Chapter 4

Liam:

The rogues never stood a chance.

No matter what they wanted to try and prove, they were not going to be able to stand against me now when I had arrived at the territory. I was chasing them off, wanting to lure them away from the forest. Their presence meant danger, but what I did not expect was for them to end up attacking a woman.

I tore through them without hesitation, ripping one away from the woman bleeding on the kitchen floor, crushing the ribs of another before it could strike again. The woman's heartbeat slowed. She tried to regain her composure. She tried to fight back but she was bleeding badly.

But though they were chased off, I knew that there was something off, something that was wrong. They were dragging me somewhere.

They weren’t here by accident. They did not run in this direction by accident.

This house. This woman. This moment.

It had all been planned.

The last one fled, limping, tail tucked between its legs. I let it go. His whimpers were loud enough for anyone who was passing by to hear.

Barely.

My paws hit the ground as I shifted mid-stride, bones cracking, breath ragged as I stood naked in the remains of the ruined cottage. My heart was thundering, not from the fight.

From her.

The woman that I did not expect to see, let alone in this situation.

I took a step forward, every muscle in my body stiff.

My wolf let out a low growl, stirring inside of me, growing restless as I saw her.

She was slumped against the counter, blood staining her side, her hands still gripping a dagger. Her fingers were shaking. Her breaths shallow. Her heartbeat was already slowing down, but she was doing her best to hold on as her eyes grew heavy as her eyes met mine.

“Alaria,” I breathed.

The name caught in my throat like smoke.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered as I walked towards her. I got on my knees in front of her, looking around at the place that she was in.

It had been four years. I hadn’t heard it spoken aloud in just as long. I hadn’t seen her, hadn’t even looked for her, not after that day she told me to go to hell and walked out of my life without turning back. Not after the day I chose to break her heart in a way that I knew would make her stop back. But I did not expect her to disappear completely.

I told myself it was what I wanted.

I told myself it was for the best.

I told myself that what I was doing was the right choice.

And yet, here she was. In some forgotten corner of the world. Alone.

Bleeding.

I crouched beside her, careful not to startle her. “Alaria. It’s me. Liam. You can let the dagger go, no one is going to hurt you.”

Her eyes fluttered, unfocused. Her lips parted, but no words came out. I slowly extended my hand to the wound that was on her side. She flinched.

“Don’t move,” I said quickly, pressing my hand to the wound on her side. “You’re safe now. I’ve got you. We're going to need to get you out of here. You staying here is only going to be dangerous.”

Her body tensed beneath my palm.

Her mouth moved again. This time, she whispered something so faint I almost missed it.

“Nasia…”

I froze.

My blood went cold.

Nasia?

Who the hell was Nasia?

“Anastasia…” She whispered again.

I looked around the ruined space, suddenly alert. My eyes scanned the overturned furniture, the broken window, the door barely hanging on its hinges. The house was too small to hide much… but there were places a child could fit. But I doubted that she would have a child here.

I stayed quiet. I listened. The little breath caught me off guard. The racing heartbeat. I followed the heartbeat. I followed its place. I walked towards it very slowly, grabbing a towel from the countertop, wrapping it around me.

There was a trap door.

Barely visible behind the stove.

I stepped over to it, pried it open slowly, and what I saw knocked the air out of my chest.

A girl. Curled up. No older than four.

Wild curls. Bare feet. Trembling shoulders. “NO!”

“Easy.” I whispered gently, trying to calm the child down.

My wolf stirred, and something seemed familiar about the girl. I frowned in confusion as I looked at her, but the girl did not speak. She looked away from me, scanning the surrounding behind me. “We need to get you out of here.”

“No.” She said again. “Go away.”

She curled up in the cabinet, trying to hide from me. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, knowing that I had no time for this. Though the uneasy feeling that I felt was one that I could not escape.

“I'm not going to hurt you, I promise, but we need to leave this place.” I said, trying to assure the child. She looked up at me. And it was then when everything inside of me twisted, when the doubt that I felt was confirmed. But she did not speak.

She had the same eyes, my eyes, the same stormy grey ones that I saw whenever I looked myself in the mirror.

My chest heaved, and I stumbled back a step.

No.

It couldn’t be.

But she didn’t scream when she saw me. She didn’t cry. She simply blinked and whispered, “Mommy?”

The girl ran out of the top, her hair going past me and rushing towards Alaria. I froze completely, not knowing how I was going to react. For a moment I found myself being completely lost.

I turned my head slowly toward the woman bleeding on the floor.

I hadn’t just saved my ex-wife.

I had saved my daughter.

And no one had told me she existed.

“What have you done, Alaria…?”