Ariadne: Almost an Alpha | ✓

Chapter 32 - Blood Everywhere

Chapter 32 - Blood Everywhere 

The next day passes similarly, and it's my final evening here and the day before the tournament begins. I'm flying in to Montana tomorrow, and Dylan is going to meet me there.

Having earned the respect of all of Mateus' warriors now, not just the few I had been training with before, all the pack can talk about at dinner is the tournament. They all wish me luck, and I linger at the table until everyone leaves. I miss my own pack's dinners under the pavillion, and look forward to going home when this is all over. However, I am going to miss this place too.

I try to not think too hard about how much I'm going to miss Mateus and try to keep from hoping that he'll at least come watch some of the tournament. Because of its importance in deciding the next leader of a pack, it's not uncommon to see alphas and other werewolves of bordering regions visit for a day or two when there's a tournament. In fact, I convinced my father to come with me to one when I was 12.

Annette, Joshua's mate, invites me to join her and a few of the other girls for a movie after dinner, so I join. It's odd, being around so many females. They laugh and talk throughout the movie, and at one point, even tease me about Mateus.

"Joshua told me that he noticed you and Mateus seem very close," Annette mentions. "I think he has feelings for you."

"No way," says one of the girls about my age. I think her name was Layla. "He's so serious. I can't imagine him doing much of anything outside of his alpha duties."

"He wasn't always that way," Annette says. "He was as much of a jokester as the rest of them still are when he was young."

"Has anything happened between you two?" another girl asks. She looks really young, but I don't remember her name. "You have to tell us all the details."

"We've had to spend a lot of time together because he's training me for the tournament. I think we've become friends, but nothing more than that." I lie.

"But he offered to train you when he didn't have to, did he not?" Annette asks.

"Because he's a really good person, not because he has a crush on me."

"Hmm we'll see about that," she says.

They switch to talking about one of the warriors and his newfound mate. Then, the young girl talks about her old pack. Thankfully, Mateus doesn't come up again, but I still find it hard trying to be active in the conversation. I've never really had to engage in girl talk. Dylan was my closest friend growing up, and my old life ended when I was 15. Yeah, I know the females in my pack pretty well, but we've never talked about personal things. It feels weird now, like I missed out on a part of growing up that I hadn't realized before.

When the movie is over, I go to my room thinking about all the other things I probably missed out on. I finished high school by taking online classes, mostly teaching myself, and occasionally having to drive in to the nearest school, but didn't go to a prom, never had to worry about a parental curfew, and never really got to do any stupid teenage activities. I went to one dance my freshman year with a human boy from school and a group of friends, went on a few dates with the boy after, and played a few awkward games of spin the bottle. But, as far as my life before everything happened went, that was about it.

Because thinking about my old friends keeps my brain from thinking about everything else, I actually fall asleep by myself.

Dylan grips my hand tightly as he runs, dragging me through the woods behind him.

"Dylan!" I scream. "We can't! My brothers! My brothers are still in there!"

There's blood everywhere I look. When I close my eyes to blink, I can almost see the blood dripping down over my eyelids. The smell of it is everywhere, mixed in with the rancid smell of rogues that have spent too long in their wolf form. It's on me, I can feel it dripping through the thin shirt I'm wearing and down my chest. There's screams in the distance, and I try to take off running, back to the house, back to my pack. I need to help. I want to help. But Dylan tightens his grip even more.

"They're dead, Ariadne! We need to leave right now before you end up dead too!"

"What?" My legs come to a halt, and I stare at him, unbelieving. No, not them too.

"I saw them die." He's covered in blood too. Is it his? Is it mine? His family's? The blood of the rogue he just killed on top of me?

The next moments are a blur as I change. Dylan lets go of me, and I take off running. I will get revenge. I will find whoever killed my mom, my dad, and my brothers, and I will make sure they die in pain. I'm faster than Dylan, and he's still far behind me by the time I make my way to the source of the screams.

I'm about to sink my teeth into the neck of the nearest rogue when I feel a pinch in my back.

I whimper as my legs give out beneath me, and I fall into the mud. The sulfuric scent of it mixes in with the metallic scent of the blood.

"Kill all the witnesses," I hear as my eyesight begins to blur. Everything, literally everything, is a smear of red, and I'm yowling now in anger and pain and fear, and dear lord, my head hurts. There's an intense heat and pressure radiating out from the center of my forehead. A weight has settled there. It's foreign, and doesn't belong there.

"Go to sleep now, little Ariadne," he whispers. His words aren't heard by anyone else; they're only for me.

Growling and whimpering, I try to fight the tickling feeling spreading through me as "Ariadne" echoes over and over again in my head, sending wave after wave of pain pulsing through me.

"Ariadne, Ariadne... wake up"

Someone's touching me, touching my face and my hair, and I fling my arms out and yell, pushing the person away. They grab my hands, tight enough to keep me from using them as a weapon but not tight enough to hurt.

"Ariadne." My visions blurry, but the hulking shadow in front of me is him. I know it is.

I can feel blood dripping down my chest and my arms. It's all over me.

"Stop!" I scream. "Stop!"

I must scare him because he lets go of my hands. Then, I remember the knives. In the flash of an eye, both of my hands slide under my pillow to grab a knife, and weapons raised, I jump out of the bed with intent to kill, to avenge.

I yell out and lunge forward as my vision begins to clear up, but he kicks my legs out from under me, grabbing my hands on the way down. I tighten my grip on the knives. There's no way I'm letting him take these from me.

"Ariadne, let them go!" The voice is loud and commanding, more powerful than his ever was.

I focus my sight on the man in front of me, and I go still. "Mateus?"

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