Chapter 23
Chapter 23
20
There wasn’t much to talk about after everything poured out of King. After our conversation, Raven invited him for dinner. I wasn’t in any position to help, so King and Raven took care of everything.
After having our meal, I went straight to sleep. My body was tired and wired at the same time. I want to say that I had a peaceful sleep, but I didn’t. My brain couldn’t shut down, no matter how hard I tried. I was still awake long after Kingsley and Raven fell asleep.
Waking up slowly so as not to wake them up, I get out of my sleeping bag and wander around. I am so tired and sleepy, yet my damn mind refused to let my body get the rest it surely deserved. I felt frustrated and bitter.
2
Pushing my tears back, I spot a big boulder, and I go and sit on it. The moon was out today, and seeing it just made me angrier.
Why me, moon goddess? First, you take away my parents, making me an orphan. As if that wasn’t enough for you, you let all that happened to me happen. Why? If you’re so caring and love your children, then why let all this happen to me?
Of course, there isn’t any answer from her, and that just makes me more bitter. She took away the life I had built, the people I love, and my dignity, yet she doesn’t have the guts to tell me why.
When we were younger, we were taught to always trust and believe in the moon goddess. We were taught not to question her and to just trust that she does everything for our good. I used to trust her, and I used to believe that there’s always a silver lining because the goddess had everything under control.
Now my trust is broken, and my eyes are open. The faith and love I had for her slowly faded in the months that my life turned to shit. We were supposed to trust her no matter what, but how could I when I was fucking tortured by the very man I was in love with?
How could I continue to trust her after Alec banished me? Ordered my death and almost killed my unborn child? How could I continue to blindly trust her when she turned my life upside down?
I touched the scar on my cheek, remembering the day Alec put it there. The day he branded me. It will always be a reminder of what I went through at the hands of his and that of his pack. Sighing, I got up and walked back to our little camp. I lie down and close my eyes. I didn’t expect it, but finally my body shuts down.
***
“Wake up,
Sadie. We need to leave.”
Raven’s voice pulls me from my sleep. I rested, but it wasn’t a peaceful sleep. My dreams were a nightmare, reliving my time in the dungeon and when I killed the hybrid yesterday.
When I was in the pack, I knew that one day I would need to defend myself, but I never once believed in killing. I thought it was merciless and uncalled for. I told myself that I would never take a life. If ever I was in danger, I’d weaken them, but not kill them.
I broke that promise yesterday. They made me break that promise. Alec made me break a promise to myself, and that’s something else I won’t ever forgive him for.
I get up, and Raven hands me a cup of steaming tea and bread. Surprisingly, King is still here.
“I thought you would’ve left by now,” I tell him, sipping the comforting tea.
He sighs. “I thought so too, but for some reason I can’t.”
1/3
4:25 pm
Chapter 23
“What do you mean you can’t? No one is stopping you from leaving; just stand up and leave. It’s that simple.” That comes from Raven, who is drinking her coffee as usual.
I love coffee; it is my lifeline, but since we learned I was pregnant, Raven has limited the amount I take.
His things are already packed, but he is seated, and he looks mighty frustrated.
“I was going to leavee. I’d even gotten my things and was about to leave, but something inside me stopped me. For some strange reason, I feel like this is where I’m meant to be. That I should stick by you.”
He is staring straight at me as he said that. Out of habit, I touch my hair (I do that when I’m nervous), but there’s nothing there. I release a deep breath when I remember Alec cut it all off. Fuck, I hate him.
“Destiny,” Raven mumbles, looking at her now-half cup.
“What are you talking about, Rave?” I questioned her.
“Destiny. Intertwined destiny,” she says, looking up at the both of us. “I think his destiny is intertwined with yours, just like mine and yours are.”
A chill passed down my spine, and I shivered.
“Rave?”
I look at her, deeply staring into her eyes. There’s something there. Something I can’t even begin to explain.
“I started having dreams about you years ago. I didn’t get why or who you were, but I always pushed it to the back of my mind. It continued for years, but I brushed them off. That was until a couple of months ago, when the dreams turned into nightmares and I saw the girl I’ve been dreaming about suffering.”
