29. No Escape

When Theo left, Marley at once shot up from the uncomfortable bed. After few movements, her limbs didn't feel that sore. She tentatively walked to the old doo r- from where the boy had left - and as expected it was locked. After twirling its handle and pushing it for few minutes, she gave up. The wooden door might have looked worn out and rusty but she could hardly make it budge.

Then her eyes fell on her next target; window. Marley's last hope turned into utter despair when she looked out of it and saw a vast stretch of forest. There was no sign of civilization but only large trees as far as her eyes could reach. The room she was in at least had to be five-storey high. Even if she somehow managed to climb down - which was highly improbable - there was no way she could run away from this hell.

At some distance, she spotted two silhouettes of muscular men among the trees. Marley couldn't make out their faces or any specific features in the darkness of night but she recognized their stance. They were patrol guards.

Back at Marshville when Marley had come to know of werewolves' existence and had made peace with it, she squeezed Eden for every little detail. She had learned their ways and how a pack worked.

If these people were anything like the wolves or Eden's pack, there was no hope of running away. And from what she had gathered till now, these monsters were more dangerous and lethal. *There really was no escape for her*.

One of the guards looked up at Marley, freezing her at the spot. His eyes turned bright red and those laser red orbs were all that she could see in the dark. Marley knew it was a warning, a threat that he'd be there to hunt her down if she tried to run.

When the man looked away, she immediately pushed herself away from the window, stumbling on her feet and falling down. The terrifying reality of the situation struck hard on her like a hammer on a nail and a moment later she heard her own sobbing, curled up at one corner of the room.

She was trapped here by these... monsters.

She didn't know for how long she cried, maybe more than an hour. Her sobs ceased as she heard loud noises outside her door. The husky voices were shouting at each other like they were having a fight.

"A human girl and moreover the Alpha's mate!" An unfamiliar voice yelled. "What's gotten into you Odis?!"

Marley's ear picked up when she heard them talking about her.

"You are in no place to question my decision." Another voice roared and Marley quickly recognized it of Odis. How could she forget that terrifying man.

"I don't give a shit about your decision. You just made that pack our enemy as if we already didn't have our hands full!"

"They won't find us," Odis replied.

"That's where you are wrong. You're so underestimating them. An Alpha can even take you down if messed with his mate and what you did? You fucking kidnapped her and brought her here! For fuck's sakes, you're not even telling us the reason."

"If you're done, I have other matters to tend to." Odis sounded unaffected by the other man's yellings.

"Take her back Odis. Take her back before the wolves are upon us." The man's voice came out distressed and Marley hoped that Odis might listen to him. *She just wanted to go home.*

"No!" A loud growl thundered from Odis, shutting up the man. "She's not going anywhere and you better not do anything stupid." The heavy retreating footsteps followed after his grave reply.

The handle of the door rotated and a large shadow of a man replaced it. Marley scooted away in the corner, fear controlling her every action.

"Hey, I am not going to hurt you." A masculine voice spoke with tenderness. It belonged to the man who just had been pleading her case to Odis.

Marley looked up to find him looking at her with soft grey eyes. He didn't seem a lot older than her. His light brown hair was in disarray but they only added to his rugged charm. His stature was broad and buffed just like all the supernatural creature she had encountered so far. Marley would have considered him attractive if her heart hadn't already belonged to someone else *or if she wasn't in this mess.*

"Look, I am going to get you out of here." He stalked closer with small steps to not scare the girl. "You don't belong here." He said it more to himself, clenching his jaw.

Marley looked at the stranger with calculating eyes. Even though his words sounded tempting she just couldn't trust him blindly. After all, it was the blind trust that landed her in this situation first place.

"You're going to help me run away from here?" She asked curiously with a little hope. This stranger seemed like her only chance of escape and she didn't want to let go of that chance.

