87

More days passed without my hearing from my companion. Damiano always phoned him alone, he would probably come back if he heard my voice, so he didn't want me on the phone, which made me pretty lonely.

Lost in thought, I lay on a blanket in the garden and sunbathed to get some more color again. Melina and Resul sat next to me, slowly getting to know each other and despite my initial opinion that they would not fit together at all, I actually really liked them together. They kind of complemented each other. He made her laugh while she made him seem more manly. At the sight of their smiling faces, my longing made me close my eyes again and imagine him.

He'd been gone so long and yet he couldn't find Caleb, probably running aimlessly in circles around our town, losing all sense of space and time. Only hatred drove him on and would not let him rest. Caleb would certainly not be that stupid and would simply let him find him, he was too smart for that.

I suddenly winced as a horrible thought struck me. Although the sun burned my skin, an ice-cold shiver ran down my spine as I stared into space and widened my eyes.

Caleb ist hier

I tried to forgive my panic in front of the others, so I quickly went into the bathroom and closed the door to take a deep breath. What if he can't find him because he's not out in the woods? Caleb is far too wise to make silly mistakes or leave a mark.

One piece combined with the other and I suddenly realized that this is how he wanted us to find Liam. He was lying in the dark just under a lantern that was clearly visible from our kitchen.

My hands frantically turned on the water, which I splashed trembling on my face, only to finish my train of thought with a clear mind.

So if he knew we were going to find Liam, he also knew we were going to run out. So he had enough time to hide upstairs in the offices and we were in the hospital long enough for his smell to dissipate downstairs.

Determined and angry, I looked in the mirror and looked into my blue-brown eyes, thinking about Liam and Linda and knowing it was finally time to end this all. Taking a deep breath, I opened the bathroom door and crept into the room to pull on Killian's gray t-shirt. If I were going to see Caleb alone, it would be with his scent in my nostrils.

I had to lie to the others. No one would be put in danger by me anymore, and even though we were all a lot more people together than he was alone, I was still afraid that someone might get hurt. After all, Brando had a gun, which Caleb probably had now.

I slowly crept to the front door and peeked around the corner through the living room window where Melina, Linda, and Resul were sitting and laughing. Noah must have been sleeping. He often lay down in the middle of the day and rested because he couldn't sleep at night. I reluctantly took my eyes off them and walked quietly through the door, carefully closing it behind me.

"What are you doing there?"

I jumped and was almost terrified. I had completely forgotten about Damiano. I turned and faked a smile for him.

"Just a quick walk to the pack house. I don't have enough clothes here for me and Melina."

When I wanted to pass him smiling, he put his arm around my shoulder and looked at me curiously.

"I'll drive you." He gave me a determined look and slowly my hands were already starting to sweat, because I didn't like lying to someone at all, but it had to be.

"No, I'd rather walk," I told him, wriggling under his arm.

"Your driving style makes me sick and I have to stretch my legs," I lied on.

He hesitated and gave me a thoughtful look, but luckily let me go.

I walked down the street and didn't look back. He might realize I lied and I didn't want that to happen. I stubbornly walked around the next corner and then started jogging slowly.

On the way I met Selina and immediately looked down. I just hoped she wouldn't recognize me and thank god she just walked right past me without looking at me. Apart from her I saw almost no one, probably because the men were all roaming around in the woods because of me and the women were too scared to go out.

Only when I had the pack house in view did my walk slow down. Going in there without a plan felt stupid, but I knew myself and even after hours of pondering I wouldn't have come up with a plan. So I just had to improvise and hope for the best.

Of course the door wouldn't open. I idiot didn't have a key at all. Only Damiano had one, and even he forgot to give it to me, or it was his intention. I just tried tapping and had to shake my head at myself. After all, who knocks on someone's door who wants to kill you, and of course nobody opened the door to me either. Disappointed, I turned away and ran down the hill.

Damiano, Resul and Melina met me on the way back.

"Why didn't you say anything? We would have accompanied you," said Melina with a smiling look.

"I don't have a key anyway, do I, Damiano?" I looked at the tall man reproachfully. He just grinned and held the key in front of me.

"Thanks. But it's settled."

I hoped they wouldn't talk me into going together because I wasn't sure what to expect.

"Come on Alicia. I know you took a suitcase with my clothes. It would be nice to be able to wear something other than black." She looked at me pleadingly and I gave in, annoyed. Quick in and out, if Caleb was there he wouldn't come down with so many voices anyway.

Damiano went up the hill first and unlocked the door. I was the first to enter the living room and suddenly my heart was beating like crazy. I quickly ran up the usual staircase and stormed into our room. The smell that was in the air here drove me insane for a moment, because everything smelled of my mate.

Before I could gather anything, Melina was already standing in the middle of the room and packing everything up. Of course she didn't have to carry the two suitcases herself, that's why she now had Resul, who took everything from her and ran down the stairs again. However, I stopped for a moment in the hallway.

