The Alpha's Prize

2

Word Count: 1286

~Hunter

I awake slowly, my numb arm rolling under me as I turn, blinking through the mellow light that guides me back into a state of wakefulness.

Distantly, I feel pain in my middle back, pressing in as more consciousness dawns on me. My senses are too distracted to truly accept the pain, a cloying scent of flowers muddled with dirt surrounding me.

"Oh...You're awake."

I blink, feeling the soft press of a pillow beneath my head, of blankets draped over me. I'm not outside...I'm not in the forest.

I'm inside. Trapped.

My attempts to sit up are quickly thwarted by the stabbing pain in my back.

I was shot, by an arrow, and by the chemical taste on the back of my tongue, it was laced with poison.

"What's going on," I grit out, as a face pops into my vision from the side of the bed.

It's the girl from the forest. I growl, trying to move, but the pain in my back is so overwhelming I'm left paralysed.

"Woah, you should calm down, you don't want to exert so much energy," she warns, patting my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me.

"You poisoned me," I grit out. That has to explain the inexplicable burning sensation in my back.

"No, Kaan did...my brother, I mean," she tells me, flustered. "You have had an antidote."

So they are siblings. Wonderful.

"How long have I been out?" I question.

Turning my head, I see a myriad of flower bouquets tucked into crystal vases littered all about the room. It looks like a funeral, like my death was assured, and yet I'm conscious.

Unfortunately, because that smell is hideous.

"About a week and a half." The girl admits, chewing the edge of her nail.

She appears so meek, so unnerved by me.

I stiffen, my eyes widening. Over a week? They will be right on my tail by now...

"I need to leave," I insist, trying to drag my wary body from the bed, but it protests wildly. Pain racks over my limbs, so intense my head spins as I weakly sink back into the pillow.

"No, you're weak, it's going to take you some time to build your strength up again," Taysa explains. "The poison is serious, and we got the antidote to you late."

"I feel fine..."

No, I don't. But I'll crawl from his place if I have to.

I mean, what kind of hell dimension have I fell into that includes a room full of tacky flowers and a lingering girl who is part of the reason I'm here in the first place?

"Your immune system will be so weak, you'll walk outside and get sick instantly. If you even have the strength to walk out of here."

I feel over my person, noting the frail gown draped over me and the lack of my personal belongings.

"Where are my weapons?"

"Kaan took them away," Tay admits. "Not that you can use them..."

I grit my teeth tightly. The exact last person I need to have their hands on my weapons. He shot me in the spine, and soon, he's going to pay.

"I'm going to find your brother, and I'm going to kill him," I announce.

"No, he shot you because he is protective of me, that's all," she insists, looking panicked. "No one is going to hurt you anymore, and maybe I can get him to consider apologising."