Seven Years Ago ...
Callie's POV ....
I was back in the forest just behind my pack lands. I could smell the smoke coming from the compound. I could still hear the distant screams of some pack members. My heart broke with each step I took, further and further away from my home, but I had to keep going.
My mother's words continued to play in my head.
'Run Callie! Run!'
I picked up my pace and started surging through the woods. I could feel my heart breaking slowly, and the realization that my parents were actually dead hit me. How had it all gone so horribly wrong in a matter of seconds? One moment we were sitting in the living room like a normal family and the next we were being attacked.
Why had the guard wolves turned on us like that?
They never acted unless they were commanded to do so. Which meant...
Alpha Damien gave the order to murder my parents. This was all his fault, but I just didn't understand why he would do such a thing.
I just crossed over the stream when I heard the snapping of twigs behind me, followed by a loud howl. My blood ran cold when I heard that sound. I knew it all too well. It was a tracking howl. A signal to alert the other trackers that their target had been found.
They were after me and they were coming.
I pushed my legs even faster, ducking and diving under branches and over roots. From the sound of the stampede behind me, there had to be about at least six wolves. Six grown wolves that I could not fight off on my own. My father taught me to fight, but my wolf was much smaller compared to a fully grown wolf.
I could hear them drawing closer, but I didn't dare look back. I just kept pushing my legs as fast as they could carry me.
Eventually, the sound of their paws hitting the forest floor faded, and I pressed onward toward nowhere in particular.
This was it. I was on my own now.
I surged forward in a cold sweat. I looked around the room frantically as I tried to take in my surroundings. I was no longer in the forest. I was in a foreign place that I didn't recognize.
I saw the familiar monitors off to the side of the new bed I was in. I sprawled my hand down on the soft mattress. I was on a bed. A real bed, not a hospital bed.
I had been moved to a new room. There was still hospital equipment spread out across it, but it felt less like a hospital room and more like a bedroom. The sun was peeking through the curtains, but I was sure that the day was coming to an end.
I don't know how long I slept, but it felt like I had been asleep for hours. I dreamt of that night, and all the emotions that I felt came rushing back to me. The pain of losing my parents and having to be on the run for eight years.
"Callie?"
Rex walked through the door. He changed into scrubs, and his lab coat was gone. His brown eyes held concern as he did a once-over to check if everything was okay.
"I'm okay," I sighed. "Just a bad dream. Where am I?"
Rex walked over to me and pushed me backwards so I was laying down on the bed. He didn't answer me at first. Instead, he got to work checking all of my vitals and looking over my side once more. It wasn't as painful as it had been before, which was a good sign.
"I moved you to a more private wing of the healing center. This is where the alpha and his family usually get treated, if need be."
"Why?"
Rex started pressing down on my abdomen.
"Kameron believed it would be best if you were in an area that no one had easy access to. The only people who are authorized to be here are a few trusted staff, myself, and Kameron. No one will hurt you here."
By no one, I knew he meant Jorge. He was someone I needed to be extra cautious around.
There was something about Jorge that didn't sit right with me. I knew he was Kameron's beta, and it was clear Kameron trusted him-otherwise, he would have never gotten the position. But I sensed there was something more to Jorge than meets the eye.
It was ironic coming from me. The woman who was hiding her real identity and feigning amnesia.
"I did some more blood work and it came back clean. As you know, the first time Jorge came in and cracked your ribs, your x-ray didn't look all that great, but your second one came back a lot more promising. The cracks seem to be healing a little faster now. I wonder why your wolf took so long to kick in."
"Yeah, I wonder why too," I muttered under my breath.
I knew the reasoning behind that. She sensed Kameron close and she surfaced. She was only interested in Kameron and him alone. Anything else came second in her mind. Things like safety and getting away so Damien doesn't find us were afterthoughts for her now.
"Okay, well, I am going to head to some of my other patients. If you need me, just press the button on the side of that table and I will come running," he said with a gentle smile.
I nodded and watched him leave the room. He paused when he got to the door and turned to face me.
"Callie?"
"Hmm?
"You know you are safe here, right?"
I nodded, which wasn't a lie or the truth. I knew Rex wasn't going to hurt me, and Kameron, although he didn't trust me, wasn't going to hurt me either. But there was Jorge. He made it very clear that he didn't trust me nor wanted me here.
Rex left the room and closed the door behind him. I stared up at the ceiling, thinking about how crazy my life had been in the last few days. I had gone from being a rogue, living off the land and constantly on the run, to find my mate, to being a prisoner, and being able to shift without pain.
I spent the majority of the last seven years in wolf form. I became more comfortable as a wolf than I was as a human. I was struggling with being a human again. I wasn't used to feeling so exposed and weak.
I was used to forest floors and tall pine trees, not antiseptic cloths and heart rate monitors. I didn't like this place. Not just because I felt like a prisoner, but because it was all foreign to me.
Even using my human voice was strange. If I had had it my way, I would have remained in my wolf form.
I remembered the first time I had to hunt. I was out in the forest and it had been three days since my parents' death. I had been putting it off for a while, but I knew I couldn't wait much longer. My wolf was straining, and she needed sustenance. I needed nutrition to help my wolf stay strong if I was to keep running.
I failed dismally the first few times I went hunting.
On the first night out, I only managed to catch a small fish from the shallow waters of the river. Then, as time progressed, I got better as a hunter. I learned to become stealthier and move the way many predators did. I became one with my wolf.
My diet mainly consisted of whatever I could find in the forest that day. I had eaten bears, deer, fish, and even squirrels. I never cooked my kills-I just ate them in my wolf form. At first, the blood tasted disgusting, but, after a few weeks, I got accustomed to the taste of raw flesh.
Sure, the times were hard, and being an animal the majority of the time made one go a little stir-crazy, but it was a simple way of life. I didn't need to communicate with people, and there was no need for the lies and the secrecy that I had to uphold now. I longed for the days I moved on four legs instead of two.
The only thing that made being human again a little more bearable was the fact that Kameron got to see me. He had seen both parts of me, the wolf and the human. I had yet to see his wolf, but I was sure it was just as beautiful and powerful as his human form.
I looked out to the window. The curtains were still closed, and the view was obscured. Somewhere outside of this healing center, Kameron was somewhere within his pack lands going about his day.
The last time I had seen him, I had been thrashing. around like a psycho. I cringed internally at my little outburst. Admittedly, I reacted dramatically, but Kameron knew. He knew more than he was letting on, and it was only a matter of time before he found out the whole truth.
It was nearly impossible for mates to lie to one another. Our pull, even though new and not fully solidified, was already making its strength known.
He could feel me. He could sense my distress; it was why he had come into the healing center earlier today. My wolf called to him.
A knock sounded on my door and a girl about my age walked in with a bucket and a mop. She offered me a small smile, but I didn't return it. I didn't know her. She was a stranger to me, and, therefore, I didn't trust her, regardless of whether she was one of the trusted employees or not.
She got to work on the floors and didn't say anything to me.
I leaned into the pillow and closed my eyes. Sleep was calling me again, and, before I knew it, I was drifting off into the darkness once more.