I'm the Alpha's Mate

Chapter 13

Thanks to @Black_Pink_White for the awesome cover!!!!

 The house is empty. My grandmother is gone. Two guards wait outside as I roam through the vacant space. Everything is still here, the furniture, some clothes, food, it is like she just disappeared. Right when I came through the door and called through the house, realizing that she is not here, I panicked almost to the point of an attack. Immediately, I blame it on the Alpha, as my mind cannot conjure up any other guilty man.

After shouting at the guards to search the area for her, I scavenge for a note, possibly saying that she has gone away. Once I find none, tears spring to my eyes and my heart squeezes tightly in my chest, the pounding shielding any other sounds from slipping in. What if he took her? What if he killed her? The thoughts rush as if the dam holding them back finally broke.

The house is silent besides the frantic sounds of my breathing mixed in with a sob every few seconds. I fall to my knees and hide my face with my hands. He is watching me, isn't he? He's enjoying the scene of me in shambles. I continue to cry on the floor, feeling defenseless. A sudden anger bubbles up inside, and I feel my cheeks flush with heat. Promptly, I get up and hurry up the stairs. My bedroom door is cracked open, and I push it the rest of the way, showing a bedroom I once used to recognize. Everything is in the same spots as before, nothing moved an inch, but I feel like I no longer belong here. Glaring out the window, I search for something, my grandmother, the Alpha, anything. Extremely frustrated, I rip my bedding off of the mattress and shout when it will not let go.

Heading into her bedroom, I scan the area again. Being as thorough as I can be, my hands fist my hair when I find nothing in return. My chest rises and falls dramatically as I fly back down the stairs and rush outside. One of the guards is running towards the house. "Did you find her?" I yell, but he replies with an expected 'no.'

"Would you like me to get the Alpha?"

I hesitate. "Yes, yes, please get him."

The other guard must still be searching, and I watch until the messenger disappears into the trees. They watch me, they witness all, and they must be laughing at me now. These towering beings see everything that happens in this forest, every death, every plead, and it is all embedded in their trunks. If you hold your palm against the bark, you may just be whispered the secrets they keep. They will tell you how a foolish girl stumbled onto taken land, and they will confess how she ended up getting everyone killed. If you are lucky enough, you just may hear a cry.

I sulk back into the house and slowly close the door behind me. My back is against it, the wood being the only thing keeping me up, and I stare into the hotbed of memories. Her scent is sparse in the air. The open cabinets, the missing clothes, the sense of trepidation, it all shows the effects of a story that I may never hear. The curtains are pulled shut when they are usually all the way open, left that way so the house is never gloomy. It all hints to one final answer, an answer I cannot get my hands on. Did she also fear his stalking eyes? Did he force his way in? Did she leave in a hurry?

"Where are you?" I murmur.

My hands curl around the fabric before tugging the curtain open, letting a filtered ray of the drab light show through. Minuscule dust particles swirl in the air, dancing in the gleam, adding to the empty feeling and aroma of the space. I hate it, feeling like I never grew up here. It is a different place now that my grandmother is not here. It is no longer a haven or opportunity to be free, but an abandoned house lost in the center of an observing wood. The second step to the porch no longer means anything without my grandmother.

A decade of my life is gone, vanished. A desolate hole lays in the timeline of my life, a period that taught me so much, forgotten about. My grandmother would not just leave me on purpose. There has to be a reason.