Chapter 79 Past

Chapter 79 Past
Theon.

“Have you seen Valencia?” I ask Haden who I’d found on my search, checking the machine guns on the castle walls, “I can’t find her anywhere.”

She disappeared after chatting in my office after the Council had called a meeting, and when I returned, she was nowhere to be seen inside the castle. At first, I was concerned, but then I remembered that Valencia knew this castle like the back of her hand, there’s no way she would get into any sort of trouble by getting lost.

Haden stills upon hearing that. Slowly he moves his incredulous gaze from the gun he’s checking at me.

“Valencia?” He asks, “Valencia Everheart? Galdine pack’s Valencia?”

I wince. “You hadn’t heard, have you?”

“Damn right, I hadn’t heard, what the hell is she doing here?” Crossing his arms, he demands. “Now of all times!”

“She came to visit after hearing about Ruelle’s death.”

Valencia Everheart was not someone I thought I would see ever again. One of the best sword-fighting wolves there was, who was the daughter of Alpha of the Galdine pack. She was now the Gamma of the same pack, as she said. We were childhood friends. We’d gone to school together, we’d even gone to college together, basically, we grew up together before her father had challenged the former Alpha of the Galdine pack to a duel and defeated him. This was why their pack is still called the Galdine pack, rather the Everheart pack. It was going to be so until the next Everheart Alpha ascends to leadership, as per tradition.

“So, she came here for what, give her regards?” He scoffs. Then, in a low voice and a concerned expression, he meets my eyes. “You know she’s bad news, Theon.”

I hold in another wince, memories from the past flooding in, unwelcome. “What am I supposed to do, Haden, turn her away? She’s here on a diplomatic level. She’s the Gamma of the Galdine pack now, imagine what it’ll look like! I’ve already got enough to worry about with the bears.”

Haden frowns. “Wait, Gamma? Why did she become the Gamma when she’s the Alpha’s only child? And even more than that, how?”

I have wondered the same thing before my headache demanded that I give it a rest and stop thinking so hard.

“I got no idea, and it’s none of my business. She’s just here for pack business, she’ll be gone soon.” I hope.

“Well, I do hope so. Nevertheless, I’m increasing the number of guards around Elias. I won’t have her try anything like before again.” Haden replies, wagging his pointer finger at me, and I nod.

“Yes, of course. Do as you see fit, Elias’ safety is the most important thing to me as well.”

Haden nods and goes back to his gun. But then his frame freezes for less than a second and he’s whipping back at me, expression conflicted. “Wait, what was she wearing?”

“A neon orange jacket with black clothes,” I raise a brow at him. “Did you see her?”

Haden curses, putting away the gun and getting to his feet in an instant.

“I saw a flash of orange near the willow trees,” His eyes widen in insinuation. “That’s near the hospital.”

Realization dawns on me. “Crap.”

The next thing we know, we’re both rushing out of the castle towards the hospital.

Valencia and I had a history. A complicated one at that. Once she’d been my best friend. We were both the same, stubborn and single-minded, headstrong and barely social. So, in school, we’d been loners. Yes, I was the Alpha King’s son, the pampered prince of the Royal pack, the second-in-line to the throne, and was more powerful than any other wolf my age, but that didn’t make students want to be friends with me. If anything, it made them stay away, wary of me and what I was. It didn’t help that I was a prickly bastard from the start. My fellow pups feared me far too much to stick with me as friends.

All except Valencia.  

She was not frightened of me, or overly respectful of her position, and I thought she was cool because of how competent she was at anything she tried. I liked how direct she was when talking to me, how she didn’t attempt to sugarcoat things just because she was afraid, I’d feel slighted or because I was royalty. She cared for that, of course, it would be too irresponsible of her not to, but she wouldn’t make it out to be something that dictated who I was as a person.

These reasons led us to stick together more than usual and eventually, as most young people do, we developed feelings for each other. We had been so sure that we were meant for each other, that we were mates. We clicked together as no one else did and to me, she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

And she would make a great Luna for an Alpha King. She was all that and more.

But then we’d turned 18, and Valencia’s mate was found to be another guy. A guy who she didn’t even like. A guy was the opposite of everything she was. Someone who was not me.

She had been so very angry about that. At the time, I couldn’t find it in me to blame her, because I was hurt by what fate had decided for us. I wanted her to be my mate more than anything, and even when that hope was squandered, I was far too in love with her to let her go.

I never claimed to be a good man, and I wasn’t from the start. If anything, I was a selfish man.

We were not ready to let each other go. I hadn’t found my mate, and she loathed her mate. So, we carried on with our relationship, now a secret. We met up in the forest, in lonely rooms in the university, or snuck out into the nearby human city for dates. I was so sure that I was in love with her, that fate had mistaken me, and we were doing the right thing.

But one day, we hadn’t been careful enough, and Elias caught us kissing in my room.

He had been enraged. He’d just found his mate, and seeing Valencia disregard her own mate for another man didn’t sit right with him. Elias was someone who kept up with werewolf customs religiously, and he thought by carrying on with our affair we were turning our backs on the very foundation that created our society.

So, my brother gave us an ultimatum. Either break up on our own will, or he would notify our father about our affair himself.