The Forbidden Alpha

Chapter 5: Magnetic eyes

Amelia forced herself to wake up. Her mind was trapped in a strange drowsiness, like when she was a child and had to take strong pain medication. On that occasion, she also couldn’t open her eyes, feeling like she needed to sleep just a little longer. But this time, she forced her eyes open, not remembering why, but knowing she needed to stay awake.

As soon as her eyes obeyed the command and opened, she saw Mia.

“Where am I?” she asked, her voice lower than she intended. She realized she was lying in a bed and that Mia was sitting on the edge of the mattress.

“In my room,” Mia used a soft tone, almost as if she didn’t want to scare her. Amelia closed her eyes and sighed, trying to remember how she had gotten there.

“It feels like I’ve lived a whole year in the last few hours,” she murmured as the memories slowly returned. “Did we have a car accident?”

“Yes. The car flipped. They took us to a hospital, but my brother came to get us,” Mia hesitated, seeming unsure whether to say something or not. Amelia sighed.

“Did something happen?” she knew something had happened, or at least something was bothering Mia.

“How are you feeling?” Mia diverted her attention to the wall. Amelia sat up in bed, felt a sharp pain in her arm, and looked at the bandage covering it.

“I feel like I’ve been beaten, kicked out of my house, and had an accident,” she murmured. “And you, did you get hurt? I didn’t want to involve you in this mess.”

“I’m fine,” Mia shrugged. “I just got a few scratches. You, on the other hand, had a nasty cut on your arm, you’re all scratched up, and you had a concussion. You’ve been sleeping for over twelve hours.”

“Wow, that’s…” she didn’t know what to say. Twelve hours was a long time, but considering everything she had been through, maybe twelve hours of rest wasn’t enough. “Okay. Are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mia continued to avoid her gaze. Amelia took her hand.

“Tell me what happened.”

“I saw the mark on your chest,” Mia murmured after a few seconds of silence. “The doctor didn’t want to discharge you; he wanted to call the police, thinking you were being abused by someone.”

“Oh, the mark,” it was Amelia’s turn to look away. She imagined how strange it must have seemed to Mia. Humans didn’t usually mark someone that way. “You don’t need to worry about the mark; it’s just that my family has… traditions that…”

“I know you’re a shapeshifter,” Mia interrupted her babbling. Amelia’s brain froze. Mia smiled. “Are you going to throw up? Because you look like you’re going to throw up.” Mia held her hand. “I’m a shapeshifter too, well, actually, I’m a hybrid, but my father and brother are shapeshifters, so…” she shrugged. “You don’t need to panic just because I found out.”

“I’m not…” Amelia fell silent. She looked at Mia with an attention she had never used before. “How did I never sense your hybrid side?”

The information seemed unreal. Had she been friends with another shapeshifter for years without realizing it?

“I don’t have a wolf,” Mia looked away, seeming uncomfortable with the subject. “I have some advanced instincts, but I didn’t inherit that part of the shapeshifter side.”

“Ah, that explains why I never sensed you.”

“But it doesn’t explain why I never sensed you,” Mia narrowed her eyes at her. “You haven’t gone through the transformation yet?”

The question made Amelia remember another important part of the previous events. Suddenly, the emptiness in her chest became more intense. Her eyes filled with tears.

“No, I haven’t transformed yet.”

And she wouldn’t transform because they had taken her wolf away.

“What happened?” Mia squeezed her hand. “Why are you crying?”

Amelia tried to be strong enough to tell what had happened, but she ended up telling everything amidst uncontrollable sobs. When she finished recounting what the alpha had done, Mia’s eyes were also filled with tears.

“That’s… cruel,” Mia murmured, stroking her hair. “They had no right to do that. Which pack were you from?”

Amelia opened her mouth to answer but stopped before saying the words. She observed Mia closely, feeling a strange premonition.

“Which pack are we in now?” Amelia asked, for some unknown reason, fearing the answer.

“The rebel pack,” Mia shrugged. “Where else do you think a poor hybrid like me would live?”

Amelia felt the blood freeze in her veins.

“I think we have a problem,” she murmured, feeling her heart race.

“What? What’s the problem?” Mia looked at her with concern.

The problem is that my father spent his life searching for the location of this pack. The problem is that his dream is to destroy this pack. The problem is that the alpha of this pack would do anything to destroy my father. And me, if he knew who I am.

The answer echoed in Amelia’s mind as she decided how much to tell Mia. Finally, she looked at the other girl and took a deep breath, controlling her fear.

“We need to talk.”

***

“What do you mean your father is the commander of the Marlon army?” Now Mia was also pale and scared. Amelia had told her everything, from who her father was and his relentless search for the rebels, to the fact that she had been promised to the son of one of the rebels’ greatest enemies.

