Cold As Stone

Chapter 5

Katherine groaned as she began to wake up. Her body felt like it had been run over by a car and the driver had backed up three times for good measure. She swallowed deeply and winced when she realized she clearly had not had fluids down her throat in a very long time.

Slowly she opened her eyes and blinked a few times to get her bearings. It was dark, wherever she was, and the moonlight was shining through the sheer curtains to her right. The Curtains that looked incredibly unfamiliar to her. Her eyes widened when she suddenly remembered the events that had proceeded her unconsciousness.

"Shit," she hissed as she glanced around the room quickly and then down at herself. She had an IV in her arm, which she quickly pulled out because god knows what they were pumping into her, and a think cast on her right ankle. Without notice of her other injuries she sat up and let out a startled breathe when the pain from her ribs made itself known. Her breathing quickly became labored as she lifted her legs to the side of the twin bed she was on and pushed herself into a standing position.

Katherine knew she was in a really bad situation. She had no idea where she was, she was in extreme pain, and she had no idea who could be waiting outside the door she was moving towards. Worse case scenario she would die a slow and painful death right? She reached for the door with her left hand and let out another curse when she realized her wrist was also in a white plastered cast. Obviously falling out of a tree had not gone exactly how she had planned because now not only was she injured to the max, she was captured by god knows who.

'Well here goes nothing,' she thought as she turned the door knob with her left hand. She let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding when she realized there was nobody in the hallway. They probably would have heard her if there had been anybody out there she thought.

"Hello?" Katherine called out softly. There was no point in trying to escape a house where there were already people. She could barely walk as it was and she was having a seriously hard time breathing. Her only chance of escaping was if the house was empty. Which luckily for her it actually seemed to be.

No reply came and Katherine began shuffling down the hallway towards what, she did not know. Her good leg led her, which was funny because after that night two years ago she did not consider it her good leg, and she rounded a corner. A living room and a kitchen were dimly lit by a small fire place but there was nobody to be seen. Katherine let out a breath of relief as she saw what looked to be a front door began hobbling towards it.

Quickly she pulled it open and began limping towards the dark forest that was illuminated by the moonlight. She knew her chance for survival at this point was extremely slim but she wouldn't go down with a fight. She just didn't know if it would end up being a fight with her captors or with the elements.

She had barely been outside for less than five minutes and yet she was already shivering and the frozen air was making her ribs were screaming in protest. The pain in her ankle was making itself known and she knew that she had to take a rest. She had a good start and it could be hours before anybody noticed she was missing, right? With those thoughts in mind she leaned against a tall pine tree and placed her unbroken wrist on her side, hoping to alive the terrible pressure her ribs had suddenly created for her heaving lungs.

Where the hell was she? She glanced around at the trees when she could finally breathe a little bit and closed her eyes in dismay. She was going to die out here in the cold. She had no idea where she was and she had no idea where she was to go.  Katherine realize she could have been passed out for hours or even days and she could be much further away from school than she could ever imagine.

"Bryson was right. You are a lot faster than you look, even with a cast on your foot." Katherine let out a scream and whipped around to see a dark silhouette of a man. The voice seemed familiar to her and a sense of calm passed through her but she quickly rejected that filling. She was being held hostage, there was no calm to find in this situation anywhere.

"Let me go," was her only reply. She tried not to wince when she realized how desperate she sounded. She had never been desperate for anything in her life and begging had always been beneath her. Look at how far she had fallen.

"Eventually, first I have to make sure you heal. And then I have to find a safe place for you to go." Katherine tilted her head at the reply. He was going to find a safe place for her to go? The one who had ripped her away from all she had known thought that he was going to find her a safe place to go?

"My parents have money. I can get you whatever you want. Just let me go." As much as she tried to suppress it the begging factor was still there and she felt so weak for it.

There was no reply from the stranger's lips and Katherine wanted to melt into herself. She was certain she was going to die with this person, in a place where her family had no hope of finding her. 

She hung her head in defeat and leaned against the tree again. A few tears rolled down her cheeks and she did nothing to brush them away. She was going to die, a few tears wasn't going to prolong that fact. She felt no weakness for crying right now because she had given up. She was done. There was nothing to fight for because she could not win this fight. She felt nothing but sorrow for the life she was suddenly loosing, a life she had lost the will to live two years ago.

"You're cold." Finally after what seemed an eternity the stranger spoke. Even though he would never admit it to anybody else it was breaking something in him to see this girl crying. It was breaking something in him to see her shivering against the tree. It was breaking something in him to see her look so lost and broken because even though he did not want her, he did not want this for her.

"I'm fine." Katherine whispered as she wrapped her arms around her torso.

"Will you let me walk you back to my home?" Katherine saw no point in fighting so she briefly nodded her head before she began limping over to where he stood.

He opened his mouth to say something else to her but thought better of it. She looked miserable, cold, and in pain and he hoped to rectify two of those three very quickly.

Katherine brushed past him, to involved in her own thoughts to realize the amount of warmth the simple touch brought her body. However the Alpha did notice though and his hand immediately balled into fists to keep from reaching out for her.

'There is not a future with this human,' he reminded himself for the millionth time in the last two years. After he placed her in a safe place with a new identity he would never have to make contact with her again and hopefully whatever sort of bond that was being created between the two with the brief amount of contact they did have would dissolve quickly and he could find another mate. A more durable mate. A less human mate.

"What is your name?" The soft childlike voice snapped him out of his grim thoughts of the future he faced without her and he glanced at her with curiosity. She wanted to know his name? Out of all the things in the world she could ask him it was what his name was?

"If I tell you will you take my jacket?" Katherine narrowed her eyes at the flannel jacket he was currently taking off his shoulders and offering her. She did not like handouts and even though she was cold she could manager herself.

But before she could decline he was quickly in front of her and placing the extremely warm fabric around her tiny shoulders. The Alpha mused at the thought of his mate standing at most likely five feet max while he stood at a towering six foot two. Fate had a funny way of pair opposites. Unfortunately this was a match that was never going to be and she would never need to know that.

"Elias. Now you know my name so you cannot give me back my jacket." He smirked at her and Katherine felt her heart flutter. Never in her life had a smile made her weak in the knees but his... his did.

"Elias..." She mused at the name and narrowed her eyes again.

"What a strange name," she furrowed her brows and peered up into his green eyes. Again her knees began feel weak and she suddenly became lost.

"No stranger than Katherine," he joked as he held out his hand, not thinking much of the action, and waited for her to take it. Gingerly and slowly she placed her small unbroken palm in his and swallowed deeply when the warmth spread through her fingertips to her upper arm.

Elias cursed himself but found he could not let go of her tiny hand.

It fit in his perfectly, almost like it had been made to go with his.