Chapter 10

Chapter 10

“Ijust need a minute,” Ashley assured herself as she dropped her head back against the wall with a pained grunt, deciding that she’d escape after all the noises currently slamming into her head subsided again.

She should have made a run for it when she had the chance, Ashley thought on a pathetic groan as she squeezed her eyes closed and willed the fangs that wouldn’t go away to stop throbbing.

“How are you holding up?” came the hesitant question from the man that had been pacing on the other side of the bathroom door, bringing her pain to a new level of hell in the process.

“I’m fine,” Ashley mumbled as she willed her trembling hands to stop shaking only to end up pulling her knees against her chest and wrapping her arms around them as she slowly exhaled, trying to figure out what she was supposed to do now.

There was a heavy pause and then, “Yeah, you sound it,” as she heard the bathroom door open and that enticing aroma that she’d been struggling to ignore grew stronger, making it harder for her to pretend that the scent wasn’t coming from him.

When she heard him settle on the floor next to her, Ashley forced herself to open her eyes and took in the incredibly handsome man sitting next to her, wondering why he looked so familiar. He had that bad boy smile that she liked so much and-

“You used me as a coffee table,” Ashley said accusingly, only to immediately regret that decision when more pain shot through her head. Wondering when her head was going to stop pounding, she dropped her forehead against her knees and released a shaky breath. That was followed by wondering if she really needed to breathe when sharp pain shot between her eyes as the scent of woods, dirt, and a hundred other odors that she couldn’t quite name slammed into her head.

“Good times,” the man that was sitting next to her for some reason murmured absently as she was forced to release her hold on her knees so that she could cover her ears.

“Hearing sensitive?” he whispered softly.

She went to answer him only to settle on nodding as she opened her eyes and took in the man sitting next to her and found him watching her with a curious look in his eye.

“My name is Jacob, by the way,” he said as he held his hand out to her only to reluctantly drop it when she could only sit there, staring at it.

“Ashley,” she mumbled, wincing when that caused more pain to shoot through her head.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ashley,” Jacob said, stretching out his legs to get comfortable only to go still when she asked, “What happened to me?”

“You don’t know?” Jacob asked, throwing her a questioning look as he finished stretching his legs out in front of him.

“I don’t even know what I’m doing here,” Ashley said with a wince, deciding that she was going to have to suck it up so that she could get some answers.

Frowning, Jacob asked, “Kale didn’t tell you?”

“Who’s Kale?” she asked, wondering if he was the man that had been watching her earlier.

“The asshole,” Jacob said as he reached over and grabbed the stack of large towels someone left on the bathroom floor and dragged them closer. With a satisfied sigh, he scooted forward and then lay down, using the towels as a pillow. Once he was settled, Jacob closed his eyes as he said, “He was hired to watch over you.”

“Wait. Why would someone hire him to watch over me?” Ashley asked because none of this made any sense. Unless…

No, her father wouldn’t have hired anyone to look after her, Ashley reminded herself. He’d actually have to care about her to do something like that, which meant that someone found out about her. The question was how? She’d always been careful, making sure that no one knew anything about her. She’d always kept to herself, made sure that she never got close to anyone, and recited the story that had been drilled into her head by her mother whenever anyone asked too many questions.

This didn’t make any sense.

“You tell me,” Jacob said, opening his eyes to watch her.

“There’s nothing to tell,” Ashley said, forcing herself to hold his gaze, knowing better than to look away when she had to lie.

“You’re telling me that you have no idea what you are?” he asked, frowning.

“None,” she said because as far as she knew, she was human, but now…

“You’re a Pyte,” Jacob said, and before she could ask what that was, he continued. “You’re either the result of a vampire male and a human female, or a Pyte male and a human female. Then again, your mother could have been a turned Pyte,” he said, making her frown because her mother hadn’t been human and she definitely hadn’t been whatever a Pyte was. Not that she was going to tell him that because she knew better.

“Why do you think I’m a Pyte?” Ashley asked, still having absolutely no idea what that was.

“You mean besides the red eyes and the fact that you slipped into a coma looking like a little girl and transitioned into an incredibly beautiful woman in less than a month?” Jacob asked, blinking innocently before adding dryly, “I can scent it.”

“H-How?” she asked, wondering what else he could scent on her.

