Chapter 5
SKY
I peeled one eye open slowly. It felt swollen and gritty, and the light that flooded in did little more than amplify the pounding ache in my skull. I squeezed my eyelids closed once more and buried my face in the pillows with a low moan.
Ugh…
I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. My stomach ached, nausea roiling at the pit of me. The taste of vomit and alcohol was bitter on my tongue. Fuck. Was this what a hangover felt like? I’d almost rather be dead.
Something inside me pulled up short.
Right. I’d tried that.
I pushed myself up, so that I was sitting, and slowly cracked my eyes open. The world spun in dizzying circles. My stomach lurched. I held my head and tried to get an idea of my surroundings, but the space was unfamiliar. A living room. I didn’t recognize it.
I didn’t know where I was.
Ambling to my feet, I stumbled towards the sunlight beaming across the polished hardwood floors and found myself in a kitchen. God, my head… I needed aspirin, stat. I shuffled towards the cabinets and began rummaging around.
I found a glass and filled it halfway with water, chugging it to rinse the nasty taste out of my mouth.
Then I filled it up again. Turning to the medicine cabinet, I studied the bottles with all the different labels, impending doom beginning to set in once again as yesterday’s events came seeping back in, like a slowly oozing wound.
Getting drunk. Getting angry. Hunting down Xan.
The blood. His screams. River attacking me.
His cruel words. The pain in my soul as I’d drank and drank and drank, wishing I could bury it all and just…
implode. Was it so wrong for me to want the pain to end?
After everything I’d been through, couldn’t I choose my own exit?
Grabbing a random bottle of pills, I twisted the cap off and poured a heap into my hand. I stared down at the little blue and white capsules, mocking me, daring me to toss them back and swallow them, to end my miserable life with a well-deserved overdose.
I was a murderer after all.
“What are you doing?” The voice, sharp and hard, came from behind and I jumped. The pills flew out of my hand to scatter everywhere, spilling onto the floor. I wheeled around to see Adam Rose—my boss—looking quite out of place in a pair of blue cotton PJ pants and a faded Nickelodeon t-shirt.
“Go away,” I snapped, frustration rising.
He raised a brow and took a step toward me. “Go away? This is my house.” He snatched the half-empty bottle of pills out of my hand, his expression turning dark. “Were you going to take these?”
“Maybe if you hadn’t stopped me,” I bit out.
“Damn it, Sky! Are you trying to break Fletcher’s heart?”
I flinched back, but bared my teeth. “What does it fucking matter?” I shouted at him. “I’m a fuck-up. We both know you only hired me as a charity case anyway, and I—”
Adam lunged forward and grabbed my wrist. Anger rising, I wrenched back, then thought better of it and shoved at the big Alpha’s chest instead, snarling low. My inner-beast lunged, spiking through my skin in the form of teeth and claws.
I swiped at him, ready for a fight.
Adam reacted. He caught my wrist easily, his own claws digging in.
He twisted my arm and flipped me around.
I yelped as pain shot up my shoulder, but he didn’t relent.
I was on the floor in seconds. Pinned to the cold tile below, I struggled to flip myself over as the Alpha straddled me. I bucked, but the man wouldn’t budge.
“Stop it!” I shrieked, even as Adam grabbed both my wrists in one big hand and secured them over my head.
“That’s enough,” Adam growled, his voice low and dangerous, but I paid his warning no heed. I twisted and jerked and bucked and snarled.
“Fuck you!” I spat at him, the wad of saliva landing on his cheek. Adam reeled back with a hiss, but he didn’t let me go. I growled, vicious and wild, just like my wolf. “Just let me—”
The words cut off in a gasp as Adam’s fingers wrapped around my throat, his claws digging into my flesh hard enough to hurt. He hovered over me, his face mere inches from mine, his golden eyes nearly glowing.
“I SAID ENOUGH!” he roared. “I AM THE ALPHA HERE!” His grip tightened, and panic shot through me. My breath stuttered as Alpha energy slammed into me, full-force. It swamped my system and made my inner-wolf whimper and cower away.
He didn’t wish to fight this Alpha anymore.
“Control yourself! This isn’t you!” As Adam snarled at me, his fangs sharp in a human mouth, tears sprang to my eyes. I collapsed on the floor beneath him with a soft sob, my chest feeling like it might cave in.
“Y-You don’t understand! I’m a monster, Adam!”
Adam’s expression didn’t shift, didn’t change. He remained resolute. “No, you’re not. You didn’t kill anyone, Sky.”
My heart lurched. “What? But I… The blood…” I’d heard Xan’s scream of agony as my fangs had torn into his swollen stomach. Felt the flesh rip beneath my teeth. He’d survived? But how?
“I talked to Gracie last night,” Adam said quietly. “Xan and the baby are alive. They’re fine.” He looked at me, long and hard, and his face blurred in my vision as the tears kept falling. “You, on the other hand, are not.”
“What do you mean?”
“Do you understand what a mess you’ve created?” He sounded more exhausted than angry in that moment, and guilt weighed on my heart. “How furious you’ve made our Alpha? The one person who is supposed to protect her pack wants you out of here. For good.”
I whimpered. “But where would I go?”
“She told me she didn’t care,” he replied quietly. “She expects me to take you somewhere and drop you off, to abandon you, because of what you did to her son.”
My heart beat mercilessly in my chest as panic took root. Abandon me? Just like Mom... Tears burst free, unbidden. “No, I— I don’t…” A laugh escaped, half-sobbed out, bitter and broken as I shook my head. “I probably deserve it.”
Adam frowned. “Stop. Do you want that, Sky?”
I swallowed hard. Feeling very small and very scared, I answered him honestly. “No. I don’t want to be alone again. I—”
“Adam?” Fletcher’s voice made my head snap up. He stood in the doorway, looking as alarmed as I felt, as he glanced between me and his Alpha on the kitchen floor. “What’s going on?”