Three.

Willow

“Ah, there she is!” I wince at the bright light burning my eyes.

My head throbbed, my mouth was drier than a desert 

“Mrs Hallow. You gave us all a worry for a moment.” The nurse puts her torch away.

Mrs Hallow? Did I hear that right?

“Do you know where you are? Your husband has been called, he will be back in a few minutes.”

Husband? The last thing I remember is running away from a mad fucking Alpha.

My eyes flash around the room. “Hospital?” My voice is husky from the dryness. 

“Very good.” The nurse smiles at me. “And how are you feeling?”

“Like I’ve been run over by a bus.” I groan and wonder how long I had been out for.

“Well, you have been out for a few days. You are bound to feel some aches and pains from the lack of movement.” She tucks a strand of her mousey brown hair behind her ear. “But your husband got you here just in time. You are very lucky to have him.”

I nod, rubbing my temples. I feel the bandage wrapped around my head and I sigh.

“You have stitches.” The nurse smiles at me. “They will take time to heal.”

“Right.”

I smell him before I see him. Oak and maple filling the air as though he owned it. He waltzes in with a bunch of flowers. Had I just woken in some fucking parallel universe?

“Thanks for the call Angela.” He winks at her

She smiles back at him, an almost pinkish tinge to her tanned skin. Alpha Zane leans into me and presses his lips to my cheek. My whole body tenses up at his touch and the heart rate monitor goes into overdrive.

As Alpha Zane sits, he takes my hand in his. I do everything in my power to ignore the need to rip it away.

“You’ve had us all worried.” He speaks quietly, the commanding tone still there, but it was like he was trying to show a caring side. A side that didn’t exist.

“I—” I was lost for words.

“Angela, could I have some time alone with my wife?”

The term wife made me want to gag.

Did I have some sort of memory loss? The last thing I remember is him chasing me through the forest. Shit! I had told him I was half human.

“Sure, I do need to come back and check the wound.” She tells him before as she swans out of the room and quietly closes the door.

“What the actual—” He holds a hand up, stopping me from finishing my sentence.

“You couldn’t heal so I brought you to a human hospital.”

“Husband?” I spit.

“A strange man bringing a lonely woman into the emergency room looks a bit suspicious. Especially when it looked as if you had been dragged through a hedge backwards. Besides, I won you. I’m going to make sure you are okay.”

“I fell.” It was a feeble excuse. “And you— you were chasing me! And how the hell did you explain the silver burns on my ankles.”

He smirks at me. It really made me want to hit him. “I told them we were experimenting.”

“Fuck you!”

“Tell them then. Go on, go ahead and call Angela back. Tell them everything Willow Green.”

A lump forms in my throat, how the hell did he know my surname?

“Daughter of Alpha Xavier Green and his human companion Matilda Anderson. How is your brother, by the way?” He continues. “What’s his name, Calen?

I feel the breath leave my lungs. I had worked hard on keeping my identity quiet. Keeping my family's names out of the picture had been my priority. I was paying my family’s debts. No one else needed to know the details.

“What do you want?” I whisper.

“To get exactly what I paid for, little wolf.”

“I am not your little wolf!” My eyes flicker to the door. There was only one way in and out. I wouldn’t even make it out of the bed before he blocks me in.

“Why were you in the auction?” He ignores how I look at the door.

“None of your fucking business!” 

“See, as you were out of it, I have made it my business. I would rather you tell me before I hunt down your family and squeeze the rest of the information out of them.” he clenches his fist to prove a point.

“Leave them alone.” I growl

“Then I suggest, little wolf, that you start talking.” He watches me with his dark eyes. An elbow propped on the arm of the chair. His knuckles under his chin as he waits for an answer.

“I will tell you if you tell me why you were there. Like you said, it’s not a place for wolves and definitely not a place for asshole Alphas!”

He snorts and cocks an eyebrow. “You are right, it’s not. All you need to know is that I was nearby. A good job too by the sounds of it. The men in front of me were planning a lot of things. So I will ask you one more time, little wolf. Why were you in an auction?”

“Why do you think?” I couldn’t keep the sourness out of my words. I had to think of a reason, something that would keep my remaining family out of his clutches.

He doesn’t answer, he just stares, waiting.

“I owed money.” I mutter, lowering my gaze

“Liar.”

There was no way out. I was going to have to tell him the truth. 

“My family owed money.”

“Alpha Xavier?” He scowls, surprised by the information.

“He isn’t an Alpha anymore as you probably have already figured out. He lost his pack years ago and everything that went with it, including his fucking life.” Everyone had turned on him and I still don’t know why?

“He was killed?”

I suck in my cheeks, refusing to look at him because tears are trying to break free. Tears that I refuse to let out for my father

“That doesn’t explain how you ended up in an auction house.”

“I told you. My family owed money. Simple as that.”

His smile is wide and I see just how sharp his canines are. Almost like they have been purposely filed to points.

“So you figured you would pay the debt?”

My arms fold up across my chest as I try to avoid the intense gaze. “I did what I needed to do!”

“Your family clearly means alot to you.”

I roll my eyes as he states the obvious. I would do anything for my mother and brother. But it didn’t mean I wanted to discuss them with him.

“At least you seem to care about something. But what I want to know is why you don’t seem to care about yourself!”

I press my lips together

“The deal was you answer my questions.”

I continue to glare at him. I had nothing to say and right now, I didn’t care if I was punished for non compliance.

Minutes passed and I was grateful for the silence. Yet I knew what he was doing. He was trying to figure out a way to get answers out of me. Because I would do exactly the same thing if I were in his position.

“You are a wolf.” He grabs my arm, pulling it toward him and sniffs my skin. His tongue flicks out, skimming over my skin. “As delicious as it is, you should know how to mask your scent.”

“Part wolf!” I try tugging my arm back, but he holds onto it. I try to ignore the sparks that his tongue had left behind.

“Unless, maybe you can’t. Maybe your human half makes it impossible, the same as your inability to heal.”

I don’t respond

He chuckles as he watches me. “That was why you did figures of eight in the woods. Trying to confuse my senses. Because you can’t hide your scent just like you can’t heal. Can you shift?”

“Yes!” I spit at him

“Then why did you stay in the hands of those assholes? You already tried to run from me.”

“You told me too!” I scoff

“We both know that you don’t like to do as you are told. You saw an opportunity.”

He finally lets go of my arm. His dark eyes watching the machine that’s monitoring my heart rate. He is looking at the peak that happened a few seconds ago. His lips creep up into another smile. 

“Oh you are interesting, little wolf.”