Chapter 382

Olivia

“Did you miss me, Olivia?”

Jenifer’s voice cut through the darkness. I felt as if I was stuck in a nightmare as I took in her white nightgown, her pale skin, her long black hair. But it was real; she was standing right in front of me, in the flesh, alive and well.

“J-Jenifer?” I stammered, my voice trembling as I took in the figure standing in front of me in the dimly lit room. My heart raced as I tried to make sense of the impossible. Jenifer couldn’t be here; she was supposed to be locked away in that asylum.

But then it came back to me. Jenifer… She had escaped from the asylum months ago. No one could find her, and we just assumed that she had run off, maybe found a home in another pack.

And instead, she was right here all along. Suddenly, all of my dreams, my bad feelings, the night that I saw a woman with long black hair in ‘Edward’s’ room. All of it made sense. All of it.

Jenifer smirked, her eyes glinting with malevolence. “I take it you’re surprised to see me, Olivia,” she said in that cloying, breathy tone of hers. “But I’ve been here all along. And I’m not surprised to see you at all.”

I couldn’t tear my gaze away from her. She looked different, her hair longer and unkempt, her eyes darker, but the same malicious energy surrounded her. It was as if she had been brewing in the darkness, just waiting for the right moment to strike; like a viper waiting in the underbrush.

“What are you doing here?” I finally managed to ask, my voice quivering with a mixture of fear and anger.

Jenifer stepped closer, her movements slow and deliberate. “Oh, my dear Olivia,” she purred, “you may have thought that I gave up so easily when I allowed myself to be committed to that asylum. But in reality, I was playing the long game. You, of all people, should know that it’s a specialty of mine.”

I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Jenifer, the woman who had caused so much pain and destruction, had somehow found her way here.

“Playing the long game?” I repeated, my voice laced with incredulity.

Jenifer’s lips curled into a wicked smile. “You see, I made it seem like I was surrendering to their treatment, that I was ‘getting better’, but I was hiding my pills under my tongue all along. I was secretly plotting my escape, so I could finally take Nathan down once and for all.”

My mind was reeling. Jenifer had been plotting her revenge while confined in that asylum? It was almost too unbelievable to comprehend.

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “This isn’t real. It can’t be.”

But Jenifer simply laughed. She continued to approach me, her bare feet padding softly on the dirt floor. I could practically feel the coldness emanating from her body, she was getting so close.

And I was trapped; no matter where I looked, there was nowhere to go, nothing that could help me in this unfamiliar place, and Jenifer was blocking the only exit; a single door at the top of a set of very rickety steps.

“Go ahead,” she said, crouching down in front of me, reaching out to brush her cold fingers against my face. “Feel me. See that I’m real.”

At her touch, I recoiled, flinching away. Without thinking, I slapped her hand away with more force than I thought I possessed. Maybe I could get out of here, I thought. I just needed to stall long enough to get my wolf’s strength back, and then perhaps I could fight my way out.

“Tell me how,” I said, swallowing, goosebumps running along my skin as her stringy black hair brushed against me. “How the hell did you escape?”

Jenifer laughed again, clearly amused. “That’s neither here nor there,” she said, standing again. “I’m here now. And it was so easy, too. Nathan was so pathetic, so easily manipulated by basic magic. He didn’t suspect a thing when I assumed that disguise.”

Suddenly, it all began to make sense. No wonder I had had a strange feeling about Edward all along; it was never Edward. It was Jenifer. “Edward…” I whispered, the name tasting bitter on my tongue. “So it was you all along.”

“Of course,” Jenifer said, her tone mocking. “And to think that Nathan willingly accepted ‘Edward’ into the pack, believing that he was some sort of savior. He even invited him into his home! Little did he know that ‘Edward’ was always dead. Too trusting, that one. It’s sad, really.”

I couldn’t deny the truth in Jenifer’s words. Nathan had been trusting, far too trusting. He had welcomed ‘Edward’ with open arms, and it had nearly cost us everything.

But I couldn’t be angry with him. How could I? Jenifer sank her claws in quick and deep, taking advantage of Nathan’s one weakness: his family.

“All Nathan ever wanted was for a real family,” I hissed, feeling my wolf’s strength begin to return, slowly but surely. “And you took advantage of that. You’re sick, Jenifer. Really sick.”

She chuckled. “That may be true,” she said, “but the fact of the matter is this: Nathan should have known better. He should have just killed me when he had the chance, but he didn’t. He should have cast ‘Edward’ out on his first instinct, but he didn’t. And now he’ll pay the price.”

There was a pause. I felt a little more of my wolf’s strength, and I began to curl my fingers around a loose stone in the wall behind me, gently shimmying it free.

Jenifer, seemingly oblivious to my attempts, continued speaking. I almost laughed. Kindness may have been Nathan’s downfall, but Jenifer’s? It was always her damned monologues.

“But you, Olivia,” Jenifer hissed, her gaze narrowing on me, “you were always watching me too closely. I’ll hand it to you: you’re smart. Too smart for your own good. You were suspicious, and I couldn’t allow that. Which is why…” She gestured at the basement around us. “...We’re here now.”

A sinking feeling settled in my stomach, but there was something else there, too. My wolf’s strength. It was returning, slowly but surely. And the rock in my hand was loosening from the wall, millimeter by millimeter.

“Your time is running out, Olivia,” Jenifer continued, her voice dripping with venom. “Soon, Nathan will die of a mysterious illness in that hospital, and you will ‘run away’ never to return, leaving the pack in shambles. ‘Edward’ will become the new Alpha, and soon, I will finally destroy this godforsaken pack once and for all.”

Her words almost made me laugh. With determination burning in my eyes, I met Jenifer’s gaze head-on. “Nathan won’t die,” I declared, my voice unwavering. “And I won’t run away from my home. Your plan for vengeance has failed, Jenifer.”

Jenifer’s laughter filled the room again, a cacophony of madness. “Oh, Olivia,” she sneered, “you’re delusional if you think you can stop me. I’ve planned this for too long. It’s been years in the making; don’t think for a second that my plan against Colin was all I had up my sleeve.”

But I had my own trick up my sleeve.

“Your anchor was destroyed, Jenifer,” I said, my eyes glinting with defiance. “I destroyed it myself. Nathan won’t die because your hex means nothing now.”

For a moment, Jenifer’s enormous gray eyes widened. But only for a moment.

And then she began to laugh.