Not My Alpha.

The Fight/Chapter 5.

It has been a few days since Tora’s little confession to me. Things have started to change slowly. Instead of locking myself up in the tower like a princess, I have started to explore the grounds more. So far, I have explored the whole top floor of the mansion. As for Tora, he seems to be avoiding me even more now. He will walk into a room and see me and leave the room. If I have to pass him in the halls, he acts like I have the plague and push himself up against the wall as tight as physically possible. Lately he and Lena have been spending more time together also. For some reason seeing them together makes me oddly jealous.  

Today my goal was to either find the gym or go out and explore the garden. If I got lucky and explored them both I would move onto the maze. As I walked through the halls today less people looked at me, and more people seemed to greet me. One girl in particular seemed to hunt me down. 

“Your Camden, right?” I nodded as I looked her over. She looked familiar. Her long brown hair and bright blue eyes reminded me of Tora and the photos I had discovered.  

“Who are you? Do I know you?”  

She gave me a confused look before answering. “Yeah, you know me. We used to play together all the time when we were little. I’m Georgie, Tora’s little sister. To be honest though me and you seemed more like siblings then my brothers and I.” We both let out a little laugh at this. 

“Well, if we are being honest, I honestly don’t remember you. I don’t remember anything from my time here at all. Everyone says I grew up here for years, even your mother has showed me proof but I still can't believe it. Is that weird?” 

“No, not at all. It could be since you were so little when you left you don’t remember anything. Then again, a witch could have cast a spell on you to erase all memories of your time here, and the people you knew here.” I burst out laughing at her little joke. When I saw that she was serious I was lost. 

“You don’t actually believe in all this supernatural bullshit, do you?” She nodded her head looking more serious by the second. “So, you're telling me you think witches are real?” Again, she nodded her head. 

“Are you telling me you have never thought of what else could be out there lurking in the shadows? You never thought that the bedtime stories you were told at night were real? Why is it so hard for you to believe?” 

“Because my life is strange enough without having to add the supernatural into it. I don’t think it's that I don’t believe, I think it's that I can't. I can't let myself hope that this life we live isn't what it seems. I can't let myself think that there could be witches, vampires, werewolves, ghosts, or even fricken yeti’s out there because life is already crazy enough. Could you imagine walking down the street and seeing a man in a long trench coat with fangs just standing there asking for you blood. If the supernatural were out their scientists would have discovered proof by now.” I had a valid argument and also science on my side, what did this girl have. 

“What if I told you we had fairies out in the garden?” The girl smirked at me triumphantly.  

“Prove it.” 

That’s how I found myself outside in the backyard. It was even more beautiful than I could have imagined. The walk to the garden alone was amazing. The ground was covered in little white stones creating a magical pathway. There were archways that had roses and various other plants growing around and on them. There were small chokecherry bushes lining the side of the walkway. From where we stood, I could see that the food that was grown here would be enough to feed everyone for years.  

The first thing that stood out to me when we made it to the outskirts of the garden, was that everything was glowing. Not from the sun light or the condensation on the plants, but they seemed to glow from the inside out. It was coming from everywhere. I couldn’t help myself as I reached out and touched a petal on a small tulip. The petal I had brushed my finger on seemed to glow brighter. I turned and smiled at Georgie. Before I could say anything, Georgie reached out and grabbed my hand. She turned it over and my finger I had used to touch the petal also had a slight glow to it. 

“The fairies take care of the garden for us. Their dust not only helps the plants blossom, but it also makes them produce more. Any of the medicinal plants have almost twice the strength they should. Fairy dust is amazing for healing wounds. It won't grow back a missing limb, but it can heal minor cuts and bruises.” Georgie was still holding my hand absently playing with my fingers. Next thing I know she laced her hand with mine and we were running the path through the garden. 

As we ran, I tried to memorize every flower, every plant. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the food up close. We ran around corners past more and more plants that I couldn’t identify. It was the most amazing feeling. I couldn’t wait to come back out and start identifying all the strange plants. We stopped in what must be the middle of the garden. In front of us stood one of the largest trees I had ever seen. It was also the most beautiful. It was a mix of many different trees creating all these twisted branches with different colored bark. There was fruit and flowers mixed in and the top branches were all different colors of leaves mixed with more flowers. I couldn’t believe the beauty of a tree. I released Georgie's hand and walked towards the tree slowly. When I was right in front of it, I placed my palm against it softly, almost as if I was afraid if I touched it, it would disappear.  

“What is this? It’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” I face relaxed and for the first time since being here I felt calm. My hand felt warm where it was still in contact with the tree furthering my relaxed feeling. That is until something else touched my other hand. I peered down and let out an audible gasp. I'm surprised it didn’t come out as a scream. Touching my pointer finger was a little hand. Attached to that hand was a small body of a person that you could only describe as a fairy. 

