Chapter 20

Aria's POV

I woke up to the door to my cell opening. It was around mid-day, I always slept during the day, I didn't trust my guard enough to sleep at night.

One of the men from the woods came in, followed by Atlas. My heart sunk. Forest had told me a few things about what they did to rogues. I didn't want the last thing I saw in this world to be the face of someone who gave me a home but unknowingly took it away from me again.

I don't think I could live through the betrayal of someone who had always kept me safe causing me harm, and even if I did survive I would lose the little trust I had built up over the weeks, I would be left a shell, like when I first came from my dad's.

Atlas' voice snapped me out of my thoughts, "We have two options here." He said, looking at me with no expression on his face. "You need to shift back. Try as hard as you can because we need to know who you are by the end of the day or, by werewolf law, we have to kill you."

His words sent fear rushing through me. I couldn't die. Then Forest would never know what happened to me. He might think I ran off, I can't do that to him.

But however hard I tried, I just couldn't shift back. I thought of my toes and my fingers, my hair and my skin. Nothing I tried worked.

What if I'm stuck like this forever. No, everyone can shift back, we just need to find your trigger word. Have you tried thinking about hats? What? No, I don't even like hats, you think someone has a really strange shaped head and then you find out they're just wearing a hat! You are weirder then I ever imagined.

With that I felt her leave. I was all alone.

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I woke up to a crash, the cell door being flung open. I fell asleep. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. My limited time I had left to shift was rapidly decreasing.

My favourite guard entered, a smile on his face. "One more hour, one more hour until your pathetic life finally ends. I can't wait." His wicked face stared down at me and he spat in my face as he spoke.

He walked out the door with a smirk on his lips, I tried as hard as I could, trying everything I could to shift, but I still couldn't work out how. I lay my head on my paws, trying to shift had used up lots of my valuable time.

The door opened again, and the guard entered a second time. "There has been a rogue attack, so I'm your guard, your only guard." His eyes glinted evilly as he grabbed a fist full of my fur, pulling me over to him.

He trailed his hand up the back of my pelt, making me shiver in disgust, disgust he seemed to mistake for pleasure. "Do you like that?" He asked me before taking his hand from my tail to my nose, I was too weak to stop him and too weak to fight back. I hadn't heard from my wolf all day and all the other guards were out.

"If you were human I'd spare you. It'll be a shame to watch you die, you would make a wonderful trophy." I nearly puked, I just wanted to go home. I saw the clock on the wall outside my cell, it was 11:30. Half an hour left to live.

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The guard didn't leave. You'd think they would try to make my last half an hour a nice one, but no I had to stay sitting on his lap the entire time, his hand running up my back, making me wish for my mate and to go home even more.

Half an hour to live, I used to wish for death. Every day, when my brother and Father showed me again and again how little I meant to them, I used to wish for death, well now I got my wish. Life, you can never enjoy it. You are always waiting for something, waiting for the lesson the end, waiting to go home, waiting for the holidays, before you know it your life is over. Everything takes to long but is gone too quickly. We spend our lives wishing them away.

I looked at the wall, they had oh so helpfully made a countdown to my death.

1 minute left to live. I closed my eyes and wished to be back home.

55 seconds. I wished to be back with my mate.

50 seconds. I thought back to all the things that had happened since that day in my dad's basement.

30 seconds. I thought of all the time I had spent with Atlas and Isla, they took me under their wing and now they are sentencing me to death.

10 seconds. I thought of all the time I had spent with Forest, how gentle he was with me, how protective, he always kept me safe no matter what. I thought of the way my heart skipped a beat whenever he stepped into the room.

I heard a gasp and opened my eyes. It was time. Time for me to die. Good bye life. It was nice knowing you.

I looked down and saw, skin. I did it! I did it! I was going to live! The guard was almost salivating as he looked me head to toe.

I quickly cowered into the corner, covering myself as best I could. I was safe from death, but I wasn't safe from the guard.

He licked his lips, staring at me hungrily. He started to stalk over to me but before he reached me the other guards got back.

I let out a sigh of relief as one of them threw a shirt at me. I put it on and it came down to my knees, successfully covering everything vital.

The guards dragged me to another dark room, where they tied me to a chair. What are they doing, I shifted back, I should go home. They want information, they are going to get it. No one knows who we are. How do we tell them? We don't, we hope they call in Atlas.

Luckily just then one of them opened their phone. "She shifted back." He listened for a few seconds for the reply then hung up. "The alpha is at the other end of the territory, he will be in within the hour." I let out a sigh of relief. I would be home soon.

