Hybrid Aria by Jessica Hall novel Chapter 30

Aria’s POV

“Now what do we do with her?”

“We use her to get my daughter back. Alpha Reid will come for her. If he wants her he will hand Lily over.”

“He will kill the entire Pack. This is insane even for you. You’re willing to risk everyone?”

I could hear whispers. Alpha David was talking with someone. Slowly opening my eyes, I stay as still as possible to not alert them that I’m awake. I was in Alpha David’s office. I could see shelves of books and a desk that had papers and maps all over it. I was placed on the brown leather sofa in the centre of the room. I could see Michael with his back to me, talking to the Alpha who was seated at his desk.

My throat felt incredibly dry. I felt like I had a major hangover. My head was pounding against my skull. Testing out my limbs, I realised I could move my legs and arms. I was weak, but I had feeling back. That wasn’t the only feeling I had though. Hunger. I was ravenous. I needed blood. I could hear four heartbeats in the room. My own standing out above everyone else’s thumping loudly in my chest against my ribs. I knew two belonged to the Alpha and the Beta, but the fourth person must be behind me somewhere. I could feel my fangs breaking painfully through my gums, my mouth filling with the metallic taste of my own blood.

“You hear that? She is waking,” said the mystery person behind me. Looking over in the Alpha direction, I hear him stand up. Michael made eye contact with me.

“That’s impossible, she should have been out for hours,” he stated.

“Dose her again before she regains her strength,” ordered the Alpha through the mind link to the person behind me. Obviously, he forgot I can hear them, or maybe his Pack members forgot to mention that detail. I heard the person behind me start walking towards the back of the sofa. Just as his hand reached over to inject me, I gripped his wrist, pulling him over the sofa making him land on the floor.

Sitting up, I still had hold of his wrist that was gripping the syringe. I squeezed his wrist, making him cry out and drop it. I saw the Alpha and Michael about to lurch forward to stop me as I ripped the man towards me, sinking my teeth into his neck. I drank voraciously, draining him in a few seconds before rolling his body off me and onto the floor, his lifeless eyes peering up at us in shock.

I grabbed the syringe that had fallen at my feet, twirling it between my fingers, admiring the poison that just knocked me out cold. I heard shuffling as the Alpha went to try to stop me from attacking first, but I had no intentions to fight; it would end in their deaths. I sat back on the couch, getting comfortable.

“I understand it now, why you did it,” I said clearly. The Alpha stopped. Looking up at him, he looked confused. Michael wore the same expression, trying to figure out what I was talking about. I observed the Alpha. He didn’t look the same. I no longer feared him. He looked rather normal in his blue denim jeans and a black t-shirt. I could tell he lost weight, his eyes were dark with sleep deprivation, He looked like he aged ten years since I last saw him at the diner.

Now I just felt sorry for him. I knew I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it. He was a monster to us for years, but now I see a broken man, not someone to be feared.

“What are you talking about, Aria?” asked David, crossing his arms over his chest he leaned back sitting on the edge of the desk.

“I’m talking about why you hated Lily and me. Why you abandoned your own pup.” The Alpha bared his teeth at me and growled. “I understand it now. I know a wolf goes crazy without their mate. I understand what it does to them. I don’t agree with your actions, but I do understand,” I told him.

“You know nothing, Aria. Don’t pretend you know anything. I just want my daughter back.”

“You mean the daughter you dumped in my lap to raise? The daughter you pretended you didn’t have? That daughter?”

“Watch it, girl,”

“No, you're right. I don’t know what it’s like to lose a mate. But I understand why you are the way you are. Most wolves kill themselves after they lose their mate, or they go mad. You went mad with anger and blamed her. When you should have put all the anger you had into loving her.”

“Aria, shut up,” warned Michael. Looking back over at the Alpha, his face was red with anger, veins sticking out along his arms like he was a ticking time bomb. But that no longer scared me.

“Listen to Michael, Aria. You know nothing of what you’re talking about. You can’t sympathise with me.”

“You think I don’t know what it’s like to lose her? You lost your mate. I LOST MY FUCKING MOTHER,” I screamed. “I was thirteen, and you threw Lily in my lap. I couldn’t even attend her funeral because you were too gutless to be around your own daughter. Mum’s flesh and blood. You didn’t just lose her. I lost her too. Then I lost my childhood. I threw everything away to raise her. ME, not you. I took care of her, and now you expect me to hand her over to you.”

“She is my daughter, Aria.”