Abducted

~ Chapter 4 ~

              It was late afternoon when I finally woke up.  Memories from this morning came rushing back into my mind and I tried to make sense of them.  What did Ben mean when he said he did not shift?  How could he not have shifted?  He would not answer any of my questions after he locked himself in his room.  I looked at the clock.  It was 3:34pm.  I had slept for most of the day.  I decided to get up.

             When I went out into the hallway to go to the bathroom, I saw my mom sitting on the floor across the hall from Ben’s room with her head in her hands.

             “Mom?”  I asked.  She lifted her head and looked at me.  I could tell she had been crying, and for a while.  Her eyes were all puffy and her face was red and splotchy.

             “Alyssa, what happened?  Ben won’t come out of his room and he won’t answer any questions.”  She asked me.  I just stood there and stared at her blankly for a minute, not sure how to answer.  If Ben has not told them anything, then he probably does not want them to know.

             “You’ll have to ask Ben.  I have no idea what happened.”  I lied.  I hoped she would buy the lie since she usually sees right through them.

             “Are you sure?”  She probed further.

             “Yeah mom, I’m sure.  I don’t know what happened.”  I replied and went into the bathroom quickly so she could not ask any more questions.  I leaned against the door for a minute before getting into the shower.

             When I finished my shower and went back out into the hall, my mom was gone.  The hallway was clear so I went back to my room as fast as I could.  I wanted to get out of the house.  I decided to go up to the packhouse and hang out with people there.  When I was about to leave my room, I could hear banging in the hallway, followed by my dad yelling,

             “Ben, open the door!”  More banging.  “Ben!  You can’t stay in there forever!  Your mother is worried.  You need to come out here!”  Still more banging, “Ben!”  I waited until I heard my dad go downstairs before I opened my door and crept out of the house as quietly as I could.  I did not want to be stopped and questioned more before I left.

             I was hoping that Madison would be up at the packhouse so I could talk to her.  She would keep Ben’s secret if I asked her to.  I needed to talk to someone, and I could not talk to Ben right now.  But Madison was not at the packhouse today.  Stefanie was there, obviously since she lives there as the Alpha and Luna’s daughter, and she was not happy.  She was sitting alone on the couch in the den with a sad look on her face.  I could tell she had been crying.  I sat down beside her.

             “Stef, what’s wrong?”  I asked her.  She did not respond right away.  I was not sure if she heard me, but I figured she would say something when she was ready.

             “Xander isn’t returning my texts.  I don’t know what happened.”  She finally responded.

             “What do you mean?”  I asked.  “When I left the bonfire this morning, you were still curled up beside it with Xander.”

             “I don’t know what happened.  I woke up because I was starting to feel cold.  I noticed that Xander wasn’t beside me.  I started to look around figuring maybe he was getting a drink or something.  I didn’t see him at the coolers so I stood up.  That’s when I saw him walking up the path with his arm around Madison’s waist.  She had her arm around his waist too and was leaning into him.”  I did not know how to respond.  I sat there in shocked silence.  Stefanie continued,

             “Now, Xander isn’t responding to my messages or answering when I call.  How could he do this to me?”  She whined, clearly in emotional distress.  I remembered that Madison had told me last night that she did not feel right.  Maybe Xander was taking her home because she was still not feeling right this morning.  That must be it!

             “Maybe Xander was just helping Madison?”  I suggested to Stefanie.  “She was not feeling right last night at the bonfire before we all fell asleep.  I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”  I told her.

             “Are you sure?  That’s all it could be?”  Stefanie asked with a glimmer of hope in her eyes that maybe things were still ok with her and Xander.

             “It’s the only thing I can think of right now that makes any sense.”  I told her.  “I’ll text Madison right now to see how she’s feeling.”  I pulled out my phone and quickly sent a text.  I got a reply almost immediately.

             “See,” I showed my phone to Stefanie.  “She’s at home sick right now.  Xander just walked her home to make sure she got there ok.”  She read the text and I could see her visibly relax a little bit.  She still looked sad though.

             “Still doesn’t explain why he’s not responding to me.  But as least I know there’s nothing going on with him and Madison.”  She stated.

             “He could just be busy or sleeping.  Maybe his phone is not with him or charging.”  I suggested.  I needed to change the subject.  “Want to go hang by the pool for a bit?  There are some other people out there.  I could hear them when I came in.”  I asked her.

             “Sure, why not.  My mom will make me go out there soon anyway.”  Stefanie replied.  We got up and made our way through the packhouse and out the back door onto the patio.  It was hot out again today, but the humidity was gone.  There were a lot of people by the pool.  The packhouse has the only pool in our territory, so when it got hot like this, people gathered here.

             We had been at the pool for about an hour when I saw Kelsey walk out the back door with an angry look on her face.  She saw me and came straight for me, knocking a small pup out of her way and into the pool rather than stepping around them.  Their parents started screaming as they dove into the pool to retrieve their pup.  Kelsey did not even notice.  She stopped in front of me and slapped me hard on the left cheek.  People had started to stare at the commotion.  I had no idea what was going on.  Somewhere across the pool I heard someone say,

“Someone go get the Alpha and Luna!”

             “What was that for?”  I demanded as I held my cheek.  I could tell it was red as my cheek was burning under my hand.

             “That’s because I can’t find your brother to do it to him!”  Kelsey yelled.  She then slapped my right cheek just as hard and I took a step backward in shock.  “And that’s for Madison.  Tell your no good, loser, rank-climbing brother to stay the hell away from my sister!”  She screamed at me before she left as quickly as she arrived.

