Chapter 7

KIRILL

I haven’t been able to look Althea in the eye for days now. In between pretending and lying to her, I found a dying truth, a truth I betrayed three weeks ago.

I remember the first time I ever saw her, the way I instantly got obsessed with finding out more about the she-wolf my father had personally gotten into Atherton. He never set foot in my school, but that day, he was there, warning the principal to take care of the new kid. There were only two new kids, one was Kimora’s younger brother, and the other, Althea.

Word around the pack was that he had another woman on the side, and a secret daughter. It could’ve been her, but it wasn’t. His rumoured daughter was, in fact, his niece, my uncle’s illegitimate daughter, whom he supported because my uncle refuses to recognise her.

When that was cleared up, I still couldn’t befriend her. There’d been too much bad blood between us that it wasn’t worth salvaging for friendship.

I’ve hated the way she made me feel, the way my father spoke of her every time she won student of the year, and when she didn’t, he had excuses for her, like he knew her. But he didn’t, he was merely funding her education. I stopped caring enough to win. She always had this big smile when she got her awards that made my stomach drop. A smile that I didn’t see on her today after she got the biggest award of her academic career.

She did smile, but something was different. I’ve watched her long enough to know she wasn’t happy when she smiled. I’ve wondered what it was that made her feel sad. I’ve been trying to reach her since I concluded lunch with my family, but she didn’t pick up the phone. I’ve texted her multiple times too, but she didn’t respond.

The sun is going down when I decide to go and check on her in person because it is unusual for her not to answer my calls.

I knock on her door expecting to see her bright smile, but when the door opens, it’s her mom standing there, covered in bandages and with a bruise on her eye. “Where’s Althea?”

“I don’t know, but I think she’s with that friend of hers,” she says. “I’ve got to go.” She winces, trying to shut the door on me.

“Are you hiding her?”

“No,” she frowns. “Come in and look if you’d like.”

The house sounds quiet so I step away from the door.

“Hey, one of two!” I’m about to get into my car when someone calls me from across the road.

I turn to find Ruelle, arms crossed over her chest while she glares up at me. “Rue, just the girl I wasn’t looking for, but you might know where she is.”

“Althea?” she asks, dangling Althea's necklace in her hand.

“What are you doing with that?”

“Althea asked me to return it.” She says, throwing it against my chest. I catch it just in time, my fingers closing around it. I’ve carried this for five years, and not once have I felt the need to give it away until Althea.

“Where is she?”

“She's gone?” she swallows. “She heard you say you would reject her after becoming Alpha, and I told her about Kimora.”

My heart drops. I can barely get a full sentence out. “Where?”

She takes too long to answer, so I start moving. The thought of never seeing Althea again is crippling. “Where are you going?”

I pause with my hand on my door. “I’m going to bring her back,”

“Wait, I'm coming too,” she says, jogging up to my car. “She didn't say where she’d be going, but let's start with the bus stations. She’s afraid of flying.”

I know that.

She once made a scene on the plane when we travelled for interpack academic competitions. I try to think of where it is that she must have gone, and in all our conversations, she said she wanted quiet. And when she described her favourite place, it wasn’t too far from here. Eveloi, a city on the southern end of a neighbouring pack.

Our first stop is the closest bus stop to her house. I show her picture to a few people, but no one seems to recognise her. Next, the official bus station for out-of-town route buses. Ruelle finds a ticket clerk who claims to have sold Althea a ticket to Eveloi.

On our way to Eveloi, we encounter traffic. Most drivers are changing routes, and the roads are blocked by an accident. I’m thinking of plan B when I hear someone outside say Eveloi. “Excuse me,” Ruelle says. “Did you say Eveloi?”

“Yes, the bus was heading to Eveloi when it collided with a tractor,” the man in the other car tells her. “It was a terrible accident. Survivors are in critical condition.”

Ruelle runs out of the car before I can kill the engine, and I go after her. The road is bathed in crimson. There are two ambulances and one patrol car. Ruelle slips under the yellow tape and screams. The police officer nearby grabs her and pulls her back. “Ma’am, this is a crime scene, you are not—”

“My-my. I need to find my friend!” She screams.

I slip under the tape before she’s done talking. “Kirill, look, lo-ou-look,” she points at a discarded bag in the middle of the road. “That’s Althea’s. Miss, can I—let me see her clothes, my friend was on that bus, please let me look.”

The woman lets her through, and I follow closely behind her. Ruelle lets out a gut-wrenching scream when she sees the third body. “Thea? Althea!”

“No,” I shake my head. “That’s not her.” I swallow, actively comparing the disfigured body in front of me to Althea’s. Althea has long hair; the hair on this girl’s scalp is gone, but the harder I look, the more I see it. The corpse is wearing her jeans, her beaded bracelet that she wore all year long in the seventh grade, and even though ruined, I too recognise her shirt. Her Sonic shirt that she wore when I tucked her into bed the night she was ill.

Everything stills.

I don’t want to believe she’s gone. She can’t be gone, she can’t go with so many promises unfulfilled. The officers are asking Ruelle if she knows the victim, but she can barely hold herself together. She’s crouched down on the ground, sobbing and clutching her chest.

I know my mate, this dead girl doesn’t feel like her, I don’t have to touch her to know. I’ve spent years being the shadow she couldn’t escape, I know Althea.

I should look for her among the survivors.

I take three steps forward before I spot her bloody cord on the ground. The one they made specifically for our Valedictorian. When I try to take it, the officer stops me.

“Let me through!” A familiar voice cuts through the panic in my head. “You called me, I—I am her mother. I’m Althea Monroe’s mother, you called me.” Ms Monroe says. “Where is she? Where is my baby?”

I turn around just in time to find them redirecting her to the body that Ruelle pointed out. My heart drops.

Ms Monroe grabs her and holds her to her chest, screaming in a pitch I’ve never heard before. “No, no. Not my baby,” she cries out. “Wake up Thea, mommy’s here my baby, please Althea. I’m sorry, I—I changed for you, Thea.” She sobs, cradling her. “I’m in rehab now, just like you always wanted. I give it all up…I’m getting better so I can be good to you, Thea. Baby girl, please don’t do this to me. Open your eyes, Thea. Althea!!”

A mother knows her child. I’m wrong. I’m numb.

“I’m sorry I roped you into this dirty cruel life, I shouldn’t have asked you to sell yourself, Thea. I’m sorry, please open your eyes, please. Somebody help me, she’s my baby. She’s all I have! Please!”

Her cries dull in my ears, but her words echo in the back of my mind. She’s apologising to Althea. She’s apologising for turning her into a whore like herself. “My baby girl, my healer..” she cries out.

I swallow down the lump in my throat.

Everything in me feels dead, everything but the bond she awakened within me. It doesn’t die with her, it crawls up to my neck and starts squeezing my throat.