I assume she's Elizabeth. "Hello, Clara, is Elizabeth here?" Alpha Hughes questions. "She's in the backyard playing. I'll show you to her." Clara answers and guides us.

Elizabeth's a lot younger than I assumed. "What do you want Jack?" Elizabeth stands tall. "This is my mate, Samantha." All eyes are on me. Kind of like breakfast this morning. Elizabeth examines me. She notices the bruises. "How's the bruise on your side?" She asks. I furrow my eyebrows. "I can see through your shirt and by the look on Jack's face you didn't tell him." Elizabeth smirks. Alpha Hughes grabs my arms and pulls me into his chest.

"You lied to me?" Alpha Hughes sneers. I contemplate talking and in the end the best thing for me to do is nod, which I do. "Don't talk at all." He instructs.

His words are put to challenge when Elizabeth asks me the question of the day, 'how did it happen?' I don't know how to respond, Alpha told me not to speak so I should obey him. But this is a question directed toward me so I shouldn't obey him. "Does she talk at all?" Elizabeth questions Alpha Hughes. He shrugs. "I want to talk to you in private-" Alpha Hughes cuts her off. "No whatever you can tell her-" Elizabeth silences him.

Elizabeth pulls me into what most likely is her room. "Look, I don't know what Jack told you, but I need you to talk to me. Okay? There's nothing Jack can do to you right now." She says sincerely. I must not talk a lot. Well, that and Alpha Hughes is kind of scary. "Okay." I respond breathily. "So what happened?"

"... and now I'm here." I finish explaining. Elizabeth crosses her arms and sits back into her chair while making a 'hm' sound. "Thank you for trusting me." I smile at her. "Oh! By the way, you're really pretty." Elizabeth compliments me. I laugh. "Thank you! That means a lot." Elizabeth giggles and we walk back out to where Alpha Hughes and Clara are. As I look at Elizabeth more I can tell her and Clara have similar features.

Everything is tense. "The only way to stop the attacks is if she doesn't sleep." Clara says. "That's not exactly true. There's something else we can do." Clara looks at Elizabeth as if she is crazy. "We can't-" Alpha Hughes cuts Clara off. "What is it?" He pushes. "It's a very hard spell but we can undo his spell. But Samantha has to be asleep." Elizabeth explains. "Beth, you can't do it. you might die!" Clara refuses. "Trust me, Clara."

Alpha Hughes has me stay the night here. Of course he is also in the room with me. "Okay, Samantha, I need you to relax and fall asleep." Elizabeth instructs. I start breathing slower. In through my nose and out through my mouth. And soon enough I have fallen into a slumber.

I am on the floor right where Michael left me. "You must think you're Sleeping Beauty." He emerges from the shadows. I don't say anything. I feel a warm liquid fall from my nose. I touch my upper lip and I see blood. "What the bloody-" His nose is bleeding too. This must mean the spell's working? "What spell!" Michael holds me up by my neck. I start to cough. "What are you doing!" He tightens his grip as he gets more mad. "I'm not doing," I kick his stomach, "anything!" My kick does nothing.

​"You set me up!" Blood comes out of his ears. I can feel it oozing out of mine too. I scream loudly. A sharp pain hits my stomach but it isn't from Michael. What's going on? I roll over so that I'm on my stomach. Sometimes if I put pressure on a spot the hurts the pain starts to feel good. "I'm going to find you and I'm going to kill you. You have three months." Then I wake up.

I look around and my breathing quickens. Alpha Hughes moves over to Elizabeth so quickly I don't see him. I check my ears and my nose and I feel dried up blood. "What happened?" I look over to Clara. "I-I don't know, Elizabeth was saying the spell and then both your noses and ears started to bleed." Clara sums it up. "So was Michael's..." I mutter.

After a few minutes of Alpha Hughes and Elizabeth whispering they stop. "What did he say, Samantha?" Alpha Hughes has an annoyed expression on his face. "He said I have three months until he finds me and kills me." Everyone's faces drop. Alpha Hughes doesn't have any sympathy towards my death threat. How did my life get so chaotic?

We leave Elizabeth and Clara's home and drive back to the pack house. During the drive Dean, Philip, and Alpha all discuss ways to prevent this. The only options seems to be if I leave by faking a death. "How am I supposed to watch her?" Alpha wonders. "You won't be able to." Dean answers. "Then no. We have three months to figure this out, we'll just stall until then." Alpha finalizes. "That isn't a good idea-" Alpha Hughes cuts Philip off. "I'll see you in an hour."

Today has been the longest day of my life. And I can't fall asleep, I'm too afraid to. What if I see Michael and he continues to attack me? I don't want to risk that. But am I really going to ruin my sleeping schedule because of it? I have no idea what to do and I wish I could talk to someone. Someone like my best friend, Genevieve, whom I miss with all my heart and soul.

Alpha Hughes doesn't check up on me. I'm okay with that now, but I'm really hungry and I wish he would. Involuntarily, I burp. It is loud and obnoxious. He snaps his head over to me. "Did you just burp?" He sounds amused. "It-It happens when I'm h-hungry." I sheepishly smile. "Ryan! Take us to Chick-Fil-A!" He orders. I mentally thank him. He seems human for that fast thirty minutes. Those thirty minutes he is the man I dream of.

I munch on my Chicken Burger. There's nothing like Chick-Fil-A. I finish my burger quickly and start to drink my diet Pepsi. Alpha Hughes doesn't eat much I can tell. A large man like him will normally eat six meals. I am not sure if he ate after breakfast this morning. Why do I care? He's done nothing to help me? Well, he did buy me a burger but that doesn't count.

I watch the raindrops race across the glass window. It's kind of like life. You start and you have no idea where you're going but you're moving. And then when everything's going well, you go down. Finally it's over and you're dead. All's well that ends well. What does that even mean?

I feel myself grow tired and start to give in to the darkness. But in that darkness, I'm vulnerable and alone. And those two things mean one thing, I can easily be taken advantage of. I drag myself to Alpha's bedroom and get into the bed. I don't bother changing into pajamas. I close my eyes but never fall asleep.