Chapter 5: Who Am I, really?

TRISTAN

"Maybe," I spoke, "Or maybe your mother was not a werewolf and never died." I looked deep into Rose's dark eyes and tried to understand what was happening inside her head. Based on how she screamed and fled from me when she opened her eyes a few minutes ago, the mate pull did not have the same effect on her that it had on me. Would she ever understand how much willpower I had to bring up in this moment, not rush to her and hold her as close as I could? This was hell on earth… She was still my prisoner, and I had to start treating her as such, even if it meant hurting myself in the process. 'I am an Alpha, for God's sake!' I said to myself, 'I just can't let myself get drawn in by my primal instincts! If anyone can withstand it, it should be me!'

After a long break, Rose finally found her voice again. "This is nonsense! Take me home!" she screamed at me hysterically. I could see that she was trying to deny everything I had explained. 'Alright, if she wants to play that game', I thought.

"I can't." I shrugged and gave her a bored look, "Not as long as we don't know how dangerous you are." I could keep this up all day. Eventually, she would have to realize that her story was not quite adding up. Then, she would have to show me how much of a witch she was.

I was expecting Rose to keep going on with her tantrum, to scream and shout, to find another object despite that stupid night lamp and try to attack me. I could've lived with that reaction. At least it would show me that my strategy worked. After a denial phase, she would eventually give in, and I could see who she really was. However, I was not expecting her next reaction.

Rose lowered the night lamp, leaned back on the bed, crossed her arms, and looked out the window like nothing could bother her. She completely ignored that she was my prisoner. 'Is this a game for her?!' my blood started boiling. 'Does she actually believe that I would give up if she starts acting like a pissed-off child?! This girl is standing in front of the Alpha of one of the most powerful packs on this continent and doesn't take me seriously!!'

In the blink of an eye, I felt my wolf coming through. His mate's ignorance offended him and made me growl devilishly. Before Rose could even turn her head, I was already standing beside her. I grabbed her by the chains that were still on her wrist and pulled her towards the door.

"If you're not going to talk, I may as well throw you back into the dungeon, and don't think for a second that we will not find your father and do even worse to him."

I could feel that this threat hit her hard in the stomach. She started to kick around herself furiously and hit my leg. She had a good amount of strength for a female wolf, but even she could not surpass an Alpha regarding physical strength.

I didn't let her go. Instead, I kept on dragging her towards the door.

She started screaming at me again. "Don't touch him!! NO!!" her words started vibrating in my ears. I felt as if they would slam straight into my frontal lobe, and I started feeling dizzy. Everything in front of my eyes began to blur, and I heard a loud crash-like glass shattering around me. What the hell was going on? I stopped trying to move forward and looked back at her. She stared at me in shock. Then I realized what had happened. Behind her, the large windows had just exploded, and glass shards were shattering and spinning all across the room. When I saw a swarm of huge pieces of glass aiming straight at Rose, I pushed her body to the side with all of my force. It must've been too fast because she flew straight against the wall. When I turned my head towards her, I saw that, fortunately, most of the glass shards had missed her. Her arms and legs were covered in minor scratches and bleeding wounds, but she didn't seem to have any significant injuries.

At that moment, the door was roughly opened, and Lyra and Elijah ran inside. Their mouths stood open when they witnessed the chaos of the broken windows and all the glass scrambled across the room. It took only a second before Lyra started screaming. "Tristan!!" she ran to me as I was starting to lose consciousness, "You're hurt!" I went on my knees, no longer capable of standing. Lyra tried to hold me upright and give me some support. When I slowly looked down at myself, I saw the huge glass shards that I had protected my mate from hanging straight out of my chest. 'I hadn't even noticed that they hit me; I was so focused on Rose…' I tried to say the words, but my voice didn't make a sound.

"It was this b****'s fault!!" Elijah took a few giant steps towards Rose's unconscious body. "I'll kill her here and now! Problem solved!!" I could hear the hatred in his voice. He was about to turn into his wolf. He would rip her to pieces!

