Chapter 17

Forest's POV

I had to go to see my Geography teacher after school, she said I had to catch up on the work I missed at the end of last term. As I was walking back to my car, hoping Aria had waited and not walked home, I heard some strange sounds coming over from the field near the woods.

I walked over to see what was going on and saw Tyler's goons surrounding Aria. They were causing her pain and before I could comprehend what was going on my wolf took control, shifting to protect our mate.

Tasha was the first one to spot me, she went as white as a sheet and shook in her boots. I smiled at this, my wolf loved scaring her, I would do anything to protect my mate. Soon they had stopped hitting Aria and were all looking over at me.

I looked at all of them, remembering who it was, they would pay for this. All it took to get rid of them was a growl, one snarl and they were out of there, they ran from one end of the field to the other in a matter of seconds.

Ignoring them I went into the woods to shift, luckily, we keep clothes all over the woods, so it didn't take me long to find some and I ran back to Aria. She was covered in cuts and bruises and seemed to have passed out.

I carried her to my car and lay her on the back seats as I drove home. My wolf growled in anger at those who would harm out mate, but I calmed him down before I ended up with a wolf driving a car, that wouldn't go well.

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I reached home and the first thing I did was carry Aria up to our room, again. By the time I was down stairs again my parents had figured out most of what happened, but I answered any question they had. Apart from one.

"Why? Why did they do it?" I asked for the billionth time, still no closer to getting the answer. My parents both shrugged, they had no idea.

"Because Tyler told them too." I whipped round at the sound of Aria's voice and saw her at the bottom of the stairs, looking tired. I should have smelt her much sooner, I'm a wolf after all, but I was too caught up in finding the answer to my question I let my guard down.

"He gave me a note." She handed it to my dad and I wrapped her in my arms. She was shaking. My dad let out a feral growl as he read the message.

"What a twitch!!" He yelled, causing Aria to hide behind me. My dad passed the note to my mum, trying to calm down. "I'm sorry for scaring you Aria, I was just so angry at the way they thought they could treat you."

Aria just nodded her head in understanding. "Aria," My mum said, looking confused, "Is it your birthday today?" I must have looked confused because my mum handed me the note. Happy Birthday Bitch I looked over at Aria and she nodded, her head hanging low.

"Why didn't you tell us?" My dad asked, carefully approaching the subject she probably didn't want to tell us.

Aria took a deep breath and grabbed my hand before telling us her story.

"My mum left on my birthday. I was turning six and she promised me we would all go to the park the next day as a family like always. But when I got back from school my mum was nowhere to be seen. I asked my dad about going to the park and he started screaming about how it was all my fault. That was the first time her ever hurt me. He smashed a glass bottle over my head. Ever year after, on my birthday, my dad and brother would beat me even worse than other days. It became tradition. My birthday became the anniversary of my mum leaving and a world of pain. That's why I don't speak, it reminded me of my life before my mum left so I stopped speaking. My dad always hit me more if I made a sound, so it was a win win I suppose. Before long I just never spoke, and my dad told people I was a mute, I suppose I was."

I was shaking with the need to kill them. Her dad and brother for hurting her and her mum for leaving a six-year-old on her birthday.

Looking across I could see my dad was having the same problem. He was an alpha and I was an alpha's son. The desire to protect our own ran deep.

I pulled Aria into a tight hug, simultaneously comforting her and calming my wolf. "It's ok. I will keep you safe." She nodded into my chest and I pulled her impossibly closer.

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That night I lay in bed, holding my mate close, breathing in her scent. My dad had found out the car crash hadn't been an accident. The car had no driver, it had been remotely controlled to drive out in front of us, so we crashed. Something big was at work here. Someone wanted either me or my mate dead, or both. I wouldn't let them hurt my mate.

"I'm sorry," I said, hugging her tight to me. "What for?" Aria asked, turning in my arms to face me.

"I should have been their sooner, you are mine to protect and I let you get hurt. Again." I hung my head in shame, she's my mate and I let her get hurt.

I felt a hand under my chin, raising my face to look her in the eyes, "Their is nothing to apologise for, you didn't know and I wouldn't expect you too, you did your best and you were their in the end. That's all I ask, that you always come back for me."

"Always," I answered before hugging her close and letting her drift off to sleep.

