Torn by his love: The Alpha's secret desires

Lila was pacing her room, trembling hands from staring at the half-packed satchel on her desk. "Showtime," she whispered to herself, her eyes flickering over the door in fear of it bursting open. "I can't do this. I can't marry Lucas."

The memory of hers filled days in the woods flooded her mind, and she shook her head. Why did I ever get myself into this? whispered, biting her lip. How could I have forgotten the days of running carefree and chasing fireflies?

She dipped her head to see out the window, and there it was: moonlit forest for as far as she could make out. "it was calling to me," she whispered, heart racing. "Right back to being who I am."

Lila took a deep breath and moved closer to her desk. Okay, only what we absolutely need," she told herself to help dampen her increasing dread. As she gathered a couple things in her satchel, doubt began to coil around her throat like ivy again; 'What if I was wrong?

She hesitated, then shook her head no. How will I ever get the courage to leave if not now?! I have to do this." With the vision of being Mrs. Lucas pacing her pulse limitlessly fast, "No more hiding."

Her heart slamming like a beat of drum, she slowly approached the door. "Breathe Lila" she whispered. "You've got this." She cracked open her door and looked down the hallway. "Good. No one's around."

The hallway was a dream like, the portraits of her ancestors seemed to follow every single step she took. "Go to hell with your opinions," she whispered. "This is my life!"

She was faced with the backdoor; a place of darkness and mystery. Lila hesitated. What if Lucas brings it after me? " she said, voice laced terror.But then she shook her head, determination growing within. I cannot live in terror of what he could do to the estate, she pushed open on the door. The cool night air rushed against her, bringing life to all of J'Dia's senses. "Here it is," she replied as she stepped into the shadows.

"I'm free!" she shouted into the night and took off, feeling it rush through her more intensely as she ran. "I'm finally free!"

With the silence that followed, as Whispering Pines melted back into crickets and leaves were crushed underfoot, she laughed again in a way that made her disappear. "I'm reclaiming my life!" she shouted, relief no longer begging for as much space on her chest.

But then the flicker of doubt came back. "What if I made a mistake?" Her spine shivered as she whispered to herself. "What if I "

"No! Focus!" She broke off, and she had her voice again. "You made your choice. No turning back." The sound of her own laughter urged her farther in, with each stride pulling away from the life that had once been hers to live and into territory uncharted.

At Whispering Pines, the grand bedroom was silent but it seemed to be full of life-everything in there held its breath while something waited outside for Lucas.

Lucas frowned as he stood at the bottom of the grand staircase, looking out over an empty Whispering Pines. "Where is she?" He caught sight of Lila's theatre and muttered something under his breath. It was slightly ajar. "L!" he shouted, his voice reverberating off the walls. No response.

He climbed the staircase with purpose, his boots making a dull knock on the hardwood. "Lila, are you in there?" Then he pushed her door further and saw the empty room, still with the sharp smell of that godamn lavender fragrance. Of course she would have done a runner,asperation began to settle in as he made for her corner of the office. The satchel lay open, half-packed.

"What were you planning?" He looked around the empty room, grabbing a soft scarf he recognized as one of her best barriers. "You can't leave. Not like this." Every beat of his heart there was that chance she would not come back.

Lila ran with all her might through the forest, branches striking at her arms. "Keep on going," She shouted into the void, her limbs moving with adrenaline. "Keep moving! You're free!"

She thought that she would glad to be alone until she heard the echo of sticks snapping against each over behind her, causing him even make his heartbeat stop for a moment. "What was that?" she gasped, spinning around. The moonlight flittered through the trees, their shadows crawling along which gave way to an atmosphere that made the jungle feel like it was alive merely a living entity itself The anxiety that tore at her throat pressed down on her shoulders, weighing the night around them into something huge.) She strained her ears to hear something rustle, a breath anything but the crickets chirped on with their happy song.

"Pull yourself together, Lila," she muttered through her teeth and held onto the scarf as if it would keep her grounded in some form of real life. The trees are just playing with you." Yet within the recess of my mind, that fear was sown. If Lucas had followed her, what? Where was he, watching her in the shadows all this time and ready to pounce on her as soon as she caught a whiff of freedom from that life which terrified her so much it haunted even those comforting dreams?

Lila gathered enough down deep in the pit of her chest to proceed on, heart pounding. The darkness was thick around her, and the trees rose high in shadows with trunks like twisted arms that snaked above - a warning. She chose her route cautiously, walking through unbroken forest and beneath clean branches with the same feel of cool moist ground against the soles of her feet that she remembered from childhood.

Every step felt like a relief and at the same time terrified me! She had always been Lila of Whispering Pines, the good daughter and then Jesse's demure fiancée. Every step she took on a crispy leaf was creating another layer of who she wanted to be not someone expected of her and nothing due. The idea excited and scared her at the same time.

Then a body exploded from behind the darkness, and Lila cried out loud bumping back. Adrenaline pulsed through her veins as she squinted into the dark, heart thrumming wildly. "Who's there?" She called, her voice steadier than she felt.

