CHAPTER 14: CONFLICTED.

DEVA LOREN/ LANA ALVAREZ.

We stepped into the garden through an archway draped in blooming roses, their petals brushing my shoulder like a breath. The vines twisted up the iron frame, stubborn and soft, opening into a timeless garden.

The path beneath our feet shimmered with fine stone dust, curving through sculpted hedges shaped into wolves mid-howl and shields worn by age.

The twelve statues ahead stood in a circle, each ruler frozen in stone with eyes carved to follow your movement. One held a blade across his chest. Another knelt with hands bound in prayer. Evil men described as glorious rulers. They left those they stole from in penury, the one I hated the most had his statue with his eyes and mouth smiling. Aaron looked so much like him. How could I have missed the strange resemblance?

He had me completely fooled as Lana, but he will never win in the same game as Lana.

Just past the statues stood tall iron cages woven with gold thread, spaced like art installations, beautiful and fairytale-like. Inside, birds of every color and shape moved restlessly. One had feathers like molten fire, another like freshly bloomed violets. Their cages were polished, their perches refined. It was clear someone had tried to make their prison seem elegant. When it was all traps.

Their songs were quieter than the ones flying above, lonelier.

Aaron didn’t speak. Neither did I. At least, not to each other. Not when Alpha Cain and Jade took all his time discussing pack issues.

Next to the line of birds, I noticed a cage missing. Another part of what we were, had. It was gone.

Our golden canary.

We found it together while I was working in the fields. Its leg was broken, and I remembered how we patched its wound up together like a team.

Each time I thought about us, I was in pain. Aaron had successfully taken a piece of my heart. It was locked with him.

I wish I had stayed away when I wanted to.

I wish I had never cared.

Being with him now is making things harder.

I remembered standing here once, barefoot, breathless, young running around in here with Aaron. Back when I thought forever was a promise, not a punishment. We had just found a cage for the canary. It became our other friend, and Aaron and I would sneak into the garden to check on it even when it wasn't my shift to tend to it.

I glanced at him speaking to Alpha Cain and Jade, who was clearly mesmerized. Watch her make Cain create something similar in their pack. It was just the type of woman she was.

Greedy, selfish yet too scared to stand up for whatever she knew was right to do. In a word; cowardly.

At the center of it all was a platform, raised just slightly above the rest of the garden, polished until it caught the sunlight like a mirror.

To the far end of the garden was the empty space. I knew what had been there.

"That cage hanger is empty. Was something meant to be there?" I asked. What excuse will you come up with this time, Aaron?

Aaron’s steps paused beside mine as all our attention diverted to the empty space. I didn’t have to turn to feel how still he became.

Silence hung in the air as we all waited for his response.

"Yes, there was a gold canary there. It died," he said simply. My head flipped back in disbelief. He left the bird alive even when I lived, suddenly I die and the bird does too? I'm dead and the tree starts withering?

If Sophie knew about those things before, she would have certainly had them removed with one excuse or the other. She'd do anything to make him forget about me.

It was fine before I died as Lana. How? Is everything about me dead to you?

"So the cage had to be taken down." He completed his sentence.

"What a shame. I love golden birds." Jade said. "Dear husband, I think we should add more birds to the royal home. What do you think?"

"It would be great for the scenery." Alpha Cain reluctantly agreed.

"I see why people are so obsessed with coming here. It's beautiful."

"Thank you, Luna Jade." Aaron replied.

"Oh, I've told you to call me mother." She laughed, patting his shoulder.

"Thank you, mother." He corrected himself to be polite.

"I'm glad that Deva married you. You two make a good pair." She went on. "It's a shame you had not met earlier. Don't you, Deva?"

"Yes. It would have been great to get to know the real him before now." I replied with a smile.

Why didn't I see you for what you really were?

Aaron shrugged off the subject with a chuckle.

And just like that, we moved on.

But my eyes lingered on the cages, on the birds who watched the sky with wings they could no longer stretch.

Just like I used to. Maybe it was for the best that the canary left this world. There was nothing good about it anyway.

We finished touring around the garden, and Deva's parents wanted to spend some “quality time with their daughter”. Aaron left to oversee his duties, and I was stuck with them in their guest suite just like those birds were in their cages.

"I heard the Alpha did not spend the night with you!" Alpha Cain made sure to express his anger towards me. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" I scoffed. "He went to see Sophie, and he never came back."

"Honey, I forgot to tell you. He acted intimately with her in front of all the staff and toured the royal home with her this morning."

Yes, Jade to the saving!

I inwardly rolled my eyes.

"You will need to do more. Sophie must be barren if she's yet to bear a son for Alpha Aaron. You have to take her place before she is completely ahead of you." Alpha said like a man in charge. More so like the devil in charge. "Is that clear, Deva?"

"Yes, father," I replied.

"Jade, you will teach her everything she needs to know as a woman before we live. How she can properly please him and keep herself in his good graces."

"Do not worry. Our Deva is pretty enough to catch the attention of any man she wants. She doesn't understand how to use her abilities, and that is the only problem here, but I will teach her that."

"The moment she gets pregnant, we can make a ploy to dethrone the other woman from her position." He mentioned relaxing into the seat.

Although Alpha Cain had an absolutely diabolical plan, I wasn't against taking Sophie down.

Heavens forbid I'll ever be.

Could having Aaron's child help divert all his attention away from her?

No.

I had to take Sophie down.

I had my mind set on too many things growing up, and they include making a safe space for my future children.

"Then you will help me destroy Alpha Aaron." My head rose meeting the cold eyes of Alpha Cain.

Destroy Alpha Aaron.

I hated him and wanted to get back at him for leaving me, but deep down inside me, I didn't want to destroy him.

Why do I feel conflicted?