Haunted by the Mysterious Alpha

CHAPTER 12

Emily’s POV.

The world around me twirled to a stop as I stared into those pools of brown eyes. My heart began to thump so hard I was sure it might just explode from the frenzy. He was here! He was wearing a dark-blue tunic underneath a black cloak and his hair tousled in the breeze.

Slowly, he stepped away from the trees and walked past me. I flung around and watched him strode toward the river. He stopped, and clasped his hands behind his back.

Grabbing my dress, I joined him and together we stared at the river– at the waves as they rolled on. That undeniable pull was there again, the desire to throw myself into his arms. I tilted my head to steal a look at his face and he tilted his head and caught me. I blushed terribly and brought back my gaze to the water before me.

“It was you, right? The stranger who saved me from drowning the other day?” I spoke to him for the first time, and glanced at him.

He wouldn’t spare me another glance but continued to stare at the river.

Gulping, I wiped my hands on my dress. “My name is Emily. What is your name?” I asked and watched as his hands clenched and unclenched, and then he glanced at me again, and resumed staring at the river.

What was that?

Was he ignoring me?

Perhaps, he was not much of a talker but a listener. A smile flitted on my lips. “I didn’t get a chance to thank you for the other day. If you hadn’t showed up, I wonder what would have become of me... Thank you.” I chuckled nervously. “I was afraid I will never see you again and if I’m honest, I came out here hoping to see you and you suddenly showed up. So tell me, are you from around here?”

Suddenly he dragged a breath and headed back toward the forest.

Was it something I said?

I darted after him and grabbed his hand. “Please, stop!” I called out and let go of his hand immediately, but there was no denying the sensation that sizzled through us as our skin came in contact.

Gulping, I brought back my hands to my side. “Please, I’m sorry. D-don’t go,” I begged. “At least, not without telling me your name.”

“I only reveal my name to women that I want in my life,” he said.

“What?” My breath wrung in my throat.

“Yes, you heard me. I do not want to have anything to do with you, Emily.”

“But- you are, we are…” I stuttered.

“What, mates?” he completed and scoffed. “Do you think I have not heard the rumors about your mentally unstable self! Who do you think would be stupid enough to want a wolfless girl for a mate?”

As soon as the words left his lips, I saw something flicker in his eyes as though he regretted them, but there was no need. It was out already and seared a scar in my heart as I staggered backward and clutched my chest.

“So why did you save me if you'd be here throwing these harsh words at me?” I fought back the tears. “Let me guess, you didn't know about my flaws. It's okay, I understand.” I dragged a breath. “You are here for the rejection so go on with it, be fast about it.”

A growl tore from his lips. Suddenly, an explosion vibrated the ground and when I looked up, a black smoke emitted in the air toward the hamlet.

“Randolph!” A gasp escaped my lips.

Grabbing my dress, I darted back to the forest and ran. My feet flew over dead leaves and stones as I scouted for the hamlet, the branches of the trees whipped my face and tugged at my dress. My heart thumped behind my chest as I zigzagged through the sparsely darkened forest.

Suddenly, I arrived at the hamlet and the scene before me almost crippled me. Before me were terrifying monsters from my nightmares; lycans; as my father would call them; they pounced and ripped apart the bodies of my father’s men who have also shifted into their wolves.

A devastating scream left my lips. Luckily, the place was rowdy from the recurrent explosions which rocked the settlement. The lycans were using black powder too against my father’s men.

No one was safe. Patients scampered about the place for safety. The caregivers too.

Grabbing my dress again, I scouted for Madame Severine’s hut and saw him cutting off the head of a lycan with a sword. Randolph whiffed the air, flung around, and saw me. “Princess Emily!” he gasped.

“What’s going on?” I ran toward him.

“We are being attacked by lycans and I don’t know why. Whatever is the reason, I want you to stick by my side and do as I say.”

A lycan lunged at us and Randolph went after it, ripping open its chest. Another darted after him from behind.

“Randolph, watch out!” I screamed as the lycan pounced on him and soon there was another, and another. Clutching tight the wall behind me, I sought for a way to help and caught sight of a plank on the floor.

I picked up the plank, ran, and connected it to the back of the first lycan. Actually, I aimed for the head, but it wasn't until I’d gotten closer that I realized that these monsters were much bigger and taller than I imagined. The plank broke into pieces.

Snarling, the lycan turned around and roared at me.

“Run!! Princess Emily, run!!” Randolph clamored. The ground parted beneath me. Swiveling around, I spun to my heels and ran.

I glanced behind and it wasn’t just the one I attacked, there were four of them chasing me.

A devastating scream left my lips and I darted for the forest. I scouted over dead leaves and stones, the branches tugged at my hair and dress. My throat burned from thirst and my body began to ache.

I turned to glance at them and bumped into him; the stranger who saved me from drowning. “Please, help me,” I begged.

Wait, why does this look familiar?

He grabbed me and pulled me to him– there was no denying the heat that pooled between my legs even in midst of the chaos.

He backed me up against a tree and angled his head towards my neck so that his breath fanned my delicate skin.

“Hello, Emily Blakesley.”

