Chapter 49

Aurora

He’s bleeding profusely, holding his face while he trembles on the floor like a wet dog. My wolf is pleased with the sight, leaping over him before he can heal and trailing up the cellar stairs. She’s not careful or quiet, barging down the hall until met with the metal barracks built into the packhouse. It’s the place I was first kept and it still smells of Luke.

My wolf presses against the door, flinging the first one open, seeing Luke standing erect against the back wall. His eyes are wide in shock, then in fear, before they settle on my eyes and I feel my best friend ease at the sight of my wolf. She howls unexpectedly, the noise sure to wake up every member of this traitorous pack.

Luke doesn’t seem to care, his ginger hued wolf finding his way free, breaking any semblance of metal chains off his body before ushering his way down the hall before my wolf. He’s weak and in pain, I can tell, so hopped up on wolfsbane that he struggles at first, shifting and stumbling until he finally finds his wolf and holds on to him tight.

We both pelt straight for the front door, hearing an ungodly howl languish from the cellar. Luke looks over his shoulder to me but my wolf is far too focused on the front door, feeling the packhouse erupt in life.

Wolves everywhere shift and charge towards us from all angles but we hit the front door together, throwing it off the hinges, before breaking in a sprint down the valley and around the circumference of the lake. The moonlight reflects off its vast surface, illumining the tree line ahead and in a weird way, I feel like I’ve seen this forest before.

Luke shows the same surprise, his head hunkered as we dodge right into the trees, a flood of Apogee wolves coming from behind us, trailing our every step. They are faster than us while we have grown tired and unfed. It’s only a matter of time before we fail at outrunning them in the entirety of their pack.

Luke pushes against my side, unable to communicate through a link, and tries to steer me to the right, down a hunting trail that I realize he and I have ventured down before in our old pack. My eye grow wide and worried as I realize we have no choice but to head straight for the North Woods pack lands. I can only hope my parents are gone, perhaps in hiding elsewhere or that my friends have been smart enough to relocate since the attacks Xander has posed with his rogue intakes. But I don’t have time to warn any of them.

Luke hesitates to look back, the other wolves gaining speed while they are just mere paces behind us, snarling and showing their teeth to premeditate a violent attack. He looks to me, worried and knowing we won’t win this race. I can only agree, feeling us run down the rim of the mountain, trying to decide if we should stop now to keep from unleashing the entirety of the Apogee pack on the North Woods.

Luke decides for us.

He gives me a lasting look, a pained gaze, and I see his eyes in that moment close before he rears his paws up and throws me right over the edge of the cliffside. I fall freely for a second, the time slowing, while I look up to watch Luke being swarmed by wolves. I don’t get the chance to even howl, my back slamming into the mountainside, tossing me down mercilessly as I’m rolled down the hillside.

My back breaks against a tree, forcing my wolf to subside and I shift back, my breath labored with the mix of blood that pools under my tongue. The wind haunts me, brushing past my body and licking the wounds that lay all over my surface. I can’t stay like this for long, in the middle of the woods, and wait for Xander’s pack to find an easier way down the mountain and get me.

I lay back, trying to process my next moves, feeling like I should have died days earlier and skipped this whole, horrid nightmare.

When I fucking find you, you’re dead, bitch!

I wince at Xander in my head, trying to scare me. It works.

Until then, I’ll make sure your fucking friend takes the brunt of my anger!

Tears pour endlessly down my face, along with the blood, and I try to kick him from my mind but he is ruthlessly strong. I can’t fight him off anymore. I simply just lay back, letting him invade my mind simply to make this process end quicker. I hope it kills me for good.

Jaxson

I hesitate on the porch, knowing that these people have every right to hate me. I’ve taken their daughter, dismissed them as filthy commoners, and successfully managed to throw her into endless turmoil and panic. I’m only hoping they have her, that they won’t lie to keep her safe from being hurt by me more than she already has been.

My knuckles tap against the door twice and I feel dread form in the pit of my stomach. Jacki opens the door, her eyes so damn similar to Aurora’s when they see me. They are afraid and full of submission, her head bowing down as she tries to appease a royal from hurting her.

“I’m not here to harm you,” I breathe in defeat. “I need to know where Aurora is.”