She was beautiful. Not only was she glowing from the fairy dust but her wings glowed a brilliant blue. Her small body was covered in foliage I'm assuming from the garden around us. Her red hair was loose framing her tiny face making her blue eyes seem even bigger and brighter. Her wings were intricate swirls and designs, that if I ever tried to recreated, I would never get right. When I still hadn't moved my hand from her tiny grasp, she flapped her wings hard until we were face to face. 

“What do you think of my kind?” Her voice was like tiny bells in my ears. Soft and musical which is fitting to say the least. 

“Your kind is amazing. I never knew you existed, yet here you are, right in front of me.” My voice came out softly, trying not to scare her off. She nodded her tiny head at my response, making fairy dust fly around us slowly. 

“My name is Ever garden, what is yours?”  

“Camden, but everyone calls me Cam. Do you live here? I mean just here in this exact garden, or are there more of your kind out there?” The little fairy let out a small laugh that sounded like bells. 

“There are more of us. We tend to stick around others that also aren't believed in. That way we don’t have to worry about pesky humans trying to dissect us. We are all over the world just like your kind is.” What does she mean by my kind? I’m human so of course we are out there but, why did she make it seem like she wasn’t talking about humans? 

“It’s almost time.” The tiny voice came from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  

“What was that?” Both Ever garden and Georgie just shook their heads at mean and pointed towards the top of the tree. After a couple of moments, a swarm of tiny bodies, all different colors and features, came flying out of the highest branches. They all stayed together as a swarm as they moved towards a river that ran close to the tree. Once they were all gathered there something amazing started to happen. The water responded to their every movement. It looked as if the water itself was one of them. They made small waves as others filled tiny buckets with the clear liquid. When more of them noticed Georgie and I watching they started to put on a show for us. First by making tiny little fountains but slowly letting their gift of the water get bigger until they had stopped the river from flowing all together. Once the river had stopped, they all used their strange power and picked it up. Watching a body of water that should be flowing stopped and floating was amazing. Ever garden tilted her head towards the river telling us to follow her over to the others. The walk to the river was short and uneven. I guess when you fly you don’t need flat ground.  

“They want you to stand in the empty river bed.” Ever garden was the one who spoke as she continued to lead us to where they wanted us. 

It was amazing. Standing there with the water floating above us. I couldn’t help myself and it seemed as though Georgie couldn’t either, as we both raised our arms letting our fingers graze the water just above our heads. I let out a small giggle as tiny little drops fell onto my face. The fairies decided to put on another show for use as they slowly lowered the water back into the river, however they kept it just inches from touching us. One wrong move and we would be waist deep in the river. In the water we could see fish swimming about as if this was completely normal to them. I reached my hand in as a smaller fish swam towards me, getting to feel its small scaly body. Once again, the little fairies showed off by creating little flowing streams of water above us. It was the most wonderful experience of my life until we all heard the sound of a twig breaking. The fairies lost their concentration and the river started flowing like it should have been the whole time. The sudden force pushed me under the water completely. The river was moving at such a fast pace I almost couldn’t stand back up. Once I was on my feet, I notice Georgie was still standing just slightly wet from the streams of water that were above us. 

“What was that?” All the fairies seemed to talk at once like they were one.  

“Whatever it was I don’t like it. I think we should go back into hiding. It was nice meeting you Camden. I hope we will see you again. Let us take our leave.” Ever garden gathered all of her people and before you could blink, they had disappeared into the tree once more. 

“Okay, you win.” I said smiling to Georgie. She giggled as she splashed water at me. 

“Next time I tell you something will you believe me?” I nodded my head splashing water towards her. "Good because I can't wait to show you all the secrets this place has to offer.” Those were the last words we spoke as we continued to play around in the river together. 

It wasn’t long before we decided to head back towards the house. It was getting late and Georgie said something about scarier things coming out in the night. When I asked her what those things where she just shrugged her shoulders at me. To be honest its suspicious, kind of like she can't tell me what those things would be, she obviously wants to tell me if the look on her face means anything. I kept scanning the woods on our short walk back trying to catch a glimpse of what else could be out there. It's strange to think there is anything out there besides the normal. A few days ago, I wouldn’t have believed a single word or a single thing I had seen. My brain seems to think all of this is normal anyways so who am I to question myself. 

“What’s going on inside that small head of yours? Georgie was staring at me. 

“Did you just call me stupid?” I questioned slightly shoving her off the path we were taking. 

“I was trying to compliment you by saying you have a small forehead but whatever floats your boat. From now on I will you call you Camden The Small minded. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” She was rubbing her nonexistent beard as she pretended to think more about my new nickname. 

