Chapter 511

Olivia

I flipped to the next page of the book, muttering to myself as my finger traced the words in front of me.

“Interesting,” I muttered as I read.

“Interesting, indeed,” my wolf chimed in.

I let out a small sigh and closed the book, tossing it over onto the bedside table. “But not interesting enough.”

My wolf hummed in agreement. The book on the Ancient Wolf bloodline was indeed intriguing, but it was only based on history; there was nothing about harnessing the powers that the blood of the Ancient Wolf provided. ]

Hell, there wasn’t anything on the Ancient Wolf powers at all.

“Do you even know what specific powers we have access to?” I asked my wolf out loud, thinking back on the select few times in which we had been able to sporadically—and unintentionally—use the powers.

“All I know of is that shock wave ability and the power of suggestion that you used to make Ryan’s men run away,” my wolf replied after thinking for a few moments. “Although I suspect there are far more that we have yet to tap into.”

I nodded and laid down on the pillows, rolling over onto my side. “I suspect the same,” I said. “But without any indication of what we have in store, we don’t even have a basis to go off of.”

As I lay there, I began to feel a wave of frustration wash over me. This distraction of mine, this endeavor into my bloodline, was proving to be more difficult than I had hoped. I felt as though we had reached an unexpected dead end.

And with the dead end, of course, came thoughts of Nathan.

I could still picture how handsome he looked in his suit earlier that day in the hallway, and I hated myself for thinking of him like that. I hated that, despite what he had done, the thought of his face made me blush.

I especially hated the fact that, as I looked at my phone sitting on the bedside table, the thought of calling him crossed my mind.

“You could, you know,” my wolf said softly. “You could hear him out.”

“I could,” I replied. “And let myself get swindled again.”

With that, I rolled over onto my other side with a huff. Clearly, Nathan had cheated, gotten caught, regretted his actions, and was now trying to come up with excuses.

But I wasn’t going to hear them.

As I laid there, I decided to occupy myself again with thoughts of the Ancient Wolf powers. I shut my eyes, thinking hard. If only…

Suddenly, my eyes shot open as a thought occurred to me. “Freya,” I breathed, sitting up abruptly.

“Freya?” my wolf asked.

“My mother’s sister, remember?” I replied. “She knew about the Ancient Wolf bloodline; hell, she might be the only one of us left who has firsthand experience.”

“So you’re saying…”

“I’m saying,” I replied coolly, “maybe, if I could find her, she could help me. And then we can finally tap into our true bloodline. Become stronger.”

My wolf was silent for several moments as she pondered my words. But she didn’t need to say it. I already knew what she was thinking; that this was just another distraction, that my urgency was unfounded.

There was nothing endangering my family at the moment, and yet I was frantic to uncover my powers out of nowhere.

But so what if it was a distraction? It was working.

And it was keeping me from calling my cheating husband.

…

The sun was hanging low in the sky by the time I stepped out of the grocery store holding a paper bag of groceries in each arm. After a good day of work without running into Nathan even once at the Council building, there was a new pep in my step.

Freya. She had been on my mind since I had the idea to find her last night, and tonight, once the twins were asleep, I intended to begin my search.

“Looks like someone’s in a good mood.”

I looked up to see Angela walking my way, headed into the grocery store in her scrubs. With a smile, I set my bags down in the back of my car and turned to her with my hands on my hips.

“I am in a good mood,” I said. “I have a lead.”

Angela stopped in front of me and furrowed her brow. “A lead?” she asked.

It was only then that I realized that, during my frenzy for information, I had forgotten to update my friend on what I had been up to.

“My Ancient Wolf powers,” I said. “I’m trying to learn how to harness them. And I’ve decided that I’m going to try and find Freya.”

Angela blinked at me, shocked, for a few moments. “So does that mean you and Nathan are back together?” she blurted out.

My eyes widened. “No. Why would we…”

“Well, it’s just that you seem to be starting this new project, and I heard you’re back at work at the Council building,” she said slowly. “So I thought that maybe you and Nathan were starting to work things out or something.”

I felt myself blanch as Angela’s words sank in. I guess, on the outside, it did seem like that. But that wasn’t the case.

“Er, no,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck with my hand. “He’s tried to talk to me, but I’m not hearing it.”

“So this Ancient Wolf stuff…” Angela shifted her purse on her shoulder and lowered her voice a bit. “Liv, are you trying to distract yourself?”

I let out a sigh. Angela was always too intuitive, and often saw right through my facades. “Maybe a little,” I muttered. “But that’s not so wrong, is it? I mean, I almost called him last night, Angela. But when I’m thinking about this other stuff, it’s…”

Angela smiled softly, her eyes a little sad as she looked at me. “It’s not so hard when you have something else to focus on,” she finished for me. “I understand, Liv. But are you sure that’s healthy?”

I didn’t know what to say. Angela was right, and that hurt. All this time, I had somehow managed to convince myself that uncovering my powers was necessary to protect my children and become stronger.

But maybe, sometimes, distractions like this weren’t always the ‘healthiest’ choice.

Suddenly, just as I was about to say something else, my phone rang. I scrunched up my eyebrows and pulled my phone out of my pocket, only to see an unknown number on the screen. It wasn’t the stranger who had sent me the pictures, though. This was someone else.

“Hello?” I answered.

The voice on the other end was more familiar than I expected. “Olivia, it’s… Clarissa.”

My eyes widened at Angela, who was now leaning against the car and watching me with an intrigued expression on her face. “Clarissa,” I said, blinking confusedly. “To… To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Clarissa took in a deep breath that sounded shaky through the phone, like she was in some sort of distress. “Olivia, I really need to talk to you. Would you be able to meet up for coffee tomorrow morning?”

“Coffee? I, uh…” I thought back to the day when Dan had warned me against being close with his wife, as well as to the day of the funeral, when he had dragged Clarissa away upon seeing us hugging.

It felt risky, but something about the urgency in Clarissa’s voice made me temporarily forget all of that.

“Yes,” I finally said. “I can do that.”

“Great. I’ll meet you tomorrow at nine at the cafe in your town,” she said. And before I could answer, she hung up.

I slowly turned toward Angela, my eyes wide, and relayed the conversation to her. When I was finished, her own eyes were wide as well.

“Maybe she knows something about the cheating,” Angela whispered.