Chapter 14: Shadows of the Past

I anticipated this moment.  

As soon as I entered Derek's office, the air became thick with anticipation and unsaid tension. With a soft but final thud, the door closed behind me, cutting off the outside world.  

Derek watched my every move intently from behind his desk. His office was small, effective, and well-organized—exactly what I had anticipated. The lanterns' faint light highlighted maps, weapons, and neatly stacked reports by creating shadows on the wooden walls. There was no tenderness, no personal touch. **Just business. Only power.  

And I was his business tonight.  

"Sit," he said in an unintelligible tone.  

After a moment of hesitation, I moved forward and lowered myself onto the chair across from him. There was a tense, weighted silence between us.  

"Should I start asking questions or do you want to tell me?"  

There was no mistaking the steel beneath his calm voice. I wasn't stupid enough to think I could lie to Derek, and he wasn't the kind of person who tolerated dishonesty.  

I clasped my hands together and let out a slow exhale. "What are you interested in knowing?"  

He squinted his eyes. "Everything."  

I took a swallow. I had run, hid, and tried to bury the past for so long. Derek, however, was not giving me an option.  

So I got started.  

I said, "I was born into the Midnight Moon Pack," in a steady but quiet voice. "My mother was a healer, and my father was the Beta of the pack. We had respect, but we weren't noble. devoted. I made myself look into his eyes. "When I turned eighteen and Jared Blackwell became Alpha, that changed."  

Derek's face remained the same, but I could tell that his patience was wearing thin. Although Jared is strong, his pack isn't always this vicious. What took place?  

I paused. How did I justify the gradual slide into hell? Everything changed when Jared took over.  

I acknowledged, "He wasn't always a monster." Power, however, corrupted him. He began eradicating anyone who opposed him, including dissenters, challengers, and even devoted pack members who merely disagreed with his directives. He thought that being strong meant having an iron grip.  

Derek's piercing eyes met mine as he leaned forward a little. What role did you play in all of this?  

I made my hands clenched. "I should have been his mate."  

Unspoken understanding thickened the air in the room as it changed. Derek's eyes flickered with interest, curiosity, and calculation, but he didn't flinch.  

"Supposed to be?" he repeated.  

I gave a nod. It was the Moon Goddess who picked us. As soon as our connection felt right, I thought. I suppressed the sour laugh that threatened to surface. "I believed that I was the luckiest girl in the world."  

Derek remained silent, allowing me to go on.  

Jared, however, had other plans. He saw me as weak. An Alpha didn't deserve an Omega as a mate. Instead of me, he desired a Luna who could bolster his authority. I pressed my fingers into my hands. "Well, he turned me down. in public. embarrassing me in front of the pack as a whole. He chose to mate with Lilia, a strong she-wolf from a well-known family. However, that was insufficient. He ensured that everyone understood my insignificance.  

Derek's energy changed, but his expression remained unreadable—**calm, yet dangerous.**  

He remarked, "That wasn’t where it ended, was it?"  

I gave a headshake. "No. For him, rejection was insufficient. He required my disappearance. to disappear from the history of the pack."  

I paused, my throat heaving under the weight of the next words.  

"My execution was ordered by him."  

Derek felt a muscle in his jaw twitch. For a moment only. Hardly perceptible. However, I did see it.  

"He wanted you dead?" Now his voice was icier.  

"Yes," I muttered. "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for my father. He made my escape possible. He bought me some time. I blinked back the sting in my eyes and gasped for air. "He failed to escape."  

There was a pause of one beat. Then another.  

Derek leaned back a little and studied me, letting out a breath through his nose. "Jared has now placed a price on your head."  

I gave a nod. "The Midnight Moon Pack marks anyone who provides me with shelter as an enemy."  

His eyes grew gloomy. "And you felt it was a good idea to come here?"  

My chest erupted with anger, but I suppressed it. "There was nowhere else for me to go."  

"You've placed my pack in the middle of a conflict, and that doesn't change that." Now his voice was piercing, a blade slicing through the tension.  

"I know," I said forthrightly. However, I didn't request protection. None of this was something I requested.  

His sharp eyes never left mine, and he remained silent for a long time. Then he put his forearms on the desk and leaned forward.  

He said, "Tell me something, Claire," in a softer, more menacing tone. "Why does Jared want to get you back so badly? "Why send spies rather than assassins if he wanted you dead?"  

I took a deep breath. I thought that was the question. The one that had followed me around ever since I got away.  

I said, "I don't know," in a voice that was hardly audible above a whisper.  

Derek weighed my words as he examined me, his wolf hiding beneath the surface. "I think you do," he said in an unintelligible voice. "You simply haven't finished assembling the pieces yet."  

A shiver went through my body.  

Was he correct? Was I overlooking something?  

I had been running for so long because I was afraid and focused on surviving. But what if Jared's brutality wasn't the only aspect of this?  

Derek sighed, rubbing a hand down his face. In any case, you're here now. This implies that I need to make a choice.  

I stiffened. "What decision?"  

His piercing eyes locked with mine. "Is it worth the risk to keep you here?"  

I gasped.  

I had briefly begun to think that perhaps I could find a place here, even though I knew I wasn't safe in Redwater.  

Derek, however, was an Alpha. He was devoted to his pack. I knew what Redwater had to do if defending me meant endangering him.  

Nevertheless, I felt a surge of fear at the prospect of expelling myself once more.  

I stared at him, my heart racing.  

"Will you be sending me away?" My voice was hardly steady as I asked.  

Derek took a while to respond. Silent and unreadable, he observed me. Making calculations.  

Then he got up and walked to the door.  

He stated, "I haven't decided yet," in a cool, aloof voice. "However, you ought to be ready for the potential."  

He then signalled the end of our conversation by opening the door.  

I got to my feet slowly, my legs shaky under me. I could feel his eyes on my back as I passed him, warning me with a fiery stare.  

Jared had survived me. I was not dead. How much longer, though?  

For if Derek Blackthorn thought I wasn't worth the chance...  

Once more, I would be by myself.  

And nobody would be around to save me this time.