Chapter 74
I curse the moon goddess for the hundredth time as I make my way back into the pack house. I hate this. I hate it so freaking much, I wish things were different. I wish things didn’t happen the way they did. Maybe then I wouldn’t be here.
I wipe the tears away, getting rid of all the evidence that, for a moment, I had been a weak, teary mess. I haven’t cried in a long time. I’ve always just tried to push everything down and focus on what had to be done. Focus on the present moment.
I haven’t been back even a full day, and already the walls I’d built to keep my emotions away were starting to crumble.
I walk through the pack house. Every comer of the place is haunted with memories I wish to bury and forget. All the good times I had with Piper. All the things we did together. All the happier times.
Memories I had of Alec. They weren’t all warm. He spent most of the time ignoring me, like I didn’t exist, but they were there. There were a few times I caught him smiling or laughing. Joking with pack members. The happier times when we didn’t carry the weight of the world.
My childhood, teenage years, and part of my adulthood are deeply engraved in this pack. There isn’t a place I could turn, and I wouldn’t find a memory to pull me back to the past.
Those happy memories became tainted when everyone, except Micah, turned their backs on me. I bury them because they bring me nothing but pain when I remember them. I bury them because they remind me of the deep betrayal that I endured from the so–called people loved.
I rush through the space, intent on escaping those haunting melodies. The few pack members I pass by don’t seem shocked to see me, but they do seem remorseful. I guess Alec told them the truth.
Lignore them. Not wanting to pass by any more of them, I focus my energy as Nyx taught me and teleport to the room that was assigned to me. I breathe a sigh of relief when I open my eyes, and I’m standing in the middle of the bedroom.
“Things will get better. You have to trust the goddess’s plan,” Nyx mumbles, popping in.
“It’s hard to trust her when all I can think about is the mess she’s made of my life.”
She sighs. “It may seem so, but it will all make sense in the future.”
Isn’t that something that people say just to make themselves feel better about how out of control their lives are? Does it really get better? Because from where I am standing, I feel that if I don’t get the hell out of this pack, things are only going to go downhill from here.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” I whisper tiredly and softly. What I want to do is forget.
We are quiet for a while as I take off my clothes. I need another shower. One I wish would cleanse me of my bitter past.
“His wolf, Knox,” Nyx begins just as I am heading to the bathroom. “He tried reaching out to me.”
“And?”
To me, his wolf was just as guilty as the woman. There were times during the torture when he would come out. Something is wrong with those two. The things they did to me and the joy that shone in their eyes as they tortured me still make me sick to this day.
“Nothing. I told him to fuck off and blocked him, I would have given him the middle finger if I had fingers,” she says it so casually that it makes me laugh.
Like I said, Nyx frustrates me most of the time, but I still wouldn’t trade her for a different wolf.
“You know I fucking love you, right? Even though you drive me crazy at times,” I mumble, feeling some of the tension leave me as water cascades down my body.
“Yeah, yeah,” she mumbles dismissively, but then adds so silently that I almost fail to hear it. “Right back at you, my beautiful human.
I finish showering and wrap a towel around my body. Going to the mirror, I do what I’ve been doing for the past three years whenever I get out of the
1/3
Chapter 74
shower. I focus on my scars. Especially the one on my face.
After reminding myself of all the reasons why Alec is nothing but a monster, I leave the bathroom, so I can get dressed.
I’d just taken out my clothes from my suitcase when there is a knock on my door. I don’t recognize the scent, but then again, I barely recognize any of my previous pack member’s scents.
“Can I help you?” I ask the nervous–looking brunette when I open the door.
“T–the Alpha and E–elders are requesting your presence in the Alpha’s office,” she stammers the word.
With the way she was looking at me. With fear and remorse, I’m inclined to think she’s not a new member. She was there when my life was turned upside down. I don’t remember everyone. She’s among those that I don’t remember.
I don’t say anything. I just shut the door in her face. I don’t care if it’s rude. They don’t deserve anything from me, arid they won’t be getting anything
from me.
I get dressed quickly, then leave my room. I’ll have to spend time with Aspen later on. The sooner I get this damn curse fixed, the sooner we can leave.
I’d told the elders that I wanted to see the text about me. I thought I could get something from it. It was probably the reason I’ve been summoned.
I get to Alec’s office door and, without knocking, I push it open.
It’s still the same. Nothing has changed. I’m taken back to the last time I was here. The day he threw the tablet at me. The day I begged them to believe me, but they didn’t. The day he ordered me to be thrown into the dungeons.
“Sadie,” he calls my name, and I shake myself from those memories.
His eyes hold something akin to regret, but I am not so sure. What I am sure of, though, is that he was also remembering that day. It’s there in his eyes.
I nod a greeting to Micah before turning to the elders without greeting them, “Did you bring it?”
Mark nods and hands over the text to me. I immediately scan through it, eating up the words like they were sushi.
[She is strong and powerful. An Alpha Female and her powers, when awakened, will shake the foundations of the world. Because she is the blessed one, their union will be blessed, and their offspring will rule both the heavens and the earth. Only she will be able to undo the curse; only she will be able to destroy the evil. In her presence, the pack will recover and flourish, becoming the most powerful pack the world has ever seen. So many will want to use her, to destroy and suppress her, but she will prevail. Many will want to destroy their bond, so beware of impostors, for the blessed one will be known by a white crescent moon mark on her left ear.]
I place the old journal down. The words were still ringing in my head. Playing in my mind like a broken record.
Now I get why Micah asked to check behind my left ear when we first found out appeared when my powers awakened.
that I was Alec’s mate. I never had the mark before, so it must have
“It did,” Nyx speaks up. “You two–you and the other alpha female–both have marks. It’s crescent moon, symbolizing renewal, growth, and hope.”
s meant to differentiate you from the rest. Yours is a white
Even though I know what her answer would be, I still ask. “And the other female, what is her mark?”
“You know I can’t tell you that, Sadie, not yet anyway,” she answers before slinking back into my subconscious mind.
I sigh. I want to be mad at her for holding information, but what if she has her reasons?
“Anything?” another elder asks when we are silent for a while.
“My powers awakened when Alec tried to attack me in my pack,” I begin. “And my wolf did tell me that I am a rare breed of wolf. An Alpha remale…”
“Your presence has also begun bringing about changes. The pack is starting to recover. We have all felt it. Even those in the hospital are starting to get
Chapter 74
better.” Elder Martin adds, cutting me off.
“But,” Alec begins. “The text said that some would try to destroy our bond. I wonder if that’s what the veiled woman Calvin fold us about was aimeri z fore
Goddess, what he was saying made sense. A lot of it, actually.
“But that would mean that she must know something about the curse, about what has been going on,” I pause as another realization hits “Oh godden, that means she knew that we were mates way before we did and about my powers. Why else would she go through all the trouble to destroy our bond before it even awakened?”
I watch as the gravity of the situation hits everyone like a ton of bricks.
If this woman knew, it would explain why she came after me and Alec. Why she targeted us. The most important question is: why? Is it because of the curse, something else, or both?
“It also makes me wonder where Lola falls in all this.” I think out loud. “Was she in on it, or was she clueless and used as part of the plan to destroy the mate bond between us?”
I see Alec freeze at the mention of his first love. I wonder if he still loves her? Anyway, it’s none of my business. After he rejects me, he can go looking for her, assuming she is innocent, isn’t dead, and hasn’t found her mate yet.
“We need to begin searching for that woman,” Micah says, echoing what everyone has probably thought about. “She seems to be at the center of all this, and she knows more about what’s going on.”
I couldn’t agree more on that. Something was going on, and she may be the only one with the damn answers.
AD
