A Blessing or a Curse

Chapter Sixteen: Deep Shit for What He Did

“Mama, Je ne comprends pas; I don’t understand. What’s happening?” I tried to make it come out as a demand but it left my mouth as a desperate plea. I wiped the sweat that was dripping from my eyebrow and clutched onto my mother’s arms.

My mother kissed my forehead and brushed my unruly curls from my face and lifted my chin to look her in the eye. “Ma fille, look at me, chéri. The pack is under attack. You need to go into the basement and stay there until everything is okay.”
“Where’s Papa? Est-ce qu’il va bien?” I needed to know where my father was and if he was alright. Then my brother came into my head. “Daxon where is he?”
“They’re fighting right now. Th-” A loud gunshot exploded through the air from outside causing me to shiver and let out a dry sob. Soon after another gunshot a mournful howl filled the air. Someone was dead. “They’re fighting right now.”

“Quoi? Pourquoi?! We have so many strong fighters in the pack this isn’t necessary! They shouldn’t have to fight!” I cried out. “Who is attacking us?”
“Hunters, so many of them. Look, Ma fille you must-” a loud bang and crash from downstairs interrupted my mother which made her gasp and me let out a small shriek. Someone was in our house. And from the stench of it, it was hunters.
“Foutre” she cursed in a quiet whisper. Her violet eyes I had inherited from her were now shining with tears and her bottom lip trembled slightly. She looked at me and gave me a weak smile. “Marilyn. My Lolita.”

She wrapped her arms around me and enclosed me in a bone-crushing hug, “They know someone is in here. They would’ve heard your scream. But they don’t know two people are. I am going to distract them and you go and run and hide yourself safely in the basement. Don’t come out for anything, chéri.” She sobbed into my hair and I did too.
“Mama…” I choked out. “I can’t leave you…”
“You won’t.” she kissed my temple and whispered “I love you.”

“I’ll be fine, trust me. Just go and come back when it’s over. I’ll be waiting.” She instructed.
I nodded and we said the Our Father, a prayer my mother always soothed me with and another prayer for protection and I did as I was told. When I managed to escape into the basement I sat in silence and listened carefully for any harm being done to my mother.
A loud pop filled my ears and I let out and panicked gasp, then a blood-curling scream filled my ears. I shot up and ran and stared at the ceiling trying to hear what was happening. “Mama!”

I bolted up with a loud and raspy gasp escaping my mouth. My throat was burning; I felt like someone had choked the life out of me and stole all the moisture from my mouth and esophagus. I groaned and slouched over and pressed my hand to my forehead massaging it slowly, trying to soothe my headache. I tried shifting into a more comfortable position when I realized I wasn’t in my bed. I was on stone, dirty floors that made my entire body sore and ache.
Suddenly the memories of what happened rushed into my memory. The Café, walking home, getting in the van and being injected with something. I looked over at my arm; it was the sorest part of my body and had a tiny hole on a vein in my inner elbow. It was sore and a white substance oozed out of it.

“Help,” my voice was weak and coarse. “Anybody help me, please.” I looked at my surroundings. There was a dim light bulb dangling above my head flickering on and off. I realized I was in a dark, damp basement, the walls peeling and the floor disgusting and wet. There was literally nothing in it beside a wooden staircase which led to a light brown door.
Instantly fear shot up my body. I pulled my knees into my chest and rocked myself while whimpering in fetal position. I had no idea where I was or why I was here. Was someone watching me? Was this the actions of hunters? Did I make any unknown enemies? Who did this? What was the point of all this? What the fuck did I do? Where am I? How long have I been here?

I wanted to shoot myself in the face. I was so stupid and had no one to blame but myself for this. For getting into trouble; again. Everyone on planet fucking earth knows damn well never get in a car with strangers. Let alone four of them and in a white van! Come on a white van! I was so stupid! I figured since I’ve hitchhiked plenty of times before and nothing ever happened I was invincible. Well, once more. I was wrong.

After about what felt like an eternity of praying and trying to come up with an idea of who did this to me and why, I gave up. I slowly put myself on my feet and walked up the stair case and placed my hand on the cold grey door knob. I hesitated and took a deep breath. I pressed my ear to the door to try to see if anyone was out there or if there was any noise.
Nothing.

With another deep breath and short prayer I twisted the knob and I was surprised it wasn’t locked. With a gentle shove the door opened up into a narrow, dimly lit corridor. The walls were an ugly, faded orange and the floors were made of different colored brown woods.
I stepped out cautiously and limped down the long corridor until it came to a turn. I walked down the long corridor cautiously, listening and staying alert for any sounds or people. It was so hard to do though because all my senses felt weakened. My ears kept ringing and my eyesight was slightly blurry and my head pounding.

