Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Forty Six

Emily

"It's good isn't it?" a voice uttered behind me, we hadn't really spoken in the car ride, but I'd know his voice anywhere. The creepy over friendliness was too obvious to miss. Maybe I was just being too harsh. "I am enjoying the hotdog. Thank you very much Ferdinand, can I help you with something?" He leaned against a big cement post, "actually now that you mention it there was something." Oh no, I didn't actually expect him to want anything. I suppose that's what I get for asking.

"What can I help you with?" I asked around my last mouthful of hotdog. He grinned as he watched me eat, what was it with people watching me eat today? Honestly! "Where we are going it's about to get really cold and I need your help picking up some essentials. It's a lot to carry by myself." Oh was that all?

I don't know why, but I was expecting him to try to lure me away from Malik and Dom. Ever since I'd seen him outside of my parent's summer house I'd had a weird feeling around him. Maybe he was just a little strange and I got the wrong end of the stick?

"Where do we go and get essentials from?" I said cheerily, enthusiasm pouting out of me. He pointed behind me and there was a store that sold fur. "Fur?" "Oh yeah, believe me, we are going to need it." He said making his way over to the strange store. "Wait, what exactly are we using the fur for?" I ran after him. "We're going to need to use them to sleep under and travel under when the weather gets too bad." How bad could it be? I know I didn't know anything about Sweden, but surely it wasn't Antarctica weather?

The store was warm, I instantly felt comforted by the strange scent in the air. My eyes snapped open, "what kind of fur is this?" I asked Ferdinand. He wasn't a wolf so he wouldn't think to make the distinction. "Don't worry, it's all fake, but that's probably what you can smell." He picked up a fluffy looking piece and turned it over, "this is meant to mimic a fox, but as you can see the skin is quite a bit bigger than your usual fox."

I listened as he explained all of the pieces in the shop, it was actually really interesting. I hadn't realised there were even that many types of fur. He was piling heavy piles into my arms and still finding more. "Uh, how much do we need exactly?" I asked nervously. "Enough to keep out the cold." He replied nonchalantly. "And how long are we going to be out in the cold exactly?" It could take a few days, it all depends on how quick your paws are." I realised as soon as he made the distinction. Paws, not feet.

I walked closer to him and whispered under my breath, "are we going to be running a lot?" He spun on his heel and looked absolutely astounded, "you're going to meet one of the most powerful celestial beings in the universe. It's not a walk in the park you know?"

I suppose when you put it that way it makes a lot more sense. But now I was getting increasingly worried by the minute about what we were embarking on. We didn't know enough about where we were and we definitely didn't know enough about Ferdinand.

After everything was paid for I helped him haul the load back to the car. "I think I massively underestimated this trip," I told him nervously. He opened the trunk and I shoved the heavy load inside, except I didn't judge the weight correctly and almost ended up falling in.

Ferdinand gripped onto my waist to stop me from tumbling in. "How deep is your boot?" I laughed. I felt his arms shaking as he was struggling to hold hold in a laugh behind me. "Honestly I thought you were more coordinated than that." He pulled me out and set me back down on the ground gently, "you okay?"

I looked up at him, really looked this time. Maybe we had all been too harsh on him. He actually seemed like a nice guy. If he really wanted to, he could've let me fall in, but he hadn't. There was a moment when we were both testing each other, figuring out what this new found trust was.

I smiled at him, "thanks for saving me from your trunk." He laughed back, "thank you for not falling into my trunk, we'd never get you out again." Speaking of 'we', I looked behind Ferdinand and Malik and Dom were making their way to the car.

The smile wiped from my face as I saw the expression on Dom, if he would've been a dragon there'd be fire where his nostrils were. Ferdinand finished closing the boot at the same time as Dom started storming towards the car. In a split second Dom had gripped onto Ferdinand's shoulder and shoved him against the car.

"You keep your hands off of her!" He practically spat in his face. I could feel my face turning red and I balled my hands into fists. "Get off of him!" I shouted at Dom. He paused his attack and looked back at me, "since when have you two been so friendly?"

I pulled on his arm that was still gripping Ferdinand's jacket, "since I actually had a decent conversation with him!" I argued back. "What I saw-" I stopped him before he could finish his sentence, "what you saw was him helping me after I almost hurt myself falling into the car." He stood back and looked at Ferdinand, Ferdinand nodded, "it's true."

I was upset. How could he think anything else was going on and why would he care anyway? It's not as if we were together. He'd never mentioned anything about it. I shoved past him and sat back in the seat I'd arrived in, I shoved my earphone in and closed my eyes. If we had 4 more hours I wasn't about to lose sleep over this. I thought I knew him better than that.