"Are you coming?"

Melina stood questioningly on the top step.

"I'll be right down. I forgot something."

As she disappeared from view, I slowly walked up the stairs and cautiously looked around. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I was about to go back down the stairs when I heard something soft that caught my attention.

At first I froze and thought about calling for the others, but then I went on my own to search.

The noise sounded like someone trying to talk with their mouth closed, which made my pulse race as I searched the rooms. Killian and Caleb's offices were empty, coming from down the hall. I carefully opened a thin door that appeared to be some kind of storage room, much too dark and only shelves full of folders were inside. Looking down, my eyes widened in shock while blue eyes stared helplessly back at me.

"Oh my god," I whispered, frozen in shock. Brando sat at my feet. He was tied up and had a lot of bruises on his face that made him almost unrecognizable.

I jerked the tape off his mouth and watched sympathetically as he coughed and gasped. He tried to say something, but I couldn't understand a word of his broken, small voice.

"I'll be right back."

As if in a trance, I ran into Killian's office and looked for a pair of scissors. With her in hand, I ran excitedly to the stairs, yelled for Damiano several times, and then ran back to the chamber.

"Turn around," I instructed, trembling, and he turned his back to me so I could carefully untie the bonds that had left open wounds on his wrists.

Damiano came running at a fast pace and shock was written all over his face. Without hesitation, he helped me pick Brando up, who was exhausted trying to tell me something, but I still couldn't understand anything.

"I don't understand you. You need to drink something first. Your throat must be dry."

He came close to my ear while Damiano held him up. Without the help of the big one, he probably would have passed out right away.

My heart was pounding at what he whispered in my ear, my legs were about to collapse, and I immediately realized that bringing everyone here was the biggest mistake. I left them both and ran down the stairs as fast as I could, past Resul and Melina who were standing in the doorway and out into the sun, which briefly blinded me. My heart was pounding and the feeling of being unable to breathe only allowed me to gasp. I ran so fast that I almost fell several times, but I still wasn't fast enough because after a few minutes I heard a loud bang and stopped dead in my tracks.

DAMIANO

The longer I stood downstairs in the living room, the more I started to miss my best friend. He's been gone far too long. I leaned on the door and looked out down the hill. Ever since what happened to Caleb, our little town has been deserted, which made me pretty sad.

Melina and Resul came down with the suitcases and sat on the couch.

"Where's Alicia?" I asked, turning to face them.

"She's coming soon. Must have forgotten something," Melina replied while smiling at Resul. I was really happy for my brother and under different circumstances I would have shown him that, but the worries weighed heavily on me.

Several times I suddenly heard Alicia calling out to me, but it wasn't a normal calling, more like a panicked scream that shook my bones.

"Stand by the door. I'll be right back," I ordered them both before quickly running up the stairs.

Alicia stood in front of the storage room and stared into it. It seemed pretty irritating to me, but when I stood next to her, I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first. I couldn't say a word, helping the injured man to his feet, but he leaned towards Alicia to say something and it took a lot of strength on my part to keep him upright.

She stared at him with wide eyes and suddenly just ran away. I looked at Brando in shock, but he couldn't say or do anything half faint. I took him in my arms and quickly carried him down the stairs. Resul grabbed Melina's hand with tears in his eyes when he saw Brando.

"We have to go to the hospital immediately! Take the key from my pocket," I ordered him in a trembling voice, but he didn't move anymore, just stared blankly at Brando's body.

"Resul!!!"

"I'll do it."

Melina took the keys out of my pocket and ran to the car, opened it and held the door open for me. While I carefully laid Brando on the back seat, Melina pulled Resul to the car. We quickly got in and I sped off to the hospital with screeching tires. When I got there I ran in to get Kirsten, luckily she wasn't with a patient.

"Come with me to the car."

She ran after me and on the way instructed two nurses to push out a stretcher.

"You go in right away, you stay there until-"

A loud bang stopped me and I turned in all directions, mad with fear. It was so loud I thought it might have hit one of us, but the town was so small it could have come from anywhere. Alicia suddenly came to mind. I turned to Brando, who was now lying on the couch, to find out what he had said to Alicia, but he was unresponsive.

Melina stood trembling with her face on Resul's shoulder, he hugged her and gave me a questioning look.

"Go in!" I instructed him and got back in my car. Shortly after the two disappeared into the hospital, I called Killian. It took a while for him to answer, which only drove me madder.

"Damiano?"

"You must come back immediately, Killian."

"Why what's going on?"

"We found Brando injured in the pack house and Alicia ran away. I don't know where she is."

"How you don't know where she is?!"

He yelled so loud into the phone I had to hold it away from my ear for a moment. I didn't hear anything after that until the signal came that he'd hung up. In a panic, I threw the phone onto the passenger seat and turned the key to go and find her.