             I as stunned.  I had no idea what had just happened.  And what did Ben have to do with it?  Why was Madison upset with Ben?  As far as I knew she was at home sick and Ben had locked himself in his room after last night.  I could hear the people around me mumbling in groups when the Alpha and Luna came out of the house.  I could see Luna Cassia as she scanned the crowd for where people were moving.  She made her way first to the mother and young pup who had just been fished out of the pool to make sure they were ok.  Then she made her way to me.

             “What happened Alyssa?”  Luna Cassia asked.  I was still in too much shock to answer right away.  So many questions were running through my head right now.

             “Kelsey came out, shoved that pup in the pool and then assaulted Alyssa for no reason!”  Stefanie told her parents.  I watched as Alpha Davis’ eyes turned black as his wolf was trying to surface.

             “What do you mean she assaulted Alyssa?”  He asked.

             “She slapped her across the face twice.  For no reason.  She was yelling something about Ben and Madison that didn’t make any sense.  Then she just left.”  Stefanie explained.  Alpha Davis’ eyes clouded over as he mind linked someone in the pack.  Luna Cassia used her hand to tilt my head to both sides as she looked at my cheeks.

             “Come with me into the packhouse.  We’ll get some cold compresses for your cheeks.  They are starting to swell.  She must have hit you very hard.”  Luna Cassia said.  She put her left arm around my shoulders and led me into the packhouse. 

Once we got to the kitchen Luna Cassia pulled a cold compress from the freezer and handed it to me.  I pressed it to my right cheek as it was hurting more.  I winced as it made contact with my cheek and stung.  Slowly, the stinging started to subside as the heat was drawn out of my cheek.  After a few minutes I switched to my left cheek to repeat the process.

             While I had the cold compress on my cheek, Luna Cassia had one of the kitchen Omega’s make me a snack and she wrapped my shoulders in a blanket when she saw me shiver.  I thanked the kitchen Omega for the snack when she put a plate with cheese and crackers and some fruit in front of me.  I nibbled at it slowly.

             “I just mind linked your mother to tell her you will be eating and sleeping at the packhouse tonight.  She seemed out of sorts.  Is everything ok at home?” Luna Cassia asked?

             “As far as I know.” I replied and then winced in pain to cover the lie so Luna Cassia would not figure it out.

             “Let me see your cheeks.”  Luna Cassia tilted my head again to the sides.  “There is still swelling.  You are probably going to have bruises.  Finish your snack and then we’ll put a cold compress on them again.”  She instructed.  I did as she said and finished my snack.  Once the plate is empty, the kitchen Omega took it away.

             We moved from the kitchen into the family room that is exclusively reserved for ranking members.  Today though, I’m allowed in.  I sat on the couch wrapped in the blanket holding the cold compress to my cheeks.  Alternating every few minutes.  I do not think it is helping with the swelling.

             Alpha Davis came into the room and sat on the love seat with Luna Cassia.  Stefanie was on the couch with me.

             “The guards cannot locate Kelsey.  She isn’t at home.  None of The Six can be located.  Any idea where they would be?”  He asked Stefanie and me.  I could tell he was upset.  Stefanie looked at me.  I just shrugged my shoulders.

             “We don’t know dad.  The Six are older than our group of friends.  We don’t exactly hang out with them unless we have to.”  Stefanie said.  I watched as Luna Cassia pressed her lips into a line and reached for the Alpha’s hand and squeezed it.  He calmed down a little bit.

             “Are you sure?  Assaulting another pack member is a serious offense and we need to find her so she can be held accountable for her actions.”  Alpha Davis asked again.

             “Stefanie is telling the truth.  We don’t know where they are or where they would go.  They are their own group.”  I replied.  Alpha Davis growled in frustration.  I watched as Luna Cassia turned to face him on the loveseat.  She reached up and cupped his face with her hands and pressed their foreheads together.  I could see Alpha Davis taking deep breaths as he calmed down.  I hoped that some day I would find my mate and have that kind of connection.  He quietly said,

             “They can’t keep doing this.  I don’t know why this is happening.”  I was not sure what he was talking about.  I added it to the list of questions that was growing longer in my head day by day.  I was going to need to start getting answers to all these questions soon.

             After we ate dinner, Alexis and Amanda came up to the packhouse and the four of us had a girl’s night.  We did facials, manicures, and pedicures.  We watched our favourite movie trilogy, the Pitch Perfect movies, as we ate junk food in front of the tv until the early morning hours.  We all ended up sleeping in the den and woke up in the morning to the smell of bacon and coffee as the kitchen Omega’s began to make breakfast.

             After breakfast I went home to work on my homework since I had not started it yet.  I knew I needed to do the extra credit assignment to bring my grade up to a pass in Calculus.  Mr. Buchannan was right about one thing.  I definitely did not want to have to go to summer school.  I stayed in my room for the rest of the day.  Only leaving for food and bathroom breaks.

             Ben was still locked in his room.  I could hear him moving around every so often.  I heard him sneak out of his room to go to the bathroom a couple times.  One time our mom came up and was knocking on his door again to try and get him to come out.  He stayed in the bathroom until she left before going back to his room.

I went out into the hall the first time I heard him leave his room.  He just looked at me and his eyes were very sad.  I gave him a hug as he walked past me and he clung to me desperately for about a minute before he released me.  We did not talk at all.  For now, the hug was enough for him to know he could trust me with his secret and for me to know that he was hurting but ok.

             That night I went to bed with a lot more questions than I had on Friday morning.  I just had to figure out a way to get answers for them.  What was I going to do?