The Alpha's Daydream ✔️

Chapter 47

"Where is he?"

A stinging slap jarred through her body, the pain originating from her face, and Ariella jerked upright. The question rang in her ears, yet she couldn't figure out who said it or what they were talking about.

"Let me ask again, princess," a hand grabbed her hair roughly and pulled her head up, hot breath fanning her face as the voice spoke again. "Where is the Alpha?"

Slowly opening her eyes, Ariella took a deep breath of air to refill her lungs, remembering now that she had passed out after being strangled in the forest.

They'd been attacked by rogues. Knight had been unconscious last she'd seen him. She'd been carried off by faceless men who also wanted the Alpha.

The Alpha. Malachi.

"I can't tell you," she mumbled, her blurry vision taking in the scene around her. She was sitting on the ground of a dirty building, perhaps a barn they used on farms with dried grass strewn everywhere and old machinery lined against the walls and taking up most of the floor space. A man was crouched a few feet in front of her, wearing a grimy jacket and an even grimier smirk on his face.

"I think she wants another slap," he rasped between a missing front tooth. His disheveled appearance disgusted her, and fortified the belief that rogues were wild and crazed creatures. Their aversion to pack mentality manifested in more than just their mindset--their behaviour became erratic and unreasonable the more time they spent away from the secure fold of company.

And she was now at their mercy, miles from home.

"I'm not saying anythi--"

A hand whipped towards her face with such a fast movement that she couldn't even turn her head. The force of the hit snapped her face sideways and now her other cheek bloomed with stinging pain.

The rogue behind her stalked in front and knelt to her level. His dark brown eyes may have once been handsome, but all spark was now lost in this wild animal. His black hair hung limply over his forehead and he pushed it back with a greasy motion. "Such a pretty face you once had. No wonder the Alpha hasn't yet paraded you around the country as his Luna. He wanted to keep the prize all to himself," he chuckled, a sound that churned Ariella's stomach. "When I saw you walking through the woods with only that pathetic old wolf as protection, I knew we needed to make a move," he drawled, a slow smile tilting his crooked lips.

"Knight!" Ariella gasped, her mind racing with concern for her friend. "What have you done to him? Where is he?" Squirming on her seat, she tried twisting around but her arms were held securely in place with tight bindings to a post at her back.

"He won't be coming to your rescue. We put him out of his misery before bringing you here. Such a useless excuse of a Beta. No one will find his body either." He cut off her protests with a warning glare.

Her heart sank.

It couldn't be possible. Beta Knight dead? And all because he was protecting her. She needed a distraction and he'd agreed to take her for a walk when they both knew that rogues were currently near the borders, lurking and waiting for the opportunity to cross. She'd already seen them that day, seen Rahul tear their bodies to shreds, yet she'd still risked going out into the dark forest and now here she was.

Helpless.

"Now, are you going to tell me what I want to know, or are you going to prove as useless as your friend over there?" the rogue leaned in again and trailed a long nail down the side of her face.

"What friend?" Ariella pulled back and tried to keep some distance between her and this filthy wolf.

"Oh, just someone else we found wandering alone, in the dark forest, begging for excitement that we were all too happy to provide."