Thirty One

"Hold on, gentlemen, I'll go take care of my daughter first," Alpha Cameroon excused himself, picking her up from the ground. He asked the guards and the truck driver to get in and make themselves comfortable as he busied himself calling the pack's doctor. Larrisa's scream before she passed out had attracted her mother's and sister's attention, who were upstairs looking over the latest designs of dresses online. Her mother panicked, thinking something terrible had happened to her daughter. She hurriedly ran downstairs, ignoring Lakisha's calls asking her to be careful. Her daughter had been telling her how stressed she feels because, despite her getting married to the man she had always wanted, he never gives her attention.

In fact, he had made it clear in front of the guests during their wedding that he was married to her because he was left with no option, thus embarrassing her daughter. Since that day, Larisa has distanced herself from them, and she has turned out to be someone she had never been. Even Lakisha, her twin sister, always found it difficult to converse with her, something they had done smoothly in the past. She had told her daughter that if Ash wasn't interested in her, she should just divorce him and choose another man because she had a lot of suitors, but she was stubborn and had decided that she would spend the rest of her life with him. She had also told her mother that there was something she was up to that she was definitely sure would bring Ash closer to her. At first she was worried, thinking that her daughter would end up doing something really terrible, but earlier in the morning, when she told her that she was going on a date with him, she sighed in relief because nothing terribly terrible had happened so far.

"What happened?" Her mother asked, quickening her pace toward her. She pressed her palms on her daughter's forehead and gasped. She was so cold, and the doctor had yet to arrive. "What happened, honey?" She asked her husband, who was pacing back and forth and taking a deep breath once in a while.

"Don't you see, she passed out," he retorted, taking out his phone and making a call to the doctor, who said that he was delayed by heavy traffic on the road.

"I know she passed out; I just want to know the reason behind this," Karina responded, sitting beside her daughter while trying to wake her up.

"Ash is no more." Alpha Cameroon sighed, sitting on the sofa and holding her daughter's hands.

"What? Dad, no. Larisa told us that they were going on a date," Lakisha, who arrived, gasped.

"Of course they went on a date, and when they came back, Ash went out hurriedly with a backpack. I tried asking Larisa if they had fought because it was her voice calling back to him that made me realize that they were back, and she told me that she had no idea where he was going. She only said that he seemed furious, and it was only a few moments later that these gentlemen arrived with news that he was involved in an accident and a Lycan took him before the police could help him. " Alpha Cameroon sighed, sending another message to the doctor asking where he was.

"Lycan?" Lakisha laughed. "Dad, they only exist in books. They are not real, Daddy," She said, and her mother nodded in agreement.

"Do you think I didn't think the same when these gents told me that? Look," he said, turning on the television. It was true—a thirty-minute video had gone rival. After the Lycan stood in the middle of the road asking for help, one of the guards decided to record her because the more people who saw her, the easier it would be to trap her. "And it's not only that. Alpha Killan was on the news right now, saying that it was the same Lycan who attacked his pack one week ago and burned his guards. There is a video of that as well." Alpha Cameroon said, turning on the national TV that had been playing that video for half an hour.

"If Lycans exist, does that mean they also do what is written in books? Burn all packs and take over the world?" Lakisha asked, fear written all over her face. Before his father could respond, they were shocked by another set of news stories where a hunter said that he had witnessed the Lycan burning two packs with her glowing eyes. The hunter also went ahead and explained that the Lycan was a female because of its paws. Its paws were two times bigger than those of a normal wolf, while a male Lycan had paws that were four times bigger than those of a normal wolf.

The news ended with Alpha Kilan's speech saying that all alphas of the world need to meet as soon as possible and figure out a way to trap the Lycan because if they let her live and walk freely in the forest, whatever was written about it will be fulfilled as soon as possible because, as they had seen, two packs were already down with no one spared a life.

The door was pushed open, tearing Alpha Cameron and his family's gazes from the television screen to the door where the doctor came in. "I am sorry, Alpa Cameroon; I was caught up with the traffic," he apologized, bowing slightly.

"Of course, can you please check out where the problem is?" He said this while leading the doctor to where his daughter was. After checking her out for a while with medical instruments, the doctor concluded that she had passed out due to shock and that nothing was wrong because she would awaken in a short while. He only asked them not to talk about the incident that had brought her into that state in her presence.

After the doctor left, Larrisa's family sighed in relief, and they all turned to the guard and the truck driver and asked them to say what they had seen.

"Alpha Cameroon, this is the truck driver who first met your son-in-law," the guard pointed at the driver with his chin.

"Uh, yes, alpha. I saw him lying unconcious beside the road, and I went to call for an ambulance, but by the time I was back, the Lycan had taken him." He said, darting his black irises all over the room but not at Alpha Cameroon's eyes.

"The guard said that you are a truck driver; why didn't you take him with your car instead of going miles away to call an ambulance?" Alpha Cameroon asked him while locking his gaze with him. The truck driver was about to say something, but the guard sitting beside him pinched him on his left thigh, something that didn't pass Alpha Cameroon's gaze.

