Alessia Stocklin and Ezra Withers are polar opposites, but they can certainly agree on one thing: their mutual hate for each other.
He's an Alpha deadset on killing every rogue he comes across, while she's a vigilante - known as Nightshade - intent...
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"Apollo. Where's Apollo? Where's my brother?" My voice was frantic as I struggled to navigate through the maze of blankets wrapped around my body. The sudden movements caused a flash of pain to erupt in my stomach, and I had to stop moving in order to catch my breath. My hands dropped to my side, and I thrust my head upward, looking at the white ceiling.
"Alessia," Link said from the side of the room.
I froze.
"Link?" I angled my head in his direction.
The best word to describe Link's appearance was ragged. He had thick, purple bags under his eyes, and his hair was ruffled in all directions. His clothes were lined with deep wrinkles, and he hadn't shaved in days. I could see the lenses of his glasses were smudged, his eyes blinking rapidly.
Link wasted no time flying from the chair that was positioned at the side of the room to come to my side. He pulled me into a hug. Link — who was not used to being stronger than me — squeezed tighter than I could endure. I flinched from the pain, and Link retracted his arms almost as quickly as he had wrapped them around me.
"I am so sorry, Alessia. I forgot — well, I didn't forget — but I didn't realize you were this... weak?" he offered with a meek smile. "I mean, I've been waiting here for you to wake up so long that some of the doctors have been filling me in on what's been happening, and they said you have the Alpha Gene. You should be healing like an Alpha, right?"
"Wong," Ezra responded, popping his head through the doorway.
He looked fractionally better than Link did. His hair was also disheveled and unruly. The bags under his eyes were more under control, and he supported a jumbo cup of coffee in his hands. He took a sip of his drink before continuing, "She has the Apoha Gene, but it has not been activated."
Croaking, I asked, "Does that mean my blood can't turn people Feral?"
In other words: had I left Alpha Byron to get off scot-free? I could have injected him with Apollo's blood, but the look on his face when he realized he was injected with my blood instead was priceless. He looked like he had hope — like my blood would not be a death sentence.
Maybe I had been wrong.
My stomach twisted, and I flinched inwardly. Link's eyes darted around the room frantically as Ezra fully stepped through the door. Ezra's clothes had tiny dribbles of dry blood crusted on his shoulder. Had he been hurt?
Ezra smirked. "If you're worried about Alpha Byron, he's been detained. Elias found him trying to escape to No Man's Land. Greg says he is displaying early symptoms of the Feral infection. I take it that was your doing?"
He looked proud while I playfully rolled my eyes. "I wasn't about to let him get away after everything he'd done."
"He'll pay for what he's done, not only to you but what he's done to Meridian as well," Ezra said, setting his coffee down on the small table resting beside the chair Link abandoned.
