KIX:
“Kix, no!”
Using Riley’s form, I turned sharply to the left, peering closely at the lightless hall before me.
It hasn’t even been two seconds when I heard Jade scream my name again.
“Kix! Help me!”
“Jade,” I roared back. I had been lost in this maze since the Goddess knows when, guided only by my sharp nose and the scent of the woman I love. Now, the same scent was mixed with her tears and blood. Heart palpitating wildly, I struggled to find out where she was.
The last time I saw her, she was also crying. We were in the staircase, and she was pulling me up by my hind leg.
It would be impossible for us to survive, so I pleaded with her.
“Jade, let me go.”
It was only three stories down below. I’m sure I’d probably survive, somehow…
She should have just let me go.
“N-No,” she said, struggling to pull me up, her battered hands trembling.
“Please, Jade,” I pleaded. “You’d fall down too.”
She gave another resounding no.
“I love you, Jade… Let me go,” I finally whispered as I felt the metal heave her forward and send her spiraling down with me towards death.
So now, how the hell did we end up at this dark maze?
I tried to find her voice. I listened intensely where she was, but with each turn, I still couldn’t see her…
Where was Jade? Where were we? What happened?
I made another sharp turn, this time to the right. Suddenly, I saw a room that was brightly lit.
I galloped as fast as I could and entered it. It was empty save for a whole body mirror at the center of the room.
“Jade,” I howled her name one more time. “Jade!”
I could no longer hear her screams now. Where was she? Where was my mate?
“K-Kix!”
Just then, I turned around and looked back at the mirror. Jade was inside that thing!
“Jade!”
She was trapped in the mirror, and she couldn’t get out. There was neither an opening nor a way to get through the blasted looking glass!
I gazed back at my Jade, screaming my name at the top of her lungs. I felt terribly helpless.
Just then, blood began to ooze out of her mouth. She fell to her knees while still trying to pound on the other side of the glass.
“No… Jade!”
“Kix… I love you. I still love you,” I heard her say.
Everything faded into darkness as I break into the mirror’s surface.
***********
“Goddess, what the hell -?”
I opened my eyes, and the first thing that hit me was the spitting headache radiating from the back of my neck into my temples.
I’ve never been in such an intense pain before. I prided myself in having a strong body, and yet, here I was wincing in an agonizing headache while I was drenched in sweat…
I groaned in relief. I looked around, and I was in a hospital. That means that the horrible vision I witnessed before was just a dream, right?...
“Alpha, are you awake?”
I looked sharply behind me in bed, expecting to see Edril, but to my surprise, it was Neil, the former candidate beta, but now, a demoted omega in the pack.
“Obviously,” I mumbled in irritation. “Where’s my assistant?”
“About that, alpha… Something happened…”
I could still remember Neil’s impassive face on the day he stopped me to help Jade back in high school. I gave him a sharp look.
“Where the hell is Edril, and what are you doing here? Aren’t you busy at the maintenance department?”
“I’m your n-new assistant, alpha…”
“And who says I need a new assistant,” I sneered. “Scram if you don’t want me to bite your head off! Call Edril right now!”
“Umm, Alpha, t-there’s been an accident… Beta Edril can’t come to you now, so I -”
“No,” I snapped, my temples threatening to open up as I spoke. “CALL EDRIL NOW!”
I didn’t mean to sound that threatening. It’s just that I wasn’t in the right frame of mind plus that really bad dream about Jade was pissing me off. To top it all, I had to see Neil who reminded me of Jade’s bullying as soon as I was awake…
Neil cowered in a corner. It had been a year since I stripped him of his beta status after fighting him up as soon as I assumed the alpha position. Maybe he still has nightmares of me snapping at his neck.
Good for him though. After what he and my father’s supporters had done to Jade, that’s the least they should be feeling towards me…
“B-But Alpha… Edril is -”
“What? Tell me quickly. I don’t have all day!” I could feel the veins in my head popping up as I tried to prop myself in a semi-sitting position.
“Beta Edril is… He’s in a coma right now.”
“What the-? In a coma?”
Bloody Goddess, just what had happened to the pack when I was gone?
“Talk! What happened?!”
Despite Neil’s constant stammering and almost dizzying account, I was able to gather information of what had transpired after I went to Jade.
After I sped off, Edril and some of the wolves from the pack had prepared to come at Jade’s dorm, guessing that it was where I had probably headed. On the way there, however, the pack house was ambushed, so they were forced to go back.
“And who was it? Which pack ambushed us,” I growled back to Neil.
“It’s the Rubrum Amaryllis Pack, sir… T-They received a threatening letter from us, and so they opted to strike first…”
“The Rubrum Amaryllis?”
Neil’s explanation did not make any sense. The Rubrum Amaryllis and Luna Albas were age-old allies. Why would they strike us down just because of a simple, unfounded threat?
“So then Edril was fatally wounded in that fight?”
Neil could only nod at me.
I brooded over the happenings on that day. Why did they strike at that specific hour? It all felt too premeditated to be a simple coincidence…
“How long ago did this happen?”
“About three months ago, s-sir…”
“Three months? You mean I have been here for three, f*cking months already?”
I can’t believe it! I was also in a coma, just like Edril! So who’s running the pack in my absence?
Just then, the door of my room clicked open.
“Alpha Kix, I’m glad to see that you’re awake. Are you up for some serious discussion today?”
I looked back at the old but placid face of Nathaniel Reyes, Misha’s controlling father, and my father’s own beta.
Something tells me that things wouldn’t be good…