Chapter 44 Chapter 44
I stretched slowly, my limbs heavy and pleasantly sore, a small sigh escaping my lips as memories from last night came rushing back. The dinner, Lucian’s words, I couldn’t even remember everything. Heat rushed up my neck. I tried to grab something and I realized, I wasn’t in my room. I smiled again. This would be my first time sleeping in his room.
‘What…what was I doing?’ I blinked awake fully, the soft blanket sliding down my bare shoulders.
One time is considered as a mistake but three times is no longer a mistake. I looked to Lucian’s side and it was empty, cold. He was gone. For a moment, I was disappointed. I thought something had changed last night but I was entirely wrong. Lucian can Neve change.
“No” I whispered to myself. “I do not care how he acted. He was not doing me a favor last night. I wanted it too”
My wolf giggled, it was warm and teasing.
‘You are saying this because you like him’
“Shut up” I muttered.
Something caught my eye, a folded piece of paper placed neatly close to the pillow Lucian had slept on. I unfolded it, my pulse quickened.
Ailsa,
I had an early meeting. I didn’t want to wake you. You looked peaceful sand beautiful while sleeping. I’ll see you later.
Lucian.
A slow uncontrollable smile spread across my face. My wolf jumped in joy. His handwriting was so beautiful that I kept looking at the note and reading it over and over again. He left a message for me.
‘He thinks we are beautiful. What better way to start our day than with this? And you were disappointed when you didn’t see him’ She echoed.
“Hush” I hissed though my cheeks were burning.
“It’s nothing to jump about…..it’s common courtesy and it’s not like he proposed or something. It’s nothing serious” my wolf hummed.
The sheets smelled of Lucian and I inhaled it. My thought returned to the things we did on this bed last night.
“Focus” I said to myself shaking the thought off my mind.
I forced myself out of the bed, wrapping the sheets around my body before I could start entertaining the dangerous excitement swirling in my chest.
I freshened up, brushed my hair and got dressed in something casual, trying to compose myself and push last night out of my thoughts. The thoughts on my mind were really dangerous and my wolf wasn’t helping matters either. I wanted to treat last night as something normal just like Lucian would do.
But he said last night was a new beginning, so that should mean something right. Could it be he loved me? Since he said he was tired of fighting the bond.
‘It could be’ my wolf giggled but I didn’t agree.
This was not love. He didn’t love me and I didn’t love him. We were only having fun or not? I didn’t know but this was definitely not love.
I stepped into the hallway, clutching the edges of my sleeves.
“Ailsa” Lina jumped onto the me, the moment I turned back. She pulled back for a moment and her eyes swept over me suspiciously.
“You are glowing” she said with a smirk.
“I am not”
“You are. What’s the reason behind? No….i think I can guess the reason for it. You two…”
“Lina…” I hissed covering her mouth. She licked it.
“Eww” I snatched it back. “Why did you do that?” She wheezed with laughter looping her arm through mine.
“Why are you screaming out so loud. Someone might hear you and get the wrong idea”
“I don’t care what they think”
“I’m going to smack you”
“You can’t” she giggled and I sighed heavily. She was right though. I wouldn’t do that.
We walked together towards the kitchen.
“I know you’ve not had breakfast yet and I was on my way to ask you what you’d like to eat” I smiled. She was so kind and caring.
“That’s so sweet. You amusas take care of me”
“I’ll quickly make toast for you and you’ll have it warm milk. It’ll help you replace all the energy you lost last night” she winked and I smacked her shoulder.
“Ouch. That was painful”
“You deserve it. You don’t know when to keep quiet”
I sat down on a chair while I waited for Lina to do her thing. It didn’t take long because the smell of hot food entered my nose and Lina set a plate of hot toast and warm milk.
“Enjoy your meal” she said with a smile and I dug into it.
“While I wait for you to finish your meal why don’t you tell me everything that happened last night. Start from when the guard came to pick you” I cleared my throat.
“Nothing special happened. It was just normal” she frowned.
“You don’t want to tell me. Fine, I won’t push it. When you’re done eating, we’ll go somewhere” I snapped my head up.
“Where?”
