Darkness of the Moon

C13: Searching

ALEC'S POV

"You know how I'm next in line for Alpha?" I questions.

"Yeah."

"That means you would be the future Luna."

"Wait you mean-" Harper stops mid sentence and clutches stomach.

She gasps and look down. There's nothing there. She rests her hand over her stomach and she scrunched her face up in concentration.

"Harper? Are you ok?" I ask, concerned.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

I nod but still remain weary, in case she starts screaming again like last night.

She opens her mouth as if she's about to speak, but she stops and clutches her stomach, her breath hitches.

"Harper?" My voice rings with concern, "Harper, what's going on?"

She bites her lip and squeezes and claws at her body desperately. Her shirt rips under pressure and blood runs over her fingers. She takes a deep breath and stills, her whole body stops moving.

"Harper?!" I call to her. I don't think she can hear me.

Then she let's out the air she had locked inside her. She sighs and leans back into the couch, relaxing.

"Harper, what just happened?" I ask her.

She smiles at me, "it hurt, but it doesn't now," she says, as if that explains everything.

"What do you mean it hurt?" I yell, desperate for some answers.

I see my father in the doorway out of the corner of my eye. I wave my hand at him, signalling for him to leave.

Harper leans her head back on my shoulder and sighs, "it's ok, Alec, I'm ok now."

"No you're not. Only a minute ago you nearly tried ripping your stomach open. Harper, talk to me. What's going on?" I lift her off me and kneel down in front of her, "what's going on?"

"I don't know," is all she says, hiding behind her hair.

I groan in frustration and walk away. I ignore everyone as I run into the forest. I shift as I reach the edge of the tree, letting my wolf take over. I keep moving until I reach the river, where I stop to breathe. I sit in the shallows of the water, letting it ripple over my fur.

I can't deal with this. If she is going to be having nightmares and flashbacks or whatever the hell that was, then... I don't even know.

Calm down, there has got to be a reasonable explanation for this, my wolf intervenes.

What do you mean a reasonable explanation? She was tearing her own skin apart for god's sake! I yell at him, how could he believe that there was anything reasonable within this situation.

You know even if your not directly talking to me, I can still hear you.

Shut up, I'm not talking to you.

Childish, I know. But I have enough on my plate, arguing with someone who is constantly inside my head isn't helpful at the moment.

Alec, where are you? A feminine voice sounds in my head.

Who are you and what the hell are you doing inside my head?

It's about Harper.

In the moment I completely forget why there is someone other than my own wolf inside my head, my only concern is my mate.

As fast as I can manage, I run through the forest, dodging trees and random branches. I don't even bother shifting as I burst through the door of the pack house. I shift as someone throws a pair of shorts at me.

"Where is she?" I yell, looking around for her. The only people I can find in the room is Alice and Michael, "what's going on? Where is she?" I ask again.

"We don't know, she started screaming, but when we got down here she was nowhere to be seen," Alice explains.

"This is al my fault, I shouldn't of left her," I run my hands through my hair, "I'm going to look for her."

"People have already been sent, including Jason, Christina and your parents," Michael says.

"I don't care, I'm still going," and with that I storm out of the room to find my mate.

Jason runs over to me when I exit the house, "come with me, we're gonna check around the back, everyone else is searching around the house and in the north side of the forest," he says, dragging me around the back of the house and into the trees.

I tie my shorts around my leg and shift into my wolf, I look over to see Jason also in his wolf form.
We run through the forest searching for Harper's scent.

The sun is starting to set and it will be dark within moments, but I simply refuse to go back without her.

"Alec, we have to go back. We can't keep searching tonight," Jason says. It is dark now, the sun sunk over the horizon hours ago.

"No, we must find her."

I am determined to find her, I'm not leaving without her.

"Alec, we've been searching for hours and found nothing, let's go back."

"No!" I growl, "if you were in my position and this was Christina, would you leave without her? Would you be able to sleep, knowing she is out in the forest, alone and in pain? Would you stop to rest unless she was safe in your arms?"

He is silenced by my mini verbal explosion and continues searching.

"I found something," Jason exclaims suddenly in my mind.

I run over to where he is standing, I shove him out of the way and see drops of deep red blood on the grass and dirt. The blood droplets leave a trail along the ground.

"She went this way," I say.

Without checking if Jason is following, I run, following the trail of Harper's blood. It leads to a clearing with doors in the ground on the opposite side, chained and bared and unable to be opened.

In the centre of the clearing is Harper, laying sprawled out over the ground. Her long, dark brown hair is a waterfall cascaded around her face and her skin is deathly white, lacking its usual colour and glow. Blood covers her hands and her white tank top is painted in red. I shift back into my human form, shoving my shorts on and running over to her. I rest her head in my lap and whisper her name, "Harper? Harper, you're ok, everything will be fine," she is unconscious, she can't hear I word I am saying, but I'm trying to reassure myself.

I lift the bottom of the shirt and find the source of the blood, her skin is shredded and long marks are raked over her skin where she clawed at it. She has also clawed over her chest again and there is a gaping wound in her chest near her heart. Blood oozes freely from the wound in her stomach.

I look up at Jason, who is standing there, frozen in shock.

"Jason!" I yell at him, snapping him out of his trance, "we need to get her to the house. Now."