Kiara

I peered my eyes and slammed them shut. I raised my hand to wipe what felt like soil particles that were stuck on them while a tired yawm escaped my lips.

My whole body was sore leaving me with impression that I have carried all the sorrows if the world with me.

A bright light streamed in, making my eyes ache. I crimpled my eyes around to see where that light was coming from, and that was when I caught sight of a vast window that was pushed open, it's heavy, yellow curtains swinging as wind blew in.

I tried to sit but fell on my back after a wave of pain shot through me. With a wince escaping my lips,I lay back, wondering how I got here.

When I was running, I had multiple voices calling out for me and telling me that I shouldn't head toward the white hill but that I should run forward, to the clearer path.

I scratched my head, trying to think to whom these voices belonged, but my mind was blank. The only thing I remember is that after stepping on that 'hill', I didn't hear any sound of an explosion, just its mighty weight.

There was a wave of air around me, which was warm at first but turned then turned to be very hot. I felt like I was floating, and I swear I saw heaven.

Pain resonated all over my skin as bits of debris embedded themselves there. I felt like I was about to die.

Even when stars danced in front of my eyes and darkness called out for me, I couldn't resist.

'Maybe the moon gods have finally answered my prayers. They knew escaping Alpha Benna's clutches would be fucking hard, and that's why they had me die instead." I smiled as I saw a tall figure hovering above me.

It was Lucifer. The guy I bumbed into while running toward my freedom. "No wonder I bumbed into him. He is my angle of death." That was my thought.

"Make sure you'll take me to my mother, please." I wanted to tell him this but my throat was dry.

I remember giving him my hand so he would take me to hell like I asked him to, but another man with a white coat pushed him aside as he hovered above me.

"So there are doctors in hell." I thought while he kept checking my skin out and doing whatever he was doing. "Maybe he wants me to look perfect before taking me to the pit of fire. Or maybe he wants to make sure that my skin wouldn't burn once I'll be thrown in there." I remembered my mother telling me when I was young that those who will go to hell will burn eternally.

I recalled a pretty woman with gray eyes and a warm smile on her face talking to me. She was wearing a white coat over blue jeans and a white blouse.

Although all I could see were blurry images, there was no way I could forget that smile on her face.

She talked to me sweetly, smiling and assuring me that everything would be fine since she was there to help me recover.

She reminded me of my mother. "May her soul rest in peace." I murmured my normal norm.

The door was pushed open, and the gray-eyed woman ran through it toward me.

I felt a dip on the side of the bed as she sat; her soft palm rested on my forehead.

"You are awake? How do you feel?" She was smiling. A smile that could convince a newborn that this world was full of happiness and scarce of problems, when in reality, it was the other way around.

"I..." My throat burned.

"Oh, pardon my manners," she smiled. She grabbed a bottle of water from the bedside table and twisted the cap open.

She then took the glass and half-filled it as she brought it closer to my lips. Because I was lying flat on the bed with no pillows, she was forced to come above me, her boobs pressing on my face as she pushed a pillow behind me.

"There!" She smiled, satisfied with what she had done. "Now here, slowly," she said softly, her one hand holding my chin while the other one brought the glass to my lips.

"Now tell me, how do you feel?" She asked again, wiping the drops of water on the side of my lips with her thumb.

I blushed.

"Tsk! You are red." She chuckled, referring to my face.

"I feel as if I was hit with a train." I responded, ignoring her mischevious gaze. "Who are you?" I asked.

"Doctor Maria. I am the Alpha's personal doctor. I and Doctor Kedeva, do you remember him?" She asked.

"D-doctor Kedeva?" I asked, and my mind went blank again. I don't know why that was happening to me. When I was about to say something, I would find the memories deserting me, leaving me blank.

I remembered him when I woke up, but not anymore, "I don't know him." I bit my lower lip.

"It's okay; everything will fall back into place." She rubbed my cheeks with her thumbs, leaving me wishing that she could keep on doing that until I fell asleep.

She smiled while pushing my dress's collar upward to cover my exposed neck and asked, "What about you? Do you remember yours?" She asked me.

"Ki...ki.." I trailed. "I have forgotten."

She looked at me for a while. "No problem, just take your time. But you need a name. What name do you like?" She asked me.

"Maria," I blutered out, the first name that came into my mind. I liked it the moment she said it was hers.