“Keep your voice down,” Amelia reprimanded her, looking around as if the rebels might burst into the room at any moment to attack her.

“Don’t worry, we’re alone,” Mia moved closer to her. “My mom is working, and my brother doesn’t come here often.” She focused her gaze on the wall and fell silent, seeming to be devising a plan to save the world from the apocalypse. Finally, she looked back at Amelia with a determined look. “No one can know who you are. We won’t tell anyone, not my mom, not my brother. No one, got it?”

“Won’t your leader want to know who I am?” The idea made Amelia shudder. She had heard the reputation of the rebel leader, how he was a cruel criminal who did terrible things to defy the traditional clans. No wonder her father hated him. She imagined what the rebel alpha would do if he found out that the daughter of his greatest enemy was living within his territory. Suddenly, she felt a strong urge to return to the deserted road where her father had abandoned her.

“My leader,” Mia’s eyes widened slightly, then she blinked and looked away. “Yes, my leader will want to know about you, but I’ll handle it. Just don’t tell anyone else what you just told me, okay?”

“Okay. But what if someone asks where I came from?”

“Say you came from a small group that wasn’t part of any clan and that you were expelled,” Mia held both her hands. “Do you think you can do that?”

Well, Amelia wasn’t good at lying, but she felt that Mia would have a heart attack if she didn’t agree.

“I can,” she tried to sound firm. She was almost sure she didn’t sound convincing enough.

“Why don’t you rest a bit?” Mia stood up. “The doctor said the medication you’re taking is strong. I need to go out, but I’ll be back in time to give you the next dose. You can walk around the house if you want; my mom won’t be back today, but she left food in the fridge. Make yourself at home.” Mia seemed nervous, but Amelia understood; she herself felt like running away. “I’m trying to convince my brother to let you use his old room. He doesn’t live here anymore, but he insists on keeping the room. I put your backpack in his room, or rather, what was left of your backpack. His room is across the hall; you can go there if you want, or we can share my bed until you feel better.”

“Did your brother agree to let me have the room?” Amelia asked, confused. She had forgotten how fast Mia talked when she was worried.

“He always does whatever I ask,” Mia shrugged. “See you later. You can use some of my clothes to sleep; yours got dirty when the car flipped.” Mia came back and kissed her forehead. “Do you need anything?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

“Then I’ll see you later.” Mia smiled and left. Amelia stared at the door for several minutes until she fell asleep again.

When she woke up again, the lethargy from the medication had passed. Amelia felt her body covered in sweat and had the impression she had had a nightmare, but she couldn’t remember what she had dreamed about. The house was silent when she got out of bed. The room opened into a narrow hallway, and she left the hallway to wander through the other five rooms of the house. She was alone. The house was small, very different from the mansion she grew up in. There was only a modest living room with a sofa covered by a patchwork quilt, a TV on a stand, and a coffee table. The kitchen was even smaller than the living room but had several new appliances. There were also two more bedrooms besides Mia’s, one larger, near the living room, which Amelia assumed was Mia’s mother, and another room on the other side of the hallway, across from Mia’s room. Her brother’s room. Amelia decided she would take a shower before moving to the other room.

She tried to choose one of Mia’s nightclothes but realized they wouldn’t fit her. Besides Mia being shorter than Amelia, she apparently had a peculiar taste for short, lacy nightwear. Amelia had never worn anything so short or daring; her nightclothes were nightgowns that reached her knees.

She decided to take one of Mia’s nightclothes. She needed to leave the past behind. It didn’t matter if she used to wear long nightgowns; now she had borrowed clothes to wear, and she would wear them without complaint.

The bathroom was at the end of the hallway. Amelia took a long shower, the hot water easing the pain in her body, but it couldn’t do anything to dispel the emptiness she felt under her skin. She missed her wolf. She cried and let the hot water wash away her tears. When she felt better, she got out of the shower and dried herself off. As she had imagined, Mia’s clothes were too short. The silk shorts barely covered the tops of her thighs, and the shirt exposed a strip of skin on her stomach. Amelia tried to console herself with the fact that she was alone in the house; no one would see her wearing so little.

She was still thinking about this when she opened the bathroom door, stepped into the hallway, and froze. On the other side of the hallway stood a huge man, facing her. He crossed his arms, and his gaze met hers. Amelia realized she wasn’t breathing properly. He looked her up and down, slowly, then fixed his gaze back on hers. Amelia’s heart raced. She couldn’t look away from his eyes. Black irises, he had black irises like the night that seemed capable of invading her very soul.

He took a step forward, and she backed into the wall, retreating, even though there was a considerable distance between them.

“I’m Mia’s brother,” he said, his voice deep and resonant. “And you must be Amelia.”

Amelia couldn’t respond. Maybe she was going crazy, but she was almost sure she felt her wolf stir somewhere deep inside her body when she heard his voice.