85
Emma
“Ace, are you alright?”
Keeping my eyes on him, I watch fury flash up in his eyes, his expression turning angrier.
“What the hell?” he mumbles, his eyes avoiding mine.
His gaze follows the witch still twirling and laughing around us while I try to ignore her so as not to give in to my panicky feeling.
Also, I don’t want to get into a fight with a witch in their realm.
Especially in this Goddess-forsaken world.
I fight to get his eyes back on me and step closer, realising that he isn’t healing. Holding out my hand to touch his wound, I finally get him to look at me. “Ace. You aren’t healing,” I state, and he shakes his head with a sigh.
“Well, I’m without my wolf. There is no one there to heal me, Em.”
Scrunching up my face, I put my fists on my hips. “And what is with your…”
At first, I stop because I suddenly realise that I shouldn’t talk about his demon creature in public.
And certainly not in this marketplace.
But then, as my brain takes a forced break to rethink my words, it suddenly strikes me. “Wait… There is no one healing you?”
He grimaces, and I crouch down to check his jeans which are ripped and full of blood. “I thought that—”
My words get stuck in my throat as he grabs my upper arm, pulling me up again. His fingers burn into my skin, and I suppress the urge to rip myself free as he snarls at me. “Stop that. Are you insane?”
“But…the biters…they…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” the witch says in a sing-song voice, her pale face covered in little scars as she is incredibly close, staring at us directly.. “Those little…creatures. They tend to make you slow,” she mocks, doing another twirl. “They attack the strongest first. There is a reason for tha-at.”
Ace growls, taking a step towards her, but I move into his way fully, pressing my palm on his chest. “Ace. No. Think about what letting yourself get provoked would mean for the pack.”
Looking up, I see him clenching his teeth, his hand still wrapped around my arm as he balls his other. “Ace, please,” I add in a whisper, hoping it will work as I certainly am no match to hold him back otherwise. “Do at least this for your family.”
I fold my fingers, wrapping his shirt around them. “Or maybe for me?”
He unclenches his jaw, looking down at me as if I took him out of a trance. His deep sigh gives me the impression that he wants to tell me something as the witch starts hollering again, getting our heads to snap in her direction.
“Oh, he is a really strong one. That’s impressive.”
Ace lets go of me just as it starts sizzling a little bit too much, taking a step to shield me from her. “What do you want?”
The witch’s expression turns sad as she eyes us up. “What? I just wanted to get to know you.”
With a clicking of his tongue, Ace turns around, pushing me in the opposite direction. “We need to get out of here.”
I nod, letting me steer away as the witch speaks again, making us halt. “You are so strong. You must be the descendant of a strong wolf.”
“Ace?” I whisper, wrapping my arms around his as we look back at her.
He shakes his head, still standing in a way that would shield me from a sudden attack. “I don’t know either. I don’t get what she wants,” he whispers back.
Pushing down the urge to hug my belly as I am scared of what she might do, I watch her having the time of her life. “Your mother is even stronger than your father. The Goddess was unsure if it would work out, so she planned a second-chance mate in case he would have been stupid enough to reject the gift that was granted to him. She was his mate, but a second chance in another way, wasn’t she?”
“He was her second-chance mate,” Ace answers slowly, correcting her, and I pull at his arm.
More and more people are starting to get interested in what is happening, and I don’t like this feeling.
This is turning out to be a total disaster.
“Ace, you shouldn’t talk to her. Let’s go.”
He turns to me, seemingly annoyed at me as he snarls. “We couldn’t leave without Kai anyway. Do you know how to get out of this fucking place?”
Jerking back, I let go of him, shaking my head while he turns his attention back to the witch.
I get it.
He is back in his soldier mode.
“Uh, she is very special then,” the witch puts her hands in the air, swaying them as she dances to an inaudible tune. “I haven’t seen third-chance mates in centuries.”
“Third-chance mate?” I take a step around Ace, her words picking my interest. “What do you mean? How would you even know that?”
She hugs herself, glaring at me as she scoffs, continuing her dance. “As if you had to ask me. Our Moon Goddess has a plan for everyone, and she usually tells her messengers.” Holding her hands in front of her mouth, her sleeves rustle, moving and revealing more scars. “What did you do to her?”
“She is insane,” Ace mumbles behind me, and I lift my hand, now too captured by her tale.
I decide to play along, wanting to get more information out of her. “I really don’t know. I’m still finding it out. So, would you please tell me?”
She sighs, swaying further. “Well… She would have been granted a third-chance mate who would have appeared as a strong Alpha. The strongest Alpha of the Northern Hemisphere. He would have been covered in scars, his heart only mending by the touch of her fingertips.”
It’s an open secret that Beta Finnegan had a problem with the connection Alpha Cayden and Luna Artemisia had. Not that he ever tried to interfere with it or get them to separate, but he struggled with the idea of his mate having such a connection to someone outside the bond.
Even the elders of our pack couldn’t find the reason why Artemisia’s attraction towards Alpha Cayden didn’t disappear as she found her second-chance mates.
But this makes so much sense.
If they had rejected her, she would have been his second-chance mate.
“Aww,” the words fall from my lips without me having the chance to stop them and the witch and Ace look at me confused. “It’s so beautiful. Don’t mind me.” I clear my throat, lowering my hand from my chest.
Giggling, the witch makes a little jump as she runs from one corner of the town square to the other. “What a pity. They would have been a great couple. And their kin… Oh, their descendants.”
Ryder?
Or Everett and Phoenix?
“What is with them?” I ask loudly, taking a few steps closer towards her, escaping Ace, who is trying to hold me back.
He really got slowed down by these biters.
“Special, special, special,” she laughs again, and with another twirl disappears into the crowd.
My feet move on their own accord, my brain not being fast enough to chime in to make me stop.
“No, wait!” I shout, running after her. Pushing through the crowd, I struggle to keep up with her.
No. No. No.
As I turn around, looking to see if I can still spot her in the staring and murmuring mass, I jump as a hand grabs my arm, pulling me to the side of the street.