With a shrug, Jacob said, “I’m a shifter,” like it was no big deal while Ashley sat there, trying to remember how to breathe. His eyes narrowed on her as he said, “Judging by that spike of fear that you just gave off, I’m guessing you know what that means.”

Deciding that it would be foolish to try to pretend that she didn’t know what a shifter was, Ashley mumbled, “Werewolf.”

“And how do you know that, I wonder,” Jacob murmured, looking thoughtful only to narrow his eyes on her when she mumbled, “The Twilight books.”

“I don’t shift into a fucking dog!” he bit out, looking really insulted, which would have normally had her lips twitching, but not now, not when she realized just how much danger she was in.

They’d found her.

“No, no, of course, you don’t,” Ashley murmured as she dropped her hands away so that she could wrap her arms back around her knees as she struggled to resist the urge to glance at the bathroom door, wondering if she’d be able to make it to the door before he could stop her.

“Vampires don’t sparkle,” he bit out, making her blink.

“Okay…” she said, not really sure how else to respond to that.

With a satisfied sigh, Jacob nodded to himself as he asked, “Where were we?”

“You were telling me what a Pyte is,” Ashley said, deciding that it couldn’t hurt to keep him talking while she tried to figure out a way to get herself out of this mess.

“God, where to start?” Jacob asked, sighing heavily as he folded his arms over his chest and stared up at the ceiling, which Ashley couldn’t help but notice wasn’t painted either.

She took in the sheetrock marked with compound that made up the walls and ceiling, the tile that was clearly new, the lack of any shelves, a toilet-roll holder, or even a soap dispenser, and-

Still had absolutely no idea where she was, Ashley realized, biting back a sigh as she focused her attention back on Jacob to find him watching her with that curious look in his eye again.

“You really have no idea what a Pyte is?”

“No,” Ashley said, noting that her headache was slowly making its way back to migraine level.

There was a heavy sigh and then…

“I’m probably not the best person to ask, but since it appears that the asshole took off again, I’ll do my best. Pytes come into this world the usual way except for the fact that they normally end up killing their mothers in the process unless they were changed in time,” Jacob said, shooting her a questioning look as he tried to gauge her reaction.

Since her mother had survived her birth, Ashley didn’t say anything as she waited for him to continue. When it became obvious that she wasn’t planning on saying anything, he continued. “Unless they’re given a steady diet of blood along with regular food, they usually stop aging around ten, which would explain why you stopped growing. It doesn’t explain how you managed to survive, though,” Jacob murmured, sounding thoughtful as he considered her.

“What do you mean?” Ashley asked as she started rubbing her temples with her fingertips, hoping to ease some of the pressure tearing through her head.

“Only male Pytes survive the birth. Females never make it past the second trimester,” Jacob explained, making her fingers still as she looked at him.

“You’re either incredibly lucky or…” Jacob said, letting his words trail off as he considered her.

“Or what?” Ashley asked, not really sure that she wanted to know.

Shaking his head, Jacob said, “I honestly have no idea,” as he closed his eyes. There was a heavy sigh, and then, he said, “You’re basically a vampire without any of their weaknesses. You can go out into the sun, tolerate holy relics, you’re fast, insanely strong, and you will heal from pretty much anything. You can’t be killed. You also can’t eat food anymore. You won’t age and I think that’s pretty much it.”

“I can’t eat food?” Ashley asked hollowly as she sat there, trying to wrap her mind around everything that he’d just said, but it didn’t feel real.

None of it did.

“Not unless you want to get sick. Your body won’t digest it. It will stay in your stomach, rotting until you get it out,” Jacob said with a shrug, giving her one more thing to figure out later when she was finally able to get out of here.

“Who hired Kale to watch over me?” Ashley asked, not sure that she wanted to hear just how different she was anymore.

God, she was sick of being different.

With a sigh, Jacob reached over and gently grabbed hold of her arm and turned it over so that she could see the tattoo marking her wrist, a trinity knot. Before she could ask why they’d tattooed her, he said, “Your mate.”

“My mate?” Ashley repeated numbly as long-ago memories played through her head.

She remembered the mark on her mother’s wrist, two sticks crossing each other, and the matching one on her stepfather’s wrist. She remembered how angry he looked whenever he saw her mark, but mostly, Ashley remembered the way that his mark would turn red whenever he hurt her mother. It turned red a lot.

