42

JAYDEN

There was nothing I could do but watch her run from me. Stunned by his words, I jumped at Ethan and angrily grabbed his collar.

"Are you out of your mind!" I yelled at him, but he pushed me away and tried to defend himself. "You've changed, Jayden! Before this girl existed, you would never have physically attacked me! We used to be like brothers!"

I shook my head in disbelief and plopped down on the couch. Everything inside me was spinning and I didn't even have the strength to keep yelling at him. That stupid bet, which wasn't even a real bet, went from being a trifle of no importance to the biggest mistake of my life.

I remembered the first time I saw her and how perfect she looked to me. But then doubts came over me, because I hadn't expected a person as a mate. Ethan approached me that evening at the Wialtrama and noticed that I had been looking at Chiara. "Bet you won't get them into bed."

He had said those words and I idiot wanted to be cool and laughingly agreed to his bet.

Back in reality my hands started shaking and your anger at myself overshadowed everything else. "Fucking shit!!!" I yelled in hate and knocked over the table, candles and bowls, causing Ethan to look at me in shock and take a few steps back. "You want to tell me something about brotherhood!?" I growled at him, barely able to keep myself from transforming and then biting his throat.

"What's the matter with you, Jay! We used to be important, no one else! I'm just a minor matter for you. Before there were women too-" "But none that I really fell in love with!" I interrupted him and for the first time in my life, I cried in front of my beta, who was staring at me in amazement.

"Jayden, it wasn't-" He stuttered and didn't know how to deal with me. For him I was his only support. His sanctuary and the only one he trusted blindly and now I stood before him and transformed from strong alpha to broken boy.

"I'm sorry," Ethan whispered, but I didn't care. I didn't want to see him anymore and nobody else either. "Get out of my house," I commanded in a trembling voice, turning to carry my broken body into the bedroom, her delicious scent still in the air, the only thing she had left me.

☆ethane☆

He had kicked me out and I knew I had gone a step too far this time, but what else was I supposed to do?

My father has been beating me for as long as I can remember and through him I knew that you have to be strong and powerful to gain respect, but Jayden was being drilled into a wimp by Chiara who couldn't even control his pack anymore.

"They can all fuck me," I murmured to myself in the woods and leaned against a tree to light a cigarette, which was the first in my life that I didn't like because of the stress. I threw her to the ground in disgust and closed my eyes to swallow my pent-up hatred until I noticed something else besides Chiara's smell.

"Fuck.." Immediately I jumped to transform and followed their tracks and the different smells. I didn't like that bitchy brat, but as of today, I knew she meant more to Jayden than I could have imagined.

I ran as fast as I could, imagining the worst until it was getting dark around me and I could smell her so close that I started sneaking.

She just stood outside the forest and stared out over the fields. I watched them briefly until my nose warned me the others were getting closer.

I immediately jumped out of the forest and yanked her to the ground. She had to come with me whether she wanted to or not. What could happen here was worse than any argument between us. I grabbed her neck and tried to pull her with me, but she pulled away and growled at me. Why was she growling at me? My anger in her defiant way turned to hopelessness and I whined pleadingly at her, but again nothing.

Then, when I heard a branch snap behind me, I knew it was too late to flee. But before they would harm her even a hair, they had to pass me first

I stood protectively in front of her and was convinced that this would be the end of both of us.

I slowly came to with a stabbing headache and only managed to open my heavy lids after taking several deep breaths.

It was dark, but still bright enough to see my surroundings. The stone walls above me looked cold and damp, while I could make out a small, barred window on the wall next to me. I felt the hard couch under my back which was probably responsible for my backache and after rising with a deep breath I saw the huge thick bars separating me from a dark hallway.

"This is hell," I whispered under my breath, and winced when I heard a familiar voice from down the hall. "Chiara? Are you alright?"

Ethan sounded awful, like he hadn't had a drink in days, he croaked. I pushed myself off the couch with my hands and stumbled over to the bars, clutching my head in excruciating pain.

"Ethan," I whispered, and that's when I saw him, in an even smaller cell across the narrow hallway. His face was full of bruises, his neck was bitten and my eyes widened in panic, from which the first tears made their way out.

I remembered everything again. About my escape, the fight and also about being hit in the head by something. "Oh god," I breathed, looking down at myself, shaking. A dirty, much too large, white nightgown covered my body and I didn't want to imagine what the attackers had done to me naked.

"Where are we?" I stuttered shakily to Ethan, but again he showed no sympathy. "Where your defiant nature led us."

I watched in disbelief as he moved away from the bars and the darkness of his cell vanished. I'd rather be locked in here with everyone, okay, not with everyone, but almost.

My gaze fell back to the couch and I had to calm down for a moment in order not to spin the wheel or suffer a nervous breakdown. I wiped the tears from my face with my dirty hands to run back to the couch and sit down on it.

My mind wandered to Jayden, who seemed so far away, and the argument we had suddenly seemed so tiny. I finally knew what Ludwig meant, that it would be better if I connected with Jayden because I felt firsthand the magnitude of it if I didn't.

A loud bang and heavy steps pulled me out of my thoughts and caused me heartache from fear and excitement, which made me cry out inside.

"A normal tour and what do we find? The Luna and the Beta of the pack." The man's voice was dark and raspy and sent a chill down my spine. I closed my eyes and trembled all over. If these people hadn't planned anything bad for us, we certainly wouldn't be sitting in these dungeons like pathetic rats.

"You!", I heard him say and then a key. "You come with!" I opened my eyes and saw a tall man opening my cell with a hood pulled low over his face.

Before I could react in any way, I heard a loud growl from Ethan shaking his staffs. "If you touch her, I'll slit your fucking throat!" he yelled at the man, who just smiled wearily at his words.

"Ohhh Ethan, you're usually not that honorable and you stand up for the weaker. An egoist who can't do anything except smoke and whore around." The man left my cell and walked straight to Ethan's bars.

"Come on, dare and open my cell and I'll show you what I've got!" Ethan growled and tried to grab the man through the gap between the bars, but he dodged elegantly and turned to another smaller one man who looked almost too young to be hanging around in such dungeons. "Bring her up."

The little one came up to me and pulled me roughly by the arm out of the cell. I was too weak to fight back. Too exhausted to scream. I just let it go and only felt my heart beating anxiously. "You stupid piece of shit! If I get out of here, I'll bust your ass!"

I was dragged down the hallway to a narrow staircase where I could still hear Ethan's wild roar, probably already gnawing at the bars in an attempt to break out. The little one ran up the stairs in front of me while the big one stayed behind.

Neither of them spoke a word to me and it was only when I reached the top of the stairs and stepped out a wooden door that I felt civilized again.

It resembled the marketplace of my home. Everywhere children were running and laughing while adults chatted in amusement.

I turned questioningly to the big one and recognized the poisonous green eyes that I had last seen before my collapse. "Come with me," he commanded, pulling me behind him to a large house, where he threw open the door and shoved me inside.

"Tell me, are you alright?" I hissed angrily when he almost threw me against a table, but he roughly grabbed my chin and pressed me so hard against the white wall that I felt like suffocating. "What's your plan Luna?" he said calmly, not stopping to look deeply into my eyes.