Taken by an Alpha

Chapter 5: Guards

The black wolf growls at the brown wolf's face. It stalks over to me and circles me protectively while snapping in the direction of the wolf and the man. The brown wolf regains itself and growls back at the black wolf menacingly. My heart is accelerating in my chest. The black wolf lunges at the brown wolf and tackles it back down to the ground. It bites into its neck as the man rushes over to me and shoves me toward the river. I scream just before I hit the ground. My hair is wet from being so close to the water. I blink a couple of times and the man leans over me and scowls.

"Why is he protecting you, human?" He growls, yanking me up and pulling a knife out from his pocket.

He turns me around and I can see the black wolf has his paw on the neck of the brown wolf and is watching the scene between this man and I unfold. The black wolf growls in our direction with his gaze solely on the man. "If you kill my friend, I'll kill the girl," he presses the knife up against my neck.

"You're crazy," I spit at him. "You're fucking —" the man yanks me by my hair and I press my lips together to stop myself from crying out.

"Give me my friend and I'll give you the girl," he nods to the black wolf. The black wolf narrows its eyes at me then looks down at the brown wolf and then steps away. The man removes the knife from my neck and shoves me to the black wolf, then takes the brown wolf's side. They disappear in the trees and the black wolf retreats on the opposite end. I'm trying to recall everything that has happened. It only makes me want to go home even more.

"Alena, come on," Damien's voice calls from the trees where the black wolf disappeared. I blink at him. He's shirtless and doesn't have shoes on.

"I..." the words can't seem to form.

"Come," he holds out his hand. "It's not safe for you to run away. There are animals out here."

Unable to speak, I numbly trudge over to him and follow his lead.

___

I awake by the sound of arguing. A man barks, "you've done what?" And there's a long growl followed by, "I leave you in charge for one week, Damien, one. This is unbelievable!"

Damien's voice responds, "you can't take her home. She'll contact the police and we'll be in even more trouble." I assume they're talking about me. There's no other person I can think of. When I open my eyes, I'm back in the same bedroom, but this time the arguing is outside of the door. Damien shouts back angrily at him, and then there's a feminine voice telling them to quiet down.

"I'm going to check on her," the voice states and I shut my eyes pretending to be asleep again. I hear the door slowly opening, and the arguing quiets down. "Alena," she says softly and I can recognize her voice. It's Damien's mom. My eyes flutter open and I gaze at her without speaking a word.

"Oh my," she rushes over and presses her head against my forehead. "She's burning up!" She shouts back toward the door. My throat feels as if it's on fire.

"Here, darling," she hands me a cup full of some sort of red liquid. I drink it down without thinking and my throat feels somewhat better. Her voice is gentle and calming. She reminds me of my own mom and being around her makes me feel a sense of security.

"Is she sick?" Another strange man walks into the room. He's as tall as Damien but appears older and grumpier.

"He marked her," his mom says.

"She's human." He laughs as Damien walks in the room and looks extremely annoyed. "Humans are pathetic. They get sick and die."