The Alpha and his Mate

Chapter Two

"I'm going to get you bitch" he screamed as he chased after me down the street, "I'm going to get you and when I do you are going to be so sorry you did that".

Annabelle's POV

Tears streamed down my face as I sprinted as fast as I could down the street and into the surrounding woodland, my bare feet quickly getting bloody and cut up from the gravel and twigs that bit into my skin. I ignored the pain and forced myself to push on, cradling my injured elbow in my right hand close to my body. My laboured breathing caused my ribs to burn and make it difficult for me to suck in air, but I pushed past the pain, there was no way that I could be caught, not after what I had just done.

"You can't run from me little girl" he screamed after me, gaining on me with every stride.

My eyes looked around frantically, taking everything in around me and looking for a solution. I knew I couldn't outrun him, especially in the physical state that I was in. The tears continued to stream down my cheeks and just when I was about to give up hope I spotted something. I almost cried in relief as I spotted a small opening in the trunk of a nearby tree. I just had to hide out in there for a while until he gave up looking for me and then I could get away from him.

I made a dash for the tree and sighed in relief as I scurried into the opening, barely fitting into the small gap, and held my breath to stop him hearing my laboured breathing. My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest and when I saw his feet run straight past my hiding place I clapped my hand over my mouth, in fear that a whimper would escape and give my hiding space away. I could hear him stumbling around for a bit, the alcohol obviously still affecting his balance and sighed when I heard his footsteps grow quieter and quieter.

I always loved playing hide and seek when I was younger, it used to be my go-to game whenever I played with the other kids that would come to my house when their parents came and visited mine. Little did I know that a few years down the line I would be playing the deadliest game of it of my life, one little noise and I was done.

I sat in the roots of the tree for a few minutes as I felt the insects crawl over my feet, sitting silently and straining my ears for any sort of noise that was out of the ordinary. When I came up empty, only hearing the sound of the wind in the trees and the animals scurrying around my feet, I cautiously crawled out of the hole. My head turning in all directions with my wild eyes peeled open, looking for any sign that Damon was nearby. I sighed in relief as I came up empty and quickly started running in the opposite direction to where I saw him stumble, hoping to put as much distance between me and him as I could.

I don't know how long I had been walking for, but it must have been quite a while, the adrenaline had now completely worn off and my injures that were before slightly numbed were now in the forefront on my mind as I pushed my aching legs to keep going. Where I was going I don't know, I just knew I had to get as far away from that place as I possibly could. Away from that house and away from those people. I was stupid to think that I could have lasted another two years there.

One day I had done something that made Tony particularly angry, it was probably something meaningless like not hoovering the correct lines into the carpet or something like that. I had overheard him mumble something to Natalie about how he couldn't wait until I turned twenty one so that he could be rid of me. I don't know if he meant for me to hear him but that little bit of information was the one thing that had gotten me through some pretty horrific times there. It meant that my suffering there would one day end.

As I walked my brain wandered along with it, taking me back to that place and back to all the times that they had punished me for something. To all the times that I was starved of talking out of turn, for all the times I was hit because I had missed a non-existent speck of dust on the carpet. I had thought about escaping so many times, even attempting it once or twice, but I was always caught. And even if I had succeeded where would I go? I knew no one and nobody knew about me, I had never even been out of my hometown before.