Mated To An Enemy

“Galen!” Ashleigh shouted as he hit the ground with a heavy thud.

Galen let out an audible groan and didn’t get back up immediately. She wondered if he might have hit his head.

“Luna Ashleigh…?” an excited voice questioned.

Ashleigh looked up to see two men and a woman standing and staring back at her from just outside the doorway. They were smiling. She could see that they were more than happy to see her. But their smiles twitched slightly, and their wide eyes were red-rimmed with dark, heavy bags under them.

“Luna Ashleigh…” the first man repeated. “You’re really here… we found you…”

He stepped into the room. His smile turned into a laugh and a heavy sigh. He locked eyes with her, and Ashleigh couldn’t help but take a step back.

She swallowed as her heart began to pump harder. The look in his eyes reminded her of how Granger would often look at her. It was not like he loved her or wanted to be with her. But the possessive and frightening look he would get whenever she tried to leave him, even for a moment.

He moved closer, and the second man and the woman stepped into the room.

“Come with us,” the first man said, reaching out toward her. “We’ll keep you safe.”

Ashleigh quickly glanced down at Galen. He still hadn’t moved. She looked back toward the others, but the first man had caught her glance.

Now, he looked down at Galen as well. A low growl rose in his chest.

“He was keeping you here, wasn’t he?” the man growled.

The others now looked down at Galen with growls of their own.

“What?” Ashleigh asked. “No! No, I came here with Galen. He’d never do anything to me.”

The first man looked back at her. That twitching smile had come back to his face.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, “you don’t have to worry about him or Fiona anymore… we won’t let them stand in your way… we’ll protect you now… just like Alpha Caleb wants us to.”

Ashleigh’s eyes widened as the look in his eyes went dark. He turned back to Galen, and that was when Ashleigh saw the pipe in his hand. He raised the pipe and stepped toward Galen. Ashleigh gasped and dove forward without a second thought.

She caught him around the waist and brought him to the floor. She tried to take the pipe from his hand, but he held tight and struggled against her. He then cried out as Ashleigh slammed his face against the concrete and broke his nose.

The pipe fell to the ground but was quickly recovered by the woman. Ashleigh got to her feet and stood over Galen protectively as the first man writhed in pain while clutching his face.

“He’ll ruin everything!” the woman shouted, gritting her teeth. Spit flew from her mouth as she shouted angrily and pointed the pipe at Galen. “Only our Luna can make it right again!”

She turned to look at Ashleigh. She smiled and tilted her head.

“You’ll see…” she said softly. She looked back at Galen on the ground. “We’ll help you see…”

The second man ran at Ashleigh, trying to tackle her. She held her ground as he pushed against her. She locked her hands together and brought them down hard on his back. He gasped and coughed, collapsing as the wind was knocked out of him.

Ashleigh looked up at the woman who raised the pipe above Galen. She tried to move, but the second man, still coughing, grabbed her ankle and held tight.

“Galen!!” Ashleigh cried out as the pipe swung down.

The woman let out a growl as she swung heavily toward Galen. Suddenly, she gasped and cried out as her leg was yanked out from under her, and she fell back against the concrete. Galen let go of her leg and quickly jumped on top of her, wrestling away the pipe before knocking her out.

Ashleigh smiled and then looked back down at the man holding her ankle. He gasped as she brought her knee to his face and knocked him out.

Galen looked at the pipe and sighed. He turned toward Ashleigh.

“Arrgghhh!!” came a garbled shout as the first man ran wildly toward Galen.

Galen pulled back and swung at the man attacking him. The force of the blow sent him back against the wall. He let out a gasp and a groan before he slumped down to the ground.

Ashleigh and Galen left the room after ensuring that all three were still breathing. They locked it and barricaded the door to prevent them from getting out before backup could arrive.

“I thought we checked all the entrances,” Ashleigh said as they crept through the dark halls.

“We did,” Galen replied. Holding his hand up for her to wait as he looked around the corner.

“Then how did they get in?” Ashleigh asked once he had given the signal that they were clear.

“My guess,” he said, “is that one of them had a key. That’s the problem with an attack from the inside. Any one of them could have access to just about anything. That’s why I had to make sure the school was inaccessible to anyone.”

Ashleigh followed closely behind Galen as they made their way back to check on the group they had been with earlier. They ran into several more people who had found their way into the building. At first, they just seemed tired and confused. But once they saw Ashleigh, they suddenly attacked Galen.

He did his best to defend himself without hurting his attackers, but some were relentless, and Galen had little choice.

Each time that they were confronted, the same words were repeated. They insisted to Ashleigh that they would protect her. Treating Galen like an enemy, saying that he would ruin everything, and speaking as though they were still following orders from Caleb.

It left Ashleigh feeling uneasy. She could never imagine something like this, especially not in Summer of all places.

Galen had said that the wolves were lost. He had told her that they couldn’t wait for Caleb any longer. She thought he had just wanted to be Alpha of Summer, that he was being greedy.

Ashleigh looked at Galen as he knelt and talked with a small group. They had made it back to the others. She waited by the door while he checked on each of them. She watched him move from person to person.

He gave each of them a smile and a warm touch, reassuring them that he would keep them safe. She saw Caleb suddenly, the way he reassured his people. The way he would always put them first. Even when he was terrified and unsure of their survival, he always made everyone else around him believe that they would make it.

Ashleigh closed her eyes as she suddenly felt a painful grip on her heart.