Jacki looks up, her lips pursed in pain. “You got her killed, remember?”

I try to balance my pain and sorrow without letting anger slip through. The night of the blue moon gala, my father announced that Aurora had died. I never considered the repercussions of her parents being in the audience, hearing the news without knowing the truth.

Jacki holds her hands before her, hiding the way they tremble. “Did you come by to flaunt the fact that you’ve killed my only child, sire, or have you come to kill off me and my husband as well, just to make your endless terror complete?”

I push my way into the house, seeing her back down instantly, and I shove the door close behind me. I can smell that Aurora’s father isn’t home, which doesn’t help the palpable fear of her mother, but I’m at my last straw.

Falling to my knees, I let my head bow as well, feeling openly and completely vulnerable.

“She didn’t die that night,” I gust, speaking to the floor. I’m hoping this position of which I sit helps her feel more in control and less petrified of me. “I had my father think that, and tell everyone she had died, because some tired to kill her that night. I know royals have treated you and your pack wrongly, and I haven’t been the kindest either, but I wanted to make it safer for Aurora and—” I shake my head, holding the tears that stagnate in my eyes.

She kneels next, sitting before me and her light fingertips brush my chin until I look up to see her crying freely. Her face is flushed bright red and she quivers her lip, the same way I’ve seen Aurora do when she cries.

“My daughter is alive?”

“I think so,” I hum, shaking my head in conflict. “Like I said, she rejected me so I haven’t been able to find her since then but I know Luke was with her during the time I had her stowed away for safety.” I hold back my anger when I ask, “have you seen Luke, either?”

She hesitates but gives in, wanting her daughter as much as I want my mate. “I saw him a few times, but not in the last four weeks. He used to come by and grab groceries from town, and to see his mate, Mary, who is staying at his parent’s house.”

My heart gallops in hope. “Maybe I can speak to her and see if she knows anything.”

Jacki nods and stands, opening the door while I push myself off the floor. I’m tired, my mind drained, but we make the trek next door and knock on the tall, wood door. Jacki is bounding on the heels of her feet while we wait for an answer. She knocks again, harder this time, her fingers anxiously turning against her chest.

Luckily enough, Mary opens the door in a set of silk pajamas, wiping her tired eyes. I can’t help but notice she is bloodshot, not just from sleep but from the wet traces of cries that sit on her face. She steps onto the porch and shuts the door behind her, looking only at me with some sort of hatred I can’t pinpoint.

“What is it?” she bites.

I hesitate, recalling the last time I saw her was the blue moon gala and I hadn’t been too disrespectful to deserve this tone. “I’m looking for Aurora,” I breathe.

She hiccups a cry. “Of course, you are. She’s off with my mate and I haven’t seen or heard from him in weeks! I don’t care where she is, or what she’s doing with my mate, I just want this nightmare to be over with.”

“I do too,” I admit. “I don’t know what has happened to her since she rejected me. I don’t know where she is and I need to speak with her, Mary. Can you help me?”

She hesitates, looking off in the distance while the pain on her features mimics my own. She looks to the ground next, tears brushing right over her cheeks and hitting the porch.

“I don’t know,” she mumbles, in between silent weeps. “I know that she was trying to leave the cabin where she was hiding and Luke told her it wasn’t safe; they argued and Luke came back home to me for a few hours but decided to go make sure she wasn’t going to run off in the middle of the night. He didn’t come back after that. When I try through the mind link, I feel like I’m blocked out.”

My heart stammers in rhythm. “Do you think he could have run off with her?”

“Maybe,” she cries, folding her hands to her face. Jacki tries to comfort her, wrapping an arm around her back and cooing her to stop crying, but it doesn’t last. She weeps harder. “He said that he was confused and we’ve been fighting about everything lately. It didn’t help when she left the palace and I said I wanted to reject him. I don’t want that but—” she shakes her head shamefully. “I know he loves her. I wouldn’t blame him for leaving me.”

I’d hate to admit the same thing. If Aurora left me to be happy with someone else, I’d just want her to safe and well looked after. Safer than she was in my care. It would make me feel better about everything.

“JACKI!” a familiar voice screams, making me jump.

We all turn towards the hill below, seeing Aurora’s father Marshal rushing up the hill.

In his arms he holds the woman I love.