She looked at King and stopped. We didn’t know him well, so we couldn’t fully trust him. She doesn’t need to explain the rest to me; I already knew because I lived the nightmare.
203
“During those times, I didn’t know who you were or where you were. I didn’t even know if I should trust them. You were just a girl in my dreams, one who couldn’t be real. Well, that is until I found you in the forest, surrounded by rogues.”
Both Kingsley and I were quiet the whole time. I was shocked, honestly, but King was thoughtful.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked in confusion.
“You’d already been through enough. I didn’t want to spring this on you when I didn’t understand it myself.”
My thoughts were rushing too fast for me to grasp all of them. My head was a jumbled mess.
Raven continued. “I believe it’s destiny. Beth pretty much told me the same thing. If you believe that you are meant to be here with her, then this is where you should be.”
What she said would explain why I trusted him despite him being a complete stranger.
“Who is Beth?” King asks after a while.
“She’s my mentor.”
He nods his head and looks into the distance. It seems like he is deep in thought. Lost in thought. I didn’t know what to feel. This was all overwhelming. Everything that has happened since yesterday has been heavy on me, and then to learn that Raven has been having dreams about me for years? Well, that just tipped the scale.
2/3
426 min
Chapter 28
So, what are you going to dor Raven asked Kingaley, fan & fent ir’s more than queason realmoor as if the mag
He stared at her and then shrugged. “I guess I’ll just have to trose my gut and go with you wherever you’re g
At first, I was shocked that he would follow two strangers, text after a while, I nodded, accepting his decision
I no longer believe in the goddess or destiny, but somehow, this whole thing felt right.
Chapter 24
Chapter 24
Alec.
It’s been a couple of weeks since Sadie died and Piper left the pack. Things have been fucking terrible, and I don’t even know how the hell I’m going to fix everything that is happening.
The pack is getting weaker as the days go by. A few days ago, there was a rogue attack, and we almost fucking lost. Some of the warriors who had been attacked have yet to heal.
Werewolves have fast healing. They should have healed in a few hours after the attack, but it’s been days, and they’re still in the fucking hospital. We’ve been debating with Jason, Micah, and the elders whether to tell them the truth or not since they’ve started questioning why they aren’t healing as fast as they should. It was all so frustrating, considering we aren’t anywhere close to finding a solution. It’s like fate is working against us or something.
My door opens, and I stop what I was doing to stare up.
“Tell me you have some good news,” I growl, my frustration evident in my tone of voice.
Jason and Micah stared at each other, as if communicating something silently, before turning to me.
“Well!” I all but shouted while standing up.
I am wound up tight. Knox and I were on edge. We could both sense the danger that was lingering. The chaos that would accompany the revelation of our weakness. We were the leaders of this pack. Our job was to protect the pack, and yet we were failing.
“We couldn’t find anything,” Micah finally said.
“What the hell do you mean?”
Jason took a deep breath, as if preparing to deliver a devastating blow. I just knew that I wasn’t going to like whatever it was he was about to tell me.
“Spit it out, Jason,” I snap when he still didn’t say a fucking thing.
“We haven’t been able to find her,” he began. “Her house is empty, and it looks like she hasn’t been there in months, and no one has seen her around either.”
“That’s not possible,” I mutter more to myself.
How is it possible for her to just disappear? Efforts to find her have borne no fruit at all.
“It’s like Lola just disappeared from the face of earth.” Micah adds unhelpfully.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me! How hard is it to find one fucking woman?”
They both remain quiet as I started to pace the office. We haven’t been able to track down Lola since the day she rejected
Sure, Sadie ruined everything between us, and Lola severed our bond, but I was hoping she could help us once I explained the situation to her. I had built my hopes that, despite us no longer being mates, she’d be willing to help and that maybe working together would help renew her love for me.
“I’m telling you, Alec, we can’t find her. Even our best trackers haven’t been able to track her down,” Jason says worriedly.
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4:26 pm