Breath lodged in my throat. Good grief, he knows my surname. He knows who I am. Is he? The stranger from my nightmare?

It is with shock that I watched the four lycans chasing me; stopped and prowled behind him.

Gasping, I broke away from his embrace and backed away from them.

“It’s you! It’s you the stranger from my nightmares,” I cried. He stared at me as though he did not understand what I was saying.

“What nightmares are you talking about?” he asked.

The son of a b.tch! He’s pretending. My searching gaze found a stone and I picked it up. “Stay away from me,” I yelled.

His gaze darkened as he stared at the stone and his gaze was back at me. “What exactly do you intend to do with that?” he growled.

“I don’t know, perhaps, shove it down your throat. Just stay away from me,” I yelled.

Right before my eyes, he disappeared and appeared behind me. Are we teleporting now?

He grabbed my neck and lifted me off the ground.

“Let me go!” I cried. I tried to hit him with the stone, but with his free hand, he wrung it from my grip and tossed it away.

“So much for Alpha Thane’s daughter, a princess with zero survival skills,” he smirked as his fingers dug my skin. “Do you think even your father is a match for me?”

“I said, let me go!” I tried to kick him but his grip around my neck tightened and I choked. My eyes spun in an instant as I sought for a way to hurt him. “What’s your name?” I asked.

He growled. “Of what use is my name to you?” he asked. Our gazes met and the darkness softened in his eyes. “Calix Ledger,” he supplied, pretty too late, he guessed why I asked for his name.

“I, Emily Blakesley, reject you, Calix Ledger as my mate and Alpha.”

Letting go of me, he doubled over on the floor and groaned as the pain of the rejection burned through him. I landed on the floor and coughed and when I looked, the lycans with him were distracted as they sought to comfort their leader. In that split second, I scrambled to my feet and ran.

“Goddamn it! She’s getting away,” I heard him clamor at his men but too late,I was already off to a good start, not that I was in any way, a match against them in a marathon. I ran without looking back.

Suddenly, a grey wolf landed in front of me. I looked closely and quickly recognized my father's gamma. “Randolph!” I cried. He crouched before me- he wanted me to climb on his back.

I straddled him just as the growls drew closer from behind. “Go, go, go!” I cried.

We bolted.

The forest blurred around us and when I looked behind; the lycans were a few feet behind us. But they gained closer at an alarming rate.

“Randolph!” I cried.

The wolf of my father's gamma whimpered as we veered left and sprinted down the forest. Glancing behind, I realized only three lycans were now chasing after us. Where did one go?

Suddenly, something leaped out of the trees and knocked me off. I crashed violently on the floor, rolled, and careened into a tree. I let out a deafening scream. Reopening my eyes, I found them closing in on me. The lycan that’d knocked me off from Randolph’s back had him pinned to the floor.

“Let him go!” I cried. He flung around and bared his teeth at me, enough reason for me to back down. I watched in tears as he sank his teeth into the wolf of my father's gamma and it let out a yowl.

Randolph shifted back into his man form and panted. “Run, Princess Emily,” he snarled. Tears gathered in my eyes and I shook my head.

“No, Randolph. I’m not leaving you behind.” And then I saw him, the stranger from my nightmare as he emerged from the trees and growled. His cloak billowed in the breeze.

“Run, Your Highness, run!!” Randolph clamored.

Without looking back this time around, I bolted. I ran as I’ve never ran before just as the cry of my father’s gamma filled the air. Were they killing him?

Tears seeped from my eyes and blurred my vision. I continued running, suddenly I emerged from the forest and appeared at the end of a cliff.

I caught myself from falling as my gaze settled on the large water body and rocks beneath the cliff. On the far edge, stood the lonely bridge I was standing on two days ago.

Gasping, I flung around just as snarls echoed behind me, and the lycans emerged from the forest; one of them licked blood satisfactorily from his mouth. They parted way and their alpha emerged into the open too.

“We meet again, Emily Blakesley,” he smirked.

“What did you do to Randolph?” I asked. “Did you kill him?”

He stepped aside and gestured sarcastically with his hand. “How about you go back into the forest and find out yourself?” he said and smiled.

More tears raced down my face and I glanced at the cliff behind me.

“What are you going to do, jump? You and I know that you can’t swim,” he said.

I saw fear flicker in his eyes. It must be the fear of being unable to kill me himself.

Which is worse; to die in the hands of my mate who is also my sworn enemy, or the sea beneath? My heart broke more as my thoughts shifted to my father's gamma and the fact that he’d died at the hands of my mate.

All my life, I have always looked forward to meeting my mate, even as my life has been filled with chaos, I’d thought he would show up and shine his light on my path. To illuminate my world and complete me– little did I know he’d be here to end me; the fact that he, alongside the rest of the world, believed I needed fixing.

“I will never surrender to you, Calix Ledger.” I hated how his name sounded sweet in my ears. “I will rather die.”

And I turned around and jumped.

“Emily!!” All I could hear was his voice as he growled my name, and I braced for the impact– whether of the rocks or the sea; I’d be dead anyway in a matter of seconds.

Thus, is this how I die?