I felt my throat packed up, I expected retaliation.
"I… had somewhere to be so I-"
"Sure, you had." He murmured in distaste with a roll of his eyes before changing the gears. Even I knew my excuse was lame.
I saw his hand shivering and cold sweat breaking out as his one hand frantically made calls to a number saved as 'Galen Segal'. His eyes were rimmed red and I could feel the tangible fear.
He groaned as the call wouldn't connect due to poor signals. Just when it looked like he was about to throw it at the windshield window, the phone was picked up. He turned it on loudspeaker to keep his eyes on the track.
"Galen…" His voice broke and my heart sank as the weight of his fear hit me.
"Jordan? The fuck, get out of there!" A distraught man returned.
Jordan swallowed as his Adam Apple blabbed with his nerves, "You fucking swore it was all ruse! You said none Hibernating Beast has ever awoken—"
A growl reverberated, cutting Jordan off, I shrunk back realizing they were all monsters, "None has! That's why we forbade the rituals. Return and report so we can get to the base of it—
"Fuck your report! I need backup to take this beast down. We need something that could hold him back, the Silver-laced poison we tried, kept him down for fifteen min-"
"Get the fuck out of there, Jordan! The closest legion will take an hour to reach. Just try to—"
"There's no way! I tried, he's out on a hunt. He wiped out Harte Moon in less than three minutes. Galen, he's-"
Another roar broke through the night, followed by screams. Jordan shut his eyes and pursed his trembling lips.
"What monster have they brought back! Jordan… I command you as your Alpha to dump his Supreme Luna there and buy time. Remember... you need to return for Mama."
His eyes fell on me and my breath hitched. I felt my whole body paralyzed with the weight of his glare.
I didn't how it involved me but I could they all deemed my death inevitable. I trembled, my lips quivered to say something in my defense.
I expected him to give a verdict to seal my faith, instead he shook his head looking away.
"Galen… it's not her fault their greed clouded their minds. I would rather not barter dignity for life." He paused as he swallowed. I felt my eyes well up too, "Tell Mama I love her."
"Jordan! Jordan, lis-" Before Galen could say anymore Jordan turned off his phone and threw it in the back seat.
I let out a breath and buried my head in my hands. I wanted to be the bigger person and tell him to leave me here to run for a chance at life but I'm scared. I'm scared of the dead of the night, I'm terrified of the monster that lurked out.
And… being mauled by a beast before the darkness of death will overtake me.
My whole body shivered as the terror of my end dawned on me. A tap on my shoulder had my head snapped up to see his flickering vacant eyes on the road.
"Come on, Rich Girl, at least you lived a life where you could give away Private Jets as a token of gratitude." I couldn't help laughing despite my tear-streaked face.
"Like, seriously, you rich people are insane!" he shook his head as he drove faster. "Look at you, you are in a branded Wedding Gown to be sacrificed."
Though he sounded carefree, I could see how he was freaking out.
His fidgeting hands on the Steering told me tales. I smiled halfheartedly before sniffing as my throat clogged.
"I'm as good as dead, am not I?" I must be a masochist to ask, but I couldn't help not knowing my fate.
He heaved a sigh and then stayed quiet. "You never know." His belated pathetic sympathy did nothing for my wrecking nerves.
I threw my head back on the headrest as my eyes welled up. My heart drummed in my chest. Growls, screams, and Trees falling only incensed my fear no matter how I drown it out.
He took out a phone from the Dashboard before throwing it on my lap, "You can... call somebody."
I thought of my father, but he didn't deserve it. How do you even live with the last call from your only child? I thought of calling my Mom, I hadn't picked up her call for two years now I suddenly wanted to cry in her lap.
I sniffled blinking tears away, fiddling with the phone in my hand I thought of all the things I wanted to tell them. Do I want closure? I... don't want to die.
I hadn't come to terms with how fast my life was slipping out of my hand. I wanted to sob out loud as another brutal death alarm rang from the forest.
"What is that thing?" I find myself mumbling.
Jordan gave me a look before pursing his lips, "You might as well know now."
He sighed as his own voice broke, "Who knows what it is now... several centuries ago it was the fiercest creature to walk the Earth. Supreme Alphas, the Pure blooded Lycans, were feared and could live for thousands of years."
I didn't understand a word of it but I had no energy to counter him. I guess knowing it was a dead end would make it easy.
He took a pause and bit his lips, "Then their number declined, drought fell on their land, and diseases spread in their kind but they refused to interbreed with any lower specie. Instead, they went into hibernation."
I frowned, is that even possible though. But who am I to talk about the realm of possibility anymore after what I have witnessed the past twenty-four hours?
"So is he mad he was awoken from his slumber?" I croaked out as he fell silent.
He snorted, shaking his head with his eyes still out of the window, "He's in a crazed haze. The man in him is still asleep, may never even wake up, and his Lycan is driving him with instincts—"
I cut him off, as it dawned on me, "What instincts? What are his instincts?"
Silence fell on him after several he tipped his head with an empty chuckle, "Kill anything that breathes? Find the other piece of his soul? Evacuate his territory? Your guess is as good as mine."
I thought of the people who had brought that thing back, what could they have been thinking? "Are the people who brought me here—"
"Dead or almost dead."
The narrow track wasn't ending. He drove skillfully fast but it was a forest and we were most probably at the center of it.
I bit my lower lip as fear of death made me shrink, "Why would they try to bring something as powerful and terrifying back."
The screams had come from the left so he was turning the gears again. I tried to keep myself calm as shivers ran down me. I could roughly tell the voices were getting louder.
He was getting close.
He sarcastically chuckled, "Desperate people do lunacies they can't pay prices for. The Harte couple wanted him to succeed them, the Lycan council was to elect the next leader as they were childless. They might have thought they could somehow control an ancient lost creature in the modern world."
The Loud growls were declaration. He was drawing nearer in this direction, like he was following us. I bit my lower lip to keep my mind on the conversation.
"Lycan… is that what you are?"
Before he could utter a single word a dark creature landed on the hood of the car, bringing it to a halt.
My heart jumped to my throat looking at the creature that leaned his face down on the windshield, his teeth were dripping with blood while he reeked of death.
We could run for our life but with a single swipe of his claw, he dismantled the roof. Facing the Demonic creature head-on froze the blood in my bones. He lunged toward Jordan to tear him up, but with a stroke of luck. Jordan leaped out.
As he was about to chase him, the Beast stiffened and slowly turned his head to me. I couldn't even shout as words clogged my throat looking at that horrifying creature.
'To rid of the weakness, his first instinct will be to kill her.'
The man's voice rang in my ear as the Beast crouched down closer to me.
I tried to fall backward as I could but he was looking right at me. I was drenched with blood, the lake, my cold sweat, or my tears, I couldn't know but I'm sure I smelled worse than a sewer at the moment. So I failed to understand what he found so enticing in it to sniff it this furiously.
Suddenly he sprang away from me as if jolted out of a trance.
Just when I thought the torture was over, he snatched me up from the seat only to throw me in the air.