Liam’s POV
“You’re getting better, Williams,” I said, extending my hand as I moved beside him into a crouch. The ground was damp from the dew, but I did not care; I tugged him to his feet with a firm grip, my eyes locked on his-he was trying, and it showed. “At this rate, you’ll beat me in no time,” I said with a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
Williams chuckled softly, brushing off the bits of grass stuck to his clothes, though not looking quite confident. He gave me a small smile before his gaze turned distant. “Thanks, but I still have a lot to learn.” He hesitated a moment, his voice quieter now, as he added, “Perhaps Alpha Steven still thinks I’m not good enough in duels.”
His words cut deeper, I think, than he realized. Steven had always been hard on his pack-most especially in training-but I did not want to admit just how much that must weigh on Williams. I shook my head; I didn’t like the sound of that.
“Oh please,” I said, trying to lighten it up with a light laugh. “If you want to satisfy Steven, well, congratulations-you have just set yourself up for an impossible feat. You’ll be chasing that impossible standard until your dying breath.” Then, softer now, I added, “You have proved it though. You’ve done your job. That is what counts.”
In that instant, the cloud of doubt parted, a smile creasing Williams’s lips. I was glad to see it. I clapped him on the back. “Let’s head back to the Mansion. The sun’s just coming up, and we’ve been at it for hours already. We’ll continue training later.” He nodded, but just as we turned to walk away, something caught my attention. My senses tingled with that unsettling feeling you get when something is wrong. I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Smell that?” I asked, my voice low, not sure if it was just me.
Williams stood a little behind me, frowning. “No, my sense of smell isn’t as developed as yours,” he said with a sigh, almost apologetic. I could tell he wasn’t used to feeling so out of tune with the environment around us. I gave him a reassuring pat on the back before I focused again on the scent.
“I smell blood,” I said, my voice firm as my eyes scoured around the place alert and searching. Something was wrong.
Without even Williams’s answer, Roy came out running from the trees, joining us. His breathing came in small hitches; he was definitely out of breath. “What is it, Roy?” I asked, not wanting the trace of panic rising to edge its way into my voice.
“You need to see this,” he said in a voice constrained with urgency, and without any further time, we followed him. As we re-approached the cottage where Maya was being held captive, I saw it before I even fully processed the scene.
A murmur of wolves stood around in a circle around the place, disbelieving. My heart thudded painfully in my chest, and I pushed through the gathering of bodies, trying to get a clear view.
The moment I laid my eyes on what happened, I froze. My stomach dropped into the pit of my soul.
“Oh my goddess!” The words escaped my lips in a gasp, voice hushed as my gaze fell upon the scene of horror in front of me. The wolves that had kept guard at her cottage lay on the ground, bodies lifeless. Their throats had been brutally slashed open, blood pooling around them like some sickening crimson carpet.
I wasn’t even thinking-I was running toward the door, my heart racing, every instinct screaming at me to move, to act, to do something. I flung open the cottage door, and my eyes shot immediately to the chains bolted into the floor. They were empty.
She’s gone.
Maya is gone.
I hunched backward, my feet nearly going out from under me. I wanted to scream, to shout, but nothing came out. I was stuck in place, anchored by the weight of what had happened.
Roy came up to me, his face pale, his expression unreadable. “The slashed throats are cauterized with wolfsbane again, Liam. He did this. The Demon Wolf,” Roy said quietly, his voice thick with regret, and something else I couldn’t place.
Maya had warned us. She had told us he would come to save her. She had known he was out there, lurking in the shadows, and I. I hadn’t been here to protect her. My heart clenched with guilt.
“Maya warned us, she told us he would come for her,” I whispered. “I should’ve been here! I should’ve been guarding this place myself!”
Williams’ voice cut through the air, sharp and to the point. “The Alpha needs to know about this.”
I nodded, the weight of it all welling upon me. “I’ll warn him myself. You and Roy stay here. Keep everyone calm. Tell them all to go home. The Alpha will handle it. He always does.” My words sounded hollow, like a lousy replacement for the action I ought to have already been doing. It was the best I could manage.
I spun on my heels, swiftly making my way out, guilt still gnawing at me.
——-
Steven’s POV
My head pounded with a dull, relentless ache. I tried to open my eyes, but the light was too much, too harsh. It felt like my eyelids weighed a thousand pounds, and I groaned in frustration as I struggled to move. Everything felt off. My body felt heavy, sluggish, and my mind refused to focus.
I couldn’t quite recall what had happened, but something in the air seemed to say I needed to wake up. I had to.
Laboriously, I pried open my eyes. The brightness of the sun outside was like fire in my retina, and squinting hurt as I struggled to adjust. My heart suddenly raced with the awareness of where I lay. This was not my room. The sheets around me were too foreign, too cold.
I blinked hard in fast succession, but everything was foggy. Something was wrong, and I knew it.
Where’s Ashley?
