Alphas broken mate

Strange men in the forest

Beast

All my instincts shouted for me to move away from the stranger, that he was not safe, but I could not bring myself to move.

Not when there was a chance that he could end all of this.

If I were gone, then the pack would be free of me.

Then Danielle would be free of me, and he could move on. He could build the family he deserved and always dreamed of.

The pack would be full again and stronger now that I was not raging everyone down with me.

I can not deny that the thought of ending it all has followed me for years now. The idea of finally letting this all go was calling to me. I would have ended it all years ago when I was seventeen, if not for Daniell bursting into my bathroom right as I was about to take a deadly dose of the drugs the healer prescribed me when my nightmares got too bad.

He ripped the bottle out of my hands while shouting at me... asking what the hell I was thinking...

To this day, I remember the anger and despair in his eyes from that night.

After the initial shock and anger wore off, he pulled me into his arms as he cried and begged me to promise that I would never do that again. I promised that I would never try to do this again and if I did feel the need to do that, then I would come to him first before I made any decisions like that.

And so I never tried to take my life again...

Did I think about it?

Did I entertain the idea of how easy it would be to end this... how I would finally be free of everything?

Yes, almost daily.

Have I ever told this to Daniel?

No... I could not burden him with the heavy load of bullshit, when I knew how hard it would be for him to know that I struggled, especially when he could not do anything about it... because he couldn't. There is no fixing this.

The hole that my parent's death left in my chest was filled with darkness that tainted everything around me.

So I never tried to kill myself, not here in the pack and not even in the arena.

But I guess I have to thank my wolf for it because even if I wanted to let one of those fuckers kill me, my instincts would not let me. As much as I would have liked to just get killed, the wolf in me was a fighter. As an alpha's daughter, the freaking Luna of the pack my wolf would not go down without a fight, no matter how much I just wanted to give in.

So here I was existing and tainting everything around me with my darkness.

But this was a way out of it.

I would not be killing myself, but at the same time, I would not put in any effort to stop the man that was approaching me.

And maybe, just maybe, no one would make the connection between me and the pack, so they would not be dragged down by yet another one of my f**k up.

So I stood there, not moving an inch, ready to accept my fate, putting all my efforts into keeping my wolf quiet and under control.

I even closed my eyes so that my wolf would not get any ideas to fight back.

A few seconds passed as I waited for him to finally do it, for the claws to cut my throat just as I did to the man just a moment ago, but nothing came.

"Come on child, let's get you cleaned up."

Stunned and disappointed, I blinked my eyes open and stared at the older man in front of me.

He looked completely calm and did not show any ideas or signs that he would want to do me harm...

What the hell?

Something stirred deep in my chest as I stared at him. There was this certain familiarity about him, but I could not pinpoint it. Hell, who knows, maybe he was in the crowd somewhere at the ring or something.

It was possible, but something in me was sure that it was not right... that I knew him from somewhere else. I tried raking through my brain trying to pinpoint him, but for so many years I only repressed each and every memory... so there was not a lot that I could dig up.

I stared at him and something about him raised this uneasiness deep in my chest, but I did not get to linger on these thoughts trying to figure out who the hell he was, because not a moment later he looked at me and gave this soft smile.

"Come on, there is a pond not too far from here, you can wash up, and then we will deal with the body."

He did not wait for my answer as he just took my hand and pulled me in the direction he was pointing at a moment ago. We walked in complete silence, and I was not sure if it was good or bad. My brain was working overtime as it tried to figure out who this man was, but before I could think of anything, we stopped next to a big pond.

I was not sure what he was expecting me to do now. Should I just get into the water? Without thinking more about it, I took a step in the pond's direction and, to my surprise, he got in the water alongside me.

His actions shocked me to the point where I could not say a word, but the man was completely unfazed by what was happening. He was moving as if this was a normal recurrence and that he did it every day or even more frequently.

Gently, he washed my face and stopped only once the blood was no longer on my cheeks. I could see my own reflection in the water and the only sign that I was covered in blood not a moment ago was the coloring of the water we were standing in.

Even after he is done, he does not say a word and just stares at me. After a few moments, he releases a breath and I could see how the mask of indifference slipped off his face, and I saw the real look on his face. There were so many emotions stomping in his eyes as he was looking at me.

After a moment of complete silence, he released a deep sigh.

"You look just like her."

Confused, I blinked a few times while staring at him.

"Like who?"

He chuckles gently as he brushes off the last bit of blood from my cheek.

"Like your mother."

Even more confused and a bit shocked I blink a few more times.

"What?... You knew my mother?"

The man looks at me for a moment and then just smiles.

"Yes, I grew up with her."

This information hit me in two ways.

One of them was excitement because I saw a small part of my parent's past... but at the same time, the excitement had a dark layer of sadness to it, because it reminded me of the loss and everything that came with it.

I blinked a few times, not sure how to react or what to say, but to my luck I did not have to decide because he smiled at me gently again.

"Okay, we can talk about it later, now we need to get you out of these clothes."

Again, without waiting for my answer, he just took my hand and led me out of the pond in the direction of what looked like a dark car. Without another word, he just pushed me gently in the direction of the back seat.

"Get it, I will drive you home."

Uneasiness started to rise in my stomach, but I followed his request and got into the car.