The Alpha's Secret

Drowning II

MORIA

Saved my life…

Saved… my life?!!!

How f*****g rich.

I refuse to look at him.

I refuse.

But he steps into my line of sight and against my will, my eyes are drawn to him.

To the hard planes of his face and the bright green of his eyes.

To the shape his mouth makes when he frowns as he brushes off the sleeves of his brown leather jacket and discovers the rip in the shoulder seam.

To the sliver of tan skin that shows when he lifts his arms to tie his long, dark hair into a bun.

I see a flash of puckered red skin.

A scar that never healed properly and because I am a curious masochist with no self control, a question stubbornly starts to push its way to the tip of my tongue.

But he catches me looking and immediately lowers his arms so that his shirt falls back into place.

Curiosity killed the cat Moria.

Maybe if I scream it to my brain long enough, she’ll remember it.

Axe lets me go once he’s sure I am not about to collapse.

“Ignore Tristen, he’s just trying to pretend he wasn’t just worried about you and… that this was all his fault.”

I hear the slight edge of accusation that coats Axe’s last word but Tristen merely scoffs.

“I was not worried about her, I was worried about me and what Commander would do to my ass if she died before we brought her in.”

It is my turn to scoff now. “You say it like you haven’t been trying to do exactly that since the moment you met me.”

“Trust me Moria…” He takes a step towards me, eyes narrowed. “…if I had been trying to kill you, you would be dead.”

The way he says my name, the emphasis on the “r” like he is rolling the letter on his tongue, tasting it.

“Tristen. Cut it out. What is with you?” Chryseis asks as she floats closer. Almost like she is trying to shield me from him.

But even that is not enough.

Our eyes meet anyway.

But he doesn’t glare at me. Or frown or sneer.

The cold indifference that settles across his face is much worse and it makes my blood start to boil in a way that cause my finger tips to tingle.

But before I can say anything he is speaking again.

“You know what, do us all a favor. Next time you wish to exhaust your essence reserve and kill yourself, don’t do it around us.”

Then he turns his back on me and walks away.

Essence? Reserve?

I stare at his retreating form in disbelief. “I don’t even know what the hell you’re talking about!”

When he doesn’t turn, I yell some more because it makes me feel marginally better.

I’m

“You know you wouldn’t have to save me if you didn’t kidnap me in the first place…Jerk!”

Then I kick some sand in his direction for good measure.

I hear Axe sigh deeply beside me. “I’m sorry about Tristen, he’s…adjusting”

I glare up at him unable to believe my ears.

And also because I need someone to glare at.

Specifically someone with green eyes and dark hair.

“I should be the one adjusting. I should be the one throwing tantrums and yelling at people!”

“Moria…”

I push Chryseis hand off my shoulder.

“Don’t touch me. And that bastard, lying like he did about my mother…”

That’s when I notice, that neither of them would look me in the eye.

My voice breaks.

I don’t want it to but it does anyway. “He was lying…wasn’t he?”

Tristen’s words float back to me.

Like cold ghosts wrapping barbed vines around my heart.

“Your precious mother doesn’t even remember you…never going to wonder where you are.”

I need to get away from here.

“You are not gone, you did not disappear. To her, it’s like you never…even.., existed.”

Need to get away from them. All of them.

With their strange powers and confusing words.

“Moria…Moria come back”

But I do not stop.

I want to run faster but the soft sandy beach is refusing to let me.

My feet sink with every step, forcing me to to pull it out and leaving the gritty feeling of sand stuck between my toes.

I give up on running.

As I stalk away, I notice the weather is not as scorching as one would expect in a world with two brilliant suns.

Instead, a cool ocean breeze washes over me.

Tasting of salt and smelling of wet seaweed.

I turn towards the water I had barely paid any attention to and goosebumps cover my arms.

It is the most vivid mix of deep blue and light purple.

The light from the sun ricochets off it in a way that makes it look like a clear cut, endless diamond.

Without even realizing it, I begin to walk towards the water.

It is almost like my feet have a mind of their own.

Something about it calls to me.

Like a song familiar yet strange.

Chest deep in the water, peace and calm like I have never felt before washes over me.

The effect they had on my headaches aside, I have always loved the water.

But this…feeling bubbling up in my chest as the water brushes against my chin, it is something I have never felt before.

And somehow as I float in it, arms stretched out on both sides, I instantly know why.

I am finally home.

The words are in my head like someone else had spoken them, whispered them into my mind.

Then unbidden what Tristen had said comes back to me and guilt, hot and bitter floods in.

After everything, all it took was some shiny water to make me forget.

Maybe I really did deserve to have the memory me wiped away from my mother’s head.

I think about the look of horror on her face the morning I changed.

The way she had gone straight to her car and left me.

The way she had run.

Maybe forgetting me was a good thing.

Maybe this way, she would finally be happy.

Finally never have to worry about the strangeness that was her daughter.

A memory pushes its way to the surface of my mind.

A two year old me.

Splashing around in a pool smelling harshly of chlorine.

The gasps I heard as my tiny body swam confidently from one end of the pool to the other.

“Where did you teach her how to swim so good?”

My mother’s voice responding.

Warm and proud and slightly…sad?

“I never did.”

I shake myself out of the memory and frown.

Why did that suddenly come to mind?

And what did my mother mean by saying she never taught me to swim?

I sigh deeply, looking out at the vast body of water.

At the way the waves rise and fall.

Crashing down to let their ripple effect send shivers through the ocean and my body.

If only I could stay here forever.

Here I was different.

Not a forgotten memory in my mother’s head.

Not the girl dragged against her will to a world where nothing made sense.

Not the sole object of Tristen’s hatred.

Just floating.

Merely existing.

Till one day, I faded to nothingness. Foam on the oceans waves.

One with the sea from which I had come.

My eyes bust open so suddenly that I lose my balance and splash around in the water.

The sea from which I had come?

Why did I just think that?

I rub my hands across my face.

It is starting to feel like the longer I stay here, the more I might be losing my mind.

The sea from which I came…

What crap.

I need to get back home.

I start to turn around but a movement on the horizon catches my eyes and I instantly forget how to to breathe.

So far the waves had been small enough that most crashed before even getting to me.

But even as I watch, a wall of water begins rising from the far end of ocean.

A wave so large and sudden that for a second I am too stunned to move.

And it was heading right for me.

Growing taller with each passing second.

Frantic, I look back towards the shore and I nearly slip into a cardiac arrest.

“s**t!”

I must have been drifting for longer than I realize.

Because even squinting my eyes as I am now, the shoreline is so far away that I can barely see it.

I look behind me again, at the wave like two storey buildings stacked up on each other.

I could try to make towards the shore and away from the growing body of water that was going to crash down on me any moment now with enough force to push me head below the water and knock me unconscious but it would be no use.

Because unless I suddenly grew a tail and fins. I would never be fast enough to outrun it.

Would never make it in time.

And the worst part about waves like this, is that they almost always came in sets.

So even if the first one didn’t break my bones or drown me and I managed to pop back up, then the others right behind it would.

I turn my back to the shore and face the approaching wave now barely inches away.

One moment I can see the two large suns on opposite ends of the ocean’s horizon and the next minute, they’re gone and a cold, immense shadow falls over me.

“Funny how many times I have almost died today”

And with that I suck in one large breath and duck below the water a second before the wave crashes down.

Directly on top of me.