Too Beautiful For the Alpha

Chapter 13

I must look like something straight out of a nightmare, because when I attempt to open the door, I realize it is locked, and suddenly Gail peeks through the drawn curtains and shrieks. The curtains slip closed and I knock again. "Gail! It's me! Rae?" I call to her, "I'm fine, just let me in."

She comes through the sliver in the curtains again, shouting through the glass of the window. "Rae? Dear Goddess! What on earth happened—"

"Will you please open the door?" I interrupt and wait the few seconds until the lock clicks and Gail swings the door open, her eyes wider than I've ever seen them—and I've held a knife to my neck. "I should explain," I say, attempting to get inside, but she blocks me.

"Is that your blood?"

"No," I say, wanting to get inside, but she blocks me again.

"You'll track blood in the house," she says wearily before lighting up with more questions. "Were you out there at that rogue incident? Is that why you're covered in blood? I'll call the doctor. Alpha Grant is by the border post, but I'll send someone to get him. Come in. Come in. Where are you hurt? It looks like everywhere."

I follow her into the living room where the phone is. "I'm not, well I was under a dead wolf, but I'm not actually hurt. It's just rogue blood."

She stops and looks back at me. "You were what?"

"I'll explain if you'll let me."

She nods. "Just let me get the Alpha."

I grab the phone before she can. "No. Don't. I said I'm not hurt."

"You're soaked in another man's blood. You look like Carrie. You said something about being stuck. Now give me the phone."

"Gail, please. Let me explain first?"

She groans. "Alright."

I sit down at the small table in the kitchen while Gail grabs a dish towel and runs it under the sink, ringing it out, then sitting down beside me. She brings the cloth to my face and rubs at the blood smeared on me. "Goddess, Rae. It's dried on you."

I explain and she rubs. "I went to go ask a guard about the unclaimed land and it just happened to be during this whole attack thing. Long story short rogues were all around me and I didn't know what to do. I saw this dead wolf just laying there so," Gail cringes, "I hid under it. It was so heavy. Plus, I took them hours until they found me! I was going insane. I couldn't feel my legs—even now they feel weird."

"Why were you out so late at night?"

I shrug. "I couldn't sleep. Thought I would go for a walk and got curious about unclaimed land," I say, my excuse already planned out. I had enough time to do so while under that beast. "Then that happened. I swear, I'm always in the middle of trouble. Always in the wrong place at the wrong time." My mind wanders to the moment when I first met James. How I stumbled out of the trees when he was passing by with my Alpha and Luna. I embarrassed myself that day.

As Gail continues to scrub my face—my skin feeling red—we hear the front door open and I immediately give her a look. "I didn't call him. You had the phone," she says, returning to the sink again to rinse what she got off with the towel.

I peer down at my horror state and sigh. It takes him three seconds to get to the kitchen, and when James appears he stops suddenly, his eyes examining me. "It's not my blood," I say calmly, "it's rogue blood."

This doesn't seem to satisfy him because he nears and has a look on his face. "You were at the borders during the middle of the night? You laid under a dead rogue?"