Sold to the Alpha With Silver Eyes - Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Screams echo in my head, the agonizing cry for help I can’t provide as my body remains pinned under a scathing heat that suffocates me. My limbs are heavy, my lungs burning with every desperate inhale as I shoot up, throwing the heavy object from my body and thrashing around. A tiny light shimmers next to my bed, a single candlestick, giving me only enough light to realize I am not reliving that nightmare, but stuck in a new one.
The scratchy wool blanket is thrown to the floor in a heap of a mess, my body covered in sweat as I glance around the tiny room. Everything comes flooding back from being kidnapped, trying to escape and then to…Travis.
My heart patters like the start of a rainstorm, heavy and slow, speeding up as I stand from the bed and place my hand on the doorknob, hesitantly turning it as I hold my breath and pull it open.
Have I lost my mind finally after everything, succumbed to my traumas that haunt my dreams, living on the backs of my eyelids? Or maybe, just once, for the first time in years, something glorious is about to be on the other side of this door.
Light filters in, the sun bursting through the crack as I peek out. Kids run past, squealing in delight as an adult chases them, grinning ear to ear. I ease the door open more, swallowing roughly as I take in this tiny village that seems to sway in the breeze. I step out, wobbling as the ground moves under me and I stumble forward, clutching to a rope railing and looking down over the edge.
My stomach churns with a violent rage as my eyes focus and I realize just how high up I am. I scan around the area, forcing my mind to forget about the massive fall I could take if I misstep on the wooden walkway. Everyone else seems to be comfortable, running, even some jumping up and down as if they were on the hard ground.
“You are awake!” I hear a hoarse voice behind me and I whip around, my hands still clenching the ropes as they swing out slightly and my legs become jello. Travis catches my forearm and smiles. “You get used to it.”
“It wasn’t a dream.” I say, my nose stinging in warning of the tears that are on the way.
“More like a nightmare, huh?” He gives me what I assume is his best smile as he points to his burned face. He is trying to make it seem like the fact he is alive isn’t an amazing feat, trying to joke and distract from the real point–He is here, he is alive.
“How the hell are you alive?” I ask, my brows tugging together in thought as a series of questions flood my mind. Forget how he is here. How the hell does he have a wolf? He is underaged, and why is he so scarred? If he has a wolf, he should be healed, at least for the most part. And what about mom and dad? Did they make it out too?
“Woah, woah.” He puts his hands up, then places them on my shoulders. When did he shoot up so much that he has this much height on me? Tears blur my vision as I bite my bottom lip, forcing the sobs to stay away. “Let’s get you back into your room and we can chat.”
“You have been here all along?” I whisper. “Safe and happy?”
He shrugs. “Safe and happy enough. Much happier now that we have you back.”
Travis spins me, directing me toward the room I exited. He flings open the door and then moves about the room, opening curtains before he smiles at me and takes a seat on the bed, facing me.
“So, tell me.” He grins, leaning forward and rubbing his hands together. “What was it like?”
I furrow my brows, confused, opening my mouth like a fish out of water and snapping it closed before I tilt my head to the side.
“What do you mean?” I ask him, and he shakes his head, chuckling.
“Life in the pack after we left. Did you see my friends? Did they cry or not even care?” He asks, looking excited. “Oh, better yet, tell me how Rochelle took it. We had just agreed to date. Did she move on fast? Was it with that meat head Brian?” he asks, his eyes growing dark and a growl in his chest.
“Travis…” I say his name, unsure of how to reveal to him that there was no funeral. No burial and no mourning. And if there was, I wasn’t allowed to be involved with any of it. I was sent away as soon as I was healthy enough to be made use of. But how do I tell him that when he looks so excited? “Why don’t you tell me about you first?” I offer.
He shrugs. “I got burned pretty bad. Dad saved me, I guess. He’s got some scars on his arm, but since he had his wolf, it healed pretty well. I got my wolf a couple months ago, believe it or not, but my face is actually better than it was.”
“D-dad is alive?” I whisper, clutching my hands as he looks at me curiously, then frowns.
“Did no one tell you?” He asks, and I scrunch my face, looking at him like he is crazy.
“Who would tell me?” I ask, and he drags his hands over his shiny scars.
“Shit, well, I guess it’s time to go see the elders then.” He stands, wiping his hands on his pants. “Hope you are ready for this, crazy.”
I stand, following him as he spins around and shows me the ropes, rather literally, on how to walk in the village in the trees. He points things out, thinking I will remember them, but I am too lost in the fear that I will wake up from this dream and he will be dead again and I will be lost in the woods.
“You are kind of flighty.” He says, side eyeing me with a frown. “That’s new.”
“Life has been…different without you.” I admit, “And I am so worried I will wake up and this is all a dream and you are dead.”
