Claimed By My Three Alphas
Chapter 39

AMERY

I ran in desperate search of Dalia, my head aching and my heart pounding loudly. How had the Alpha king placed a bounty on my head? And why had no one told me anything about it? Suddenly, I wished Asher were here to save me, but how could he? He had no idea that I was even at the pack's market. I had told no one about my whereabouts.

After running for hours, I finally found Dalia at the back of another shop. She was lost in a conversation with three men and didn't even realize that I had walked in on her.

"Amery, you-" she began.

"There's no time for that!" I snapped at her. "We have to leave, NOW!"

"But why? We still have a lot of things to buy and-" she protested.

I grabbed her hands and took off in a deadly sprint. I stopped when we reached a place that was much safer and more secluded from the open market.

"You're scaring me, Amery. What's wrong, and why are you running away? Who's chasing after you?" she inquired, her eyes fixed on the road just as mine were. I was practically breaking out in sweat, my forehead creased in underlying worry, and my entire body was trembling.

"The Alpha king has placed a bounty on me. I saw a poster of myself in the market, and the worst part of everything is that I was recognized by the king's guards. They're chasing after me," I relayed everything, and her hands flew to cover her mouth, which had dropped to the ground in shock.

"We have to find a way out of here; otherwise, they'll take me away," I cried out in a low voice. My lips quivered, forcing me to swallow my saliva in fright. The thought of what might happen if they caught up to me was frightening. The Alpha king hated me to the core, and that was the reason why Asher and his brothers had rescued me before my execution.

"Don't fret, Amery," she reached out to my shaky hands and held them firmly. "They won't catch up to us. I know a shorter route out of this place and back to the mansion." "Really?" I asked, grabbing onto the rare flicker of hope.

"Of course. This way." Still holding my hands, she led me out of the market while urging me to remain silent. We took a lonely path and navigated our way through. Deep down in my heart of hearts, I prayed that we wouldn't be captured. "Where are we?" I asked when we arrived at a grassy landscape.

"We have to hurry!" came Dalia's response to my intent question. "This place isn't that far from the market, and if we stall even for the tiniest second, they'll catch on to us."

I gulped fearfully and continued running behind Dalia. Halfway through, she knocked her feet against a rock and fell to the ground, bruising her knee in the process. Dalia winced in pain as blood oozed out from the deep cut. Her eyes watered as she tried to force herself back up.

"Let me help you," I offered and pulled her up from the hard surface. "Can you walk?"

She shook her head. "No. The pain is unbearable. We will never make it to the mansion at this point."

"Forget the mansion," I urged, my voice raising to an octave. "We can't make it there with you in this condition, and I don't know how to treat your wounds before they get infected. What do we do now?" I breathed out desperately.

"I know a place not too far away from here," she spoke up, my hands perfectly rested on her waist as she leaned her entire weight on mine. "A friend of mine lives there. I know that she would be kind enough to let us stay there and treat my wounds before we forge ahead to the mansion. Is that okay with you?" she asked with pleading eyes.

"We don't have a choice anyway. You're the only one who knows the route back, and since we can't make it in your condition, then I think that's the safest thing to do," I replied.

She nodded. "This way," she pointed ahead towards another path. "Her house is just down that road."

I let her lead while I silently followed. Once we were able to treat her wounds, then we would find a way back to the mansion.

In less than thirty minutes, we arrived at a small cottage in the middle of nowhere. Why would anyone decide to stay here? So far away from the main village?

I tried to make Dalia sit, but she was insistent on going in. According to her, she didn't want to take any chances.

She knocked on the door persistently until a woman opened up. I could see the slight resemblance, but before I could utter a word, she reached out to Dalia.

"What happened to you? Why are you limping so badly?"

"My friend is hurt, can you please help us instead?" I spoke in place of Dalia, and she immediately agreed.

"Of course, my child. Please go inside and get me the herbal basket on the table," she requested. I had no time to be self-conscious, so I quickly rushed inside. Although I was a bit tense, I knew that I wasn't really safe until I was back home with the boys, so I resorted to getting things done as fast as possible.

