RANK

Chapter 23

A few nights later...

Nya could feel something hard underneath pushing into her side and dampness beneath her fingers. The last thing she remembered was reading on the sofa. She cracks her eyes open to discover herself outside under the night's sky and the shade of a tree. "Shiiit..." She rises slowly and scans around. She was off the pack grounds in the middle of dense trees and thorny bushes. She did it again.
Carefully, she stands. Her legs were fine. She touches her mouth and nose looking at her fingers for blood and thank her lucky stars there wasn't any. She didn't seem to have even a scratch.

All four directions appeared the same and visibility was a few feet. It was a toss-up on which way she should go. She then thought about the angle her feet were facing when she was on the ground. It was her best bet.

She carefully takes each step making sure not to step on a critter or trip over tree roots. Barely a few minutes passed when she could have sworn she heard her name being called. She glances around. "Someone there?"

No response came. She assumed she was hallucinating and continued. Then after a few hundred feet, the sound of crackling leaves and snapping sticks coming from behind stops her. She turns around and out of the darkness, a towering frame appears. "Who are you?"

"Nya..."

She exhales. "Alpha Vince..." With the moon's light hidden by the leaves she couldn't see his face but his voice she could recognize anywhere. Her knees went weak with the sudden relief that trickled in all over her and it wasn't because she was found. There was a yearning feeling she didn't know had built up and the sudden lack of an ache upon hearing him made her realize its existence.

"Are you okay?"

She nods.

"Nya?" He steps closer.

He couldn't see her she registered. "Yes sir."

"Are you hurt?"

She could make out his sharp features, the worry lines crinkled on his forehead, and the concern in his gaze. "No sir."

He neared, so close, that she had to bend her neck to look up at him. His palms rest on her cheeks inspecting forcefully.

The tips of her fingers glide over the back of his hand. "I'm okay."

Suddenly he pulls her into his arms. His chest rose and sank heavily and his biceps constricted around her. "Nya..."

Her eyes close involuntarily as her body relaxes. She never felt this comfortable in her bed. "I'm sorry." She whispers.

"Don't be..." He pulls back and clears hair from her face. "I put your safety in untrustworthy hands. Never again."

Her lips part. He was keeping her safe to keep wolves safe from the humans but it was the way he said the things that he said, that for just milliseconds she could think otherwise. Vince of the Darks could never have feelings for a low ranked glitched freak. And what was she even thinking, he is Malina's mate. He loves her and she loves him no matter what the circumstance right now.
She steps back almost hurdling out of his arms and curls hair behind one of her ears. "Umm..."

He unexpectedly grabs her wrist and flips her palms upward. His thumb glides over a slash that continues through both forearms. It was already healing. "What happened?"

"Training..."

"Again?" His brows furrow. "Who was it this time?"

She opens her mouth but somehow she felt like she would be a tattletale or a complainer if she said that his ex Shay was pretty annoyed. Now that Malina was out of the picture, it seemed she was feeling a bit territorial of the space around her alpha. "Does it really matter? It was my fault anyway."