Stuck with the enemy

Chapter 16: I am here

Evening of the following day.

As I made my way toward Derek's house, hoping that today would finally bring answers about the past, a strange tension hung in the air, thick enough to stop me in my tracks. The usually calm and stately front of the house was transformed into a scene of barely contained chaos. Derek, Julia, and several staff members were dashing out the front door, their faces taut with urgency and panic.

Derek's eyes flashed with a hard edge, his gaze darting across the driveway as if assessing each second lost. Julia was pale, her movements sharp, almost frantic, as she called out instructions to the staff, her voice strained and wavering.

Derek barely glanced around as he moved toward his car, his jaw clenched and shoulders tense, every step conveying a fierce determination. It was as if something unspoken but deeply feared had snapped into reality, and they all knew they had to act fast.

"Alpha Derek!" I called, quickening my pace, desperate to talk. He looked at me, his eyes wild with fear.

"Not now, Deniz." he muttered, brushing past me as he opened the car door.

" We need to talk!" I said, frustration rising. "I'm not leaving until you listen to what I have to say."

But he barely registered my words. Instead, he slid into the driver's seat, his focus somewhere far away, a million miles from me. I knew then that something must have happened, something important. And somehow I started to panic too. And that's why, before he could argue, I climbed into the car beside him. " What happened?" I asked while fastening my seatbelt.

"Deniz, Get out!" he said, but his voice was shaky, and I could tell he was barely holding it together.

"Just drive," I said, crossing my arms, leaving him no choice. Whatever he was afraid of, I wanted to know. Or I least I felt like I had to.

He sighed, glancing at me with a look of frustration mixed with helplessness, then put the car into gear. He barely spoke as we sped down the road, silence hanging heavy between us. I didn't press him with questions; his silence told me more than words.

When the car stoped I was shocked. We were at the hospital. Then I really realized how serious it was. I looked at him, surprised and a little scared.

Two ambulances tore in just behind us, their sirens wailing in frantic, piercing waves that bounced off the cold, concrete walls. The flashing red and blue lights painted the scene in bursts of harsh, urgent color, cutting through the dimness of the early evening. Derek didn't waste a second. Before I could ask anything, he was out, rushing toward the nearest ambulance with a wild intensity.

I stumbled out after him, my heartbeat loud in my ears, trying to keep calm. The paramedics moved fast, their voices overlapping in clipped, hurried commands as they yanked open the back doors and pulled the stretcher down. Then I caught sight of the victim. It was the Alpha-Derek's father-lying there pale and still, strapped down with tubes and bandages, his skin a shade too close to gray.

Around us, the air felt heavy, thick with the scent of antiseptic and the quiet murmur of hospital staff, all now watching the scene with somber urgency. Derek's eyes were fixed on his father, desperation and fear etched into his expression, and for a moment, he seemed almost frozen. But then he moved, following the stretcher with quick, determined steps, barely even glancing back as he pressed forward into the chaos inside.