Page 16 of Cruel Alpha Beast
“So,” I say, finally breaking the uncomfortable silence. “Can I ask where you’ve been for the last five years?”
Lacey finally lifts a forkful of scrambled eggs up to her mouth. She takes slow, methodical bites, almost as if she’s taking a long time to punish me.
“I didn’t make it very far,” she tells me after swallowing. “I, uh, I found a group of women out in the woods, and they took me in. And Shea, of course, when she came around.”
Lacey takes another bite, but doesn’t go any deeper into her explanation. I can tell that she’s leaving some vital details out of her story, but before I can press, something comes over her.
Her eyes become dazed, unfocused. Then, she falls back against the chair, slumping down, then remaining motionless for a moment.
“Lacey? Lacey, what’s happening?” I ask.
When she doesn’t respond, my heart begins racing faster and faster. I jump out of my seat and come to her side, grabbing onto one of her hands and the shoulder it’s connected to. I shake her gently, then vigorously when she doesn’t respond.
“Don’t you die on me, Lacey!” I shout at her. “Lacey!”
In the next moment, her eyes finally blinked and came back into focus. She straightens up like nothing happened, but then she finds my gaze and her beautiful face crumples. Bursting into tears, she launches into my arms and weeps against my shoulder.
“Hey, hey, hey,” I murmur into her ear. “What’s wrong?”
“I…” she starts, but her breath hitches in her throat before she can get much else out. “I saw something.”
“What did you see?” I ask. “What just happened?”
Lacey pushes herself off my shoulder and sits back up in her chair. She wipes her tears with the back of her hand and considers her next words carefully.
“I saw… I saw a burning willow tree,” she says. “I don’t know why it’s making me so emotional, but—”
“A willow tree?” I interrupt, stunned by this revelation. “A burning willow tree?”
Lacey responds with a sniffle and a nod of her head.
When the willow is afire, wash it down with your desire.
“I don’t know what it means,” she says, her voice still thick with tears. “But I don’t usually understand these visions of mine.”
“Visions?” I echo, taken aback.
Lacey sighs and wipes at her glistening cheeks again. “Yeah, I, uh, I’ve been having visions since I was a kid.”
Another revelation. No wonder we all thought she was so strange. I mean, the shiftlessness was one thing, but the poor girl did herself no favors.
“I just remembered something,” I mutter out loud. “I was swimming in the lake with Greg. He was trying to coax you intojumping off the dock. Your parents were talking with mine, not really paying attention. And you were telling Greg that you were too scared to jump into the water. Then you kind of spaced out and went stiff as a board before falling in. Your mom heard the splash and started screaming. Then my dad jumped in and saved you.”
Lacey’s eyes cast down toward her breakfast plate. “I remember.”
“When he got you back on the dock, he kept asking what happened and you kept saying you didn’t know,” I continue. “People were staring. That must have been why…”
“Why people thought I was such a freak show?” Lacey fills in.
She gives me a pointed, icy glance. One that makes me feel even guiltier about the way I treated her before. If that were even possible. I try to gulp down the lump in my throat and think of something to say.
I’m sorry.
The words echo through my brain, but I just can’t say them out loud for some reason. Fortunately, Lacey looks away and shrugs her shoulders.
“Anyway, I took my freaky ass into the woods and found the people who actually appreciate me for the person I am and don’t look down on me for the things I can’t do,” she says. “It might come as a shock to you, Mr. Alpha, but there’s a coven of witches just outside of your valley. And they’re the ones who took me in.”
My mouth dries. “Witches?” I repeat. “But you know the stories—”