However, that only turned out to be just a deer, with its big eyes glaring at me as it reflects the moonlight. It stopped, appeared to be interested but ran off into the brush. Lila laughed, breath she had not realized was there released. "You scared me!" She scolded the night air, shaking her head.

Yet she didn't linger. Lila concentrated on heading further toward the woods, enjoying her new found freedom but also taking in the risks that were there. Every footstep she took, dragged her further away from the life that was meant to be hers and drew nearer towards an unknown destiny.

Memories of her relationship with Lucas flashed through her mind moments of tenderness interspersed with manipulation and psychological abuse as she ran. In between the smiles and stolen kisses they shared, even intimate conversations, she always felt somewhere deep down that he was unnecessarily possessive of her.

"What was I thinking?" she muttered aloud. Am I sure that this is the right thing??

The but the thought was broken by a pop behind her again, more intense this time. Lila spun back, heart once again pounding in her throat as she looked into the foliage of trees. "This isn't funny!" her voice, filled with terror, screamed into the night. "Who's there?"

She called out to the Silence Heavy And Looming The silence answered her Uncertainy wormed its way up her insides, as she visualized Lucas bursting through the underbrush in anger and pain toothed into his handsome face.

"What if he finds me?" Her voice filled with dread as she whispered. But there was still a part of her that had experienced someone so powerful in making such an influential decision to go.

She went on, succumbing to the excitement of adventure: fleeing from a life she felt confined in and rushing toward what it could look like for her to become genuinely herself whatever that even meant.

The track became overgrown, and Lila wandered into a moonlit clearing where silver light fell across meadow flowers that danced in the wind. They were so pretty, she had to stop and take her breath. She knelt among the blossoms, and her heart found rest in a thrilling delight. This moment, this connection to nature - it was visceral; nothing like the refined and managed life up at the manor.

I whispered to myself, pulling a tiny white flower and tucking it behind my ear. I will go out and take my place in the world. I will not go back."

But suddenly, the quiet night was shattered by quick footsteps. Lila's heart. She shook her head and climbed out of bed with hurried steps. She bolted back towards the tree line in a panic, trying to put plenty of earth between her and this infinity-hot space she had felt so safe with just moment before.

Fear carried her through the darkness and she ran. Her arms scratched against branches, her lungs felt like they were going to explode with every laboured breath but she knew stopping was not an option. Lucas's face flickered in her mind, disappointment masking abject fury.

"Why did you leave me?" she heard his voice!!!"You're mine, Lila! You can't just

walk away!"

The prick of tears in her eyes as she struggled to move through the underbrush, everything heavy and clawed at her heart. Every step that she took was a memory of love lost, but her feet were responding to an instinct older than time itself; the need for self preservation.

And just as she thought that the just when noise of pursuit was a vague memory in the distance Lila burst out into another clearing. It had been smaller but darker, shadows folded in on one another so tightly and the moon barely seeped through the canopy above it. She stopped, panting and her heart whacked against the prison of ribs holding it.

Lila whispered to herself, looking all around for any kind of danger. A soft rustling made her bristle, each nerve tightening with fear. "Get it together."

She made it only a few yards into the forest when something burst out of underbrush in front of her, stepped from shadows a tall silhouette bearing features she knew. Lila's breath stuck in her throat. It was Lucas. He advanced, face calm now to an unsettling degree- so much the moonlight glinting off him again made it look like a predator stalking prey.

" Lila, " he growled in his low magnetic voice. I bet you thought I was going to run away ..... not on your life!

"What are you doing here?" Lila's voice warbled, her every instinct screaming for the hills while a current of so many similarly livid emotions practically vibrating inside. She stepped back in terror, eyes wide.

It was a small laugh, but it made the hairs on her body stand up in an uncomfortable way. "I came to bring you home. You belong with me. You know that."

For an instant she wavered, a half-glance returned to him. She saw the glints of fondness mixed with something evil in his eyes, an infatuative type love that burned so bright out would limit her.

"No!" "Charge them bitches!" she says, resolved. "I'm not going back! Not now, not ever!"

But before she could turn and flee, Lucas had already reached for her. Before she could turn and slip unseen into the dark, though, behind her there came a snapping of branches followed by abrupt whirlwinds that smashed everything into chaos.

"Lila!" A combination of desperation and anger seemed to charge the air as he yelled. "You think this is freedom? You think I'll let you go?"

Life sending an electric pulse of adrenaline through her. She sprinted deeper into the forest, ducking between trees and branches as fast as her terrified heart would take her. But then, as she felt like it might be leaving her behind at long last, she ran smack dab into the thickest patch of undergrowth yet and skidded to a stop just shy of tumbling over a precipice.

Below, the dark gulf yawned lazily; somewhere from deep within its stark bowels echoed faint sounds of rushing water in the still night air.

