Chapter 2 Nightmare Begins

Nightmare Begins

Emma's POV

I can't breathe, my chest feeling tight on witnessing the horror before me. My friend...my best friend is dead! Tears start to flow down my cheeks and tremors rack my body.

I need to calm down. Michael, I need to call him. Closing my eyes, I used the mind link that I have recently forged with the pack members so I can contact them. The first person to initiate the link with me was none other than Michael, even though the Alpha usually forges the link. He wanted to be the first one to create the mind connection with me.

"Babe, what happened?" Michael's voice reaches me in my head as soon as I link with him.

"A-ava...please come to the location that I am sending you as quickly as possible," My lips quiver as I stare at her dead body. No, please let this be a nightmare.

"What happened to Ava?" his voice turns loud in concern.

"S-she's...there's blood. She is dead," A lump forms in my throat as I say that.

"What?!" Micahel shouts through the link, his loud voice hurting my throbbing head. "Wait, I'm coming." He closes the link, and fifteen minutes later a group of cars followed by an ambulance parks before the forest.

Michael and the pack Alpha are all present, and Ava's body is put on a crater and pushed inside the emergency truck. The pack doctor, Emanuel, checks Ava's vitals while the rest of the people investigate the area.

"Emma, have some water." I hear my dad's voice who holds a paper cup in his hand. He hands it over to me, and I look behind his shoulder to find Michael standing before the truck, his arms crossed over his shoulder. I can feel his pain at the moment, and want to be there beside him to comfort him.

I am about to reach out to him when dad places his hand on my shoulder, "I think you should stay here for now."

"But I want to see Ava," I say, more tears pooling in my eyes.

"You will," he pats my shoulder, and his scent calms me down a little. But it's not enough. I want to be with Micahel. He's hurting. After an hour, Dr. Emanuel talks to the Alpha about Ava's condition. He has a grim look on his face, and panic rises in my chest. "I'm sorry, Alpha Davis. Ava is no more." He says in a low voice, being a little cautious of the Alpha's presence.

The Alpha's face contorts into pain, one that a father feels when he loses his daughter. But Micahel seems enraged as he growls, "How did it happen?"

"We found traces of silver in her chest, the part where she was stabbed. It was aimed at her heart. So it should be something like a dagger made of silver that was used to stab her," Dr Emanuel responds, and Michael's fist clenches.

"I want the killer. Whoever did this will suffer," he whips his head at the warriors, "Have you searched the area?" he asks using his demanding tone.

"Yes, we looked through the entire forest. But we found nothing." One of them replies. Michael runs his hand through his jet black hair, and his eyes fall on me. His eyes harden like stone, and he approaches me.

"Did you do it?" he asks, his breathing coming out ragged.

My eyes widened in shock, "W-what?"

He does not wait for my response, and slaps me hard. It takes me some time to start feeling the burning sensation on my left cheek.

"It's your fucking fault!" he growls, "If you hadn't called my sister like some fucking driver to bring your drunk self home, then this woudn't have happened. Everyone knows how dangerous it is at night for you girls to drive, yet you still chose to put Ava in danger."

I don't reply as my mind is heavy with everything that has happened. If I knew something like this would happen to Ava, I would have never called her to pick me up. Hell, I wouldn't even have gone to the club to party. She was my best friend, and now she's no more. It's too much to take.

Dad watches everything but does not intervene. Does he also believe what Michael said? That I killed Ava?

A while later, I feel Michael's hand grab my wrist painfully, and drag me towards his car. He pushes me inside the passenger seat forcefully, and I can do nothing but cry, feeling overwhelmed with everything. I hear him slap the door close.

"I won't let you get off the hook just because you are my mate," he growls at me and drives back to the pack.

The next day, the pack runs another search in the forest where they found Ava's body. I am interrogated by Gamma Samuel who gives me a disgruntled look every time I speak. It feels like he does not believe a word I say.

The rest of the pack behaves similarly. They believe that I am the one who killed Ava.

Why will I kill my bestfriend? There's no motive for me to kill her. But no one believes me.

While the Gamma interrogates me, the door to the packhouse flies open and Micahel marches inside the room. His eyes are red, his hair is messy and he did not change his last night's clothes.

"Michael, the interrogation is still going on," Samuel tells him, "So I'd request you to wait in a different room."

"Shut up!" he growls at the Gamma, and the man who's older than him takes a step back and bares his neck to him in submission. He is using his rank over Samuel.

Michael walks up to me, and grabs my wrist. I hiss as his nails painfully dig into my skin and get dragged outside the packhouse. He takes me to my car that is parked in the garage of my house, and I find a few men standing there. What's happening?

Michael makes me stand before the car trunk, and asks one of his men to open it. As soon as they open the trunk, my eyes go wide with horror. A silver dagger coated with blood lies at one corner of the trunk-the trunk of my car.

"Why the fuck did you do this?!" Michael asks me, his voice low, almost feeling like the calm before the storm. "What did she do to you?"

I shake my head frantically, "This is not mine. I swear to the Goddess, I did not kill Ava. I don't even know how this came here–"

"Shut up!" he roars, his eyes digging holes into me, "I am not going to accept your lies."

"No, I am telling the truth. I didn't even take my car to the club, then how will I place the dagger in here?" I try to reason with him.

"You could have placed it here after I brought you back," he hisses.

"But then I would have to hide the dagger from you. I was with you in the car. You would have smelled it if I had it with me." I reply, and his eyes soften a little.

"Micahel, I suggest you calm down," The Alpha says as he enters the garage, "If she was the killer, we would have known it by now."

Micahel grits his teeth, and rubs his face, "Fuck!" He kicks the tire of my car before marching out of the garage.

"M-michael, wait!" I cry his name and run after him. He keeps walking until he stops before the training grounds. The warriors who are training notice us but stay silent. I huff as I catch up to him, and speak, "Michael, please believe me. I can never do that to Ava. I loved her as much as you guys."

He turns around to face me, the sunlight highlighting his sharp jawline and his light blue eyes blaze with rage, "Seriously? Then why the fuck did it happen when she was with you?!" he points his finger at me.

"I–" I don't have any words to respond to his question. He scoffs, "Even if I believe for a second that you did not murder her, she still could have been saved if she did not have to give a ride to her fucking drunk friend at midnight. And the worst part is, if anyone attacked Ava, you wouldn't have been there to protect her because you weren't even in your fucking senses! You are an amazing friend,

Emma!" he spats, his words stabbing me.

Guilt clenches my chest until I choke on it. As much as I want to defend myself, I get what he is saying. If I had just not drank that much alcohol, I would have been sober and Ava wouldn't have to take responsibility for me. It is my fault.

"Even if you did not kill her, she still died because of you. I won't have a mate who's so pathetic," he says and I look up at him in horror. "I reject this bond. I don't want someone like you in my life."

My face turns pale, and I take a step closer, but he steps back as if disgusted by my presence. "Wait, Michael–"

"I, Michael Davis, future Alpha of the Moonshadow pack, reject you, Emma Smith, as my rightful mate," as soon as the words come out of his mouth, I feel a sharp pain on my neck. The pain shoots right into my spine, and my legs start to feel boneless. It feels like my skin is being torn apart and I drop to the ground with tears trickling down my eyes.

This can't be. He really rejected me.

I don't say a word as I hold my hands, kneeling on the ground. Maybe I really deserve this, but I never thought Michael would hate me this way. He knew I loved Ava as my friend.

"Emma," I look up as I hear my dad's voice. He's here with mom and James.