I searched for the basket on the table where she had told me it was, but I couldn't find it. Just then, I noticed a figure behind me, causing the hairs at the back of my neck to stand.

"The basket is not-" I turned to face whoever was behind me, and before I could assimilate what was happening, my head had been severely hit by a brick, causing me to fall to the ground.

My shaky hands reached out to my head where I had taken a blow, and I felt blood dripping down my head from an open wound.

I struggled to rise to my feet, but I was hit again. My blurry eyes took in the figure of my assailant, and I was shocked to find Dalia grinning at me with a brick in her hand.

"Dalia...?" A tear slid down my cheek, and I passed out almost immediately.

I woke up hours later, tied up in a corner. My legs were in chains, and so were my hands. I groaned when the second migraine hit me again and again till I was writhing in immense pain. "You're finally awake," I heard the familiar voice of Dalia from across the room. It wasn't a nightmare after all. Dalia had indeed turned against me.

"H-How could you do this to me?" I stuttered, my voice hoarse from all the pain.

"And why wouldn't I?" She retorted with a pained look on her face. "What did you think? That we would become friends after you tried to take Asher away from me?"

"A-Asher doesn't belong to anybody." My voice cracked, and she glared at me. "And I can never take a grown man away from anybody."

She slapped me hard across my face, and I tasted blood. Crouching down in front of me, she held my chin and forced me to look at her. I yelped at the sudden pain that coursed through me.

"Do you never know when to give up, Amery?" she asked, her eyes blazing with anger and fury. "You've always been a problem ever since you walked into our realm." She tightened her grip. "You not only ruined my relationship with Asher, but you made him push me away. Because of you, Asher forbids me to come near him. He stopped me from serving him. He looks at me with nothing but disgust, as if my mere presence repulses him."

"The same Asher who couldn't keep his hands off me suddenly doesn't want me, and all of this happened because of you!" she accused while I struggled to breathe.

"I hate you so much, Amery, and I promise to make you pay for all the misery that you've brought upon me. I'm going to get rid of you for good!" She vowed, "When I'm done with you, you'll beg for nothing but death."

She released my chin, and I gasped for air.

"Watch her, Mom," she addressed the woman who had just walked up to us.

Mom? They were related and working together?

"I'll go back to the village in search of the guards who chased after us earlier," she revealed, and my heart skipped a beat. "What do you know, a bounty as big as that might also come in handy," she added, flashing me a wicked smile before leaving the cottage. As soon as she left, her mother released my legs and made me sit on a chair, strapping my hands and feet even tighter.

"What are you planning to do with me?" I asked, but she ignored me, proceeding to the boiling pan on the fire.

"I've heard so much about you from my daughter," she started, stirring the contents inside the pan. "It's such a shame that you can't shift, and the fact that you also don't know your wolf is quite alarming, isn't it?" She grinned from ear to ear.

I watched her with teary eyes as she pulled out a syringe and emptied the contents of the pan inside it.

I shook my head, my tears falling rapidly like twin rivers as she approached me, tore my clothes, and grabbed me so I could stay still. I kicked, flapped, and struggled, but all my efforts to get away from her proved abortive.

"I'm curious to know what would happen if I inject you with wolfsbane since you're a half-baked wolf," she muttered in mockery. Her eyes danced mischievously.

I wailed loudly, calling out for help, but none was forthcoming. An ear-splitting scream tore through my lips when she injected the substance into my bloodstream.

The rest of my words fell on deaf ears as I sobbed loudly. My voice cracked, and I felt my eyes and insides hurting badly. I could barely move. The thought of having my flesh burned up from within caused me to writhe in pain. "Pleaaaaase!" I rasped, almost out of breath, but she wouldn't stop. She picked up another syringe and injected me. I felt my blood boil as I cried out in pain and despair.

She continued the process repeatedly until I was thrashing, and my entire body vibrated with the invasion. My forehead broke out in sweat as I felt my body slowly going numb.

"You will wish that you never met us, Amery, and that's a promise," she warned me. Those were her final words before she smeared the concoction into my eyes.