The Alpha's Vessel [The Alpha's #2]

THEA PETROVNA

With a wet pillow underneath her head and her eyes stilly puffy from having cried herself to sleep, Thea woke up. Only, it wasn’t morning yet.

When she didn’t feel the usual heavy weight behind her that she had grown used to these past few days, her lips turned down into a frown and she turned over to lay on her back. Spotting the empty space on the bed next to her, she couldn’t help but reach out that it was still warm, suggesting that Orpheus hadn’t been gone long.

Before she could call out for him, not sure why he had gotten up or where he had gone in he middle of the night, the soft murmur of his voice sounded aloud from the bathroom.

As his words reached her ears, her body stilled and she dared not move; afraid that she was overhearing a conversation that was not meant for her ears.

“I think it’s far too soon to try out luck doing that again.” His voice bounced off the bathroom tiles and reached her ears, albeit faint and barely audible.

The only reason that she was able to make out exactly what he was saying was because the house was deathly silent and she was straining her ears like she had never done so before.

“Are you not listening to me?” He barked into the phone, his voice rising in a mix of anger of frustration but he was quick to catch himself. “We’re in such a good position right now. If we continue like this then things are going to work out just the way we want them to but if we backtrack now, we’re just going to have to start all over again. Do you not remember what happened last time?” He paused briefly before continuing.

“Just because we managed to escape the first time, doesn’t mean that we’ll be able to do it again. You-”

When he paused abruptly midsentence, Thea couldn’t help but fear that she had been found out. Not wishing to test the theory, she was both careful and quiet as she turned back over onto her side and fluttering her eyes closed, willing her beating heart to slow down.

“Thea?” Orpheus called out to her in question as he stepped back into the bedroom.

When she didn’t respond the first time, she listened carefully as he closed the bathroom door behind him and dropped his phone on the bedside table, his eyes not once wavering from hers.

“Thea, are you awake?” By this point, she was certain that with his enhanced werewolf abilities, Orpheus knew he was awake and was just choosing to torment her.

Despite her best attempts, her heart started beating louder in fear that he would lunge at her for unintentionally eavesdropping in on what appeared to be a very private conversation – not that she understood what was happening or even what they were talking about – and how right she was.

Without a drop of hesitation in his body, Orpheus lunged onto the bed and threw himself over her, just as a predator would do when getting ready to eat a pray; and how fitting that analogy was to this specific scenario.

Forcing her onto her back, he braced his arms on either side of her head and pushed his body down on hers, pinning her down on the bed with the weight of his body and the pressure of his hips against hers; not even leaving her any wiggle room.

“You thought you could pretend to be asleep and I wouldn’t figure it out?” He seethed in a vicious growl, his eyes flashing between his usual obsidian and blood red, alerting her of the fact that he was struggling to maintain control over his wolf.

If she wasn’t so scared and genuinely fearful for her life, Thea would have shaken her head but it appeared that she couldn’t do even that. In fact, all she could do was stare up at the wolf on top of her because by this point, Orpheus had lost the battle against his wolf and had now completely shifted.

Despite having grown up in a pack and being surrounded by wolves most of her life, Thea could safely say that she had never been pinned down by a wolf, let alone a murderous wolf that had a taste of her blood.

Almost as if the beastly creature could smell the fear radiation off of her in waves, he growled loudly and slobbered all over her face, staring down at her with a dangerously threatening look in her eyes.

Unable to control her fear, Thea opened her mouth and screamed as loud as she could in hope that someone would overhear and come to her rescue. Unfortunately, the wolf had anticipated that she would do this so before the sound could even passed her lips,

Except, he missed. Or rather, she was quick to move her head out of the way, the memories of him trying to choke her to death yesterday flashing past her eyes. Knowing that the determined wolf wouldn’t be giving up any time soon, Thea worked quick to take advantage of the situation and rammed her head as hard into the paw beside her hair as she could.

While her head throbbed in pain and she knew that both a headache and a nasty bruise would be quick to follow up, she chose them over death any day.

Orpheus growled in surprise, though the sound quickly turned into a feral raw as he watched her roll out from under him, throwing herself over the side of the bed and onto the floor.

Her chin ached as she banged it against the floor but she had no time to worry about that as there was an angry Alpha wolf out for her blood. Despite her best attempts of scrambling to her feet in hopes of evading him and then escaping with Malik, all of that came crashing down, just as Orpheus came crashing down on her, forcing her to fall back flat on the ground.

Even though Orpheus had now shifted back into his human form, his eyes now solid black in colour, he refused to let up or let go, opting to remain on top of her in case she tried to escape which by this point, she would be crazy not to.

“You’re crushing me.” She mumbled against the wood of his bedroom floor, her words muffled, not that he cared in the slightest, especially since she had tried to outsmart him or rather, his wolf.

“Why were you spying on me?” He growled as he pressed the palm of his hand against the back of her head, forcing it to stay on the ground despite the fact that he had just asked her a question. “What did you hear? Tell me what you want to hear?”

Thea wanted to ask what he was talking about but he left her no option.

“Is the council making you spy on me?”

As her words were still muffled and barely any sound could escape, she resorted to shake her head in hopes that he would calm down but it didn’t quite work out the way she planned it to.

Almost as if her denial had angered him further, his growls deepened, absolutely seething.

As he gave her head one more forceful push into the ground, he growled and lifted himself off of her. When she openly sobbed and curled herself into a ball, afraid that he would try something more, Orpheus growled loudly and turned around.

As if he hadn’t scarred her enough already, the roars continued to tumble out of his mouth as his claws extended and he ripped into whatever he could reach. Unfortunately for the pillow and the sheets laid on top of the bed, they did not survive his anger and once he finally stormed out of the room, Thea was surrounded with a complete and utter mess.

And she wasn’t referring to herself.

Not sure when he would return – she hoped he wouldn’t return though knew that it couldn’t be anything more than wishful thinking on her part – Thea wiped away her tears and forced herself into a sitting position, though a new round of tears just continued to stream down her face.

With the room completely destroyed, the sheets in complete disarray and the pillows absolutely destroyed, she didn’t know what to do other than to rush out of the door and down the hallway.

Just as she had anticipated, her sweet little boy was fast asleep in her bed and right now, he was the only good thing in her life. Not bothering to wipe away the tears this time, she closed the door softly behind her and climbed into his bed, curling herself around him, seeking out comfort in this push and pull dynamic which right now, it appeared that she would never be able to evade.

For the second time that night, she closed her eyes and cried herself to sleep.

-

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Layla Knight

13.12.2020