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While waiting for Atlas to arrive the guards tried to get the answer they needed from me. "Are you a part of a pack?" I shook my head, I wasn't, not yet. Forest said I would join his pack when I was ready, but I wanted to live some sense of the normal life my dad took away from me since I was young.

"How old are you?" I didn't want to talk to these men, I only wanted to talk to my family, I held up 10 fingers then 7. "17?" I nodded.

"Do you have a mate?" What do I say? The truth. I nodded my head. They wrote that down as well as all the other info they had found to show Atlas when he arrived.

The guards all observed me with caution, they didn't understand why I wasn't a part of a pack but not a rogue and my scent, which still had some human in it, didn't help their confusion.

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After an hour of them asking questions and me deciding how to answer, Atlas arrived. He didn't look at me but went straight to the man with the clipboard, "What did you find out?" He asked looking down at my answers. He read them and turned to one of the men, "Do we know her name yet?" He still wasn't looking at me. "No," The guard answered, "We tried asking her, but she wouldn't answer,"

I was board of this game, only one way to make Atlas realise what has happened. "Aria, my name is Aria."

I watched as Atlas' head whipped round at my voice, a look of surprise flashed onto his face, quickly replaced by understanding and regret. Signing deeply and without saying anything, he turned on his heels and walked out the door.

The guards all looked at me suspiciously, I suppose their alpha did just walk out the room because of my name. I could still smell Atlas outside the room, so I guess he was trying to get his head around what had happened. I hope he manages soon because I want to go home.

A few minutes later Atlas walked back in, ignoring the guards calling out to him, asking him what happened.

He kept his attention on me and asked one question, "Really?" I could hear the disbelief in his voice, "Yep," I nodded.

Without saying any more to me, and without acknowledging the guards, he pulled out his phone a dialled a number. "Come to the cells," He said before hanging up and turning back to me, untying me from the chair.

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A few minutes later the door was flung open, a storm of power that could only ever be Forest came storming in. He didn't notice me at first, like father, like son.

"What do you need dad, I kind of need to be searching for Aria," He said, annoyance clear on his face.

My heart warmed at his words, he really cares about me enough to look for me, it's been weeks since I shifted, I would have thought he had given up on me by now.

"You know that rogue we captured the day Aria went missing?" Atlas said, waiting for Forest to nod before continuing, "She finally shifted back."

At that moment the wind changed direction and my scent went flying towards him. I could see the exact moment it reached him. His head whipped in my direction.

"No, please no," He said shaking his head, what's wrong, did he not want me anymore, "All this time, she's been here, all this time," Atlas nodded, he ran over to me. "I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I didn't realise, I didn't even consider it, these last weeks must have been hell for you, I'm sorry."

I was pulled into a tight hug, Forest kept repeating, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Over and over again.

He pulled me impossibly closer. "I thought I'd lost you forever."

I relaxed into his embrace, there was only one place I wanted to go now, "Can we just go home," I asked. I was tired and cold, and I needed a shower.

"Yes, but we do need to know what happened." Forest said, looking me in the eye. I nodded and sighed, it was going to be a long explanation.

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As soon as we arrived home I jumped in the shower, I was covered in dust and grime and I felt disgusting, I hadn't had a shower in a few weeks and I needed to get clean.

I could hear Forest pacing in our room, he kept muttering to himself, "How did I let this happen," My wolf was whimpering for me to go to him, she didn't like being separate from him when we'd only just got him back, I agreed, I had missed him so much.

I quickly finished showering and got dressed, heading out the bathroom and straight into Forest's embrace.

"I'm sorry," He said, apologising again, pulling me into a tight hug.

"Stop apologising," I muttered into his chest, "You didn't know, you couldn't have done anything."

I heart the door downstairs open and the sound of feet running upstairs, Isla came running in, pulling me from Forest's arms into a hug from her, "Oh Aria, I was so worried about you." She said, tears streaming down her cheeks. "I thought your scent was familiar, but I didn't know you could shift so I never even considered it."

I smiled at her with tears running down my own cheeks, "I didn't think I could either, but here we are."

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As soon as Atlas came back from vaguely explaining things to the guards, satisfying their inquisitive minds without actually telling them anything, we all congregated in the sitting room for me to explain what happened.

"I had a headache all day, but I used to get bad headaches all the time when I was younger, so I just ignored it," I started explaining what happened that day, telling my story to the group of strangers that had become a family to me.