“Ha-ha you are so funny!” I replied dryly. This earned me a smile which I couldn’t help but return. Theres something about Georgie that makes you want to be nice. Maybe it's because she looks innocent and sweet or maybe it's because I slightly remember her whatever the case, I am just glad to have made a real friend here.  

Once we got back to the house, we went our separate ways. Georgie wanted to take a shower while I wanted to eat. It has been a long day and I did just get done starving myself. Since it was later in the night no one would really be in the kitchen which is a plus for me. I don’t want to run into people especially the ones who I thought were my friends. That’s one good thing about staying in my room, I don’t have to run into anyone I don’t want to. I was correct in my thinking the kitchen was almost empty. There was only about ten people including the staff and myself. Unfortunately, Tora and Lena were also here. They seemed to be in deep conversation so I went and got food unnoticed. It wasn’t until halfway through my meal that Lena noticed me. Hers eyes locked with mine before she smirked.  

Her lips were on Tora’s in a flash while her eyes never left mine. Tora either didn’t notice what she was doing or just didn’t care. His mouth moved with hers while his eyes remained shut. My stomach turned at the sight but I tried not to let Lena notice that I was affected at all. I don’t even know why I should care. Just because Tora said a few nice words to me while he was drunk doesn’t mean I should give him attention I didn’t have before. I shouldn’t give him anything not after what he did to me. I shouldn’t feel anything but angry. For some reason though the thought of being angry at him was almost hard for me now. I can't afford to let go of that anger. I need it. It’s the only thing I have known for so long. I can't forget it now just because I am around him. Before I could process what, I was doing I slammed my hands down on the table hard enough that my drink sloshed out of my cup.  

All eyes were on me as I slid my chair back, I let myself be angry and it showed. Now Lena was smiling even brighter thinking that she had got to me. Tora was looking at me with a completely stunned face. I don’t know if that’s because he didn’t know I was here or because he didn’t want me to be here when he was with her. I can't read him and right now I don’t want to. I looked at everyone before putting my head down as if I was ashamed of my actions. Turning on my heal I half walked half ran out of there. Hopefully I put up a good act. Right now, I want everyone, including Tora, to believe I was upset not angry.  

I made my way back outside. I don’t really know where I am going. I just picked a direction and wandered that way. I found myself in the giant maze in the middle of the compound.  It was so dark I couldn’t make heads or tails of what I was looking at, all I could make out was the entrance and I took it. I just want to escape and who would look inside a maze? I lifted my arms up from my side and ran them across the pokey leaves and branches, hoping to memorize the maze by feel so I wouldn’t get lost. The wind whistled around me as I moved farther into the maze. I don’t really know what my goal is here. For now, I just want to find the middle and think. My mind won't stop wandering back to Tora. I can't seem to figure him out. One minute he's hot the next he's cold.  

I don’t know how long I wandered in the maze but I do know that my legs burned and my hands hurt and bled by the time I found the middle of the maze. It was incredible. There is a small rose garden with a swinging bench in the middle. All around are flowers growing out of the bushes. A wishing well was in the corner obviously forgotten about. The whole thing looked as if it was going to collapse. I made my way over to the bench to take a break and collect my thoughts finally. I couldn’t think about anything but my goal while walking through the maze. It was honestly a great feeling to let my mind go blank and calm. It was the first time in a long time. 

Let’s go through everything I know so far. I have known Tora and his family literally all my life. For some unknown reason we left. I have no knowledge of our time here at all. Years later Tora came to our family home and murdered my parents and let me be beat half to death. Now I'm here surrounded by people I don’t really know. The people I thought I did know I actually know nothing about. I have learned that there is more out in the world then I ever expected. The worst part is I am okay with most of these things. I just wish my parents were here to explain to me what is going on. Why did this have to happen to me? Why does Tora insist on making my life a living hell, while also making me stay here? Who are these people and what do they really want with me?  

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard a loud growling noise. It seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. My eyes had adjusted to the dark by now but I still can't see anything out there. My body seemed to react before my brain. I was up and moving through the maze in an instant. I don’t know if I'm looking for the source of the sound or if I'm looking for the way out. I wandered around trying to find my way out while not hearing another sound. I do have this weird feeling of being watched. More like stalked. Hunted. Just when I thought I was safe I heard the noise again. This time I could hear something moving around in the maze with me. I started to run thinking that maybe I could out run whatever it was. My mind was trying to figure out if I knew where I was while my legs just kept moving as fast as they could. 

I could feel my body relax as my eyes found the entrance to the maze. I t wasn’t too far away maybe two hundred feet, but whatever was following me had to be less than that. I dared to look back and my whole body froze. Standing behind me was none other than a wolf. It was a beautiful wolf, but I could feel its power where I stood, light brown almost copper fur with dark hazel eyes. My legs froze and I couldn’t move. I don’t know if it was out of fear of the beautiful creature in front of me or if it was because I know better than to keep running from a wild animal. They love the chase. I slowly put my hands up in a non-threatening manner. Maybe I could show this animal I meant no harm and he would be on his way. When his legs started to move, I knew my plan didn’t work. Unfortunately for me I was still stuck in place. 

