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Chapter 30

Alisha was running down the long corridor decorated with stones. Darkness was her only friend and only a faint ray of sunlight came from the entrance. Her body was lifted and she let out a great laugh.

-Let me go, let me go!

-I got you, you little tadpole,” the older man’s voice came out with laughter, hugging the girl in his arms.

The little girl wrapped her arms around the man’s neck and kissed his cheek as he led her towards his office.

-Dad, what’s that,” he pointed in the direction of the window where several men were unloading cages from three black covered trucks.

The man took a few seconds to respond.

-Nothing, my love, just a new shipment daddy bought,” he smiled with a bead of sweat on his temple.

-Again,” Alisha retorted, for a ten year old she was too smart a girl, “You spend your life buying things. Even this house, I liked the one in town better. I can’t make friends here, we’re in the middle of nowhere.

She was referring to the new mansion they lived in, too big for three people and the servants. Her father was a well-known businessman in the world of science and medicine, although she had never held a microscope in her hand.

They went into the man’s office and he sat down on the leather sofa with her on his lap.

-What do you want to do today?

The girl thought about it.

-Take Mama to the pond, I’m sure she’d like that.

Olivia, the mistress of the house had been bedridden for three years with a rare illness.

Her father was about to answer when the door was opened. A younger, stockier man interrupted them.

-Sir, it is time.

Alisha was left alone in the office before she could say anything else, it was always like that. She closed her eyes imagining what it would be like if the three of them were back together like years ago. Everything went dark around her.

Her body felt paralysed, it hurt and the smell of disinfectant was pungent. Alisha snapped her eyes open to be blinded by the light. As her eyes adjusted, she opened them again to vaguely try to focus on her surroundings. She heard voices, but could not recognise them. She tried to move to find herself tied to a hard bed by thick straps. Panic seized her. Where the hell was she, what was happening, where was her father.

She screamed once, twice, three times, the terror sweeping over her, jerking on the bed as the straps wouldn’t budge. Her throat ached as the one around her neck clamped down on her skin, almost strangling her.

A hand rested on her forehead, trying to calm her. She could barely make out the image of her father behind the tears in her eyes.

-Daddy, get me out of here,” her voice was barely a hoarse whisper.

-The man smiled, but his eyes… they were two blocks of ice.

-No, NOOOO,” she screamed again, shaking her head. He wouldn’t save her. He had put her there.

Another pulse of pain lashed her arms and she could see an I.V. hooked into each one and instead of the classic clear liquid they were drawing b***d with one and transfusing it through the other from a body lying on a stretcher just like her. He had no restraints to hold him back, he could barely distinguish between his human form and that of …a wolf with fur that had once been white. Her eyes widened in fear.

-What are you doing to me?

Don’t worry, tadpole, just know that you’re making Daddy happy.

-No, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, Noooooooo!

-Alisha calm down,” the man repeated, stroking her forehead again, “Alisha!

-Alisha, Alisha.

The girl’s eyes snapped open with the breath absent from her lungs. She was in her room, Cristián was holding her on his lap with a painful frown and a worried expression. She felt her body damp from the shower water and her own sweat under the thick blanket that covered her nakedness.

She was panting hard and disoriented. An uncontrollable trembling ran through her and she was only held in a sitting position by the support Christian gave her.

The images came back to her and she pulled her arms out, checking them in exasperation, as if she still had the IVs. Her vision blurred with the attempted tears that streamed down her cheeks. She put her hands to her neck to avoid finding the leash that had previously been choking her.

-Alisha, what’s wrong,” Cristian didn’t understand her agitated behaviour. He looked at Blaren and Serguei who had entered behind him forcing the door when they heard her screams and found her under the water of the shower with her eyes rolled back in her head.

-Love, look at me,” he turned her face towards him, where her eyes lingered to focus on him.

The fog in her mind began to blur. She sobbed again and wrapped her arms around his neck and dropped onto his shoulder, bursting into tears as her body convulsed in great tremors.

The three big, imposing alpha males did not know what to do. Watching a woman cry was always an unpleasant experience, especially since they didn’t know what to do.

Serguei motioned for Blaren to leave the room and give them privacy. Christian would have to solve the problem on his own.

The wolf, seeing himself in this situation, simply ran his hand over her back while with the other he clutched her around his waist, giving her the greatest comfort. He could hear her crying like never before. What the hell had happened in those minutes he left her alone. What had she dreamt.

Alisha felt the scent of her partner come to her, and even though she was still upset, somehow being held by him like this brought calm to her terrified body. So she just stayed in that position until her discomfort had faded.

That hadn’t been strange. It had been so real that she thought she could hear the voices in their heads. The feel of the leather on his skin was still latent. Before he had merged with the she-wolf, he had told her that he would begin to remember his lost life. So this had not been a dream. It was her past.