That panic surged anew as she spun back around and saw Lucas walking calmly into the clearing, his silhouette a stark black against haze of the night sky. His face was in a disdainful blend of outrage and something else misery or maybe even like longing but twisted.

Lila, he said softly-pleadingly. "You don't have to do this. Just come back to me. We can be happy again."

Desperation clawed at her throat and tears streamed down its cheeks. "You don't understand!"

There was a handhold that crumbled away beneath her foot, and Lila felt the dizzying pull of nothing as she teetered on the very edge.

"Lila! Don't!" Lucas shouted, his voice thin with urgency as Percy began to push her closer to the brink.

Running out of room, she turned to face him as he towered over her. Her heart was pounding in terror but mixing with anger too now that she'd come so far and realized there wasn't anywhere left for her to run from this man who was bad news all over again now maybe worse than ever_THAT SHE'D COME SO FAR! "You won't take me back. Not alive, not ever!"

Until the words became melancholic, of freedom and captivity... titled bitterly around her as though obliterating; until there was nothing but air for bones.

She gasped a deep, harrowing breath preparing to fall into the dark, uncertain abyss below what ever waited for her in darkness.

As she vanishes from sight, the two playful souls are left at odds that sway between choice and consequence - caught up in their moments of suspended time with just the thunderous surge of water off distant cliffs to fill what remains.

Adrenaline filled his chest as Lucas sprinted to the edge of the cliff. Then Fear took him in a wave. "Lila!" He shouted, his voice cracking in desperation as he looked over the edge of where she had been. The churning blackness below threatened to consume her, drowning out any sign of a saving grace. Adrenaline rushed through him and in a split second he readied himself to pounce after her, unthinking but knowing it was his only chance; that he could let go so easily!

An inner voice of course, warning that one step more could be heading towards a very thin line separating love and obsession. As he prepared to leap, a distant thunder sounded the depths of his resolve as much as it did in his heart. He hesitated, his hands becoming fists as he struggled against the rising tide of anger.

Prayer in despair, "Please... don't be gone..." He imagined her plummeting and swirling into the darkness below, felt a raw ripping at his guts.

Lila meanwhile fell screaming into the darkness, air pounding on her as if she were falling through a wind tunnel; thoughts wheeling madly in confusion. She couldn't think of the fear, only that desperate knowledge she needed to get away from himwhomever he wasescape whatever love so warped it felt like a tightening noose around her neck. Every night she closed her eyes, his kind warm blue orbs transformed themselves into glaring ghostly images reminding Halley of what used to be and would never again.

The chill water closed around her all at once, engulfing her in its frosty hug and pulling hee into the darkness below. She gasped, and the shock of the temperature left her limbs limp against it. Instinctively, she kicked and thrashed as the darkness moved to take her. The sky above the surface grew darker, and for a heartbeat there was nothing (but her own heart under her hands) There were just the sound of drops falling from old leaves or water cascading down between rocks.

It was no more than a glimmer of light, as if seen through mud-covered glass with only the vaguest sense that it led up. Lila swam after it as though her life depended on such speed. She thrashed up, gasping and burning as her lungs lunged for the air, disorienting chaos of water all around. Where was Lucas? Did he see her fall? Would he follow her to the dry depths?

As she started to float downriver, carried not by the wind but rather gravity and drifting farther away from that rock edge a feeling of disaster came over her in waves. She saw a crag of rock forming an arm from the bank and almost collapsed with relief. Gritting her teeth, Lila swam toward it and hoisted herself out by the slick stones until she was breathing hard.

Laying on the cold ground, she gasped for air as she felt her wet skin bite against that night wind. She knew she did not yet have a safe place. All around, the woods seemed almost impenetrably thick with shadows that moved as if they were things alive whispering secrets she could not begin to understand. But she was free – for now, anyway.

Her heart raced, even though she was no longer being held by Lucas physically, his threat looming like a ghost in the night. She paused to compose herself, wiping the moisture off her face and yet tasting the saline of tears entwined with river currents. Indeed, she knew which option she wanted (sic), but would that be sufficient? Would she ever truly be free?

The rustle that came from the bushes made her jump too and she snapped herself upright, fear clenching like shards of ice in her them to have even formed a semblance of consciousness And turned towards whatever was coming out through Then: The darkness. Lucas? Another predator? Her instincts fired off, and she was on guard for either fight or flight.

The shadows slid and I could see nothing but doosra jangle beyond the trees. The world around her had gone eerily silent, as though it was holding its breath in anticipation. She couldn't linger here. She doubled her resolve, demanding movement from herself. She had to get herself out, push on into the dark where she could barely hear Lucas halfway through saying something or other.

As the moon rose overhead, lighting Lila's way through yet more forested ground cover, she continued her escape in earnest not only from Lucas and his physical prison onto a plane bound to New York City; but now slowly unraveling years of guilt and self-condemnation from emotional chains no less confining than flesh forged bonds. For her right to live, for the sake of her soul itself and now she felt a certainty that as daunting nighttime closed in upon all its secrets, there was nothing ahead but battle.