The Alpha's Ballerina (#Wattys2016)

What Hurts The Most

Once again I was chained to the wall. Metal cuffs dug into my wrists making them bleed. Blood swirled down my arms in a ragged pattern. Wolfsbane coursed through my system causing a slight burning sensation everywhere.

Cold air nipped at my exposed skin. The air was more than cold. It was freezing. Almost like the cold its self was eating away at the layers of my skin. Exhaustion and lack of food put my body under two tons of weight.

I heard snickers as the hunters came down and saw me in my sports bra. Fresh lashes colored my back. "We can stop this now Abigail. All you need to do is give us information." Eric whispered in my ear. The words I wanted to say got stuck in my throat just like every other one since the fall.

"You have left me no choice." Just for a second he left. That second felt like forever as the anxiety set in. It filled my bones and nerves. Earlier today I heard some kids laughing and opening presents. Was it Christmas already? "Last chance Abbie." I couldn't let him win. Slowly I started to let my eyes close.

Just before they shut a bunch if tiny burns hit my back. Hot oil was sprinkled on me. As the second round hit I screamed at a frequency I didn't even know I could reach. Each of the hunters took turns throwing hot oil on me. Some even went twice because Theo's pack mutilated their loved ones.

I could smell my own burning flesh as more oil was dumped on me. Once in a while they would even whip me. Eric unchained me from the wall and threw me on the floor. For the first time I noticed the blood on my arms. The lines were too straight to have come from through cuffs. The blood flow was to consistent.

I felt arms wrap around me and I tried to fight them off. "Stop! Let me go!" I literally turned around and started beating on whoever it was. The first thing I felt was a thick wall of muscle.

"Let me go! Please! I just want to go home!" The tears rolled down my cheek in thick streams. "Let me go." Just like last year I stayed fighting to get away. "It's okay Abbie. I'm here." Theo's voice pulled me out of the dream. His shirt was dotted with streaks of blood. "You're hurt." Immediately  I turned around to grab the washcloth and get water on it. "Take off your shirt. I need to see the wounds."

"Abbie stop." He grabbed my hands and held them together. You know, like how you grab a child's hands to stop them from doing something wrong. "I'm not hurt. It's not my blood." Who did he kill then? Or who did he torture? "Who's blood is it?"

"Abbie it's yours. I heard you screaming and ran in here. There was a blade in your hand and you made cuts on your arm. Don't you remember this?" When I looked down it was the same as in my dream. Blood flowed down my arms in streams. Theo took my arms and put them under the faucet. As the blood washed down the drain the cuts became more visible.

"Why did it take you a year to find me? I went through hell and you left me there for a year." Theo avoided my eyes as he put bandages on my arms. "Why didn't you find me Theo? Why did you leave me there?"

"I didn't leave you there!" He basically yelled. What do you call not finding your mate for a year while she was in Hell then? "When they took you I tried to track the van. The trail went cold when it lead me to open road. After that we had no idea where to start looking. At first we tried the old location of the hunters that took you, but no one was there. Our next move was to look into the other group of hunters near here. They knew nothing."

Of course they didn't. Most groups of hunters didn't share information to each other. It wasn't because they didn't trust one another or were at war with each other. It was because they realize that each group had their own score to settle with the packs that caused catastrophe in their lives. It was a respect thing.

"Then a week after you were taken a body was strung up in the center of your old pack, without a head. No one knew who it was. There was nothing to identify who it was. A couple days after that your brother got a package." Before he even said what was in it something told me I know what was in it. "Please, I don't need to hear this."

"Actually you do Abbie. In the package was your fathers head. That was how they identified the body. Both your pack and mine tried to trace the package back but ended up at dead ends. Over the next few months we were getting less and less clues to where you were. I was nearly always drinking and rarely slept. I almost give up at one point.

About a week before we found you, a hunter was seen close to the pack so we got them. He couldn't have been more then 16. He said he would trade information for his life. Of course we accepted those terms. He even helped us formulate the plan to save you."

So he really didn't  leave me there. I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Never leave me again." He left the lightest of kisses on my temple. "Never. Besides if it were to happen again I would be able to find you faster." The lightest of voices started to come through my head. "Now that I can do this I won't ever not know where you are." That could become annoying real quick.

"Let's go to bed." He slipped his arm around my waist as he guided us out of the bathroom. Gently he laid me down on the bed and in no time the side of the bed dipped down next to me. Theo made sure the covers were on us so we weren't too hot or cold.

"Wrap your arms around me. That way I know if you have another nightmare." I don't know if it was because he was an alpha or the idea of having someone to comfort me, but without hesitation I wrapped my arms around him. My head fell more onto his shoulder then on my pillow. As Theo stroked my hair sleep started to welcome me into its embrace.