“Are you still an Alpha?”
“No”
“Then why are we going to Crescent pack”
“Because that is where Christian is at the moment”
I take in a deep breathe, another man I had not seen in five months and I wondered if he had changed as much as Daryl.
“Are you two talking?”
“Yes and I think you should know that I am his Beta”
That was not what I was expecting to hear and it shows that by living as a human I had missed out on so much.
“I will warn you Ashley, he is not the same man”
“What do you mean?”
“It is easier if you wait until you see him”
Daryl helps me to pack but keeps his mouth shut and I feel like he is holding something back
“Ready?”
He picks up my small suitcase and leads the way down the stairs and to a large car where Lucian is waiting. As I climb in the back he tells me
She has a huge grin on her face as she rubs her swollen belly, Lucian wasn’t wrong, she looked ready to explode.“It wouldn’t be chaos if you were not here”Daryl pulls off his jacket without missing a beat and stands in front of me, using the jacket as a sort of shield as I shift back. He raises an eyebrow at me as I slide my arms into the sleeves but doesn't look down at my nakedness“She’s not wrong is she”.Thankfully the jacket is massive on my small frame and covers everything as he zips it up and as he moves out the way he reveals Tasha who wraps her arms around me awkwardly because her bump is too big.“It’s true then”“It is”“Why didn’t you tell me?, you could have mind linked me”“I was forbidden”“What? By whom?”, But I already had a feeling I knew who.“Christian”He
“Why are you ignoring me?”“I am not, you wanted to talk so talk”We glare at each other for a few minutes, he had clearly been ignoring me since I had arrived.“I know you can feel our connection Christian”“It does not matter, I am with Chloe and I care about her very much”“But you don’t love her”He looks away from me to the pile of paperwork on his desk “This is what you have come to talk about?”“No. Why will you not take control of them?”“Has Daryl not filled you in? I am not a Queen”He was cold and unwelcoming, not like the Christian I had grown to love. He looks up at me when I don’t respond and narrows his eyes“Why are you not speaking?”“It is hard when you have someone screaming in your head”Reaper was giving me a headache and it was taking every cell of
You couldn’t miss him, he was talking to what looked like a group of vampires not far from the packhouse but when he sees my tear stained face he immediately comes to me wrapping his arms around me“What did he do?”As I speak through sobs he tells me to calm down because he couldn’t understand a word I was saying.“Did you see it?”His chest fall slightly and I knew he had.“I did, not that I needed too but Christian wanted to make a point by showing me”“I never fully understood how bad it was, I guess the days just rolled into each other”“That’s not you anymore Ashley, you have moved on, you are stronger than that”“You really think so”“I know so”We don’t move, he keeps his arms wrapped tightly around me and waits patiently for the tears to stop. He really had changed so much.“What were y
I was thinking about going back to see Tasha but I see Lucian head in to the hospital and I wondered how my brother was coping with being a father. Instead I go back to their home where they had been letting me stay. Daryl doesn’t come with me instead he heads into the packhouse and I wonder if he was going to talk to Christian about showing me the book. In the house I decide to have a shower and try to wash my feelings away but as I stand naked in front of the full length mirror I really look at my scars. My body was littered with them, some were thin red lines, others white lumpy scars where I hadn’t healed well or I had been repeatedly hit. The branding on my stomach was disgusting, marked like cattle, a piece of meat and it would be there forever reminding me of my life and everything Maddox and his pack had done to me. A voice I hadn’t heard in a long time appears in my head “You have to stop being hard on yourself, it was not your fault” Daryl. I was half expecting to see him
Between the wolves and the vampires I didn’t really learn anything new but they were all so eager to speak to me that I couldn’t turn them away and when the final person spoke just to tell me that Breydon was waiting for me I nearly snapped.“You are doing well”“Thanks Daryl”“Christian and I have been talking. We think you should have guards at all times”“Daryl do you really think I need guards?”“Now you have accepted your role, yes we do?”“Was this your idea?”He shakes his head at me “No, it was Christians. He still worries about you”He still had feelings for me, he was just expressing them in a different way and in a way that he hoped Chloe wouldn’t notice“Why haven’t you made a move on me?”“Don’t get me wrong, my feelings for you are strong and sometimes it is more of a ch
I was stunned, he walks back to his desk and sits, carrying on with his paperwork like nothing had just happened whilst I try and compose myself as I leave.I had no idea how to process what had just happened, ‘one last kiss’ he had said. Why did he even bother if he didn’t want me anymore and was happy with Chloe.Walking back to Tasha’s in a daze I bump into my brother who is looking very stressed and carrying a load of baby gear.“They are coming home tonight Rudina, all four of them” it was funny watching him panic “The house isn’t ready, I am not ready. You have to help me”“What do you need me to do Lucian?”I wasn’t offering my help but if he was that desperate then I would do my best but from what I can see, he looked just like other new fathers.“I need to go” he hurries off to the hospital, leaving me standing in the mid morning sun.“P
“You are really going to go through with this”“Yep”“You Rudina are even crazier than me and I have done some crazy stuff”“Maybe Daryl, but I am done, once this is all sorted I want to be left alone”“That just will not be possible”“Trust me, it will”Daryl raises an eyebrow suspiciously “What do you mean by that?”“You will see”“As long as you tell me, I will stand by you no matter what”I nod my head, but I wasn’t going to tell him, the only other person that needed to know my plans was Reaper. She was just as frustrated with everything as I was, a battle between us over the men. She was not even slightly coming to terms with Christian moving on, it had been her who had been mind controlling Christian, she wanted him to feel our connection.How she managed to do something without me knowing was b
The silence around me was deafening, I had never planned to reveal the other things I was capable of and as I slowly turn around to look at them, everyone was on their knees, their heads bowed except for Christian who was glaring at me.He storms towards me “What the fuck was that Ash?”“Rudina”“What?”“I have told you my name is not Ash, it is Rudina and that is one of my gifts”“You can control fire?”“Yes”“What else can you do?”“Nothing”It was a complete and utter lie but I didn’t want to tell him everything about me, there was still so much he didn’t know and for now it was better that he didn’t. As we spoke, others rushed into the house but there was no sign of Breydon, he disappeared as soon as he saw what I was truly capable of.“Rudina?” Daryls blue eyes were searching my face.