"No!" I spoke with all the strength I had left. I had tried to shout the words, but they were closer to a loud whisper than anything else. Elijah stopped in his rage and turned to look at me, angry and irritated. "She is… my mate."

ROSE

I woke up in shock. Would this become a habit? Me passing out or getting hit unconscious and waking up in different places?

This time, I was already sitting upright in a new bed, in a new room again unfamiliar. A girl was sitting next to the bed on a chair; she had beautiful dark brown and long hair, big round doll-like eyes, and full red lips. She was staring at me and looked scared. Her face was pale, and her eyes were wide open. She held her hands up as if she was trying to protect herself. I furrowed my brows. Was she scared of… of me??

"P-please…" she stuttered, "please don't hurt me."

My jaw dropped. What the hell was going on here?! I had been the one who was kidnapped and was waking up in new, strange places all the time, and she was scared of ME?!

"Why the hell would I hurt you?" I asked, completely baffled.

She slightly raised one of her eyebrows. "You almost killed my brother."

Only a second later, the memory hit me like a hard slap in the face. I remembered screaming at my kidnapper, who happened to be the Alpha wolf of one of the largest packs in North America, after he had threatened to hurt my father. Then, all of a sudden, everything had turned entirely into chaos. In my memory, I saw glass shards flying around me, and out of nowhere, I was thrown against a wall. Afterward, everything turned black.

"I…" I tried to find the words, "W-what happened back there?"

The girl started speaking carefully. "From what it looks like, you made the windows explode and directed the glass shards in a small tornado through the room… To save your life, my brother must've pushed you out of the way but got hit instead." She lowered the arms she held protectively in front of herself this entire time. "You don't remember anything?"

"I-I'm not sure…" I said, looking at my hands and arms. The scratches were barely visible, but I was injured not long ago. Everything was still spinning in my head. Had I really done that? Could I have caused such chaos in mere seconds?

Like lightning striking through my brain, I burst out with one question: "How is he?" My head turned around in an instant to look at the girl.

She took a deep breath and looked away from me. "He'll be fine. He survived. Barely, but the glass missed his heart by an inch." she sounded relieved, but her expression was filled with worry. "He is all I have left", she spoke quietly.

"I-I'm sorry" was all I could come up with in this situation.

We sat there in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds before she took another deep breath and gathered herself again. Then she looked at me, obviously curious.

"I'm Lyra, by the way. What's your name?" she smiled in a friendly way.

"Rose", I said.

Lyra didn't say anything. Instead, her friendly smile turned into loud laughter. She had the same laughter as her brother, loud and energetic. They looked so much alike when they laughed.

I couldn't help but look at her, absolutely confused and lost.

"Rose? Are you serious?" she kept laughing, "That's so normal! I would have thought your name was Theodora or Glinda or something like that. You know, something a bit more witchy!"

"I'm not a …!" I stopped in the middle of the sentence. After what had just happened, was I actually sure that I was not … a witch? How else could I explain windows suddenly exploding? And I had this weird feeling right before it happened as if my entire skin had been electrified. Were my kidnappers right all along?

"Girl, I think we're over this point. You can keep denying it if you want, but I've seen what you did with my brother's bedroom, and I know that no ordinary wolf can cause that much destruction in seconds", Lyra said casually, leaning back on her chair.

Before I could keep talking about the witch thing, another thought crossed my mind. "Wait, what was I doing in your brother's bedroom? Why didn't he take me back to the dungeon?"

Her grin came back, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "That you should better ask him yourself." She kept jabbering that I didn't even get to ask again. "Let's go grab something to eat from the kitchen. After all, I can't let you starve in my own house."

Her words reminded me that I had not eaten anything all day. I hadn't realized I was incredibly hungry, and the thought of food made my stomach growl.

Lyra stood up, pushed the chair back, and walked towards the door. She turned around, raised an eyebrow, and smiled. "Are you coming?"