Marked by the Alpha

Chapter 28

‘Thank you so much for teaching me the true meaning of love, of weakness, of pain, of laughter, of a best friend, of sadness- just everything. But most of all, thank you so much for showing me the true meaning of happiness. And you’re my happiness. I love you so much. Or perhaps, I LOBE you so much. You gave me everything that no one else could.”

I decided to end there. My face was again drenched in tears. I couldn’t bear the thought of dying. But in a situation like this, there is a fifty percent chance I won’t be coming back. The thought of Weston’s pain alone was unbearable.

I kissed the paper, clutching it to my heart before leaving it in the key bowl. “I love you,” I whispered before climbing into the car and driving off. Weston wouldn’t hear me, he was fast asleep. When a wolf is asleep, their senses are dimmed. For once, I was thankful Weston didn’t follow me or the same incident as before would have happened. I cringed at the memory.

9:20 PM

The road to the warehouse was empty. This part of town has been the less crowded. Usually, this was the best place to put annual carnivals because it was so open and not many civilization was put within a ten mile radius. The Old Gerry’s Donuts Warehouse was once here, but had closed down about twenty years ago.

The warehouse was torn down, the paint peeling off the walls. Some letter of the name had fallen so now it read, “Od err’s Dnts.”

I parked about a mile down from the warehouse. Therefore, whoever this Silver Bullet was couldn’t hear my car as I arrived. I hid behind a bush, my whole body sweating from the nervousness of them all. I eyed the warehouse cautiously and flinched as I saw movement from behind a window and a light turning on.

I strapped on my belt, stuffing the three wolfsbane grenades and the silver dagger into the pockets. I stuck the gun in the waistband of my jeans and under my shirt, feeling the cool metal against my hot skin. As I thought of how to approach and tried to devise a plan in my head, I heard not one, but two screams of pain.

My eyes widened in horror as I froze in place. Who could the second person be? It sounded like a female scream. Aunt Feli? Kelly? Jade? Abigail? They screamed again, waking me up from my reverie.

I was running out of time. Five minutes and my mom and whoever the second person was could be killed. When they screamed again, a burst of confidence flowed through my body. ‘Your strong,’ my wolf whispered.

As my wolf continually tried to sooth my nerves, I gave confident strides towards the building. A strange smell wafted into my nose, making my stomach churn and my eyes burn. Wolfsbane surrounded the perimeter. I growled in disgust.

However, this didn’t stop me from walking towards the door and slamming it open. A cold breeze and wretched smell hit me once the door banged on the wall. The open space was lit only by a dim light. Surrounding it were boxes, buckets with vile liquid that I assumed was wolfsbane, a table on the far corner – beer bottles scattered on top, and violent tools used to torture someone. My eyes wavered on the two people in the corner. Their eyes froze on me and widened.

Their wrists were chained up on the wall and so were their ankles. They were practically dangling from their wrists which looked like their arms wanted to fall out from soon. The places the chains were touching were red, new skin surfacing every one second, only to be burned again by the chains.

The girl looked about my age, her sapphire eyes looked at me in agony. Her platinum blonde hair was a mess. Dirt smudged her perfect complexion. New scar wounds ran up and down her arms and legs. She was only in a nightgown. I only realized now that they abducted her from her sleep. Her eyes read, “Run now” as she shook when a breeze swept across the room.

“Stacy,” my voice quavered as I recognized her. I had to hold on to the door frame from the sight of her torture. It was hard to digest it all in and for me to see it in person was undeniably heart clenching and gut punching.

“What are you doing here?” She whispered quickly. “Danny, you have to go. Now.”

I shook my head, refusing to meet her eyes. The ones that were empty. All because of me.

“Danny, baby,” My mom said in a hushed whisper. “Please leave.”

My mom still looked the same as on the video, except now, her scar on her forehead had healed. To see her suffering for me brought tears to my eyes. None of these girls deserved it. I should be the ones in their places. It’s me that they wanted, not them.

 “No,” I said, striding forward and ignoring their protests. “You guys don’t deserve this.”

“You don’t understand, Danny,” Stacy urged. “You need to leave.”

As I touched Stacy’s chains to try and break them, I flinched back and hissed in pain. I looked down at my hand to see a burn, only to be replaced by new skin and heal quickly. “Honey, don’t touch the chains. Their covered in wolfsbane,” Mom warned, moving towards me as if she could take me away from them.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, looking both of them in the eyes and back to wear their bare skins touched the chains. “I will get you out of here.”

I heard an applaud from behind me. I jumped backwards in surprise, backing up towards the wall on instinct. I could barely make the outline of a figure in the back corner where there was no light. I squinted my eyes, trying to see who it was while resting my right hand on my dagger, getting ready to pull it out. I growled, my lips stretched to expose my clenched teeth.

“Daniella. Daniella. Daniella. So glad you could join us. I have to say, I’m slightly disappointed you showed up. I was looking forward to watching these two woman suffer some more.” My growling stopped immediately. I knew that voice. It was all too familiar. The same cold darkness from earlier enveloped me like a hug. My eyes widened and my hand on my dagger started to tremble. My legs numbed and soon, I felt the need to throw up and pinch myself. This couldn’t be real.

A handsome man stepped out from the darkness and into the light. His black, shiny shoes clacked on the hard, cemented ground. He wore a clean pinstriped button down and his favorite slacks. His brown hair had grown out and he wore it slicked back now. His green eyes stared right into my soul and I felt a sudden fear. His strong features moved and crinkled as his lips stretched into a sinister smile.

My heart dropped and I didn’t know whether a joke being played with me or this was some type of dream. My legs buckled slightly from wanting to fall on the ground and the man in front of me chuckled. Aside from that, I felt nothing. I was too numb to care.

“Daddy?” My voice came out as a whisper.

He waved off the name I called him for years, even after he kicked me out of his house. He checked his watch and said, “You’re a little bit late,” my dad feigned a yawn and looked back at the corner. He waved his hand to another figure in the dark to come over. “Can you do me a favor? Whip her mom and let Daniella watch. How many times did I have to teach her to do things on time? I think this time, she’ll learn.”

“No,” I screamed, tears finally spilling out of my cheeks. I jumped up on instinct. “Please, don’t. Please just let them – “

I covered my mouth with a shaking hand as the person in the corner finally stepped into the dim light. I backed up again until my back hit the wall in between my mother and Stacy. With my dad, they laughed at my weakness.

His brown eyes rested on me with hatred as his handsome smirk took place on his good-looking face. His hands held a whip and the other pushed up the sleeve of his button down. “My pleasure, George,” he said, his eyes never leaving my own. “Danny,” His voice dripped with malice.

“Warren,” my voice trembled. “I trusted you.”

----

Three words for you:

Don’t. Hate. Me.

And another cliffy! I’m just too nice. (‘:

Xo, zabelle06