44 - Ha ha ha

THALIA ZAHARA.

It is strange.

This is the second time I am hearing Alpha Ezra speak about me being his mate but I am yet to find the strength to rebuke his proclamation.

It’s almost as though something within me keeps greatly agreeing with his statement.

“Mate?” Lycan Octavius became hysterical. He laughed in disbelief and almost staggered in the process. “How is she your mate? I rejected her, Alpha Ezra! She is mine!”

“Is she though?”

“Wh-what?”

Alpha Ezra finally broke our eye contact and he faced the man. “For how long do you intend to deceive yourself and Miss Thalia?”

“Make sense, Alpha Ezra. You are-”

“She was never your mate.”

“Alpha Ezra…” His response dumbfounded me, I could only roll out his name since that has been my default phrase since I’ve come to this pack.

“Am I lying, Lycan Octavius?”

“You know lying against your king isn’t a light crime.” I lived with Octavius for a while and I never heard his voice hold the weakness it possessed at that moment. “Watch your words, Alpha Ezra.”

“You used your Lycan abilities to tie your soul with hers, so it was easy to deceive her into thinking you were mates.”

“Alpha Ezra,” I stepped away from his hold, my eyes now carrying fear of the things he was yet to reveal, “if you are lying-”

“Unfortunately, Thalia,” he looked at me, “I am speaking the truth.”

“How can that be the truth? Alpha Ezra, I felt our bond when we were together and when he rejected me, the bond broke. I felt that too. How was he not my mate?”

“He used his Lycan abilities to-”

“Why?” That is the only question that matters at this point. Anger roused my soul but I managed to keep it at bay. “Why did he go that far? Why did I have to suffer because of someone that’s not my mate?”

“Because it was fun for him until it wasn’t,” Alpha Ezra replied.

“Fun?” I glared at Octavius. He was not denying the claims and that brought my anger out of its hiding place. “Fun?”

“He broke things off when he found out about the potential of your powers.”

“Okay.” I sighed. “At this point, I think you must be high on something, Alpha Ezra. Are you sure of the things you are saying right now?”

“You are not wolfless, Thalia,” he softly said. “Your wolf is just delayed.”

“And?”

“Lycan Octavius wants to end your life before your wolf manifests. If he had tried killing you before the rejection, it would have affected him since your mating wasn’t natural.”

I scoffed while my heart knotted with a feeling I wasn’t familiar with. “So, he rejected me and then tried to take my life.” A chuckle I didn’t anticipate left my mouth. I reached for my knees and arched my back for many seconds. “This is insane. This is very insane.”

“Alpha Ezra,” Octavius said. “What gives you the right to do this?”

“You need to call off the Goblin you paid to get rid of Thalia,” the man replied. “Because of that creature…” He sighed quite heavily so I looked at him. His eyes were now closed and it appeared that he was about to say something difficult. “Because of that creature, she thinks…She thinks she tried to…” His eyes squeezed tighter. “… harm-”

I laughed out loud. I didn’t need him to complete the statement, I already got what he was trying to say.

I didn’t try to end my life, some crazy Goblin that Lycan Octavius paid did it.

Ha. Ha ha. Ha. Ha ha ha.

Isn’t my life quite a movie?

“Hold up,” Octavius said while I spent a good few seconds laughing my ass off. “I am not disagreeing with the things you said earlier, but this Goblin shit, I am very unfamiliar with it.”

“This is the worst time to spew lies, Lycan Octavius,” Ezra said.

“I do not lie. Yes, I tend to do some things that may be… questionable.” The last word was whispered. “But I do not lie. It is not a thing of pride to lie.”

“Really?”

I ended my laughter with tears already building in the corner of my eyes. I bit into my lower lip and looked away from the men who were silently threatening each other.

“You can check your facts. You won’t ever find evidence of me hiring a Goblin or whatever you just called it.

“You have more than enough evil deeds, Lycan Octavius. Even other pack leaders’ know that much.”

“What are you going to-?”

“Lycan Octavius,” I finally faced them, “you should leave.”

“I won’t leave until that one lie is corrected. You-”

“Leave!” That order revealed only a fraction of my released anger and it was enough to pass the message to the stubborn man.

“This is not over,” Octavius claimed. “Don’t think I will let this insolence go unpunished. I will see you later, Ezra.”

Minutes later, it was just Alpha Ezra, Emmag and me left in the large room.

I would have crashed to the ground if a little strength wasn’t left in me.

“Ahh…” I palmed my forehead and tried to evade the pounding that filled my head. “What kind of shit is this?”

“Thalia…” Emmag tried to speak.

I wiped away the tears that were about to fall. “Tell me. You guys have known about this since your days of stalking me, right?”

“We uh-”

“Yes, we have,” Alpha Ezra interrupted Emmag’s attempt to evade the question. “Apart from the Goblin situation, we have known about the depth of the Lycan’s deceit for quite some time.”

“Do you guys realize that you are at fault for the crazy things that have happened?” I was trying hard to keep my anger as timid as possible. “How could you have watched as that man ruined my life? If you had intervened, my parents might have not died. I could have saved them.” I sighed. “Okay, fine. I was a stranger to you two back then. I get that. But the moment we struck a deal, you should have informed me of all of Octavius’s deceit. Why should I have to hear about it in that man’s presence?”

“That was the only way you would have believed me,” Ezra replied. “I don’t have physical evidence to show the extent of the Lycan’s manipulation of your soul, so saying those things in his presence was the only option I had.”

“But I would have believed you, Alpha Ezra,” I almost cried. “That man hurt me so much, of course, I would have believed you! But now… Now… As if it’s not terrible that I had to hear about how he took over my soul, I had to hear all of that in front of him! That makes me feel more terrible, Alpha Ezra.”

“I am sorry, Thalia.” The natural stoicness in his voice had disappeared. He stepped closer and held my shoulders dearly. “I am sorry I adopted a terrible way to reveal those things.”

I swallowed the bitterness in my mouth and my eyes felt heavier as I quietly asked, “Why did you choose to reveal it now of all times?”

“It was the only option I could think of.”

“Option?”

“I have to keep my promise of protecting you, Thalia. If I don’t, I will never be able to face you. And, I will not be able to love you as I should.”