CH.2

Aria POV

A month passed and I was totally consumed with sadness. It wrapped around me like a cold blanket on a winter night. 

Alan couldn’t hide his worry and tried his best to get me out of this state but I was too tired to even try. Day in and day out they were all the same to me. The broken bond between me and Nick was soul crashing and I could still feel the love I had for him harboring in my heart. Every day my baby grew I remembered that I was alone.

I was sitting during my lunch break eating when Alan came and sat next to me saying: “I knew I would find you here”

Whenever I was sad I would usually hide in the back of the diner and it has been my only place lately. I nodded and tried to force a smile at him.

Alan softly caressed my hair and said: “You don’t have to worry Aria, everything will be okay. You know that Martha and I never had any kids and we have always considered you as our child”

Tears started to well up my eyes again. 

“It will be great if we can be grandparents to your baby too”

I couldn’t stop my tears from running down my cheeks. I dropped the sandwich I had in my hand and hugged him tightly. His warm embrace was relieving. Alan has always been good to me; he tenderly patted my back saying: “let’s go now. Martha will get angry if we left her alone”

I stood up, wiped my face and picked up the food.

Alan opened the door for me and said: “I will post an ad for an extra waiter. You will need to rest more now and also I will take care of your medical expenses”

I stopped and turned to him. I was about to say thank you when he stopped me and said: “SHSHSH, just go in now and let’s finish this day peacefully”

I smiled and we both returned back to work. Martha was getting annoyed as she was alone serving the customers. Alan quickly returned back to the counter and I started serving other customers.

The day went by peacefully as Alan hoped. I wished them a good night and left after Martha made me promise to have dinner with them tomorrow night.

I was walking towards my house when I felt my wolf restless. I was having a bad feeling, something didn’t feel right. My senses heightened and I was about to shift any minute. I was just afraid that anyone might see me and it would be a disaster. 

It was completely dark but from a far flickering street light, a moonless night. The wind blew past me and I shivered to my bones. I looked around and didn’t see anyone. I decided to speed up, my building was just around the corner.

Shit, someone was following me. I could sense the presence and hear the footsteps hurrying. I started to run towards the building when suddenly I saw a figure in front of me. I halted and said: “Who is that?”

The man slowly walked towards me and I just froze in my place. My wolf started to tremble, eager to jump but I controlled it.

I narrowed my eyes and could finally see who it was: “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Nick stood in front of me with his hands in his pockets and smiled: “I missed you”

“Leave me alone, Nick. It’s over”

“Did you go to the hospital like I said?”

I didn’t answer him. I just walked past him but froze when I saw another man coming out of the dark corner.

I turned to Nick and saw a third man joining him. 

“What the fuck is going on here?” I dropped my bag on the ground and let my wolf loose. But before I could shift, I felt a strong blow on the back of my head that knocked the air out of my lungs.

I fell to the ground and saw the 3 men standing over me; one of them had a thick stick in his hand. I tried to stand up but then I was violently kicked in my stomach. The kick was so strong that it sent me flying a few meters back.

“Nick” I weakly called out before I spat blood out of my mouth.

The two men grabbed my arms and stood me up. I blurrily saw Nick standing in front of me. He raised his hand and slapped me saying: “I told you to get rid of it”

Once again, I fell to the ground; I raised my head and said: “It’s mine”

My head was spinning, I saw dark spots and I could feel my consciousness slipping away. I took a deep breath and tried to stand up but one of them slapped me again. This time I didn’t see who. My head hit the ground hard and my eyes refused to open again.

I didn’t know how long I was out but when I woke up again I was being dragged by my feet. Every muscle in my body screamed in pain. I groaned in pain and then heard someone say:

“Nick, she is up again”

My feet dropped to the ground. I tried to open my eyes again but I couldn’t see anything. It was so dark which made it almost impossible to recognize anything but I was sure that I was no longer near my place. I could feel dirt underneath me which meant that I was in the forest nearby.

“Good, the next part is the fun part we don’t want her to miss it”

Nick talked and the other two laughed out loud. 

That didn’t sound good to me. I started to panic and tried to stand up. When I did, I saw Nick and the two other men that I never saw before surrounding me like hyenas…