Framed

Part 4

After the alpha left, the door was shut and but not locked. Though it appeared that they were grateful for me saving the alpha's grandson, I was still a rogue, and therefore, still a danger to the pack. But they trusted me to stay, I realized as I listened to the warriors leaving. An hour passed before the door was slowly opened and Martha shyly entered, holding a tray of food. She flashed me a weak smile as she sat the tray on the nightstand beside my bed.

"I wasn't sure what you would like, so I brought you some lasagna." I eyed the food and slowly reached towards it. The soft click of the door told me that once again I was alone. But I wasn't bothered by the silence. After five years of it, I was used to it.

After a few small bites, I sat the tray back down. It had been a long time since I had eaten a hot meal. Usually, I would just eat whatever game I could catch, or the food that I would steal, which didn't have to be cooked.

My body was still healing, so by the time that the sky was getting a hint of darkness to hit, I slipped off the bed, taking a thin blanket with me as I walked towards the farthest corner from the door. I laid the blanket on the floor before quickly shifting and curling into a tight ball with my back to the walls. I was asleep within seconds.

The next morning, I was awake before the sun rose. I had always been an early riser, and living as a rogue only sharpened that trait. It was seven o'clock before I heard the faint sounds of people stirring outside my door. My head tilted towards it a bit as I listened, curious. For a brief second, I found myself missing my old life but I quickly shook that thought away.

I don't know what made me look towards the driveway, but as I did, my eyes landed on a man standing close to Alpha Rivers. The stranger turned towards me slightly, giving me just enough to make out who he was. A furious growl rumbled loudly from my chest as Bellona pushed towards the front of my mind. Tom Whelan was here.

Everything around me was forgotten as I watched him, laughing and smiling as if he had never killed one of his own warriors and destroyed another's life. Bellona was fighting for control, but I knew that if I gave it to her, she would find a way out of this room, only to kill Whelan. Just as someone knocked on my door, a couple with a little boy joined the two alphas. As if sensing my stare, the boy glanced up at me and smiled.

The man who I had pegged as the boy's father turned and I froze as if I had just been doused in ice water. Max kissed the woman beside him before taking the boy from his father. My eyes darted between Max's face and the boy's and that's when it hit me. Max was the boy's father, so that made his mother Alpha Rivers' daughter. The fact that he had mated to another didn't hurt. What hurt was the fact that he had mated to soon after I had been exiled.

The happiness and joy that I could see written on his face was like a fatal blow to Bellona's spirit. He had never looked at me with that much love in his eyes. I spun around, not able to watch anymore. Alpha Rivers had shown me a kindness, but only because I had saved his grandson. But he was close to Whelan and that only made me distrustful of him.

My gaze met with Martha's and the warrior standing behind her. I could tell that he didn't like her being so close to me. "My daughter and her mate would like to thank you in person for saving their son." I did a double take. She was the luna? I so did not see that coming.

I shook my head no, not really in the mood to meet the woman who had taken my place. "My family as well as the Whelan family owes you a huge debt that can never be repaid." She started to speak, but I held my hand up, cutting her off. "I want to be released if you wish to repay me. I don't belong here."

Martha gave me a sad smile before brightening up again. "They'll be up here in an hour or so." With a nod towards me, she and the warrior left, once again leaving my door unlocked. I waited until I heard the doors of the elevator shutting before I slowly eased the door open. My eyes scanned the hall and I realized that I was alone.