The Alpha's Daydream ✔️

Chapter 43

I love the band Switchfoot, and the song above is really powerful. It suits this chapter so well, the lyrics and melody, so I recommend playing it as you read.

"You should know by now
That your darkest hour
Is when your broken heart goes down
It's a bitter end
When the sweet begins
Grace is sufficiency

But, oh dear, we'll never deserve it
No dear, we never could earn it
Now, here, the choice is yours

Who are you gonna be?
When you're on your knees, who do you believe?
Fear is a lonely man
You've been given innocence again"

4203 words

The earth is cold and brittle beneath my feet, blades of grass snapping and flakes of snow crunching as I make my way down the paved path.

The brisk air before dawn approaches is biting through my coat, seeping into my skin. But none of this compares to the sharp ache spreading from my chest outwards, radiating through my veins and out to my limbs. A heaviness robs me of breath and I try to gulp in oxygen as I hurry across the lawn and out the estate's perimeter fence.

I know this pain is Malachi's, I can sense it through our bond. Through the connection that has been strengthening despite his intentions to remain distant. I feel him and a fraction of the emotions he is going through.

I don't know exactly where he is, but I feel I am getting closer. These intangible threads tying us together pulse and coil around me, piercing my tender heart with pain, anger, and hate. I nearly buckle under the weight of this last emotion, my feet stumbling over the uneven ground of the forest.

Shadows hide the path, just as they cloud my mind and drag me under a sickly haze of turmoil and loathing. I am hating this emotion of such hatred, it is black and red and full of spilled blood, the life-giving liquid pounding in my temples and veins even as I smell it spilling to the earth. The metallic scent churns my stomach but I keep pressing forward, keep moving forward.

Malachi is in trouble, and the one thing that keeps me running towards him despite my growing fear is the undeniable knowledge that I need to be there for him.

He needs me as much as I need him, amidst this darkness that surrounds us.

A deep growl echoes off the trees in front of me, followed by low grunts that send shivers down my spine and goosebumps cascading across my flesh. If I was afraid before, I am terrified now.

Terrified not for my own safety and what is ahead of me, but because of the unshakable feeling that what I'm about to find might change my life forever.

"You worthless piece of trash."

The throaty growl reaches my ears from a clearing up ahead. Tree trunks still block my sight, but the voice holds familiarity.

"You thought you could get away with this disgusting behaviour!"

"And you're a monster! Please, don't hurt me—"
The cry for mercy is cut short in a horrible scream, gurgling in the man's throat, and I can only assume his own blood is now drowning his lungs of life.

I urge my feet to continue forward, pushing me into view.

And everything within me wished I hadn't.

Malachi is crouched down on the bracken forest floor, his back to me, breathing hard in ragged heaves of his torso. A man lies crumpled on the other side of him, partially blocked from my view by Malachi's powerful silhouette.