"Have you seen Alaric," I ask Don. I haven't seen him since yesterday at school. When I came back from the mission with my dad, I went looking for Alaric for our lesson, but I couldn't find him anywhere.
Now it's the next day and I haven't even seen him in school, which is weird. I hadn't bothered to ask for him earlier because I was too busy being entertained by Tarry, but now it's time for a lesson and he still hasn't shown up.
"He's probably in his hideout."
"And where's that?" Don seemed like he didn't want to tell me, but after I send a stern glare, he spills.
"Just follow the path through the forest."
"Your turning into quite the softy, Don. You might want to watch out." He answers by sending me the finger and I laugh.
It was dark outside and it made it hard for me to follow the path. I get excited when I get an opportunity to use magic. With that being said, I light a flame in my hand.
I love being a witch.
The path leads to a little cabin. It wasn't pretty though. It looked as if it were ready to collapse. I didn't even want to go in with the fear it might tumble on top of me.
I knocked on the door and called out Alaric's name, but he doesn't answer. I know the asshole can hear me, he's just ignoring me.
"Patentibus." I wave my hand in front of the cabin door and it pushes open.
Why does everything sound so cool in Latin?
When I step in, I can see Alaric sitting in the middle of the dark room with a bottle in his hands. He looks like a hot mess, identical to the room he's in.
It's all dark and dusty, with chains all over the place.
Kinky.
"Who did that to you? What happened?" After I get over my sarcasm, a pain goes through my heart when I see physical damage to his face. His face is all bruised up, with cuts and his lip is busted. He doesn't try to hide his face from me, he just takes a sip from what I believe is straight liquor.
I go over and sit next to him.
"Why are you here," he asks me, ignoring my question. His voice is distant and cold. I touch his face and he doesn't move away from my touch like I expect him too. He opens his eyes and I see a glaze over them.
"Sana." A warmth spreads from my hand onto his face and the bloody cuts and bruises disappear. It doesn't change the pain I see in his eyes though. "I could just go through your memories, but I have too much respect for you, so I'll wait for you to tell me what happened."
"How gentlemen like of you," he says and rolls his eyes.
"You've changed a lot, that's for sure. You just rolled your eyes at me," I breathe out a fake gasp.
"Obviously I haven't changed that much if I still turn into a coward when my father hits me." I can't even believe what I just heard.
Why would he hurt his son? It wasn't some simple belt to the butt for discipline. Alaric face looked seriously bad before I healed it. I would've thought he was jumped by a bunch of gang members.
"Why would he do that?" My blood was boiling. Once again, he didn't answer. Just took a sip from his bottle. I take the bottle from him and a sniff of it. "Wolfsbane?"
Before I was ok with him drinking because simple alcohol can't hurt a wolf, but what Alaric was doing was worse. Wolfbane can seriously hurt a wolf. It can kill a wolf.
"Give it back, Anne. Why the hell can't you just leave me alone?" I could see his eyes start to glow hazel as if he's going to shift, but I know he can't because he's been slowly killing his wolf this whole time.
I take my chances and smash the bottle on the ground. Alaric pushes me against a wall.
"Why the fuck did you do that?" I push him back off of him.
"Remember who the hell your talking to. I've been helping you since I got here. You're the alpha of this pack and your trying to kill your wolf. Are you insane? Do you see what your doing to yourself?"
"I wasn't born to be alpha? Don't you fucking get it?" Alaric punches a hole into the wall and growls.
"What are you talking about? Your next in line to be a leader. Why can't you just accept it and be the leader your pack needs?"
"I wasn't always next in line and it should've stayed that way." Now he's just confusing me. I watch him take a deep breath and rest his head against the wall.
"I'll tell you everything if you tell me why you go to therapy," he says, shocking me.
"How do you know about that?"
"I overheard your dad talking to your aunt about your therapy session, but I couldn't keep listening because my dad called me to his office."
My hands start to sweat at the thought of someone finding out about my condition. The panic attacks and blacking out haven't really stopped. They just happen when I'm alone. When I'm around people I seem to forget about them.
"No. I won't tell you," I blurt out, shaking my head.
"How do you expect me to tell you everything if you can't do the same?" He wasn't yelling anymore or looking angry. He looked hurt and sad.
It's not that I don't trust Alaric. I do. I have never spoken freely, at my own free will about my condition to anyone who isn't my dad or aunt.
And lets not forget how therapy went.
"Your r-right. I t-trust you Alaric and I don't want you to t-think I don't. I'll t-tell you if you tell me." My body shaking with nerves was the reason for my stuttering. It was like I was presenting a project in front of my class.
"Calm down. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I get it."
"No. I want to tell you." I take his hand and drag him back to where we were sitting before. He lays down on the ground and when I do the same, I notice the cabin doesn't have a roof. I could see straight up at the stars.
It was beautiful.
"My brother was next in line to be alpha."