Alpha Pierce is Mine

Chapter 28: The Hero And The Villain

Diana's POV

It doesn't matter where you are in the world, every forest smells and feels the same to a wolf. A forest feels like home. It feels like somewhere that you should be safe forever. The day I ran away from Rick's "slave camp" was the first time I felt something other than safe in a forest. 

It was pretty unsettling, I have to admit. Gretchen even sensed it as her hearing and scent tracking was set to top notch. 

It was like a trick, a game that Rick liked to play with me. He pretended that he was finally leaving me alone so I would find happiness, and then he would send the world crashing in on me and destroy everything I had learned to love.

Rick resembled life. Life is like that sometimes. It brings you up just to knock you down again so you can never find true happiness. It's the weak people that complain about this and let it control them. It's the strong people that fight through it and get back up again. The strong people have happy lives, the strong people run the world. Isn't that what the movies teach? When you expect it to have a happy ending and then the bad guy comes back and ruins everything, but the good guy works harder and finally defeats him in the end. 

I picked up pace for the umpteenth time because of the paranoia that was running through my veins. The paranoia that Rick had planted inside me for eternity. At least now I was ready when something did come my way. But some day, I would be the one to end Rick's life and end it all. All the pain and the suffering not only I but hundreds had to bare because of him.

The rage pushed me harder and I almost forgot about the burning pain in my lungs. I figured Gretchen would be tired, but it seemed we had the same idea. Run, find, return, destroy.

Finally, after hours of running, I felt the familiar feeling of being on Pierce's land. The soft dirt started to get more rocky and the air got thinner as I ran uphill to the mountains. The trees grew darker and thinner with spiny branches that looked like finger nails. I could feel the packs grief for me and suddenly, I felt horrible for not fighting harder, for having to leave.

I carefully stopped next to a tree and shifted back. When I did, my body was exhausted. I fell to the ground and coughed as the mucus in the back of my mouth got thicker and started to choke me. My heart felt like it was going to stop beating and it probably was. I hadn't had food for four days and without my mate, my wolf couldn't heal itself so the whip scars on my back remained from just two days ago. The blood had dried on them and turned to a dark brown color. The thing I wanted most, though was to take a shower. I wanted to get the smell of death and bile off of me.

I pulled clothes from a compartment inside the tree. Luckily, Pierce is smart enough to put clothing compartments in all of the nearby trees for wolves who have to shift. The compartment has a "female" sign on it so I pull on the pair of exercise shorts and the oversized t-shirt. Here goes nothing....

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Pierce's POV

It's been four days. Four days. Four days since my soulmate has been missing and I feel like I'm literally going to explode. I have my warriors in search parties looking for her 24/7, but it doesn't feel like we are making any progress. I want to go out and look for her myself, but my father won't let me. He said I will be too easily triggered. I'm also in a very unhealthy state from barely eating anything for four days. I haven't showered, slept, smiled, laughed, and I've had a non-stop migraine and what feels like a severe case of heart burn. The pain is something I can't describe. It's the emotional pain of a breakup and the physical pain of a heart attack. But it never stops. It makes me want to cry and I'm a grown man and an Alpha. 

I sigh, run my hands over my face, and pick up the phone on my desk. I start dialing the number for watch group #1 when my beta, Eric calls me. 

"Alpha!"

"Eric. What is it?" I sound exhausted, despite my excitement.

"We saw a female walk onto the grounds just 15 minutes ago and we don't want to hurt her incase.....you know. Last time we saw her, she was headed towards the pack ho---"

The front door opens and I hang up the phone. A familiar scent wafts through the room and fills my nose. For the first time I feel panic, excitement, anger, and love at the same time. 

I hurdled down the stairs so fast, I tripped and fell down the last three steps. As soon as I touched the door handle to open it, it flew open to reveal my beautiful mate.

My heart stopped in that moment and I think I heard angels from heaven. I had never been so happy to see a person in my life. Everything went in slow motion when I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her to my chest. A single tear rolled down my already damp cheek and my wolf sighed in content. I vaguely felt her hug her arms around me tightly and start crying.

"Mine." I growled and picked her up, carrying her to my room and slamming the door behind us... she would be officially mine after this.

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Yes, I know that escalated quickly but I mean.....I can't really blame him. Anyway............Yes I have been gone for a very long time but not to worry, I did NOT forget about APIM like you probably thought I did! Some of you may know that I have a serious love for singing so for the past twelve days I was attending a fine arts camp for just that! It was fun, but trust me when I say that it really freaked me out that I couldn't update. I thought of y'all everyday and I was like "They probably thought I abandoned them!" So yeah I'm eating a pot pie and enjoying the comfort of a real bed right now. Anywho, no more of that... comment, vote, follow if you liked your update :)

Lilin8er