The Desert Alpha's Mate

CHAPTER 42-MISTAKE

Ashraf woke up with a start. His head was throbbing with pain. He felt that there was something off when he opened his eyes, and saw that he was lying on a cold damp floor. He wasn't familiar with his surroundings. In his confused state, he scanned the place. Feeling drowsy, he didn't bother to stand at all. He just looked around. It seemed to him that he was in a dungeon. From the state of the place, it was unused. It was dark and the temperature inside was humid. If not for his wolf's ability to see in the dark, he wouldn't have seen a thing.

Then he saw it. A bloody body sprawled next to him. Startled by the sight, he stumbled to get up. In his dizzy state, he looked at himself. To his surprise, he saw his thawb, and his hands were covered in blood. His eyes widened, and his gaze darted back at the body. Shaking all the feeling of nausea that was attacking him from his throbbing head, he stared at the bloody body, searching his mind, trying to remember. Although he was still dizzy, his mind became alert upon recognizing the body. It is the boy that always followed Lady Eleanor around.

He trembled, 'this wasn't part of the plan,' he thought.

He went to the boy's side to check if he was still alive. There were multiple wounds on the boy's body, some of them very deep. For some reason, it didn't seem his wolf's ability of fast healing was present.

'As if there is something that is blocking the healing altogether' he thought. Although he was still dizzy, he checked the boy's vitals. Ashraf let out a sigh of relief as he saw that the boy's hand flinched and he was still breathing, though it was faint.

'What happened to us?' he mumbled, looking at the boy and trying to figure out what to do next. He doesn't have any recollection of why they were there, nor why the boy was heavily wounded.

'The last thing I remember is that I followed his scent at one of the stalls in the center of the capital,' he thought, eyeing the wounds on the boy's body. 'His wounds are very deep. It seems like he has been toyed with and clawed repeatedly. Omegas usually heal quite slowly, especially deep wounds. Sometimes so slow you wouldn't believe they have a wolf at all. A deep wound can take forever to heal, what more with multiple and deep claw wounds as on this boy's fragile body. It's the only reason I can think of as to why he isn't healing properly and fast. Who could have done this to this boy? Why am I here? Why am I soaked with blood? And why am I sensing my wolf's aura at him? As if... I am... the one who did this...' Ashraf's eyes became wider when this sudden realization hit him. 'It can't be! Did I?' he thought, looking between the bloody body and himself. He tried his best to remember everything that had happened to them before he woke up in this place, but doing this made his head throb again. He squirmed while trying not to fall into unconsciousness.

Flashes of what happened earlier came back at him...

He was with Lady Lina, talking with her about her plans on how to oust the king. Then it hit him, although it was faint, he could feel it from a distance. The scent of fear. His beast stirred and got excited because of it. He tried his best to conceal this excitement in front of Lady Lina and her guard Argus. But his beast wasn't content, it wanted to check who it was, and feed on their fear. His beast was trying to get out. He could feel that it was trying to overpower him so it could get out and check who the owner of that fear was.

He knew that it wasn't coming from the inside of the tavern. His beast started to get excited, noticing that someone might have followed him, and now was lurking somewhere near the tavern. Although he was wondering why his beast was suddenly acting this way. Since that day, when they passed the border of the Sahara after he woke up from that fainting spell that happened at the border gate, his beast was always excited to feed off the scent of fear. It was like drugs to his beast, and it was always wanting more. The more the person was scared of him, the sweeter the scent became to him. These past few days, Ashraf was having trouble controlling his beast. Often he was waking up in an unknown place at the palace, never having a recollection of what happened to him or how he got there. He never breathed any of this to anyone, not even his alpha.