The wolf came up next to me poking and prodding me with his snout. He didn’t seem to want to hurt he just seemed curious about me. He sniffed me all over before coming back towards my front. That was when his eyes closed and he seemed to be lost in his own world. When they opened again the beautiful hazel was gone now replaced with a dark brown, maybe black, and little flecks of red. The wolf seemed to change in front of my eyes. He went from a sweet little wolf to one who looked like he wanted to murder me. With my hands still raised I started to back up. I don’t know why my body decided to listen to me now maybe because it knew we were in danger but my legs didn’t stop. The wolf just watched me waiting for me to take off. When I didn't, he slowly started to stalk towards me I swear I could see a smile on his face. This had all turned into a game in just a few short seconds. I went from something to curious to him to his prey.  

I turned and ran. I knew even before he started to run after me that I wouldn’t get away. He was stronger and faster than I was. I would be lucky if I made it out of the maze before he mauled me. I see his shadow before I felt him. I was thrown to the ground by his sheer weight. I felt my head bounce of the dirt path. My eyes focused for a minute and I could see I had made it to the entrance. The wolf was walking circles around me. I could easily scream and maybe someone here would hear me. I couldn’t do it through; it would just feed into the hunt for this wolf. The more I just laid there not doing anything, the more the wolf seemed to get agitated. It really did want me to do something. He walked closer showing me his teeth and letting out a long low growl. 

“No.” I said while shaking my head. I met the eyes of the wolf. “I won't yell I won't fight and I won't give you the hunt you really want.” I don’t know what made me want to try to have a conversation with this wolf but oh well. He tilted his head as if he actually understood what I had said and I know I was the most interesting thing to him. When I still hadn't done anything, he came closer and nudged me with his snout. That was when we heard the shouts coming from the house. People were yelling and screaming as more howls came from everywhere. This seemed to shake the wolf up because he was once again barring his teeth in my face. There was a snap and both of our heads turned to look at the opening of the maze where another wolf was watching us. With the other wolf there it seemed to erase the curiosity out of the first wolfs mind. He lunged right at me.  

His teeth sank into my forearm and held tightly as he shook his head. I don’t know if he was trying to make the bite more painful and bloody or if he was trying to actually rip my arm off. He released my arm and clasped down on my right shoulder, not hard but certainly not gently, before the second wolf was tackling him to the ground. As they both circled each other and lunged I took the opportunity to get up and run. I ran as fast as my legs would let me until I hit the opening of the maze. I really wish I would have just laid there and watched the wolves fight it out because this seen was much worse. 

More wolves ran around the outside of the castle. Some attacking people, some attacking other wolves, and most of them just causing destruction. The ones attacking people didn’t seem to want to kill them only harm since they would bite and release and move onto the next victim. The ones fighting however didn’t stop until their opponent was dead or they were. The ones causing destruction were the strangest out of them all. They just attacked whatever they could. The flowers, parts of the house, people clothes, toys it didn’t seem to matter as long as it was in tatters after they were done.  

I didn’t know what to do in this situation at all. Should I make a run for the house? Should I try to help the people and children? Should I just lay down and hope this is all a dream? I couldn’t let my mind wander to much or I would do the last option. For now, I did what I have trained for years to do. I ran forward and grabbed a thick branch that had fallen from a tree. Positioning that in my good hand and arm I ran towards the first group of people. They were teenagers, if you could even call them that, I threw my body in-between theirs and the two wolves that were blocking their path. My body acted on pure instinct as I swung the branch into the smaller wolf with as much force as I could muster. He rolled a little way away and I took that as my chance to attack the bigger one. Instead of attacking it like I did the first one I walked towards it. It would be expecting a straight forward attack after I had already done it. If I could get closer it might take the wolf by surprise and I could use the branch as a club. When I smacked him on the head, he just seemed confused. The two wolves seemed to assess the situation before figuring we weren't worth the trouble and left us alone. 

“Go you have a clear line to the house. Find a room and lock yourselves in there until someone comes and tells you it's safe.” They all seemed to nod at once and made their way towards the house. I followed behind them just in case someone tried to mess with them again.  

The strangest part about all of this, is that these wolves didn’t act right. This isn't normal behavior for a wild animal. Most of the time they are more scarred of humans. Why did these ones keep attacking even after being knocked down? Most would turn with their tale in-between their legs and run away. We had made it to the front door with no other incidents thankfully. After I watched the kids lock themselves inside of a room down the hall I turned to go towards my own room. That’s when I see him.