Alpha's One Night Bride
Alpha’s One Night Bride – Chapter 44

When Erick got the call from Jonathan asking if he could go and stay in Sabrebite for a few days, Erick had to admit he was skeptical. He hadn’t spoken or seen Ronnie in the last few days since the group meeting when Jess verbally attacked her. He doesn’t know Jess that well, but even he knew it was out of character.

Ronnie looked utterly horrified and so broken; he felt helpless. He wanted to stand up for her and tell Jess off, but he wasn’t sure if that was something Ronnie would have wanted him to do. He didn’t want to overstep if it was something she wanted to deal with on her own.

They hadn’t established how they were going to go about their relationship. Ronnie was only 16 years old and it’s clear she wasn’t exactly ready for a mate yet, but Erick couldn’t help the way he felt about her. His urge to protect her was strong, despite him staying quiet.

He knew that he should have gone after her that night, but by the time he walked outside, she was long gone. He could smell her wolf scent and knew that she transitioned and took off through the woodland forest. He thought about going to her home in Ironclaw, but he didn’t want it to seem like he was following her.

Not again.

He couldn’t risk scaring her away.

So, the best thing he could think to do was give her some time to recollect her thoughts and then allow her to reach out to him when she was ready.

But it’s been a few days since that, and he still hasn’t heard from her. He couldn’t help but worry.

Arina sat curled up on the couch when Erick and Anderson arrived. She looked as exhausted as Erick felt. She had a small purple pillow pressed up against her chest and her chin was resting on it. Her eyes were naturally a pale green, but it seems as though the color of them was washing away even further. She appeared thinner than she usually was, which struck Erick as odd considering she was pregnant.

She wasn’t due to start showing or another couple of weeks, but even still to lose that much weight during a pregnancy can’t be good. Especially when you’re underdeveloped as is and are due to have a complicated and highly painful pregnant experience.

Erick had watched it happen once.

It was years ago when he was a young teenager. Before he settled into his role as Alpha in Onyxfang, he wanted to travel around to the different packs and see what else the world had to offer. That’s when he came across Blackcrest. He didn’t stay there long because of the weird vibes he received. Back then, it wasn’t caged off so anyone could come and go as they pleased. Graham wasn’t the Alpha at the time, it was his uncle.

Nobody knows what happened to Graham’s father, but from what Erick remembered hearing, Graham’s uncle wasn’t a good man. He was a man of greed and hate, which is exactly where Graham had gotten his attitude from.

That was also where he met a young Elijah. He was about Erick’s age, no older than 14 years old. Erick initially heard a young girl, no older than 12 years old, struggling in a dark alleyway. She was making sounds of distress and crying out from the pain Elijah was causing her.

As Erick neared closer, he saw her curly brown hair, falling messily around her pale features. Her undeveloped body was thin and completely naked. Graham was naked from the waist down and was pressing against her; her body pressed against the cold brick wall.

Her tear-stained face was turned in the direction of Erick and he could see how horrified she was. Once Elijah noticed Erick, he released the girl, allowing her to fall to the ground in a defeated mess. She sobbed into her hands, her body trembling.

Elijah worked to put his pants back on, with no remorse on his face.

Erick stormed up to Elijah, who was a bit shorter and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. Throwing him against the brick wall, smashing his head as he did so. Erick’s face grew red with anger and his teeth gritted. With his other hand, he threw a punch into Elijah’s stomach.

Elijah doubled over and coughed as the air escaped his lungs. Without letting him go, Erick threw another punch into his stomach. Elijah vomited in the middle of the alleyway. The young girl sat behind them, gasping with every blow Erick gave him.

Erick soon threw a right hook and caught him between his cheekbone and his chin. He watched as Elijah spit out b***d and coughed until he was able to catch his breath.

The young girl sobbed even louder behind him, bringing Erick back to the present moment. Releasing Elijah, he fell to the ground. Still coughing up b***d. Erick waited as Elijah struggled to scramble to his feet and with one last look at the young girl, he took off.

Pulling off his backpack, Erick dug around until he pulled out a small blanket. He wrapped it around the young girl’s bare shoulders. She gave him a weak smile, but it never reached her chocolate brown eyes.

“What’s your name?” He asked her softly.

“Sophie,” she said weakly.

“Where’s your family?” He asked.

“Dead,” she told him.

Her face appeared grave.

“Killed by the Alpha,” she explained.

An Alpha dared to kill those in his pack? Why has nobody in this pack spoken up about him yet? From the looks of the town and the musky unbreathable air, it was a hostile living situation and whoever was the Alpha should not be in charge.

Yet here he was, killing his own and allowing horrid situations to happen to young wolves.

“Where do you live?” He asked.

She looked around, almost nervously before turning back to him.

“I don’t have a home,” she told him. “At least none that I can go back to you.”

Her features were filled with so much grief and sadness; it pulled it as his heart. He didn’t want to leave this girl and he especially didn’t want this girl to stay in this town, reside in this pack, and continue to be abused by those older than her.

“That kid, who was he?” He asked.

“His name is Elijah,” she answered. “He can get away with anything and everything because he’s best friends with the Alpha’s nephew.”

“I’m going to be the next Alpha of my pack, Onyxfang,” Erick told her. “You should come back with me! We can help you get a new place to live. Away from here.”

She agreed to go with Erick.

From there, he took her out of Blackcrest, and they traveled home to Onyxfang. She stayed with Erick and his family for a while; a month later they found out she was pregnant with Elijah’s baby.

Considering she was so underdeveloped and hasn’t even transitioned into a werewolf herself yet, chances of her surviving the pregnancy would be slim to nothing. At least that’s what the doctors said. Erick, being young and optimistic, was determined to get her through this pregnancy alive.

Throughout the months, he watched the life drain from her body. Her features became pale and pasty; along the sides of her ribs, she developed dark purple and blue bruises; her stomach was growing was the rest of her was shrinking. Her hair began falling out in clumps, leaving bald spots around her head. She was always in such severe pain; she couldn’t get out of bed or do things for herself.

Erick and his family did everything they could for the baby.

She died when she was 6 months pregnant; the baby died with her.

He’s never told that story to anybody. But the memory still haunts him. Now back in the present moment, as he sees Arina growing weak at such an early stage in her pregnancy, he’s worried the same thing is going to happen to her as well. He couldn’t bear to watch another young wolf go through that. Granted, Arina was much older than Sophie and she’s transitioned into a werewolf before.

But still.

She wasn’t looking too good.

Arina gave them a weak smile as they entered the house.

A deputy from the GHIS was recently found dead in the woodland forest, at the hands of a Blackcrest wolf. It wouldn’t put it past that Blackcrest wolf to be Elijah; the last time he saw Elijah, he was in Ironclaw and was about to go after Ronnie.

Before that, Erick hasn’t seen Elijah since his time in Blackcrest when he met Emily.

“Have you spoken to Ronnie?” Arina asked almost immediately.

“No,” Erick sighed. “I’ve been waiting for her to come to me. I don’t know if she wants to talk to me.”

“Something happened right before Jonathan left for Blackcrest…” Arina said.

Erick noticed she was trembling; whatever it was, she was terrified.

“What’s going on?” Erick asked; he was growing nervous.

“She reached out to me and told me the only way she was going to get people to trust her, is if she makes some big gesture,” Arina began. “She went to Blackcrest to try and persuade Graham to back off.”

She. Did. What?