Episode3
1047 Words
ZIAN's POV
The woman had a secret.
She had lied when she said she didn't know how she ended up among burnt corpses without so much as a scratch on her. Also, there was another thing.
Lalita had no pack scent. An extremely unusual thing. She did not even smell like the rogue settlement she claimed to be from.
It was damn frustrating to know there was no one left alive who could tell me who this strange woman was. Why had I even allowed Alaric to talk me into bringing her with us? I did not trust her.
'Doesn't matter. She is our mate,' Varric, my wolf said stubbornly. 'We would never have been at rest if we had left her there.'
The same old argument he had used since we first set eyes on Lalita.
'It doesn't matter,' I argued. 'She could be dangerous. A spy planted by our enemies and left for us to find.'
Varric fell silent and at that I breathed a sigh of relief. But Varric was not done.
Into my head came a clear image of Lalita as we had seen her sitting on the smoke-blackened ground. How she had stared at me with those eyes, the color of wildflowers. It had felt like I was drowning in them.
It had taken every ounce of control I had honed over the years not to claim her as mine right there. But then, it was just the mate bond messing with my head.
Yes, she was attractive. Some would even say beautiful, but not my type.
'Liar,' Varric said.
"Shut up," I said out loud, sighing in frustration.
"Alpha Zian?"
Vivienne, my Beta's voice cut through my thoughts. I lifted my gaze at her, realizing I had been staring at the map of the Eastern territory for far too long.
I looked at the clock. It was already past midnight. Vivienne and I were supposed to be working on pack matters for the last half hour. How long had I been sitting here, completely out of it?
"I was asking about your opinions on this," my Beta continued, sliding a sheet of paper across the desk to me.
She gave me a curious look, then began to speak again about patrol rotations and the like. I felt my attention slipping again when it happened.
A bone-chilling scream tore through the air. It froze my blood where I sat.
One thought only came to mind the instant I heard it- Lalita.
I shot to my feet, so quickly my chair toppled over, knocking over something which fell to the floor and smashed. Vivienne jerked back, and took a stance, scanning the enviroment for threats.
"Did you hear that?" I whispered.
Her dark brows knit together. "Hear what?" she asked, her eyes scanning again.
"A-a scream."
Vivienne shook her head slowly, started to say something. Then it came again.
Another scream, weaker this time, filled with agony. The sound ripped through my chest like a red-hot knife. Varric began to trash and whine.
'Something is wrong!' he shouted in my head, his voice filled with panic. 'Our mate is in danger!'
I found I was already moving.
Vivienne called after me. "Alpha! Where are you going?"
"Wait here," I told her. "I will be back."
I reached the door, threw it open and began to run. The corridors blurred as I tore through them.
I bolted down the stairs. Alaric had put Lalita in the room at the far end of the corridor.
As I ran towards her room, the smell hit me. The smell of thick, acrid smoke. An odor I had never smelled before.
"Lalita," I snarled under my breath.
I tried the door. It was locked from the inside.
Backing up, I slammed my shoulder into the wood, splintering it inward. I stumbled into the room.
It was pitch black, filled with smoke. Not even my wolf's vision could make out anything. From inside, I could hear horrible, gurgling sounds. The sounds of someone choking.
I hit the light switch. The room flooded with light.
A huge man, dressed in a dark hooded cloak had Lalita pinned against the bed, one hand locked around her throat. The scent of blood hit me then. It was pouring out of Lalita's mouth and nose. She and the sheets were soaked with it. She was not moving.
A dagger glinted in the man's other hand, poised directly over her heart. I took this all in in a split second.
My entrance had startled the assassin, but he went back to trying to strangle whatever life was left in Lalita like I wasn't there. With a howl of frustrated rage, he brought the dagger down.
"NO!" I roared, the blood pounding in my ears.
In the same breath, I grabbed my knife, threw it at him. It hurtled through the air and sliced the flesh of his arm, throwing his aim off. The knife sank into the mattress, just a few inches from where Lalita's heart would have been.
I lunged at the assassin. Wrenching him away from her, I hit him with everything I had. His bones crunched beneath my fist.
With a cry of pain, he staggered back, clutching at his bleeding arm. He came at me again.
He was muttering something under his breath as he thrust his good hand repeatedly into his cloak, searching for a weapon. His eyes kept darting from me to Lalita. He was like a madman, uncaring about his own life.
He had only one thing on his mind — murder.
Snarling, I ran at him, grabbed him by the throat, pinned him against the wall and hit him again and again. He fell and lay back, dazed.
I would have gladly killed the bastard there and then, but there was Lalita. Had the assassin succeeded? Was she already-
"No," I gasped, hurrying to her bedside.
She was so pale, so still. It looked like she wasn't breathing.
In the confusion, Vivienne had entered the room and was leaning over Lalita, checking for a pulse.
"Oh goddess," Vivienne breathed, her face draining of color.
My breath caught. My chest tightened.
"What?" I demanded hoarsely. "What?"
"Alpha," she said, turning to me. "I don't feel a pulse."
- Writer