I felt so sorry for all my mate had had to go through. She had been through so much, probably more then she let on. I wished I could do more for her but all I could do was cherish her and keep her as happy as I could. I would give up anything to make her happy.

I fell asleep with my mate in my arms, dreaming of a time when her dad and brother no longer bothered her and her past no longer affected her.

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I woke up with the alarm blaring and Aria hiding from it, again. I laughed as I turned off the alarm and pulled the pillow off her head. I smiled down at her but the smile she gave in return wasn't an altogether happy one.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I questioned, worry thick in my voice. Looking her in the eyes so she couldn't lie to me. She twitched under my gaze, shifting her eyes from the window to her hands in her lap.

"I'm fine." She said quietly, "I just have a head ache, that's all." I frowned down at her. Something isn't right, my wolf growled at me, keep an eye on her today.

We walked down for breakfast and I grabbed some paracetamol from the cupboard, handing it to Aria before sitting down at the table with my parents, grabbing some toast and Nutella.

I could see my parents share a look of concern about Aria. She did look terrible. Her skin was pale, and her eyes showed a slight squint of pain.

"Are you ok Aria," My mum asked, "Do you want a day off school?" Aria just shook her head, "It's ok, it's only a head ache." Nope, my wolf said, it's so much more than that. I just can't put my finger on what.

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We got ready for school and got in the car. Aria still looked ill, but she wouldn't admit it. I tried to ask her, but she just said she was fine, just a head ache.

I checked my planner, my first lesson was PE, Aria wasn't in my class, so I couldn't keep an eye on her. I got changed into my PE kit and walked out the changing room, ignoring the swooning girls throwing themselves at me. Pathetic. The only girl for me is my mate.

Tasha came up to me and tried to talk to me, but I just brushed her off, not in the mood to talk to her. My wolf was still worried about Aria and I was too, she looked so pale and although she said it was just a head ache she must have been lying, I've never seen anything like it.

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Finally, after a few lessons of teachers blabbering about something and me not listening I reached English, my only class with Aria today. I walked in and sat in my usual seat, in the back corner, and waited for Aria to come in.

A few minutes later Aria entered the class room, she looked worse than she did this morning. Her skin was deathly pale, and her cheeks were adorned with a slight tint. She came to her seat and put her head on the desk, quietly complaining about a headache and that everything was too loud and too bright.

The lesson went on and Aria kept her head on the desk, her eyes closed shut against the light that had no effect on anyone else. I was trying to pay attention to the teacher, but I kept glancing at Aria, she should have stayed off today.

"And now get into threes to find the definition of the words on your sheet." I only heard half of what my teacher told us to do. What sheet? What words?

Just then Tasha came over to me, "seems like we're a group then." She said, sitting in the chair next to me and leaned in to my arm. I shivered in disgust and grabbed the sheet, looking over at Aria who had opened her eyes at the sound of Tasha's voice, her expression impossible to decipher.

I read through the sheet, trying to ignore the way Tasha pulled her shirt down slightly, as if I would ever be with someone like her. "What does crepitation mean?" I asked, looking at the sheet and not at her.

"I don't know," She said, a slight frown on her face that I was ignoring her and doing the work instead.

"What about crepuscular or undulation?" I asked, continuing to ignore her as much as possible.

"Just forget the stupid words, who will ever use them anyway, I only can in the group to ask you to go on a date with me, so hurry up and say yes and kiss me already." She said, annoyed.

Before I could say no in the nastiest way possible, my wolf was suggesting, never in a million years bitch or possibly ewwww no get away from me you fucking pile of shit, (I may need to have a word with him about language) Aria sat up and launched herself from the desk on top of Tasha. I looked at Aria and was scared by the expression over her face, it was as if she wasn't fully there. Her eyes were darting all over the room. She was acting as if she had been drugged. With one final shake, she jumped off Tasha and ran out of the class room.

I ran after her but lost her as she left school. I pulled out my phone and called my parents, "Somethings wrong with Aria, she's been complaining things have been too loud and colours have been too bright all day, but she suddenly started attacking Tasha and has now ran out of school. I don't know where she's gone. I don't know what to do. She was acting all wrong, as if she was drugged."

My dad from the other side of the phone just told me to try to follow her. He would look into if anyone had drugged her and if it had anything to do with the man at the window.