The man was now kneeling to be face to face with her. He smiled at her reply. "I cannot do that pretty, I am bound to follow Odis." Marley's face fell at his words. "But I will change his mind to let you go." He added in a reassuring manner to lift her mood.

Marley didn't believe that anyone could change Odis's mind. He looked fixated on keeping her here.

"Until then I'll keep you safe," he said soberly and it sounded like a promise. Again his lips tugged up into a comforting smile. "By the way, I'm Jared."

"Marley," she replied and Jared nodded. She had no doubt that all of them already knew her name but greeting him back felt like an unspoken way of forging a deal with him. Marley needed him to get her out of here.

"How about I send Theo in with fresh clothes? You could definitely use some shower even though most of them are broken." He chuckled, but Marley didn't share his enthusiasm. She seemed on edge with seeing another man and Jared caught that. "Don't worry he's a human. Even a pup could take him down."

She nodded hesitantly, somewhat finding a comfort in the knowledge that she wasn't the only human here.

Jared gave her a small smile before standing up and walking out of the open door. Marley stared at his retreating shadow at the doorstep, wondering if trusting him would be a good idea or a plain stupid one.

******

Catherine and Nicholas recalled the incident of the unfateful night to Chief Hopper, who didn't seem interested but nodded along nevertheless. Eden watched and listened to them from the footsteps of his house. Hopper's nonchalance was acting like a fuel to his raging anger.

Hopper knew about them being werewolves. It was a necessity for Chiefs to know about their existence because they were needed to cook up believable stories for humans whenever the things got out of wolves' control. In return, pack helped them in catching notorious fugitives. However, the police never interfered in any battle fought amongst supernatural but only cleaned the mess left after it. But there were rarely any.

That's what Hopper was doing now: Cleaning the mess. He didn't seem remotely concerned about Marley and that for some reason didn't sit well with Eden.

Eden stormed into his house to prevent himself from shredding apart that arrogant human. His inability to save Marley once again pressed hard and in no time he directed that rage to himself. But Eden didn't want to let go of his anger; he wanted to pile it up so that when the time comes he could take it all out on those monsters who nabbed away his mate.

Mrs. Sherman had reported Marley missing when her tenant didn't reach home that night and the next morning Marley's parents, Christine and Steve, showed up to look for their lost daughter. When Eden had seen their worried face, a guilt rose inside him for not keeping their only child safe.

"Hopper will take care of Christine and Steven," Nicholas said as he entered through the front door, followed by his wife. "I feel sorry for those folks. It must be really hard on them."

Eden knew that soon their sympathy was going to be directed at him and he didn't need that, so he walked out not wanting to hear their 'supposedly-comforting' words.

"It's harder on him." He heard his mother's faint voice before shutting the door.

Few minutes later, Eden once again found himself speeding through the woods in his coffee-colored wolf form and sniffing in every little smell. He still couldn't wrap his mind around how those beasts didn't leave any scent behind. Their scent only ran for few metres before vanishing as it never existed. He couldn't even trace Marley's scent, which was supposed to stand out to him as she was his mate.

Suddenly, Eden halted as he caught a whiff of something strange. The smell was very new, something he never encountered before. He looked around and saw the branches of trees swaying. It might've fooled any human into believing that it was wind. Eden knew it wasn't wind. Something just whipped past him and it definitely wasn't an animal.

He didn't waste any second and galloped through the woods following that faint scent. The wolf instinct to protect his territory was high. As he ran, more rustling sound came from the sides, quickening his step. Whatever the hell this creature was, it was fast. *Very fast*.

Eden caught other scent and realized it wasn't alone. There were two of them. His wolf took over and a loud growl echoed, warning the intruders to stop. He wasn't in the mood to play cat and mouse game.

The Alpha's steps slowed down when those creatures' scent became strong, meaning they were around not running anymore. Eden's eyes darted through his surrounding but when he didn't find them, he let out another threatening growl.

"Calm down wolfie."

*******