The Hunted { old version }

The Scapegoat

I was staring into his glowing eyes and I knew that wasn’t a good thing. I shoved Sasha behind me, “Wait, calm down okay? She doesn’t understand what she’s doing. She’s just upset and can you blame her? She had nothing to do with this other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I try to reason with him, “You had us chained up in a room and then she almost died…So maybe we could talk about this calmly?” I take a step back when I see Mikhail shift a step forward. This fight isn’t with her truly, he was just looking for a reason to blow off some steam. Whatever had happened between us upstairs had clearly struck a nerve. 

“If this is about earlier, then I’m sorry if anything I said was out of line. I was only trying to—“ I don’t get to finish before he interrupts me, “This has nothing to do with that. This has everything to do with the fact that you have continually disregarded the rules as if they don’t apply to you and that is something I cannot allow as an Enforcer. You need to learn to show more respect.”

Nana starts to make a move towards her brother, “What’s going—“ and Mikhail looks to her and lets out a growl and she freezes up. Her eyes flicker to us in confusion over what is going on but she doesn’t say anything more. I can feel a tingling in my body as my wolf comes closer to the surface, “Sasha, normally I would be against this idea considering but I don’t think he is going to back down now that he’s all worked up and I really don’t want anyone to get hurt…” My eyes flicker over to Nana and Bianca. 

“So what are you saying exactly?” She asks in a whisper to me. I take another step back bumping into her. Mikhail eyes are trained on me like a hawk. I swallow hard, “Get away from me…” I whisper to her. She seems confused by my request but when my body starts to tremble I know I’m in trouble. I spin around quickly and shove Sasha away from me toward the other Enforcers because I know they won’t hurt her, even if she had gotten a little mouthy with them. Sasha stumbles backward and falls down with a thud, “What the hell Elena?” 

Gideon looks towards me with a growl and takes a step forward but Mikhail keeps him where he is when he levels him with a stare. This doesn’t make Gideon happy but he doesn’t move, “Woman come away from your friend…” He commands Sasha who is getting up off the ground, “Bite me.” She says back to him as she starts to walk back over to me. My wolf strains against her cage begging for release. My vision is starting to double and my thoughts are beginning to splinter. I can feel my skin grow tight like it’s being pulled tight and stretched against my bones. I double over with the pain of it. It had been so long since I shifted but I never remembered it hurting like this. 

Sasha’s hand came to rest on my shoulder, “Elena, what’s wrong?” She asks extremely concerned. My wolf lunged to the surface beyond my restrain, Enemy! My head snapped up and looked to her with a snarled. She quickly backed away from me. I shook my head trying to regain control, No! I yell, She’s our friend! My judgement begins to clear a little after that thought, my breathing ragged. 

 I’m not sure if it’s because she wants to fight or if it’s because she wants to be with her mate. All I know is when I look toward Sasha her eyes still widened in shock, “I’m sorry…” I say the scent of fear coming off her. I know what my eyes look like when I’m going wolf. They look like the eyes of a killer, hauntingly cold. They hadn’t always been this way in fact I’ve never seen anyone lose the color of their eye’s but perhaps that was because I had lost control of my wolf. It was like we were two separate beings sharing the same body and right now she wanted out. 

“Mikhail she’s going rogue! Do something!” Gideon yells as if Mikhail couldn’t tell already that I was having a hard time keeping myself under control. “Rogue?!” I hear Bianca’s voice strain, “You brought a rogue into this home. What were you thinking?” I try hard to drown out the argument that ensues between the Bianca and her mate as he tries to calm her down. “Did any of you think about how this would effect Nana?” She yells. My eyes flicker over to Nana who is looking down at her feet her hands clenched into fists at her sides. I feel a sudden sense of shame over what I have become but when the arguing continues It only seems to make my wolf more agitated. I let out a loud frustrated growl, “Will everyone just shut up!” They turn to look at me in surprise, “I’m not going to hurt anyone—I don’t want to hurt anyone—“ I try to reassure them and myself that I can control myself, “I might be a rogue but I’m not a heartless monster!” How many times am I going to have to say that before people start to believe me. 

I see Victor grin a bit before he takes a step toward Mikhail who is still keyed up, clearly he’s having a difficult time controlling his wolf as well. He hesitantly puts a hand onto his shoulder, “Brother—“ He says in his gentle tone, “There is nothing to fight about, it’s just a misunderstanding—Your mate is not the enemy—You will regret it later if you cause any harm to her.” He is talking to him in a quiet voice so I am only able to pick out bits and pieces of what he’s saying to him. Victor keeps his eyes trained on me the entire time and for some odd reason that helps me to relax. My wolf begins to stop fighting with me until it feels like we are joined in harmony again. 

Mikhail also eases back looking toward Victor and giving him a nod of his head. Victor steps back and says nothing more to him. The room seems to be deathly quiet probably trying to figure out what is going to happen next. Mikhail looks across the room at me, “Elena…” He starts his voice attempting to sound gentle, “Will you please follow me?” I feel unsure for a moment and then decide that if he does end up deciding he wants to fight it would be better to do it away from the others. I make my way across the room feeling the weight of everyone’s eyes on me. I can almost feel the hatred and pain they are throwing towards me and I can’t blame them for it. They all have there reasons for feeling the way they do. I am just the scapegoat. The person who must pay for the sins of the group I’ve been lumped in with. 

Mikhail looks to everyone else when I finally reach his side but I keep myself turned away from them still feeling ashamed, “I apologize for causing a scene. Please, everyone enjoy dinner.” His voice is emotionless. He looks down at me and does something I don’t expect, he grabs a hold of my hand in a firm but gentle embrace. I look up to him in shock but his face is void of emotion. He walks us towards the room that Victor had earlier warned me not to enter. I suddenly got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, perhaps it was an execution room. He’s decided that it’s too dangerous to keep me around and is going to kill me. No, no, I can’t think like that. I push the thought from my mind and stop when he does. He turns the handle and opens the door for me, “After you.”