My head just couldn’t put together what had happened. It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t wearing anything. My heart skipped a beat as my insides started clawing at me with panic.
Why am I naked?
My breathing had become shallow, as if I tried to piece together anything that would make sense, but the more I thought, the more pieces slipped further away from my grasp. What happened last night? Why couldn’t I remember?
“Ahhh!” I groaned, clutching my head as a wave of pain, harder than anything I had ever had, surged through me. “Stupid tequila!” I cursed under my breath. “Why the hell did I drink that stuff?”
Running my hand through my hair, I tried to put it all together. “She dared me. Ashley dared me.”
I got up from the bed, unsteady legs and all, and my eyes landed on something on the floor-Ashley’s torn dress. My heartbeat quickened as I bent down and picked it up. It was her dress from yesterday, but why was it ripped? Why was I naked? And where was she?
I shook my head, trying to block out the mounting panic. I couldn’t deal with this right now. I needed to find her.
I rushed to the bathroom, flinging myself under a stream of warm water that would hopefully calm my thoughts. But with the first touch of the shower, the headache aggravated and the memories came flooding back in broken bits. And the screams of Ashley still echoed in my head as I recoiled, horror smashing over me like a wave.
I. I raped her.
I. I hurt her.
And then it hit me-the guilt feeling-hit me like a truck: smothering, leaving me reeling out of the shower, my heart thumping against my ribs. The man I was supposed to be crumbled in the wake of my own foolishness.
Getting dressed was pretty mechanical; I could barely focus my gaze. The picture of Ashley in tears, her pain, gnawed at my gut. I had to find Ashley.
I raced out of the room and almost ran into Liam at the stairs. There was urgency in his eyes, but I swear, beneath his dark, almost unyielding stare, something else was buried.
“I was coming to find you, Steven,” Liam retorted tightly. “Maya.”
“Ashley.” My voice had cracked beneath the desperation of finding her as I cut him off.
“Maya ran, Steven,” he said quietly, and the bottom fell out of my world. I couldn’t go there now.
“Where is Ashley?!” I asked my voice elevating with panic.
“I. I saw her driving out at dusk,” Liam said almost apologetically, which quickened my heart further.
I supersped out of the Mansion without thinking, my mind racing until I hit the road leading away from the woods.
I stopped.
Where would she have gone?
“Mabel,” I whispered, the name coming to me in a flash of clarity. It was the only place she could go-her friend’s house.
I couldn’t afford to waste any more time. I hailed a cab, anxiety crawling under my skin as I rode to Mabel’s house. When I arrived, I didn’t hesitate; I ran to the door and knocked hard.
“Ashley!” I called, my voice hoarse with emotion.
The door opened, and Mabel stood in front of me, her face hard, her eyes cold.
“She doesn’t want to see you,” Mabel said flatly, almost disdainfully.
“I need to see her,” I said, my tone raw and pleading.
“I won’t let you see her, you ravager!” Mabel spat, her eyes full of fury.
The dam broke, and I couldn’t control myself anymore. My chest felt tight with fear, with regret, and with desperation. “I need to see her!!” I shouted, shoving past Mabel, forcing my way inside.
I could hear Ashley’s heartbeat from somewhere deeper inside the house. Her pulse was erratic, too fast. I followed the sound of her heartbeat until I came to a door.
I could hear her sobbing on the other side.
“She really doesn’t want to see you, Steven. She’s broken,” Mabel said, her voice softer now, but the pain in it was unbearable.
“I hurt her,” I whispered, the words barely escaping my lips.
“Yes, you did,” Mabel responded in a shaky voice filled with both anger and pain. “How could you do such a thing to her? How could you have taken such advantage of her? ”
“I didn’t know what I was doing! I wasn’t in control!” I tried to explain, even though even at the moment that the words cleared my lips, I knew that they were vapid.
“Well, she’s hurt,” Mabel said quietly. “Thanks to your inability to control yourself, the painful memories she’d buried came rushing back. Memories she was never meant to relive.”
“Painful memories?” I asked, confusion muddling my brain.
Mabel nodded, her expression dark as the night. “When Ashley and I were in high school, she got raped by this man named Gabriel Fred; the captain of the volleyball team, while Ashley was just a teenager. He forced himself on her, just like you did. And now you’ve brought all of that back. She’ll never be the same.”
The words hit me like a blow. “What after that?” I asked, almost unable to catch my breath.
Mabel’s eyes softened a little, and she spoke in a soft tone. “Ashley shut herself from the world. She was only a shadow of her former self. But I helped her, Steven. I helped her bury those memories. You. you ripped them open again.”
My heart was breaking. “The high school. what was it called?”
“Cavin High,” Mabel said, her eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Why do you care?”
“I’ll take care of Ashley,” I muttered, almost disconnected from my voice. “I’ll be back.”
And with that, I turned and made for the door, knowing nothing I did would ever make up for what I’d caused.