The Forbidden Alpha

Chapter 3: Mia

Amelia woke up again as the sun was setting. She was no longer in the forest; the ground beneath her body was hard-packed dirt, and the dust from the road clung to her skin. She was still wearing the dress the man had torn at the party before he raped her, and there was blood staining her right arm.

Amelia closed her eyes again. Part of her wanted to be asleep, wished that everything was just a nightmare. But she knew it was real, the emptiness inside her body showed it was real. Her wolf was gone. There was only an empty space where it used to vibrate. Amelia’s eyes filled with tears. Her hearing and vision were different too, less sharp, and she felt cold. Without the wolf’s metabolism and with her clothes torn, the late afternoon wind seemed capable of freezing her.

She struggled to sit up. The bruises on her body, caused by the man at the party, were turning purple, but what hurt the most were the marks from the ritual to separate her from the wolf and the red mark on the right side of her chest. The alpha had branded the mark of rejection into her skin, some parts still bleeding.

Amelia felt dizzy and closed her eyes again, panicking. She couldn’t pass out or she would die on that road, or maybe be found by another human willing to use her body. The thought made her shiver and cling to consciousness, opening her eyes and trying to figure out where she was. She needed to get off the road and find shelter, then figure out how to deal with all the damage done to her body.

The road stretched for several meters on both sides. There was nothing to give her a clue about her location, just dirt and scattered trees on either side of the road. Amelia was almost ready to accept defeat when she saw a backpack lying a few meters away from where she was. Supporting her body on her knees and palms, she crawled over to it. Inside the backpack, she found some of her dresses and her nearly dead phone. She imagined how much her mother had to beg to be allowed to leave that backpack there.

With trembling hands, Amelia picked up the phone and stared at the lit screen. She needed to ask someone for help, but all the contacts on her phone were from the pack, people who wouldn’t believe her if she told them what happened, or maybe they wouldn’t care enough to try to help her…

She searched through the contacts for the only one who didn’t belong to her pack. Mia was the only human contact saved in her phone. Amelia had met Mia on the first day of school, and if Amelia believed in destiny, she would say their friendship was predestined. Despite being human, Mia understood her and did everything for her. Just as Amelia felt capable of doing anything for Mia.

Amelia’s parents never approved of her friendship with a human; they didn’t like humans, and they liked even less that Mia was poor. But Amelia knew Mia was much more worthy than most of the shapeshifters she knew.

“Hello?” Mia’s voice sounded on the other end of the line. For a second, Amelia wondered if she really wanted to involve her friend in her problems. But she realized she had no choice; she was weak and injured, if she didn’t ask for help, she would die on that road.

“I need help,” she murmured, and before she knew it, she was uncontrollably recounting what had happened.

“I’m coming to get you,” was all Mia said after hearing the story. Amelia could feel how much the other was trying to stay calm. “Get off the road and send me your location. I’m coming to get you, okay? You’re not alone.”

Amelia thanked her, sent the location, and hid in the roadside bushes that grew wildly along the edges of the dirt road.

She had never felt so alone as she did at that moment.

***

Apparently, her father had left her on a deserted road to die of cold or starvation. In the hours it took for Mia to arrive, Amelia saw no sign of other people. Hours passed, and she was in a state of drowsiness when she heard the sound of a car approaching and opened her eyes again, her heart racing with fear. A second later, the car stopped, and she heard Mia’s worried voice:

“Amelia,” she shouted with barely disguised desperation. “Amelia, I’m here.”

Amelia tried to move away from the bushes, feeling the cramps from staying in one position for so long. She managed to lift her body for a few seconds before collapsing onto the road, and Mia ran towards her. The car’s headlights illuminated the dust rising from the dirt ground, making the landscape even more desolate.

“Oh my God,” Mia knelt beside her. “What did they do to you?”

Amelia flinched when the other tried to help her up. She was wrapped in one of the clothes she found in the backpack, but she was still shivering with cold and felt as if every inch of her skin was too sensitive to touch.

“Let’s get to the car,” Mia said gently. She was the one who carried Amelia to the car, using surprising strength for a human of her size.

Amelia lost consciousness several times as Mia drove to a place she didn’t know, but she didn’t care where they were going. Nothing seemed to matter anymore at that moment.

***

Amelia woke to the sound of rain against the car windows, a storm raging outside, making water stream freely down the glass. Her body jolted inside the vehicle as they drove along what seemed to be a dirt road, with no light except for the headlights.

“Where are we?” she asked, trying to fight off the drowsiness.

“Near my house,” Mia glanced away from the road for a second to look at her. “Do you need me to stop for a bit?”

She did need it. Every movement of the car made her body protest with sharp, widespread pain. However, Amelia shook her head.

“I thought you lived in the city,” she observed. She and Mia never talked much about personal life or family. Amelia didn’t talk because she was afraid of letting something slip about her shapeshifter life, but she had never thought about why Mia didn’t share much about her own life.

“I live in a… village,” Mia seemed uncomfortable. “It’s nothing luxurious, like what you’re used to, but I think you’ll adapt.” Mia bit her lip, seeming undecided about saying more. “Listen, my family and my… neighbors, they have some different customs. I mean, we’re not, you know…”

She fell silent. Then she glanced at Amelia again.

“This is going to be complicated,” Mia murmured. Amelia thought about asking what would be complicated, but she didn’t have time before Mia looked ahead again, screamed, and tried to brake the car.

The next second, the car was flipping over.