WAR

Anna was relieved to see that lunch had been kept in her room just like the last previous days, she was already contemplating if she had the strength to walk back down to the dining room and have lunch with everyone. Face Kane.

She doubted she could do it.

Tony walked her back to her room, a faint smile on his lips and guilt in his eyes. Anna didn’t want to tell herself that he was genuinely guilty and cared because…look at her!

Who would care about her?

Even her parents who birthed her sold her for a better life, Anna didn’t have any hope that someone would genuinely care.

Maybe that was why it was so easy for her to harden her heart after realizing Kane was her fated mate.

She would get over him, she would get out of here.

“Do…you need anything else?” Tony still stood at the door, seemingly reluctant to leave the entrance of her room.

“No, thank you for walking me back.” Anna simply said as she sat down on the bed and her fingers groped the sheets.

An attempt not to show any weakness until the Beta was out of sight.

“You’re welcome,” He said.

“Kane wants you to be in the living room by eight, he says he has spoken to the warlocks about the meeting and he wants to inform you of what has been decided,”

Anna’s gaze subconsciously moved down to the bangle on her wrist that burned her skin from it’s tightness and it’s strange light glowing even more.

She was going to meet Kane tonight?

She had hoped she wouldn’t see him for another few days, just so she would be able to get her emotions in check again but yet now…

She knew Kane probably used a mind link to communicate with Tony because he was there with her the whole time and there was no way he had met with Kane before she ran into him at the garden.

What was Kane going to talk to her about? The warlocks had spoken in riddles that she couldn’t understand, then put a strange bangle on her wrist that wouldn’t come off, she feared it was somewhat a cuff that would keep her here forever. Restricting her from leaving GreyThorn as she planned to do.

She hoped not.

“Are you okay?”

It wasn’t until Tony spoke that Anna was brought out of her thoughts and she felt a droplet of sweat from her forehead fall into her eyes, did she realize that she was still in a conversation.

“You look pale,” Tony said. His brows furrowed with concern as he took a step forward and past the door.

“No…no, I’m fine!” Anna waved her hands in front of her, stopping the man in his tracks.

“I was just lost in thought fro a second, but I’m good!”

“You sure?”

Anna forced a smile and nodded.

Tony didn’t look convinced but he also didn’t probe any further. He buried his hands in his pockets and nodded.

“Take care of yourself Anna, I’ll see you later?”

He meant the now decided meeting with Kane.

“Uh…yes, yes I’ll see you later!”

The door closed shut behind him and Anna could finally relax.

How hard it was to always be tense and to never trust anyone.

It was like a constant pain in her neck and shoulders, and her heart but yet she knew that if she really wanted to stay alive…she had to trust no one but herself.

She ate her lunch in silence, silently commending the chef and his cooking skills. Anna couldn’t remember that last time she ate such good food so many days in a row.

Even when she was with her parents, her little sister always got everything and before that, it was her mother because she was pregnant. Anna always accepted it because she felt so guilty for being the reason they were always on the run.

She never argued but now she’s come to realize that they never really cared.

“I only have me,” She said to no one in particular. The sadness in her voice thick in the air.

Once she was done eating, she brought the empty dishes to the bathroom and cleaned them, then she left them outside the door of her room.

Anna was back on the bed once she was done. Her fingers caressing the bangle on her wrist, she kept feeling a slight buzz from it. Almost like it was vibrating, it glowed red with power, just like her eyes did.

She wondered what it was for.

What it meant for her.

…

At the border that separated GreyThorn from any other pack that wished them harm, an alpha walked past it.

His eyes narrowed with anger, glowed with rage and his fists turned white at his sides due to how hard he clenched them.

He was tall, good looking but had something sinister in his blue eyes that would make other want to create as much distance from his as possible.

He had blue eyes that might remind one of oceans, the ones that people went in and never came out of.

The type that drowned it’s visitors and left no proof of their existence but sometimes a floating shoe or if lucky, a body.

Emptied of life but filled with water.

He walked past the border with squared shoulders, no fear in his eyes or his form. Behind him were over two-hundred men and wolves, some with weapons in their hands and others fully shifted and their fangs bared.

On his chest were two holes and one large gash from a claw. Normally, he would’ve healed but instead he carried around this humiliating wound as a reminder of what had been done to him and why he was now on his way to GreyThorn.

To have his revenge.

He was ready for war and at the end of it, he would have Kane’s head on a fucking platter!