Alpha - Forever #1 (Complete)

Chapter 24 - Part 2

Scarlett

When I woke up I still felt drowsy. Panic set in when I realized I wasn't in Cade's room. It was hard to focus my eyes so I closed them for a moment before trying to open them again. This time they focused.

I gasped.

I was lying on a small bed in a room with white walls. I didn't recognize it. I turned over in the bed and looked around the room.

I rubbed my eyes again, hoping I was seeing things, because it didn't make any sense. But nothing changed when I opened my eyes again. I sat up and I felt a wave of dizziness hit me.

The room looked like an ordinary room except for bars that ran the length of the room a meter from the door.

What the hell?

To the one side of my prison was a door. I assumed it was some sort of bathroom or something.

Taking a few deep breaths I waited for the dizziness to pass before I tried to stand up. I heard the door open and I looked up to see Cade in the doorway.

He stepped into the room, facing me through the bars. My limbs still felt so heavy. I struggled to get them to obey my commands.

"Take it easy, the effects will take a few minutes to wear off," Cade said.

His features were tight and unreadable as he stood with his feet apart and his arms crossed over his chest, watching me.

Suddenly, I remembered that feeling. Horror filled me when pieces of what happened before I had blacked out began to surface in my mind again. I remembered the prick and then the pain.

My eyes flew to Cade as I realized he'd injected me with something. Why would he do that? I rubbed my forehead for a moment trying to figure out what I'd missed.

"I don't understand..." I began to say as I managed to walk to the bars that confined me. I was about to reach out to hold one.

"Don't touch the bars," Cade warned me, just in time for me to be able to pull my hand away from the object. My forehead creased at the warning.

"What's going on?" I asked. What was happening didn't fit with the fact that he was my mate and he loved me. If he cared about me, why on Earth was I caged up like an animal?

"The bars are covered in wolfsbane," he revealed. I had no idea what wolfsbane was.

"It will burn your skin if you touch it," he continued. "It's a security precaution we take to keep werewolves from escaping."

"I don't understand," I said. I felt the effects of whatever he'd injected me with begin to wear off. I couldn't help the feeling of betrayal at his actions and I still didn't fully understand why.

"After you came downstairs last night I knew there was something up, I just had no idea what. I went to talk to Jake and Gary came to me. He told me that you'd overheard what Blake and I had been talking about. I had this dreadful feeling that you were going do something stupid."

I remembered feeling that strange feeling in my chest when I'd been talking to Blake. Had I felt his emotions? He looked at me like he expected me to deny it but I didn't. I was angry that Gary had told Cade that I'd overhead his conversation with Blake.

"I began to understand why you were acting so strangely. I decided it was in your best interest to keep you confined so you wouldn't try and do something stupid. I knew you wouldn't be able to sit back and do nothing."

He paused for a moment and I saw his jaw tighten. Even though his voice and his features looked calm, I knew he was angry.

"It was only after I injected you with the sedative and I heard your jumbled thoughts that I realized how far you were prepared to go," his said, and his voice broke on the last word.