A Queen of Alphas - Season 1

S1 15 - Scarlett

Scarlett followed Cassia down the hall. Her body was so tense her muscle fibres could have been played like a guitar. The situation made no sense. She was, herself, in the Swiftwind Clan's Conpound, a feat none of the soldiers in the human army would have ever achieved had they tried.

For the record, they had tried. It worked worse than anyone had been able to foresee, even in their wildest dreams, which is why they didn't try again. Fourwings' face if he knew where she was right now would be priceless, but she didn't have the capacity to imagine it, because her heart was thumping in her chest, and her blood rushing in her ears, and the taste of bile was strong at the back of her mouth.

'Calm down,' Cassia said, her tone cold. 'I can smell your fear.'

'Yeah, well,' she said, making sure she didn't lag behind. 'I'm surrounded by beasts who can rip my head off with their bare hands, so forgive me if I am a tad jumpy.'

Cassia didn't answer. The woman had an aura that would make a sloth uneasy. Her silence was worse than a roar or an outright threat.

'Or are you trying to tell me that they'll only attack me if I'm afraid?'

'You talk too much,' Cassia said between tight teeth.

'I've been told that a couple of times.'

She couldn't help it. The silence weighed too hard on her. It reminded her too much of that day. Even the thought of it was now making it hard to breathe.

Cassia turned on her.

'What will it take?' she asked, her eyes digging into hers. Cassia was a remarkably beautiful woman who looked not a year above forty, which made no sense, because her son was in his twenties. At least she knew where he got his good looks from.

At that moment, she realised something.

'Does this mean you're my mother in law?'

The expression on Cassia's face turned from cold and distant to sour.

'We don't mate with humans,' she grunted under her breath, coming so close I could feel her words brushing against my skin. She stood there, menacing, large brown eyes burning holes in my skull, and all I could do was smirk.

'Well...' I couldn't help it. It was such a fucked up thing to say to me, of all people, and she knew it. She probably realised it as the words were coming out of her mouth, which is why she grunted and turned on her heels. Scarlett rushed behind her. 'It's not like I am happy about the situation myself, if that means anything to you,' I said, letting my eyes wander around. These corridors were so familiar I almost felt at home. Straight, neat, clinical. Army design tended to converge in the same shapes, forms and themes. Plain and boring to the point of exhaustion.

'You seemed happy enough last night.'

The retorts piled against the back of Scarlett's lips like a pack of runners coming towards a sudden obstacle, all slamming into the people in front as they came to a sudden stop. They were good retorts too. They'd have Yejin and Jahyun in tears. But she suspected it would be inappropriate to tell them to her—no, she left this part blank in her own head—whatever's mother, especially because she didn't seem to be the type to make her's son's—no, not this either—whatever feel part of the family. More the type of chasing you down the frozen forest like prey.

She bit her tongue and tried to recall the turns and directions they had taken since leaving the training facility. Based on distance and direction, it must have been the centre of the complex.

One left, third door, two floors down, then third door again, and now to the left, at which point the corridors became less cold, less regularised, but not much. There were, however, newsboards on the walls, and signs of life.