Chapter 6
1471 Words
Chapter 6
Mathias
Maybe I should have checked up on Tabitha before leaving the Pack for this cave. Then again I’m not certain she’s the one I’ve been desperately searching for all these years—-she’s cursed. Hence my best bet is to keep my distance before I grow attached to her. After all, Ezra hasn’t returned to the Pack to confirm if she’s my cure or not.
My palms slowly rolled into balls of fist, and I grinded my teeth as my eyes darted to the four silver chains on the ground waiting for me to do the usual. Tonight is another full moon, and while my Pack members are out in the woods enjoying the moon’s energy, I have to be locked in here. It was largely empty, but beautifully lit by the stalactites that glowed a gentle shade of blue: The only place that keeps me from shifting into a monster every full moon.
I checked my wristwatch which informed me that I had only a few minutes left till midnight. I briskly removed it and slipped it into my pocket. I lowered to carry one of the chains attached to the walls of the cave, but my fingers froze inches away from the dirty metal. The black blood stains on it easily tortured me with memories of my most traumatizing night—-the night I had my first shift…my first kills.
My throat clogged with a lump as their screams gradually echoed in my head.
“Murderer!”
“Beast!”
“You’re an abomination to the world!”
“I’m not!” I snapped, but the voices mocked me with their cruel laughter. In haste, I grabbed one of the shackles. The shackle split open and loosely sealed around my right wrist. The voices protested, tormenting me with a migraine that struck like lightning.
“You don’t deserve to be Alpha!”
“Quiet!” My hands latched to my hair, almost ripping out a handful of black strands.
“You will always end up alone!”
“I won’t!” I frantically picked up the second shackle.
“No one will ever love you!”
“Shut up!!!” If my chords were a string, they would have snapped as my voice bounced off the walls. Unfortunately, it didn’t silence them.
I raced to chain my other hand when the lights started flickering. The ground beneath my feet vibrated like a gentle tremor. This place wasn’t about to collapse, right? Not on a night like this! The tremors worsened, casually throwing me off balance.
I peered at the dark pathway meters before me while my breath raggedly dragged out of me. Should I run or wait it out? But running isn’t even supposed to be an option; if I leave this cave, one thing’s for sure…blood will flow, and it’s not going to be mine. I can’t be that monster again. I won’t let history repeat another sad tale.
“f**k it!” I threw the shackle away as stalactites crashed to the ground. I’m not about to foolishly die from an earthquake. My heartbeat spiked as I mindlessly tried to break myself free from the other shackle. The fresh smell of jasmine and a faint trace of blood suddenly thickened in the air, overly familiar like,
“Tabitha?” my eyes exclaimed as she sprang out of the pathway, breathless, covered in an abundance of bruises. The lights stopped flickering, and the tremors stopped. Was I hallucinating as usual? Isn’t she supposed to be at my Pack?
“A-alpha M-mathias,” her eyes twitched like she had seen a ghost. She turned back to the pathway without wasting a second, but the cave was faster—its huge rocks collapsed on itself, blocking her path.
“No…no no no…” she cried, hustling to lift the heavy chunks of rocks to which she woefully failed at.
“W-w-hat…” I stuttered, proceeding to shake my head in order to shatter this hallucination proudly sponsored by my migraine. Unfortunately, I was a weaker opponent to my mind.
“You’re not real…” I told myself, still wriggling my head, “you can’t be…”
“T-this wa-sn’t supposed to happen…” She blared, forcing my eyes open only to see her backed up against the wall. “H-ho-ow are you here?”
“She’s real, you monster. She escaped from your Pack!”
“Never!” I barked, and her soul almost left her body. “She’s in my Pack!”
“Unless she escaped from your Pack, you fool!”
“There’s no way she would escape from my Pack!” I fell on my knees, scrambling for my shackles instead. “M-m-my Pa-ck is heavily secured. You…you are just messing with me. Get out of my head!”
The voices laughed again, and my cheek immediately burned with pain as I repeatedly slapped myself.
“You’re truly an i***t!”
“Can’t you hear her heartbeat or pick her scent?!”
I glanced at Tabitha again; her earlier fears were now replaced with confused brows. I took a sharp inhale, and jasmine filled my core. My ears pounded with her frantic heartbeats, and I could sense that particularly weak aura only she possessed.
Could she…
“You…you’re real?” I demanded. Her chest heaved up and down like an animal on heat as I gradually rose to my feet.
“f**k…fuck! I need to get out of here…” she whimpered as she reverted to the rocks, trying to move them again.
“Tabitha!!” I yelled, the lights flickered, and I heard her breath cease as she froze like a statue. “Face me.”
Her heartbeat spiked louder, almost ringing in my ears to deafness. A part of me dearly clung to hope: hope that she didn’t escape from my Pack because the last place anyone would want to be is here with me.
“Face me!!”
She almost jumped out of her skin as she returned to me with tears in her lashes.
“So you ran…”
Hatred burned bright in her eyes, “You forcefully took me away from my Pack! Did you think I was going to stay?!”
I couldn’t ascertain which one burned my insides more, between the venom of her words or the voices in my head. But one thing was certain: a lid burst open in me.
“How. Dare. You?!” My nose flared, as my claws extended at lightning speed.
“I-I won’t let you ruin my life like the way you did to the others!”
“I own you!!” My eyes blazed red, my ears elongated like a wolf. How she escaped was another mystery to unravel later. Right now, every atom of my body itched badly to break my wrist free from my shackle.
“I’ll never be yours!” she fired back, and the grounds shook terribly again. The walls by my far right crumbled, revealing a pathway. Our jaws nearly dropped to the ground as our gazes locked for a split second, enough time to read her mind—-she was going to escape.
Tabitha ran towards the pathway and I grabbed my shackle on my right wrist—eager to break it. The voices laughed,
“Break it and you will end up ripping her apart like you did to us!”
I can’t! I can’t afford to lose her, not when Ezra hasn’t given his verdict. The shackle set me loose, the lights went out, and I trotted the fastest I’ve ever done. I barrelled into her from the side, quaking the ground on impact.
She coughed blood, and that branch of reason I was helplessly clinging on to snapped. The potent smell, the sight of it…drove my wolf fast into the abyss of madness I’ve been refusing to enter. I didn’t realize when I had pounced over her, and pinned her wrists above her head.
“He-lp…” a broken whisper was all her chords could offer her as my slimy saliva dropped from my fangs to her cheeks.
“Now, rip her to shreds!”
“Kill her!”
“Relish in her blood!”
“Pl-ea-se…” she cried. Unfortunately, I couldn’t control my nerves. Nor could I resist the strong pulse in her neck; it was calling to me, begging me to have a taste of her ravishing, warm blood.
My fangs sank deep into it, she screamed, and the corrosive taste of her blood instantly electrocuted me. I fell to the ground, convulsing as my teeth ground against each other. My muscles were growing numb by the split second, and my slowing heartbeat was all that filled my head before my world blurred to darkness and silence.
- Writer