“It’s a surprise. You’ll see when we get there but just know you are going to love it” I shrugged. I didn’t want to be a kill joy by telling her I didn’t like surprises. Old me would have screamed when I heard it’s a surprise but now, I didn’t like them. I ate the rest of the food in silence and then I remembered something.
“Lina” I called and she turned.
“Yes”
“Do you know a witch around?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“I had a dream before and I wanted an interpretation to it. I also need to know more about my mark” she nodded.
“I’m sorry, I had completely forgotten about your mark. Does it still burn?”
“Not always. I noticed it burns at odd times but that’s by the way. About the question I asked earlier, how can you help?”
“About that, it would be difficult to get one to come here without the alpha knowing”
“We can meet outside the pack house. It mustn’t be here. I would even prefer it to be outside the walls of the pack house”
“That’s another problem. We can’t leave without getting noticed”
“So how would we meet this witch if we can’t leave the pack house” there was a sinister smile on her face.
“Don’t you worry, I’ll find a way. I’ll send message to the witch first and then I’ll let you know when we’ll meet with her”
We walked to the courtyard and in the direction of the field.
“Are we going to watch the warriors train?” She shook her head. My patience was already running thin and I was also looking around because it felt like I was being watched.
“Lina, we are going deep into the woods. What if we get lost”
“Have patience, we are almost there. This place is secured, I know you are scared of the unknown” she grabbed my hand and led me to a place surrounded by flowers. It was so beautiful.
“This place is beautiful. Why is it so hidden?”
“The most beautiful things are often hidden. Not many people know about this place, it had been abandoned for years now”
“The scent of the flowers are intoxicating. I want to remain here forever” she bent and picked a stone and I looked at her in confusion
“What are you doing?”
“Playing. I brought you out here so we could play a little. When last did you play?”
“But….” She cut me off.
“No buts, let’s enjoy ourselves a little while. Escape from reality for a short time. We’ll play a game, the person that throws her stone the farthest gets to ask the other person for something. Are you in?” It sounded exciting and so I nodded.
“Good. We’ll start now”
Before I could reply her, she threw her stone high and it went really far. Her triumphant scream echoed in the garden. I threw the stone I had picked but it didn’t go as far as hers.
“I won now you have to keep your promise”
“Fine. What do you want?”
“I want you to tell me if you and the alpha kissed?” I glared at her. I should have known that was why she suggested a game.
“You sly fox”
“You’re blushing again”
“Me….blushing….I’m not blushing. I already told you nothing happened. Why do you even think anything happened?”
“Your cheeks are red and that tells me something did happen. Come on tell me….” she poked at me.
“I hate you” she laughed loudly and started running. I chased after her and for a while we played like children who didn’t care about anything.
After we played for a while, we made our way back to the pack house. I wanted to rest. Lina branched to check on something like she told me while I made my way to the room. On my way back to the room, still smiling from our ridiculous games. I heard voices low and urgent in the corner. I stopped mid stride.
“Don’t listen” one mind said. “Listen, you know what happened the last time. Maybe they’ll reveal more” the other mind sais but my leg had another kind of its own because it refused to listen
The voices became clearer when I took a step closer.
“The council elders aren’t pleased with us” a man hissed.
“They said the job wasn’t carried out properly” my heart froze.
“It’s not my fault, she survived. Maybe luck was on her side” an irritated female voice responded. My breath hitched.
“You were ordered to make it clean. I told you to let me do it my own way but you insisted that yours was the best” the man snapped.
“I tried. It was supposed to be a clean kill without getting blood on our hands and then another person gets the blame for it but she survived” I covered my mouth, stifling a gasp.
This confirmed everything, they wanted to kill me and blame it on Lina. They didn’t want to be suspected.
‘Go ahead and catch them. The culprits have confessed to their crimes’
I backed away slowly, my mind spinning. If I revealed myself my life might be in more danger. If I called them out for what they did, it would be their word against mine.
I chose none, I needed to leave before I was seen. It was better they thought no one knew what they did. I would go straight to Lucian and tell him all that I’ve heard. I turned to leave and then I collided straight into someone, hard.
My breast burst from my lungs as I stumbled back, my eyes wide. The woman standing in front of me stared at me with a cold expression. Her lips curled into the faintest smirk.
“Well…” she drawled softly “Look who is lurking”