44|Find Him

44|Find Him
~Serena~

Heart galloping in my chest, I rose from the bathtub, water sloshing out at my sudden movement.

“Where did he go?” I demanded, stepping out of the tub and leaving a trail of water on the floor as I went to open the drawers and cabinets in the bathroom, searching for a towel. My face turned sour when I opened empty shelves one after another, except for the one under the sink where soaps and cleaning agents were stashed. 

“Where are the towels?” I pried, the soapy water dripping down my skin.

I frowned when I heard nothing but Cora’s controlled breathing. She was so quiet that it felt like I was alone in the bathroom. She was quite the chatterbox moments ago, so I turned around with a raised eyebrow, pursing my lips as I witnessed the glimmer of amusement in her green eyes.

“I’m glad I amuse you,” sarcasm laced my tone as I confronted her.

She stood up from sitting on the edge of the bathtub, crossing her arms in her middle. A patch of water drenched the back of her dress. 

“Why are you reacting like this?” she circled a forefinger at me, her investigative eyes skimmed my face slowly.

“Because Declan would likely commit suicide if I don’t find him,” I answered her question as confusion spread in my chest. She was caring and sweet one moment, and now she has become unsympathetic? What’s her deal?

“What is it to you if he died?” she quizzed, raising a perfectly carved eyebrow at me. She was questioning my intentions now? Then she added, “Aren’t you hell-bent on making him pay for what he’s done to you?”

The wheels in my mind shifted into overdrive. ‘Does Cora know what happened in the past? Is Declan so close to this family that he’s willing to spill the dark past of Embercrest?’

Annoyance waged a war inside me as I answered Cora with another question. “What do you know about what he did to me?”

It gradually sank into me. I’m not speaking to Cora’s motherly side, but Cora as Luna of Fallenmist. When I was the Luna of Embercrest, I made sure to interrogate all the people coming into our pack to keep my people safe. And that’s what Cora is doing; she’s trying to protect Declan from me.

“I know enough to understand that you want Declan dead and Embercrest back,” she murmured.

Cora sounded like a mom trying to protect her cub. I’m starting to wonder if the story about her mate was true, or was it only a way to get me to open up to her.

“Yes,” I admitted, squaring my shoulders. “I want him dead, but on my own terms. It won’t give me pleasure if he took his own life.”

Cora goes about perusing what was on my mind. “Is that all? You could keep lying to me, but you’re also lying to yourself, Serena.”

I needed to be out of here, and the person who I thought would help me was also the one depriving me of my towels and the answer to my question. Having had enough of her interrogating questions, I fired, “You know what? I’d rather be on my way looking for Declan, and if you don’t want to help me, fine. I’m out of here.”

Buck naked, I turned around and decided it’s best to take things into my own hands, but Cora stopped me as I reached the door. “You don’t need my help to find your mate.”

Eyebrows curled, I turned to face her again. “If you’re not gonna help me, better just shut it.”

She strutted towards me, opening the door, and showed me that the towels I was looking for were waiting for me on the bed. The plush white fabric was neatly folded above a white floral dress. 

“Here. Be on your way and find Declan,” she said blandly.

I clenched my hands, nibbling my lip as the wheels on my mind tried to comprehend Cora’s actions, soapy water dripping off me while I stood still by the bathroom door. “Why are you doing this?”

She still wore that perusing look. “My questions needed answers.”

“Answers to what?” I probed in a clipped tone. “They brought me here because they said you have the answers to my dilemma, and all you did was confuse me.”

“I wanted to know if you really need my help,” she rolled her shoulder in a lazy shrug, as if this conversation was boring her to death. “Turns out, you don’t. You know what you need, and you’re just refusing to accept it.”

I still don’t get her, but I wanted this conversation to be over, but Cora wasn’t done. She still has something to say. “I don’t know where to find Declan, Serena. Our guards at the border told me he had already left the pack’s property. But you are his mate. You’d find him anywhere if you want.”

She spun around, leaving me to solve the puzzle she had laid before me. My thoughts were muddled as I got under the rain of the shower, the soapy water running through the drain. Body dripping, I walked out of the bathroom, leaving wet footsteps in my wake.

While I pat my body dry, a sudden pain squeezes my chest. I gasped, holding the white towel against my chest as I pressed a hand on the bed for leverage. My body curled forward as another pain struck me like a series of lightning bolts pelting me. I fell to the ground. The floor was cold against my ass as I felt a heavy strike hit me again.

It slowly dawned on me that this wasn’t my pain. There’s no physical indication that someone was landing a strike on me, but the pain was reverberating through the bond.

‘Declan.’

The next pain that landed on me was so strong that I curled on the floor, whimpering as the overwhelming ache throbbed inside me, as if my stomach was being gutted with a knife laced with wolf’s bane.

I heard the door slam. With the throbbing aches in my head and chest, I wasn’t sure if it was real or if I was just imagining it, until I felt Cora’s warm hands caressing my head.

“Serena… come on, honey. You’ve gotta find Declan.” Her voice was an echo bouncing off the canyon walls.

I pushed aside the burning sensation in my chest. My body felt like it was literally on fire. “Co… Cora?”

“What you’re feeling, it’s Declan’s pain, and that’s only half of what’s happening to him. You’ve got to find him, Serena.” Her voice was shaking, a boat sailing under an angry storm. “Try to focus. Find him.”

How can I focus when it feels like someone is shoving a hot iron laced with wolfbane right through my chest?

“Declan…” I whimpered. “Declan…”

My voice calling his name faded, and Declan’s voice rang through my head. “Serena, my love. I hope you find peace. I will endure anything just to save you from the pain.”

A blurry image of Declan, shirtless, tied to a metal chair in a dark room, zapped into my vision, like a glitching photo of a torture cell. There was a sole sheepish light above Declan, moving as the shadow of a man circled Declan. The man held a scorching iron against Declan’s skin, leaving burned marks in its wake. Declan fought the pain, his body jolting back and forth as the chair’s legs scraped the moldy floor.

I cried while Declan screamed through the rag shoved in his mouth. The veins in his neck, arms, and forehead were ready to explode. Then a foreign voice rushed through my thoughts. “I would put your head on a stake, Alpha.”

The glitching image started to become clear. Still feeling the spasm pulsing inside me, I pushed up from lying on Cora’s lap, my vision was still hazy, but a newfound strength brewed inside me. “I know where to find him, but I will need your help.”