I limped for about a minute or so trying to figure out where I was. I wasn’t sure where, why or what I was doing here but I wanted to be home in my bed, with some Tylenol and painkillers. I kept walking as quietly and discreetly as possible but it made it hard with such creaky floorboards.
As I wobbled down into another hall my ears picked up a few footsteps about ten feet away. “She’s out!” a booming voice came from the other end of the hallway. I looked up to see a strange man pointing down at me staring at me in shock.
Instantly I turned right and bolted down until I came across another hall. I heard the footsteps of about three men behind me. They were catching up to me quickly. Thankfully the new hall I entered had doors. I turned the knob and bolted into of one of them which led into an office room.

But knowing my luck. It wasn’t empty. There were about six men, all werewolves who averted their eyes and attention toward me.
“Who let her out?!” a red-headed man with a scruffy beard stood from his chair his fist clenched and a snarl on his lips.
Fuck.
I didn’t hesitate to turn on my heels and keep running. I didn’t make five strides when someone clasped their hand on my hip and threw me over their shoulder. I let out a shrill scream and started kicking and punching the person in the back. He obviously wasn’t affected because he walked in silence like it was nothing.

Soon I found myself being thrown on the cold, hard basement floor. I let out an inhuman groan when I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I looked up to see the scruffy, red-headed man again towering over me a look straight from Satan plastered on his face. Behind him was a man who look all too familiar but I couldn’t figure out who he was.
“Who are you? Why am I here?” I wanted it to come out like a demand, but my voice was raspy and I stammered with fear.
Without a word he pulled me to my feet and grasped my hair in his hand and pun me around. He tugged down my shirt revealing my shoulders and I shook in fear, but didn’t bother trying to fight. He’d win without a doubt. He spun me around again after about a moment and examined my neck and shoulders. What is he doing?

He looked up and down my arms as well and brought his cold black eyes to mine and I shivered. He had such an intense and intimidating demeanor. After about a second he brought me closer to him and inhaled deeply and exhaled deeply.
“Are you sure this is her?” his voice was cold and raspy but came out so sharp and booming.
“Yes, I’m positive.” The man said behind him. He had an accent and voice that sounded so familiar.
“She isn’t marked!” he grabbed me by my bicep and pushed me forward to the familiar looking man and shook me roughly. I let out a gasp as he rocked me back and forth angrily. “Look! She isn’t fucking marked. Care to explain?”
The man huffed out and pinched his eyebrows together. “I don’t know.” He almost growled out. You could tell he didn’t like being spoken to like that but didn’t have enough balls to give him attitude. “He musnt’ve marked her yet.”
“And why not?”
“I don’t know!” the man with the accent cried out. “He just didn’t? Not all mates mark and fuck each other right away!”
Wait, were they talking about me and Carter? What do they want with Carter? Oh my God, do they have him too? I subconsciously let out a low and threatening growl and bared my teeth. No matter what, they better not hurt Carter.
The man who had me in his grasp shook me violently and pulled my hair so hard, almost ripping out my scalp. “Shut the fuck up bitch.” He gritted through his teeth. I gasped at the grip he had on me. Fucking asshole.
He threw me down and kicked my leg and I let out a small whimper while biting my lip with dear life and praying I wouldn’t let out a scream in pain. “There’s no point in torturing her then! She’s not connected with him! He won’t feel it! He probably doesn’t even know she’s missing yet.”
I cringed when he mentioned the word torture. Oh God, torture doesn’t seem like the most fun activity at the moment.
“Well, what do you want me to do? Bring her back?!” the other one spat out obviously frustrated.
I widened my eyes when I realized who it was! The rogue that Carter made go away the first time I saw him! What was he doing here? What did he want from me? Was he trying to get to Carter?
“Hey! Watch your fucking tone.” The red-headed man growled. “And no dumbass. Why would we do that?”
“Because…” a cold and low voice started, bringing the familiar man with the accent and the scruffy one and me to look at him. “She’s isn’t of use.”
“But…she’ll tell her mate that we took her. He’ll-” the scruffy man started but was cut off by a harsh glare the other man gave him.
The man stepped forward and I got a better look of him. He was an intimidating, large man with blond, unkempt hair that looks like it hasn’t been washed in months and a small five o’ clock shadow. “Exactly. Now he’ll know for sure, we mean business. I want him to know it was me. That he’s in deep shit.”

Carter’s in deep shit? What did he do? What did they want with him? How did they know that he and I were mates? He hasn’t even marked me yet! We haven’t gone public or anything. Shit, we just met! Where was Carter? Why do they have me anyway? Am I getting into deep shit for something he did?

He turned and began to walk toward the door. “Let her go.” He continued walking but halted and turned to face me with a grim smirk. It made me gulp and my heart beat double time. “Listen little girl. Tell your mate what we did to you. Let him know Jack’s waiting.” He turned to the scruffy-headed man, “Shake her up a bit before you bring her back. Leave a little imprint on her. Something her and her little mate won’t forget.” And with that he left.