“At first, I thought you were mated to a demon, but now, I’m not so sure. Any ideas?” Jacob asked as she pulled her arm away and wrapped it back around her knees, not sure that she could handle reminiscing about a past better left forgotten right now.

“No,” Ashley lied even as she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d inherited some of her mother’s shifter blood, but wouldn’t he have been able to scent it on her? she thought as she considered him.

“No Pack?” he asked, sending her another curious look.

“No Pack,” Ashley said since her stepfather had made sure that his Pack had never accepted her.

“Whatever you are, you’re lucky to be alive,” Jacob said only to add, “You’re obviously an Impure,” at her questioning look.

“I have no idea what that is.”

“It means that you are mixed species. We just don’t know what they are yet,” he said, shrugging it off like it was no big deal, but something, mostly the fact that her parents had warned her never to tell anyone anything, told her that it was a very big deal.

“I wonder if your father was an Impure as well,” Jacob said, worrying his bottom lip as he stared up at the ceiling.

“I don’t know,” Ashley said because he’d never told her.

He’d simply walked down into the basement after all the screaming had stopped and picked her up, explaining to her that he was going to take her somewhere safe. He’d driven her to New York, explaining how important it was to hide her until it was time. She’d asked him a hundred questions, but he’d simply smiled at her and told her not to worry, and then…

He’d left her.

She’d grown up in foster care, terrified that the rest of her stepfather’s Pack was going to find her and finish what they’d started. Every night for a year, she’d sat on her bed with her bag by her feet, waiting for her father to come back for her, only he never came. He didn’t come for her when the other children started to notice that she wasn’t growing anymore and started making her life a living hell. He didn’t come for her when she cried herself to sleep at night, terrified that there was something wrong with her. He didn’t come for her when she turned eighteen and had nowhere else to go.

He never came for her.

He left her all alone, terrified that they were going to find her. Her appearance made it difficult for her to blend in. The only thing that she knew was that she wasn’t supposed to leave the city. It helped hide her scent. So many times over the years, she’d been tempted to leave, to start fresh somewhere else, but each time, she talked herself out of it because there really wasn’t any point in leaving, not when it meant that she would be a freak somewhere new.

And now…

Now, she couldn’t do this, Ashley realized as she shook her head even as she wondered why she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. She needed to get out of here, Ashley thought as she struggled to get to her feet and-

“Are you okay?” Jacob asked, frowning as she gave up trying to drag herself up on her trembling legs and crawled over him, barely aware that she’d kneed him in the side or that he’d grunted in pain as she focused on getting to that bathroom door.

Air.

She needed air, Ashley thought numbly as she slapped her hand against the wall and forced her wobbly legs to work. She just needed air, she told herself in a daze as she tried to leave. When Jacob gently placed his hand on her arm to stop her, she reached over and shoved his arm away, and-

“Son of a bitch!”

-found herself stumbling back. Swallowing hard, Ashley staggered out of the bathroom, unable to take her eyes off the arm that was bent at an odd angle as she tried to make sense out of what just happened.

One minute, he was grabbing her arm and the next…the next…

“I’m sorry,” Ashley mumbled as she found herself looking up into a pair of silver eyes as Jacob’s face began to change.

Swallowing hard, Ashley stumbled back again until her legs hit the bed and she found herself watching as his face extended, becoming more wolf-like as he grew taller, his limbs longer and thicker, destroying his clothes in the process. A menacing growl tore through the room followed by the sounds of bones snapping into place as she watched his muscles grow larger seconds before dark hair began covering every inch of his body. His teeth shifted in his mouth, becoming longer and sharper as his broken arm snapped back into place with an audible crack.

And then, just as quickly as it started, it was all over. With a groan, Ashley watched the large werewolf shake his head as muscle quickly disappeared along with his fur, his fangs became smaller along with his face. Ashley numbly dropped down on the bed as the realization that she’d just broken a werewolf’s arm hit her and found herself looking at the man who’d glared at her in the mirror earlier as he stepped into the room.

Swallowing hard, Ashley found herself asking, “What am I?” in a daze, only to get the answer that destroyed her.

“A monster.”