One Bite

Chapter 2-8

Even with stumbled steps, I was so numb that I had no idea how I got back into my room. Searing hot water from the shower washed away the blood sticking to my body but not the stains in my mind.

The shower walls blurred as I sank down, sitting until the water turned ice-cold. Needle-like pricks chilled my skin, raising goosebumps on my arms and legs but I ignored them. Violent sobs racked my spine, drying my mouth, and cramping my stomach.

Elena's knock on my door and hand shutting off the shower, drew my attention up. Tears stained with tears and congestion running into my mouth, she wiped my face with a towel, then wrapped it around me.

"Zara..." She lifted me up, guiding me to bed. "Are you all right?"

"No." I sank down, falling into my pillow.

My hands shook as I lifted them into view. I rinsed away the blood stains on my body, but not the guilt.

Idris' blood. Arlo's blood. I'm so embarrassed, so ashamed. So... monstrous.

How could I have been so reckless?

A sob barked out of me, striking hot pain through my strained vocal chords.

"Zara, it's okay. It wasn't you." Her voice was soft with empathy, like the sigh she released. The bed shifted under me as she sat down.

"But Lumi's a part of me," I rasped out, tears rolling over my cheeks and dotting my pillow.

What if Lumi's a reflection of me? Am I that violent?

For two hours since the incident, Lumi had been silent. She receded back into the comforts the dark shadows of my mind offered her. I sensed her cowering presence if I searched hard enough, but she masked her emotions from me. I hoped that she felt similar to the gut-wrenching guilt that coursed through my body, escaping through endless rounds of tears.

"She sensed that you were scared and wanted to protect you." Elena's fingers rubbed small circles on my back. "That's her werewolf instinct."

"She really hurt them." I closed my eyes, squeezing out more tears. One of them fell into my pillow, the other slid across my nose before joining the others.

Pressing my cheek into the damp cotton, my sentences slurred into phrases as more tears followed. "Idris and Arlo have been nothing but kind helping me. I need to t-tell... s-s-sorry. Idris is sweet... Arlo's family... Wuh-wish I could -"

"I'm sure they understand," she assured me. "But you're in quarantine until Alpha Faelen decides what to do with you."

"What?" I opened my eyes and rolled back to see her face.

"I assume you'll be punished." Her voice dropped with her eyes. "Silver whip lashing is the most common form but as Alpha, it's Faelon's decision."

At those words, a forceful knock thumped on the door. I sat up, swung my legs over the bed, and pressed my bare feet into the stone floor. My fingers trembling, my hand paused over the door handle and I caught my lower lip in my teeth.

Elena stood next to me, her hands at her sides. I swept the tears out of my eyes and smoothed the wrinkles in my shirt.

"Come in." The words croaked out of my dry throat, parting my dry lips and yanking the door open.

With heavy steps, Alpha Faelen entered the room, with three security guards behind him. His eyes were hard as stone as they met mine in passing. My eyes widened as they caught the glint of silver on a chain in one guard's hands.

They're going to whip me with a chain?

The thought clenched my heart around itself. But, then again, I assaulted two warriors of his pack.