The Alpha's Forever Mate

CHAPTER: 8

Violet could not forget the way her heart pounded in her throat as she approached the door to Ryan's house. It pounded so hard, that it seemed to rise in her throat. She thought she would choke on it. She entered the house, sure that something would jump out and attack her at any moment. But what she found inside was much worse than that.

There was nothing. Nothing but blood. Violet wandered through the house in shock, but there was only blood. There were tracks of blood on the carpet, splatters on the wall, and a trail leading out of the back door and into the night.

The police also did not find anything more than she had. The trail was nonexistent. There was nothing to go on. All the DNA, all the blood was from Ryan's family. There was no motive. Nobody would want to hurt Ryan's family; his father was a school teacher and his mother ran the best bakery in town. Everyone respected and liked them. His little sister was the same age as Mac.

The police did not believe Violet about the person she had seen. They said it was trauma and she had to talk to a counselor, and after a while, she almost believed it. But someone had been at the place. Someone had taken Ryan and his family from her.

Ryan was gone. He was dead, no matter what Violet's stupid brain wanted to believe. She could conjure him up all over the place. It did not make it less true. It did not mean he was there. But she would have to prove it to herself beyond doubt if she ever wanted to achieve any peace.

She sighed and rolled out of bed. She had seen the Gold Garden earlier, and it had not seemed that far. She could probably find it in the moonlight. The VIP Gold group were presumably all asleep, and even if they were not, the security was no doubt too tight for her to discover anything, but she had to do something to shut her stupid brain up. Yana had not seen a fourth person, but there might have been someone who just looked a bit like Ryan from a certain angle, in the right light. If she met that person, she would know for sure. There was no point in trying to make a fresh start at a new school if she clung to the past.

Violet did not want to wake Yana, so she carried her shoes to the door and slipped out as quietly as she could, making sure she had her student card to get back in. She had no clue what the time was, but the house was silent, and the lights were dimmed as she crept down the hall and into the elevator, then out of the front door.

The school had a completely different atmosphere at night, less like a cute village and more like the isolated island that it was. The path was edged with tiny lights and the school brochure had gone into great detail about security measures, so it was not as creepy as it could have been, but it was still obviously in the wilderness. The air was fresh and crisp, and Violet wished she had thought of grabbing a jacket. At home, summer had remained, but here it was well past.

Every noise seemed amplified in the quiet, the distant crash of the ocean, and the wind in the trees. Again, she heard a wolf howl and she wondered what other animals might be in the forest. Maybe there were even bears?

She followed the path around to the right instead of into the garden with the fountain and statue, toward the school. From what she remembered, the Gold Garden had been at the far edge of the forest, so if she followed a straight path till the end, she would probably find it. Hopefully.

The path branched off in different directions, but Violet figured if she went to the right turn each time it would be easier to retrace her steps back. She wondered what the VIP Gold House was like? Was it a sort of palace? She hoped it had a sign at the front so that she would recognize it.

Gradually, the lights at the edge of the path became further and further apart until they stopped completely. That didn't seem right. There should have been extra lights for extra special people. Still, the path kept going, so she followed it.

"You cannot be here." It was a female voice.

Violet stopped in her tracks, her heart pounding as she looked up to see who was talking to her from out of the darkness. She had been so intent on the path that she had not realized she had ventured just inside the dark forest. The trees grew thickly. To the left, she could see a high stone wall.

Tiara Johnson sat on a white bench under a trellis of climber plants, staring at Violet with contempt. She seemed to be glowing in the moonlight. Like a fairy. Heavenly.

"You have to leave," she said to Violet. She seemed a bit agitated. Her whole face was pinched and hard, her lips thin. Her eyes darted around as if she did not want to look directly at Violet.

"Okay," Violet said. "But are you all right? I mean you are sitting alone in the forest, in the middle of the night, wearing only a nightgown, is everything okay? Hope you don't catch a cold."

"I am fine," Tiara said. "Can you please just go?"

"What is going on here?" said a sharp voice.

Carl Johnson emerged from the forest as if he had been transported from another world by shadow and moonlight. He moved like a dancer, his movements calculated as he stepped into the meadow, and his eyes flashed with menace.

"Tiara, who is this person?" he asked, looking between the two of them.

"I don't know," said Tiara, sounding both irritated and bored. "She forced her way in here and now she won't leave."

"I did not force my way anywhere!" Violet said. "This is a public place and I have just as much right to be here as you have."

Violet did not know if that was true. There might have been signboards saying, 'entry for super-rich people only.' It was dark, and she had not been paying that much attention, so it was possible. But the point was they were rude brutes. And that Carl Johnson was a bit creepy. Why was he even in the forest with his sister in the middle of the night? That was not normal. Creepy jerk.

"If he is forcing you to be here or something, I can help you," Violet told Tiara. "I am not scared of him."

Tiara rolled her eyes. "I am here of my own free will."

Carl took a step closer to Violet, narrowing his eyes. Violet was hit with the same feeling as the day before, of wanting to prove her worth to him, but she was in front of him now. He could try as hard as he liked to unnerve her with his piercing blue eyes and messy hair, and broad shoulders. She would have none of it. She did not even care why they were romping around the forest in the middle of the night. Rich people were weird, everyone knew that. Violet had come out to find answers and that is exactly what she intended to do.

A/N: To be continued...