No Purpose

No Purpose
OPAL

Two more attacks happen, one worse than the next. 

Honestly, I’m horrified. I can’t believe the devastation and the longer I spend with all these people, the more unfair it becomes. 

Bruce’s army usually attacks when everyone’s sleeping so as to not give them a chance to escape; it’s a terrible cruelty. Every time I see the suffering in their eyes, I ask myself how I could have ever thought that I loved Bruce. 

He tricked me so well. I’m ashamed that I ever got involved with him.

We’ve been getting better at picking up and leaving whenever we hear of an attack. I’ve been helping out as much as I can. I wash injuries, help people carry their belongings away from the fire, and then help them settle down in a new place. 

The situation is getting out of hand, though. What are they hoping to accomplish from all this? Why do they need rogue territories this badly? 

Or is it just revenge? Because of the late Alpha King’s assassination?

When we reach the new settlement, I place the little girl I’ve been carrying on the ground. “Are you feeling okay? How are your legs?”

She shifts her weight from one leg to the other, then nods. Beside me, her mother cries out, clutching my arm. She has burns all over her arms, which is why I stepped in and decided to carry her daughter for her. 

“I can’t thank you enough for this,” she says as she starts to get on her knees before me, crying. I hold her upper arm and stop her. 

“Please. It’s my pleasure. Please don’t. You don’t have to thank me.”

“How can’t I?” she questions. “Everyone is speaking of your generosity. Thank you for helping my daughter. You’re a saint! A reincarnation of the goddess herself!”

Her words stay with me for the rest of the day, and again, I can’t help but think that she’d turn against me if she knew who I truly was. 

They all would. 

Kyle finds me all by myself with a bottle of water in my hand and approaches. I look up, meeting his gaze. He folds his arms and asks me, “Rough day?”

“I guess so. I mean, look at all this mess. When’s it ever going to stop?”

My question hangs in the air between us. After several beats, he says, “They’re asking for war. I’m convinced now that that’s what they want. What I don’t understand is why. They’re trying to lure us out. That, or they want us desperate enough to accept their terms once they place them.”

“What do you think those terms will be?”

Kyle shrugs. “Maybe they want you back. But they were doing this before they got you, so it doesn’t make any sense.”

“They don’t care about me,” I assure him. It’s all I say. 

He watches me for several beats, and it makes me wonder what’s going on inside his head. He then asks me, “Why were you all alone that night, driving through the roughest part of the city?”

I swallow the knot forming in my throat at the memory. I always avoid thinking about that night because it was when I realized that I was completely alone. Everyone I loved betrayed me. 

“I can’t tell you,” I admit after a while. “I just need you to believe that they don’t care about me. And I’m not one of them.”

“I see that. I believe you.”

His words make my heart feel a lot lighter and lessen my burden. I know I’m not perfect, but I would never hurt innocent people like this. 

I hate Bruce so much for this. 

So much. 

“Our marriage was a political strategy,” I claim. “I didn’t want to marry him. I remember how I argued with my father about it, but my wishes weren’t heard. I ended up marrying him anyway and…”

I trail off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. Kyle steps toward me and places his hand on my shoulder. I meet his gaze, fighting back tears. 

“We should talk about this somewhere else,” he mentions, looking around at the dark trees. “You never know who’s listening.”

I nod and stand up from the log on the side of the road. I sniffle as we walk alongside each other and tell him, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more use to you. Maybe you would’ve had more luck kidnapping his sister.”

Kyle shrugs. “If it didn’t work out, then it didn’t work out. But why are you so sure that he doesn’t care that we have you? Why would he have married you if you were truly without value in his life?”

I choose my next words carefully as we walk along the dirt road. A few people are walking past us, thanking Kyle loudly for finding them another place to stay. When this happens, we don’t talk. 

“I learned that he only married me because he thought that it would end this war.”

“What?” he questions. “What sense does that make?”

I shrug. “He always thought you were at war with him, which was why he assumed you had assassinated his father. Trust me, I have no idea why he thinks it was you. I don’t know what kind of evidence he has.”

“It would all be bullshit because we weren’t involved with that,” he claims. “For years, we’ve only been focused on minding our business and growing as a community. After my father’s death, a lot of things changed. He told me he didn’t want war. He told me to protect the peace at all costs. That’s why we’re not attacking innocent people. We’d never do that. We’re not like them.”

This saddens me, for some reason. Why can’t Bruce understand this? He can’t hurt innocent people. Women and children. The elderly. This is a crime. It’s sinful. “If you’re not the ones fighting him, then I don't know what's going on anymore.”

I’ve been thinking about this for days now. Even if I were the daughter of a rogue, how does that end this war? Did they really think the rogues would give in to their demands because of a woman they don’t even know?

I think about telling him about my biological father and how I tie in to all this, but in the end, I say nothing.