Theo and I spend the whole day at the pond. Theo did not enter back into the lake after he almost marked me. I wanted to ask Ekaterina why she stopped Theo from marking me, but I have not seen her since that time.
“I think I am feeling better now. Please could you turn away” Once he turns away, I step out of the water. Even though we were half-naked together under the water a few hours ago. I am still not comfortable being seen by Theo only in my underwear.
My throat does not feel sore anymore, and it does not hurt to talk. My body temperature has gone down. I also don’t feel weak. I am sure it’s because of the spells Ekaterina casted into the water. They must have helped me recover. I dry myself with the hand towel I packed from home. Theo brought it for me.
“You can turn around now,” I say once I am done putting on my clothes
“Are you sure you are feeling better?” Theo asks, turning around to face me.
“Yes, I am,” I say, and he places his hand on my forehead.
“You are right; your temperature is no longer high,” He says, removing his hand from my forehead.
“Yes, where is Ekaterina,” I ask,
“She went to look for food. She should be back soon.”
“I hope she finds something nice to eat.”
“Me too,” Theo says, picking up the hand towel. “Come here,” He says, gesturing for me to come closer.
“What’s wrong,” I ask, walking closer to him.
“You didn’t dry your hair properly. The water from it is dripping all over your clothes,” Theo says, using the towel to help me dry my hair.
“Thank you,” I say, looking up at him as he dries my hair.
He hums and concentrates on what he is doing. It’s so funny how he looks serious while drying my hair. He always looks serious regardless of what he is doing.
Theo is taking the towel off my head when he suddenly spins me around. I am confused about why he turned me away from the other side, but I understand why once I hear Theo groan in pain. Theo got shot. How I don’t know. I look ahead, and I see a human holding a gun pointed at Theo. The human is about to shoot again, but before he can. Theo grabs me, and we start running. I am about to ask him if he is okay, but Theo beats me to speak.
“Shift!” Theo commands, using his alpha tone to make me shift by force. Eva hasn’t come back or spoken to me yet, so this is actually the only way I could shift right now.
My clothes tear as I shift and continue sprinting. Theo follows suit and shift and continues running beside me. Theo is strong, he just got shot with a silver bullet, and he can still shift into his Wolf.
‘How are you feeling, Theo?” I ask, worried he might be in a lot of pain. He is even bleeding in wolf form. I feel tears threatening to fall from my eyes, even in wolf form. He got shot while protecting me. I can’t believe he took a bullet for me.
‘I am fine, don’t stop running,’ Theo says with his voice low. He is in a lot of pain, but he does not want to tell me.
I continue running at full speed. I think this is the fastest I have ever run in my life. I almost stop in my tracks when a bullet lands in front of me. The shot barely missed me. I wonder how they were able to catch up to us. I turn back and see the human hunters on motorcycles racing after us. It explains why they can keep up with our speed because no human can match the speed of a werewolf. I see the cave up ahead, and I think about if it’s wise to go there and hide or continue running. I don’t get to pick one as I see an arrow coming my way. I freeze in my spot and only move when Theo pushes me out of the way. A wolf cry escapes my mouth as I watch Theo fall to the ground as the arrow pierces into his fur.
I quickly run towards Theo to protect him as I watch another arrow coming his way but again, Theo pushes me out of the way and takes another arrow into his shoulder blades. I watch as Theo’s eyes close as the second silver arrow settles in his fur.
‘Theo,’ I say, mind linking him crying, ‘Please don’t die, you can’t die. Please get up’ I try to wake him up but nothing.
I am about to use my teeth to get the arrow out, but stop once bullets are fired around us. Theo quickly pulls me under him and shields me from all the shots. I close my eyes and wait for our death.
The shooting stops, and I feel Theo’s body moving up and down above me, so I know we are both still alive. I come out from under Theo even though he would prefer I don’t, but he is too weak to fight me right now. I see about 10 human hunters surrounding us. Before I know what’s happening, I feel a sting on my body. I turn around and see a syringe in my fur. How did this get here? I look ahead and see a human with a weird kind of gun in front of me. He must have used it to shoot the syringe at me. My eyes start to become heavy, and I find it hard to keep them open. The last thing I remember is Theo telling me to stay away, but I am too weak to do that.
I open my eyes, feeling pain all around my body. I try to move my hands but realize it’s stock. I look down and see my hands are chained together to the floor. I look at my legs and the same thing. I hear someone groaning in the corner. Where I am is dark, so I can’t really see around me. I drag myself to the corner to find out if the person there is Theo.
“Theo, is it you?” I say, touching the person’s body.
“Yes, Anastasia, it’s me. Thank goodness you are alright,” Theo says, touching my face with his hands.