"I'll have you two locked up until the day you're ready to tell me the truth," Alpha Cameroon threatened them.

"No, sir. That's not needed; I'll say the truth: The truck fell on his knees. " I was drunk, and I hit him. I swear, Alpha Cameron, it was by mistake," he piched his neck on swearing. "After seeing his identity, I was like, What will Alpha Cameroon do to me because this is his son-in-law? So I decided to flee from there, but a few hours later I felt bad, so I decided to call an ambulance and direct it to where he was because it was that moment when I realized that if he does die, I will never be able to forgive myself given that I could save him. Please, Alpha Cameroon, that's the truth," he said, bowing his head.

"You can punish me if you want to, but don't kill me, please," he pleaded, tears coming out of his eyes, which he quickly wiped. He had heard stories about Alpha Cameroon and how he made people experience hell on earth; it seemed like it was finally his day. But all he wished was that Alpha Cameroon wouldn't kill him but spare him because he had family to take care of. His daughter had just joined kindergarten, and it wouldn't be fair if he took him away from her at that early age of her life when she needed both her mother and father by her side.

"It's me who will decide that," A voice spoke behind them. "I mean, everyone knows how much I love him, and you dared leave him there lying lifeless because you feared what my dad could do to you. Now watch how I will make you pay."

"Darling," Alpha Cameroon and his wife Karina, ran to their just-awake daughter. His eyes were puffy, indicating that she had woken up long ago and had been listening to the truck driver's narration. "Please, careful. The doctor said that you shouldn't stress yourself," Lakisha reminded her, making her comfortable. She took a pillow and put it behind her back so that she could sit comfortably, and she took out her pink handkerchief, which she used to dab the sweat drops on her sister's neck.

"Mom, dad. I'll take my sister to bed." Lakisha said she was taking her out of there. In her room, Lakisha helped her get under the covers and rubbed her back until she was sure she was asleep. And that was when she tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind her. Larrisa, who wasn't sleeping at all but was pretending, swung her legs off the bed, walked to the mini fridge inside her room, and took out a strawberry cake and a bottle of juice. Arranging pillows on the floor and a low-rise table, which she had always kept under her bed, she arranged the cake and the soda on top of it, took her laptop, and watched movies while she enjoyed her snacks. She laughed loudly, tapping her head in congratulations. Earlier, when she saw Ash running out of the house with a few of his clothes, she went to his room to see what had pulled him into that situation.

That was when he caught the black file lying on his bed, and her hands trembled as she read it. He had found out everything about her. Right from her using her father's voice to make Camila go through hell to her helping Alina steal money from Alpha Killan and divide it among themselves. She quickly came up with a plan because she knew if Ash ended up finding Camila, Alina would be exposed, and she wouldn't be spred either. She knew Alina like the back of her hand, and there was no way she would drown all alone.

She knew if all that was exposed, her dad would hate her and never trust her again, something she didn't want. It was at the same moment, while she was still engrossed in the files, that she realized that Ash taking her out for her favorite coffee was nothing but a facade. He did that so that she could be out of the house, and he would send an expert to go into her secret room and find out everything.

Luckily, she had planted a tracker on Ash's phone so that she could always be aware of where he was going. She quickly stalked him, and when she knew the road he was using, he sent one of her men, who was that truck driver, to go and finish him off. What she didn't expect was that he would go back and try to take him to the hospital, even though she had made it clear that he should kill him and leave no trace of the crime.

Thank goodness a Lycan was roaming in the forest, and all she felt at that moment was to run out into the forest and every wood in the city to look for that Lycan and pet her for finishing the job her underdog couldn't finish. "I'll have to wipe this driver off or else he'll end up spilling the beans. I mean, if he was about to save the man he knew, knew every detail of my crime, and would end me at any given time, what can he possibly do if he gets that chance? Probably worse," she thought, chewing on her nails. After thinking for a while, she brushed the thought off: He won't, because I am sure he can only do that if dad decides to torture him, something he wouldn't do because I made it clear that it's me who will take care of him."

With a victorious smile creeping on her face, she rose from the ground, paused the movie she was watching, and went to take out the files she had hidden under her bed, but to her horror, they were not there. "What the fuck! I thought I kept them here when I went out after seeing the truck driver from my window," she asked herself, biting her tongue, something she finds herself doing whenever she tries to figure out something she can't remember clearly.

"Did I forget where I kept it the moment I passed out due to immense happiness?" She thought loudly, pacing back and forth in the room, throwing books from the shelf and clothes from her closet. Earlier, when she heard the truck say that Ash was taken by a Lycan, she screamed in joy and passed out something that her father confused with shock.

"Oh, dear godess, you have helped me till today, so please make sure that the files are in here and I have just mixed them up with something." She put her palms together, almost kneeling on the ground.

When she spun around to go and see if she had hidden them in Ash's room and not hers, she gasped. The last person she wished would come to know all about what she had been up to was standing at the door with the files.

"Is this what you are looking for?" The person asked, waving the files in the air and wearing a disappointed look.

"I..I..c..I can explain," She stammered, chewing on her lower lip.