Twenty One

The air in the whole room suddenly dropped and became tense from Aiden’s presence.

"What is it?"

"It's April..." Nathan started to explain.

But I interrupted him. I was done being talked about like I wasn't standing right there. Done being a victim.

"Take a guess, Aiden," I said, and I emphasized his name like a curse. "Your Beta Josh felt it was okay to bite me on the neck and sentence me to death." My voice was shaking with rage and fear and pain all mixed together. "So please tell me you have a cure, because I'm really not ready to die today."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

Aiden's face darkened like a storm cloud. He looked at Nathan. "Is that true?"

Nathan nodded once, his expression grim.

The next moment, Aiden's eyes flashed bright red—Alpha red—and his head snapped toward Josh with inhuman speed.

"Aiden... Aiden, calm down!" Nathan said quickly, but it was too late.

Aiden vanished from his spot, moving so fast he was just a blur.

He reappeared away from Aiden not willing to listen to any more words from him.

Then he growled.

“JOSHUA!!!!”

“How dare you”

It wasn't a human sound. It was pure Alpha dominance, a sound that resonated in your bones and made every instinct scream submit or die.

The whole building shook. I felt it in my chest, in my teeth.

For a moment, nothing happened. Everything was silent except for that growl still echoing.

Then Aiden spoke, his voice dropping to something that was barely above a whisper but somehow more terrifying than shouting.

"Josh. Get. In. Here. Now."

Josh stepped forward, and I saw him actually flinch under Aiden's gaze.

Then Aiden moved again—faster than my eyes could track, just a blur of motion.

"Aiden, wait—" Nathan shouted, reaching out.

But Aiden was already there, his hand wrapped around Josh's throat, lifting him off the ground and slamming him against the wall hard enough that I heard the stone wall crack behind him with his bones.

Josh's feet dangled. He clawed at Aiden's wrist, gasping.

And I watched.

Part of me knew I should feel something—horror, pity, fear.

But all I felt was satisfaction.

Good. Let him know what it feels like.

My vision started blurring around the edges. The burning in my veins was spreading, getting worse. I could feel my body temperature rising, sweat beading on my forehead.

Twenty-four hours.

I had twenty-four hours to find a cure.

Or I was dead.

The world tilted suddenly, and I felt myself falling, but a strong arm caught me before I hit the ground.

"Nathan..." I whispered.

"I've got you," he said. "Stay awake, April. Stay with me."

But the darkness was creeping in at the edges of my vision.

I heard Aiden's voice, distant now, still filled with rage: "If she dies, Josh, you die with her. Slowly."

Then everything went black for me for some minutes as I endured the excruciating pain from my neck to my whole body.

I came back to consciousness in pieces.

I could hear the sound of voices—urgent, overlapping.

Then the sensation hit me. The burning in my veins, worse than before, like liquid fire spreading through every capillary.

Finally, my vision slowly came as opened my eyes, it was blurry at first, then slowly sharpening.

I was on a soft leather expensive couch.

Nathan was standing over me, his hand still pressed to my neck with the makeshift bandage. His shirt was soaked red now.

Aiden was still beating the shit out of Joshua.

While I was dying, AGAIN!!!!!!!!

I needed an answer at this point, because I had just suffered from a terrible injury and yet got treated back, then when I tried to to escape, the guy with the deadlier bite decided to bite me.

Sentencing me to death with no way out and no cure as they said, what did I do to him to deserve that? And the worse part of it was that Aiden who everyone feared had given the Alpha order that no one was to touch me yet Joshua did.

I found that extremely strange. Despite Nathan who seemed like a really close friend to Aiden had warned him on the spot and he ignored.

Something was really up. Definitely fishy.

The last person that threatened to kill me was Maxwell who said It was an order from my father.

It just didn't make sense to me, yes I was weak, worthless and wolfless to him and he saw me as a disgrace, even his looks on me always told me I was the outcast in the pack.

But that still wasn't enough reason to want me dead.

Yes I was an over-thinker, so I thought about every possible scenario. I pictured Josh as a spy working for my Maxwell so he sent him to kill me, but that didn't make sense to me, according to Nathan it was Aiden who had saved Josh years ago.

So it can't be, while lost in my thoughts and trying not to die I suddenly heard a loud bang from behind the sound of cracking of bones and when I turned blood splashed on my face.

My God!!!

Aiden killed him!