“Hate to break it to you, but it’s not a dream.” He winks, and I chuckle dryly. Does he think my life has been filled with happiness and sunshine?
“I lived two years thinking you were dead, Travis.” I tell him, deadpan. He snorts and looks at me like I am crazy.
“Why the hell would you think that? Mom and dad have been communicating with you the whole time.” He says, more insistent than he has the right to. I stop, my hand up as I try to digest the lie he seems to believe so wholeheartedly.
“What are you talking about?” I force out, trying to understand. “You, mom and dad all died in the fire. At least until I saw you for the first time, that is what I believed.”
“But mom and dad said…” He frowns and I scoff, my heart tearing in two as the tears threaten to come back.
“Lied.” I bite out. “They fucking lied to you.”
“Why would they do that?” He asks.
“Because we didn’t want you running out there searching for her.” My father’s voice says from the door to my left, but I refuse to look. I can’t. My emotions are in a jumbled mess of anger, hurt, and elation. They were alive, and they left me in the life I was living? How the hell…. who the fuck does that?
“So you weren’t keeping tabs on her?” He asks, his chest growing larger as if puffing it out to challenge my father, who sighs heavily.
“No, we were keeping tabs on her and she was fine, enjoying her life where she was and she was safe, with a trusted friend and member of our forces.” He says the words with such ease and calm.
A trusted friend? Safe? From what? What standards is he using to measure safety and enjoying life? The only place I have been between their death and now is Alpha Jerome’s pack where I was beaten and starved and Alpha Dev’s after he bought me from the breeder auction I was stuck in because Alpha Jerome ordered me to stay in the pack.
“Where is mom?” Travis asks and my eyes slide closed.
The feeling of betrayal creeps up my spine, slithering like a water snake that glides through a pond toward its prey. Not only was I left out of their little plotting, I was abandoned, let to deal with their punishment and they claim to have been keeping tabs on me. Seeing my mom will ruin me.
“I need to lie down, Travis.” I whisper, reaching out to grab his wrist. “Can we go back to my room?”
“Nonsense.” My father says, reaching out for me and turning me to face him with a genuine smile on his lips. “You can rest here. There is plenty of space.”
“I-i-i” the words stutter out as I try to shake the pain from my mind. My heart shuddering with every thought of the way they just threw me aside. “N-no.”
“I think she is having a mental breakdown,” Travis chuckles, his joke echoing in my ears, and I realize how much these two are strangers to me. They don’t know anything about me, how I have changed, what I have had to endure. I ache for Dev, for his arms and a look in his reassuring eyes.
I shouldn’t be thinking about him, but somehow the thought of him calms me, my confused wolf, settling down enough to allow me to feel my own emotions untwisted by her anger and hatred.
“Please do not touch me.” I whisper, yanking away from them both, my eyes focused on the ground as I bump into someone behind me. Hand’s grip my shoulders and a chuckle follows a hushed sorry and my body goes numb.
“Eden,” Travis says, his voice echoing in my head as I am scooped up and walked somewhere.
“What is wrong with her?” I hear him ask, but he isn’t speaking to me.
“A panic attack?” My dad answers in the form of a question.
“Don’t touch me.” I repeat, my words grow stronger the more I hear their voices. It makes me sick, knowing how much they hurt me and yet it still feels like home listening to them around me.
“Shhh, okay… we won’t touch you little flower, but you are safe. It’s Dad, okay? Dad is here…”
My vision focuses as the door opens and slams shut, making me jump and my head to come to clarity and I see my mom standing there, with food in her arms and her hands shaking.
“Patrice wasn’t kidding…” she chokes out the words, before dropping the food to the ground and rushing toward me. I instinctively shrink away, covering my head and whimpering. “Sweetheart…”
Her voice breaks, as I peek out and watch her look at my dad, defeated.
“Are you okay now?” Travis asks and I look at him, blinking.
“Yes…” I nod, my voice quiet and unsure.
“Can I hug you?” My mom asks, hands on her chest and hope in her eyes as I shake my head from side to side.
“No,” I bite out, anger finding its way into my words and heart. “You abandoned me, you left me to live out your punishment!”
“You were placed with people we trust—”
The door flies open and Alpha Jerome storms in, his eyes leveling me as my mouth runs dry and a twitch on his lips.
“Oh, Eden, we are so happy you are alive and well.” Then he reaches out and grabs me, forcing me to his body in a hug.
My wolf spirals out of control, panic and self preservation taking over as I roar and shift in his arms. My claws swipe at his stomach, meeting flesh as he squeals and tries to back away, but he isn’t fast enough to escape my teeth as they sink into his shoulder, crunching into his bone with a satisfaction I have never felt so keenly before.