She chuckled. "We'll have two Marias then. You'll be junior Maria, and I'll be senior Maria." She said while pulling my cheeks playfully.

"You don't mind sharing your name with me?" I asked.

"Why should I? You are like a younger sister to me. Do you want me to be your sister?" She asked while hitting the tip of my nose with her finger.

"I want to!" I blutered out excitedly without thinking twice. "God yes. I want to." I nodded, tears stinging my eyes as they dropped out of my eyes.

"It's okay. Hush Maria, stop crying." She said it softly while wiping the unending tears with her hands. She then leaned toward me and pulled me into a warm hug.

I received a hug that I hadn't received in years.

"Don't cry, Maria, okay? As your big sister, I don't want to see you crying." She said it sternly, but I could hear the humour pressing in her voice.

She wanted to make me happy. All my life, that is after my mother, no one had ever tried to make me happy.

I had to do that all by own but as always I ended up curling my lips into bitter smiles or sarcastic laughter's.

"It's tears of happiness. No one shares their things with me, and if I do, I have to pay for them. They don't want me close to them. And they don't call me their sister." I smiled bitterly.

"Treat that as your past because this is the beginning of your new life. And trust me, you won't have to pay for anything that I give to you, and I'll always share my things with you, okay?" She kissed my forehead.

I nodded, smiling and returning the kiss on her left cheek.

I don't know why, but I felt like I already liked her. Somewhere at the bottom of my heart, I knew she would never hurt me, and that exchange we had was the beginning of our new, healthy relationship.

"I'll now check your vitals." She helped me sit on the bed as she poked needles into my skin. The process took half an hour.

She then sat beside me, with her doing most of the talking as she told me about her childhood, and I giggling on the funny parts.

"You want to sleep?" She asked after she saw me yawning.

"Your voice makes me sleepy." I smiled at her. I grabbed her wrist to get her back when she made like she was leaving.

"Are you saying my voice is boring?" She asked, her lips curling into a cute pout, causing me to giggle.

"No, I mean, your voice is sleepy. It makes me sleepy." I told her, but she never got to respond because the door was open and Lucifer came in.

My words when I was begging him outside Alpha Benna's mansion echoed in my head. "Is he finally here to grant me my wish?" I screamed inwardly.

"You? Lucifer, what are you doing here? I don't want to go to hell. Maria said she'd stay with me." I sprung out of bed and jumped on Maria's lap.

A man walking behind him whom I remembered to be doctor Kedeva because of his face, shared a meaningful look with Maria as they broke into laughter.

Lucifer knitted his brows at me confusion written all over his face.

"Uh,Maria, he is not Lucifer. He is my Alpha and your Alpha now. He is the I told you about, Alpha Maseno, do you remember?" She raised her brow at me, and I bit my lower lip in embarrassment.

"Is he the one who saved me?" I asked. I remembered Maria telling me that they had given up hope of looking for me, thinking I was dead, but Alpha Maseno didn't. He was the one who found me.

"I had you only remember part of the things that happened before you stepped on the bomber, and I guess I am among those precious memories that can't be forgotten." He smirked.

Lucifer... I mean, Alpha Maseno said this while walking toward me. I tightened my grip on Maria, and I felt her soft fingers rubbing my back gently with the words he can't hurt me echoing against my ears.

"Do you perhaps remember where I and you met, huh?" He raised his brow while tilting his head sideways. What made me fear him was not because I thought he'd hurt me.

It was because of his tone. Cold, deep, and slow. The smirk on his face too, and the way he arrogantly carried himself around as if the world were at his fingertips and with one squash, it would seize to exist.

"I don't remember. Thanks for saving me, Alpha Maseno." I bowed slightly and leaned much closer into Maria's chest.

"You don't need to thank me yet. Just take your time and recover well. There is a serious conversation I and you need to have."

He swung his left leg over the other and stood on his feet while pushing the chair he was sitting on aside.

With one last gaze on me, which made me feel like I was a prey and him a predator, he smirked and walked out.

My heart was left thumping wildly, as if threatening to break my ribs apart.

He said we needed to have a serious conversation. What was it? What did he want from me? Was he going to make me pay because he saved me? And why did I feel like he behaved like someone I knew?

Could it be that he's the man I was running for? "No, that's impossible." I discarded that thought.

"What could the conversation be based on?" That question lingered in my head until I fell into a deep sleep with Maria cradling me like a baby.