80

Caleb settled himself at the table with a fake grin and motioned for me and Linda to have a seat as well. I couldn't take my eyes off her despite my hopeless situation. She looked just like Killian. Long black hair and warm green eyes made her look beautiful. The only difference was their small appearance. She looked frail and generally very petite in her long blue dress. I turned back to Caleb after the survey and sat down across from him at the round glass table. He didn't seem tense at all, more like amused, which showed me just how psycho he was.

"I never thought I'd end up in this situation. But you gave me no other choice. Instead of just disappearing, you make yourself comfortable here to play happy bitch," he said calmly and looked deep into me eyes as if he wanted to crush my soul. I avoided his gaze and nervously looked down at my hands again.

I felt sick at the thought that everything had gone wrong. Across from me sat an upper alpha. Probably the worst thing ever and Brando standing behind me staring a hole in my back made this whole situation even more awkward.

"Let her go, Caleb! It's between the two of us," Linda suddenly growled at him and I looked over at her in surprise as she sat and took aim at him. She apparently had more guts than me and it made me feel utterly useless. I was beginning to think that I should have just left. Then many people would have been spared a lot of suffering.

As my eyes now wandered from Linda to Caleb, I was shocked to see that he was no longer sitting at the table but was standing. He growled at her angrily, only his growl was a lot more menacing than hers.

"She's just as much of a bastard as you are. Taking the right to exist at all! You're corrupting our race and making us weak! I won't accept that! I'm ashamed enough that my son is descended from a half-breed whore!"

He pulled out the sentence and punched her square in the face. The shock made me stand up and I wanted to jump for his throat, but took slow steps backwards as if in a trance and then landed directly in Brando's arms. He led me back to the chair so I could sit down again in front of Caleb, who was now back in his chair. Without saying another word, the three of us sat facing each other again and again it was Caleb who broke the silence after a while. But I could hardly listen to him and kept looking worriedly at Linda, who seemed even braver after the punch than before.

"You know what the funniest thing is? Your beloved Killian is safe with Noah now to beat the truth out of him," he smiled, glancing in my direction.

I got freezing cold and dizzy. I had to visualize this scenario and grabbed my heart thinking it was going to stop beating at any moment because it couldn't take it anymore. Shocked, I looked over at Linda again and breathed heavily. She looked like she was about to rip him apart in mid-air. Her hands clawed at her legs, her eyes fixed on his amused face and she bared her teeth, but before she could get up, he got up again.

"Hold your feelings and stop looking at me like I'm the bastard here. You're coming with me somewhere else so we can finally get on with our lives normally and Brando, you take care of Alicia."

He ran around the table and grabbed Linda's arm to force her to stand. I turned away from the two of them and looked over at the window to remember my old life. I thought about my dad, about Melina, about Killi and Resul and all while listening to Linda fight back screaming until the door slammed shut behind me, making me wince.

I turned back to the table, trying not to die of fear. Brando then sat down across from me, exactly where Caleb was sitting before. Brando, the one who was apparently supposed to get rid of me, was also the only one who could help me out of here.

Just as he took a breath to say something, I blurted out the little spark of hope that was keeping me alive.

"Brando, you don't have to do this. I beg you. I'll talk to him, you could be part of the pack again. I think-"

Growling, he interrupted me.

"You should know best that outcasts can never go back, right? And why would I even want to go back?!"

"Don't you understand? If you help us get rid of Caleb, Killian will become the new Ober Alpha. He can decide who gets expelled and who gets to go back," I explained to him in a trembling voice, wiping away individual tears running down my cheek.

He stared deep into my eyes and apparently I said something that made him think. It was up to him now to make the right decision.

"This is exactly the situation Caleb warned me about. He knew beforehand that you half-breeds were all lies," he growled, getting up to come around the table to me. Without taking his eyes off me, he sat down next to me on the edge of the table.

"You know, if you hadn't come, we could all have saved a lot of energy and I'd still be at the Alpha's side. It's your own fault for what's going to happen to you."

He looked me up and down as I avoided his stare in embarrassment, trying not to show fear, but it was no use. He took my arm outside with him. It was still dark. Only the light of the house shone into the forest behind us. All I could see in my head was my mate. He should be the last thing on my mind. My soul mate with the beautiful green eyes. The sound of the sea was soothing and if I wasn't doomed to die that day I could have listened to that sound for hours.

Brando unexpectedly threw me to the ground and ordered me to kneel in front of him, but I turned and looked at him, hoping for his sympathy. When I then saw a pistol in his hand, the tears just flowed down my face and I could hardly breathe.

"You should turn around!" he ordered me, waving the gun around wildly. I obeyed his command and turned to the forest, where I could see nothing but inky black nothing.

I closed my eyes and just listened to the sea behind me while I put my hands in the cool sand below me and my tears stopped. It's not difficult to die, I thought, it's just difficult to accept the timing of your death.

A cold, hard object pressed against the back of my head, making me let out a soft whimper. So it was over. That's how my life, which hadn't even really started, ended. I would never experience my first time, would never have the pleasure of learning to drive a car, would never have children and thus make my father grandpa. All sorts of images from my past raced through my head at high speed, like my life was a short film and it was being played over again.

Killian was the conclusion of the film and when I saw him in my mind, I said goodbye to him and this world, but suddenly Brando pulled me back to my feet and with it pulled me out of this whirlpool of my mind. I looked at him in shock and realized he didn't look like he had in the house earlier. His eyes no longer showed me anger, instead there was sadness in them.

"Run, Alicia. Run to the Alpha and save what can be saved," he sobbed, releasing my arm to take a step back.

I stood there stunned and felt his inner turmoil. What had happened, I wondered. There was a good side to him, I hoped.

I didn't want to say a word back to him for fear he would change his mind and just as I was about to start running, he grabbed my arm again.

"I'll follow. I'll try to help Linda. I want to make up for my mistake, want to be part of the pack again," he shared with tears in his eyes and I knew he meant it all.

I nodded to him, silently promising to convince the alpha to bring him back. Then he carefully released me and I disappeared between the trees in the darkness. After running a few meters, I had to lie down for a moment to process it all. Just the thought of Caleb returning to examine my body made me get up and transform. As soon as I was back in my wolf form, I stubbornly ran towards home. Brando went from worst nightmare to savior and he would be part of the pack again. If he could manage to free Linda, the whole horror could still have a happy ending.