Page 46 of Kidnapped By the Alpha

April walked to Aiden and continued into the darkness beyond where my eyes could see. Once she had passed Aiden’s position, I felt, rather than saw, the wolves that had encircled us begin to withdraw as well. The entire pack waited in silence until the sounds of their footsteps had disappeared into the darkness.

Another five minutes passed, and I hadn’t moved a muscle.

“Alpha,” a voice at my side said tentatively. “What are your orders?”

I turned to see that Michael had crawled over to sit beside me. If I had any emotions left, my heart would have swelled with pride to see him by my side. Earlier today, he had been timid and shy, but now he was brave and ready.

But my own bravery had been sucked out of me. I had never been defeated before, and I had no idea how to cope with the feeling of loss that coursed through my veins.

“Go back to the cabins,” I ordered the pack. “Do not run or shift.”

I ignored the mumbling from the pack as I got to my feet and trudged slowly through the forest.

She left. She left. She left.

With each step, my thoughts repeated themselves, reminding me why I shouldn’t bother trying to go after her. All I could do was protect my pack and get back to Killian.

As soon as we got to the cabins, I saw that Killian had been left—still tied up—at the same picnic table where I had placed April on her first day here. The irony wasn’t lost on me, and I wondered if she had told Aiden to do that. It was another dagger in my heart.

“Alpha, we have to go after them,” Killian said the moment I untied the cloth from around his mouth. “We have to get the luna back.”

“No,” I said. “There’s no point. You heard her—it was her own choice to leave.”

“To saveme,” Killian said. “She never would have gone with them if she had any other choice.”

“I think it was pretty clear that she wasn’t upset at being rescued from me,” I said tersely. “It’s time to let it go.”

“But Alpha—” Killian began.

“I said no. I need to let her go,” I said firmly.

If only I could, though. In my head, I knew that she had volunteered to leave, and that she no longer wanted anything to do with me. My heart, on the other hand, was shattering as I felt her getting further away.

Chapter 24 - April

As I left the forest with Aiden to walk to where the pack had cars waiting for us, I felt tremendously guilty. Not only had I not taken the time to explain that I was willing to stay with the Dark Moon Pack, but I had just left Jasper without an explanation for what I was doing.

Nothing about what I had done in the past few minutes had been helpful for building peace between the packs. More than that, I worried that I had completely destroyed any faith that Jasper and the Dark Moon Pack had in me.

The last thing I wanted to do was leave him, but I hadn’t seen another option. Jasper loved Killian more than anyone else in the world. He wouldn’t have survived without him.

What hurt me even more was that this entire confrontation might have been avoided if I had thought to send a message to my friends in Sparkle Hollow. Since the moment that Jasper had begun to open up to me, I had put them out of my mind. I had become blinded by my growing feelings for him and lost track of my responsibility to my old pack. Now the shit had finally hit the fan, and it was all my fault.

The shame I felt for my short-sightedness mingled with my guilt, and I began to wallow in my feelings. My head hung low as I walked, uncertain of how to get the packs out of this mess.

“I’m sorry it took us so long to rescue you,” Aiden said as we got into the car he had parked a few miles away. “It took us a while to figure out who had taken you, and where you were hidden.”

I didn’t respond to his apology. It wasn’t wholly necessary, but with all my jumbled thoughts of feelings bouncing around in my head, I didn’t have the words to explain why.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

“Back to Sparkle Hollow. Lex and Grace have a room in the pack house ready for you,” he explained. “They want you to stay with them for a while, until things are stable again.”

When we arrived, I was shown immediately to a comfortable private room with a bed and shower.

“I’m sure you’re feeling overwhelmed,” Luna Grace said. “Aiden and Lex want to ask you some questions soon, but for now, we’ll make sure you have some time to recuperate from your ordeal.”

The moment the door shut behind me, I lay down on the bed. Exhausted, I fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

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