174. All sad

Alana

"What? Are you leaving? How come? What are you talking about?” Skylar was asking, dumbfounded. The two other girls also looked at me with faces of astonishment and fright, and they really didn't expect to hear that from me.

“My marriage with your alpha is no longer working like it used to…” I said to them in a very sad way, really mirroring what I was feeling in my heart.

“But what do you mean? I always thought you were an indestructible couple and that your love was greater than anything. Why this now?” Lily asked uneasily. She seemed to be shaken.

I took my hand to hers and held her hand gently. “I still love Sedrik, I really do. But there's the issue of children, which I never thought would be our destruction one day. But now I'm no longer the Alana I used to be, now I'm a mother with a life that depends on me. I need to protect my daughter,” I told them all. They, as my best friends, knew that I had given birth to a girl and not a boy, and they knew the problem I was having with all of this.

“But that seems so unfair,” Maya said unhappily. “You've done so much for this place, why can't they just accept things as they are?”

I spent some time in silence, thinking about it. It was sad knowing that I was leaving this place that I thought would be my forever home. I had gotten so used to everything here that it would be hard for me to just leave, but I felt like I had no choice, scared of what Sedrik or some wolf would make with my rejected daughter. I needed to take care of her, she only had me in this life.

“Sedrik said we should try to have more babies until a boy appears who can be the alpha heir, but what if that doesn't happen? What if I never get pregnant with him again, or if I get pregnant and give birth to more than one girl? Is he going to freak out again and leave?” I asked myself more than the girls. “He even refused to give a name to his own daughter. How do you think I'm going to be in a place where my own husband neglects his own daughter? I love him, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to put up with him mistreating our own daughter.”

There was bitterness in my words. I was a mother now, and everything I did would have serious consequences for my daughter. If I accepted just living that way with him or everyone there despising my daughter, what kind of mother would I be? I preferred to separate from the man I loved to care for and protect my daughter, the child the gods gave me.

“This is so unfair…” Lily sniffled.

“So, where are you thinking of going? Are you going back to Belmont?” Skylar asked, making me sigh and look at the bright day outside with a melancholy look.

It was true that they thought that if I decided to leave, then I would return to Belmont, which was the place where they had seen me born and raised, but well, it wasn't a place that was always friendly for me, to tell the truth.

I had good memories from there, but the bad ones were more prevalent, so I couldn't imagine going back to them, especially with a child who was half wolf. I knew that if I wanted to return to the witches' country with my daughter, who also belonged to the wolf people, I had to seek shelter in places that would really protect me, like Emory Castle, for example.

“I'm going to the City of Gold,” I told them.

Lily and Skylar gasped in shock. "What? Are you going to Fastfall? After everything that happened there?” She was already in shock, it was as if I was going to give myself into the hands of the enemy.

“I intend to make a deal with Prince Emory,” I told her. “With his protection, I’m going to use my magic to fight his battles and make him have many victories.”

I was sure Emory would never deny a proposal like that. There were no powerful witches like me on this vast continent, so if the prince of the witch people had me by his side, he would certainly be rich and famous; he would conquer several lands and defeat his enemies easily; he would be feared and respected throughout the place he passed. Everyone on this vast continent would know his name. It was very tempting for someone like him not to accept that proposal, that's why he had written a letter with his own hand inviting me to go and live with him in Fastfall.

“So you’ve already decided that, right? Are you really leaving?” Skylar asked as she swallowed hard.

“I feel like I have no choice, Skylar…” I said to her, feeling emotional about that moment, so sad that it seemed like goodbye.

“Oh, Alana…” Lily cried and threw herself at me, giving me a tight hug, the two older women did the same, hugging me and then the four of us cried together.

“It's okay, girls, you can come visit me whenever you want. I will never forget you, I will always be connected to each one of you,” I said with tears in my eyes, caressing each of their faces. I was extremely grateful to have met souls as good as theirs.

“You will be missed so much here, I can't even imagine…” Maya cried too.

“I can't come to terms with it, I'm sorry…” Lily was crying profusely.

“Let's just try to respect her decision, girls,” Skylar told them. “We all know that going through a divorce is not an easy thing to do, let’s just give her the strength to do the right things and make everything work out for her, can we do that?” She was looking at them firmly, being the oldest of us all, she knew what we needed to do.

Maya and Lily nodded. “Yes… We hope everything goes well for you and your little girl, Alana,” Maya said, wiping away her tears.

“We love you so much,” Lily added and I cried too.

“I also love you very much, and I will miss you all very much,” I said, looking at them, feeling that this upcoming period of my life would really be the most difficult.