Rescued By The Beta

Chapter 06

CLAIRE

It felt like falling from a never ending height, with no possibility of ever making it to solid ground except that I did and it was nothing like I imagined traveling through a portal would feel like. I felt the rush of adrenaline, the turning-over of my stomach right before the light snack I had before the horrible event happened came out my mouth.

“Claire?” A painful grunt interrupted my thoughts, bringing me to the brink of reality.

I sat up, far too embarrassed to look at Hunter. I threw up on myself, as sick as I felt at that moment, at least we were safe. “Do you have any idea where we are? I need to look for water.” I paused, seeing the state that he was in.

Laying down in a bloody mess a few feet away from me is the man I have believed to be my mate for the past few months. I don’t have knowledge of when that happened or how we came to be.

Yet a part of me senses a particular familiarity with him. The part of me that had me forgetting my own state and running over to his side.

“You’re okay.” He breathed, his voice deep and filled with pain.

My chest tightened, as I became more worried about his well-being.

“You’re bleeding, is there anything I can do to stop it?” Once again, I feel like I should know how to. It’s the same blank feeling I felt when Jet had spoken to me about who I am, apparently I’m one of them but lost connection to my wolf during an attack. I recall none of that except that most of my memories were gone.

I have had nightmares about my earliest childhood, like the m******e of my entire pack, with me being the only surviving person. I also recalled a beautiful woman pulling me out of the tiny closet space my parents had shoved me into in their desperate attempt to protect me. I remember Jet….Morgana, Kale but nothing special about Hunter except that he was the mute boy I found in a ditch.

Hunter…

I had seen how heartbroken he was when I didn’t know who he was, when I could not recall a single memory about him beyond that. So I lied to everyone, told them I was getting some pieces of my memories, the hope in their eyes, their smiles killed me but I’ll rather have that than have them look at me with pity, each time Freya looks at me, she may not know I notice but I could see the guilt reflect in her eyes.

While she was transitioning, her guilt was so strong she almost went crazy, apparently I became this way trying to protect her.

Would I do it again? I was not certain…because I do not know her.

“I…just mind-linked Jet, he should be able to track us down in a couple of days.” He panted, still fighting for the ability to breathe properly.

“Days? I do not think you can wait that long, you’re supposed to be healing, why are you not healing?” I cried, settling down to put his head on my lap while I examined his wounds.

Except for staring at me, there was no verbal response, Hunter as I know him these past couple of weeks hardly ever speaks. I’d asked Jet about it, asking if the fact that he was once mute made him that way, Jet simply told me he likes to keep to himself.

I let go of his head, letting it drop back on my lap. “We need water, I have to clean the wound to prevent infection.” I told him.

“It’s already infected, which is why I’m not healing. What we need to do is hide before Jet gets here, the council will soon notice something’s wrong with the portal, they will send someone after us.”

After several minutes of trying and miserably failing, I finally managed to drop half of his weight on my shoulder before we started walking down the path. He told me the route to take, things went on for a while until I felt his entire weight dropped on me, knocking us down a hill.

I hurried to my feet, catching my breath on the way. “Hunter?” I cried out fearfully, brushing away his long hair so I could get a clear view of his face.

“No, you cannot be unconscious right now, please wake up!”

Gently tapping his face several times did nothing to help so I looked around our environment for any glimpse of water. I walked into the distance before finally stumbling upon a small creek.

Soaking up the water with my dress, I hurried back to where he was and put it over his head, hoping the water dripping down his face would wake him up, but it didn't!

While trying to get him to wake up, an animalistic sound startled me. Spurning around I was shocked to find us surrounded by Heather, a huge wolf and some armed men pointing a silver thing at me.

Looking down at Hunter with my heart beating furiously in my chest, even without him I definitely couldn’t outrun a wolf. Especially one that looks ready to hunt, to kill.

Gripping the edge of my dress, I move over Hunter, shielding him from her view.

“Good boy Atlas, I shall let you know if I need assistance getting someone to behave.” She chuckled, petting the wolf as if it were a dog.

“I will not hesitate to fight you.” I hissed, letting go of my dress to make a fist instead. Do I even know how to fight?

She threw her head back and laughed. “Really Claire? I’m a witch, I have a wolf boy with me and about fifteen armed men with weapons, you think you can take us all out with a fist?”

“I thought the human was the delusional one.” She scoffed. “And I thought the human was delusional.”

“What do you want from me? Haven’t caused enough harm already? After what you and your masters did to my pack! To Jet’s Parents, To Kale, To Morgana! And the list goes on…!”

“We just want to be left alone! Have you not ruined enough life already?” I demanded, my voice quivering from the force of emotion coursing through my body.

“Are you really going to blame Morgana’s death on the council? Oh…right you’ve forgotten that Jet killed her. Yes, your Alpha killed your best friend unless they left out that part.”

“I may not recall much about the past but the present happened right before my eyes, you ruined her! You used her against us to achieve whatever selfish goal of turning Jet into your weapon…”

“And I will never let you do that to me or to Hunter! I will die fighting you.”

“You’re very lucky the order was to bring you alive or else you will be lying next to your dead mate right now.”

Caught off guard by her comment, I looked down to assure myself that Hunter was fine, that he probably fainted. Something that proved to be a mistake a few seconds later as one of the armed men grabbed me, throwing me on the ground.

As the wolf stalked closer to Hunter, the more fear gripped me. He was still alive, I could feel it and I needed him to be alive until Jet was able to track and rescue him.

“Leave him alone, it’s me you want right? Then I’ll come with you.” I bargained.

“Let him go Atlas, he’s half dead anyway.” She looked at me, giving me a slow cruel smile that made my stomach turn. “You’re going to give me the promotion I sooooo deserve, the council will be happy. Finally, their little experiment is in our grasp.”

“Could I at least say goodbye to him?” I asked, using the back of my hand to wipe away my tears.

“Be quick with it—”

As I walked past her to get to Hunter, she closed her hand around my arm in a tight grip, digging her nails into my flesh.

“Don’t get any ideas, I may have made an oath not to kill you but I can still torture you.” She let go then, pushing me in his direction.

I fell onto my knees beside him, tears rolling down my face and falling onto his like little droplets of rain. Crying so much that I didn’t think I was capable of saying anything except hope that he made it until Jet showed up so they could come after me.

To make matters worse, I lied to him. And the fact that I may never see him again made saying goodbye a lot harder. I didn’t need to remember our bond to know how much he means to me.

Since words failed me, I lowered my head and placed a kiss on his cheek. “See you soon…my Hunter…”

‘My Hunter…’

I woke up with a start, feeling like I have been sleeping forever. Once my eyes adjusted to the brightness of my environment I was able to make out the face staring down at me.

“Claire…?” He called, sounding almost hesitant.

“You’re alive…” I breathed, jolting into a sitting position and flinging myself into his arms!

Emotions wrecked through my body as I embraced him harder, fearing if I let him go, he would disappear and all this would be a dream. A part of me couldn’t believe I was holding him like this, I’m home…!