“I should be the one saying that, not you. How are you feeling? I am sure you must be in a lot of pain. I am so sorry, Theo. You risked your life to save me multiple times today. I am so sorry; it’s my entire fault that you are in pain right now,” I say, crying. I feel so guilty for the pain and injuries Theo has. I can feel some of his pain, but I know he is holding back most of it. What I am feeling does not feel anything compared to what Theo should be feeling.
“I am fine, and it’s not your fault,” Theo says, wiping away my tears.
“How can you say it’s not my fault? All the shots made at you today were aimed at me, so of course, it’s my fault.”
“No, it’s not your fault.”
“It is because if I had taken the shot fired at me. You will be fine right now,” I say, tearing up more.
“Anastasia, look at me,” Theo says, and I look at him. He makes his eyes golden so I can see him in the dark. He takes my face in his palms and stares into my eyes.
“Nothing is your fault, End of discussion. Stop crying,” Theo and his Wolf say.
“Okay,” I say and try to stop crying. “How are your wounds?” Have you taken out the arrows” I ask,
“No, I haven’t, and I will need you to do that,” Theo says, moving closer to me.
“Okay, but it’s going to hurt a lot,” I say, touching his body to find the arrow.
“I know, and we need to also remove the bullet from inside my body. I don’t know what kind of bullet they used to shoot me, but it’s dripping silver into me.”
“Okay, let’s take out the arrows first,” I say, placing my hands above the arrow on his right shoulder. “You can hold me to muff the pain.”
“I won’t need that,” he says, but I ignore him and place his hand on my thigh. “I said, I don’t need to hold you,” Theo says, removing his hand from my thigh, but I stop him.
“Please just listen to me for once,” I plead. He will need to hold something to muff the pain as I rip the arrow out of his body.
Theo does not say anything and places his hand back on my thigh.
“Thank you. Now on the count of three,” I say, placing one of my hands on his shoulder blade while I wrap the other one on the arrow.
“Do it”
“1, 3,” I say and pull the arrow out of his body. Theo squeezes my thigh so tight that I feel the blood there stop flowing.
“You didn’t count to three,” Theo says, once the pain starts to subdue
“It’s better to remove it when you are not expecting it.”
“Good idea, but for the other hand, let me know.”
“I will”
I don’t let him know and rip the other arrow out of his body while counting wrongly. I tear a piece of my cloth and use it to tie his arrow wounds to stop the bleeding. Now we are trying to remove the bullet from inside his body. This is so difficult for me to do because it’s easier to draw an arrow from someone’s body than a bullet inside their body. I hold my breath as I dig my finger inside Theo’s wound.
“Sorry,” I say, as I hear Theo whimper in pain because of my finger inside his wound. I dig my finger deep into his injury, and a loud painful groan is heard once I rip the bullet out of his body. “I am so sorry, you are going through all this pain” I feel myself about to start crying again.
“It’s fine, and don’t start crying again,” Theo says, with sweat boring on his forehead.
“I won’t,” I say, pushing the tears back inside. I use my clothes to clean his forehead. The humans must have put clothes on us while we were unconscious. I am sure he is sweating because of the pain he is going through.
Theo is about to speak but stops once we hear the cage door opening. I look away from Theo to see who is entering. As the person walks into the room, the light of the room comes on. I didn’t think there was anything lighting in here. I look at the human in front of me. He has brown hair with blue eyes. He has a long scar on his face. It looks like a claw mark, and I wonder how he got it.
“It’s nice of you guys to finally wake up. I was starting to think I killed the Alpha king before I had a chance to torture him,” The man says, with a sinner smile on his face.
“It would take more than your stupid arrows and bullets to kill me, Walden,” Theo says, with hatred dripping in his voice.
It seems Theo knows who he is. Maybe he is the one who gave him the scar on his face. The scar looks like it was made by a wolf, so I won’t be surprised if it’s Theo who gave it to him.
“You are calling them stupid, and you are in chains locked up in a cage. How stupid can they be if they can help me capture you?”
“We both know the only reason you were able to catch me was because I was protecting my mate. Don’t get ahead of yourself, Walden.”
“You can say whatever you like, but all I know is that you are in chains, and I am the one free.”
“Not for long, and pray to whatever being you worship I don’t find you once I am out of these chains.”
“Don’t worry, that would never happen, and I need to run along now. Someone would bring you guys food and water. I advise you to take it and don’t allow your hatred for me to stop you because you will need all the energy you can get for what is about to come,” He says and walks out of the cell.
What does he mean for what is to come? Can something more horrible than what we faced while getting kidnapped happen. I just hope whatever it is. Theo and I will be able to face it